Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary John 16:3

"And these things will they do, because they have not known the Father, nor me." — John 16:3 (ASV)

Jesus attributes the action of his foes to ignorance—not the ignorance of intellectual knowledge, but the lack of a personal experience of God and Christ . Their attitude is determined by who they think Jesus is and by who they think God is, rather than by actual contact with either. So warped has that attitude become that their contact with Jesus has generated hate for both himself and the Father (15:24; cf. Matthew 6:23).