John Gill Commentary John 16

These things I have spoken to you
Concerning the world's hatred and persecution of them, and the little regard they would show to their doctrine: these things Christ thought proper to give them notice of beforehand, that expecting them, they might be prepared for them, and be fortified against them;

that, says he, you should not be offended: Hardships coming upon persons unawares bear the harder upon their spirits, and they are more apt to take offence at them and be impatient under them, which is prevented by previous intimation.

Had Christ said nothing of these things that should befall his disciples, they might have surprised them, and have been a stumbling to them; and might have tempted them to have relinquished their profession of him, and dropped their ministerial work; whereas being apprized of them beforehand, they were not so shocking to them.

This shows the tender concern of Christ for his disciples, how careful he was to remove every occasion of stumbling, or what might be matter of offence to them; and may teach us to act in such a manner towards one another, in this, or any other case.

They shall put you out of the synagogues
The Jews had made a law already, that he that confessed that Jesus was the Messiah, should be cast out of their synagogues; and they had put it in execution upon the blind man Christ restored to sight, for his profession of faith in him; which struck such a terror upon the people, that even many of the chief rulers who believed that Jesus was the true Messiah, dared not confess him, because of this law; for it was what they could not bear the thoughts of, to be deemed and treated as heretics and apostates, and the vilest of wretches: for this putting out of the synagogue, was not the lesser excommunication, which was called (ywdn) "Niddui", and was a "separation" from a particular synagogue for a while; but the greater excommunication, either by (Mrx) , "Cherem", or (atmv) , "Shammatha"; when a person was cut out from the whole body of the Jewish church, called often the synagogue, or congregation of the people; and was devoted and consigned to utter destruction, which was the height of their ecclesiastical power, their rage and malice could carry them to; and this the apostles were to expect; nay, not only this, but to have their lives taken away by ruffians, under a pretence of zeal for the service of God, and interest of religion:

Indeed, the time comes, that whosoever kills you, will think that he
does God service .

For this is not to be understood of their being delivered up into the hands of civil magistrates, and of their being tried, judged, condemned, and put to death by their orders, but of their being murdered by a set of men called "zealots"; who, in imitation of Phinehas, as they pretended, took upon them, whenever they found any person guilty of a capital crime, as idolatry, blasphemy or what they judged so, to fall upon him at once, and without any more ado kill him; nor were they accountable to any court of judicature for such an action, and which was reckoned laudable and praiseworthy: in this way, and by the hands of such miscreants, Stephen the protomartyr lost his life; for though they had him before a council, and suborned witnesses against him, yet when in his own defence he said what these "zealots" interpreted blasphemy, they ran upon him at once, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him to death; and without any leave or authority from the sanhedrim, as appears:

and these men were accounted good men, zealous, (Mwqm lv wtanq) ^F25 "with a zeal for God", his honour and glory; and valued themselves much upon such butcheries and inhumanity, and thought, as our Lord here says, that they "did God service"; or as the Syriac renders it, (brqm anbrwqd) , "offered a sacrifice to God", and so the Arabic and Ethiopic: and indeed this is a rule the Jews ^F26 , and which they form upon the instance and example of Phinehas; ``that whoever sheds the blood of wicked men, (and such they reckoned the apostles and followers of Christ to be,) (Nbrq byrqh wlak) , "it is all one as if he offered a sacrifice";'' they looked upon this to be a sacrifice acceptable and well pleasing to God: so the Apostle Paul, in his unregenerate state, thought he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Christ: and that he was doing God service, when he prosecuted the church, and gave his voice with these ruffians, to put the saints to death.

FOOTNOTES:

• F25: Jarchi & Bartenora in Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 9. sect. 6.
• F26: Bemidbar Rabbit, Parash, 21. fol. 229. 3.

And these things will they do unto you
Christ here opens the true spring and source of the furious zeal of the Jews, against the apostles, inputting them out of their synagogues, and taking away their lives; it was pure wilful ignorance of the Fatherand himself;

because they have not known the Father nor me ;though they boasted of their knowledge of God; yet they knew him not as the Father and sender of Christ, atleast they would not own him as such: nor Jesus as the true Messiah, and sent of the Father, to redeem andsave his people from their sins; and since they neither knew the Father, nor Christ, it is no wonder they didnot know, own, and acknowledge, the disciples of Christ, but used them in the ill manner they did; their zealwas not according to knowledge, it was a blind and misguided one:

and this is mentioned, not to extenuate or excuse their sin, though it shows they were not out of the reach of mercy, because they, as the apostle saysof himself, "did it ignorantly in unbelief", (1 Timothy 1:13) ; but as an argument with the disciples tobear their ill usage with patience, and to pity them and pray for them.

But these things have I told you
Christ enlarged on this disagreeable subject, and was the more particular in enumerating the evils his apostles were to endure for his name's sake:

that when the time shall come ;
some copies read it, "their time"; so the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic render it; that is, the time when wicked men will be suffered to vent all their rage and malice:

ye may remember that I told you of them ;
which might serve greatly to confirm them in the faith of him as the omniscient God, and the true Messiah, and encourage them to depend on his veracity and faithfulness in his promises; that since the evil things which he spoke of came upon them, so they might hope, believe, and expect, that all the good things he had assured them of, should be accomplished; and also to engage them to bear their sufferings with the greater patience, since they were appointed by God, and foretold by their Lord and master.

And these things ,
adds Christ,

I said not unto you at the beginning ;
when he first called them to be followers of him; for though when he ordained them, and sent them forth to preach the Gospel in the cities of Judea, which was some time after he had called them by his grace, he did acquaint them with some of the troubles and exercises they should meet with; as that they should be hated by all men, persecuted from city to city, beat in the synagogues, delivered up to councils, and brought before kings and governors; see (Matthew 10:17–19) ; yet he did not so fully and distinctly speak of these things, as here and at this time: his reason for such a conduct was this,

because ,
says he,

I was with you :
wherefore he never spoke so fully and distinctly of their troubles, because he was with them, and took them upon himself; and indeed, whilst he was with them, the rage and malice of the Jews were not so much against his disciples, as himself; nor did he for the same reason speak so largely of the Comforter, and of the comforts they should receive from him, because as they had not the exercises they should afterwards have, so they had him to be their comforter.

But now I go my way to him that sent me
These words seem to belong to (John 16:4) , and to contain a reason why Christ spoke of the trials and afflictions of his disciples now, because he was going away from them to his Father; when as they would be at the head of his affairs in this world, so they would the more become the butt of the rage of men:

and none of you asks me, where are you going ?
Peter indeed asked the question, (John 13:36) ; but his meaning was, what part of the country he was going to? what private and inaccessible place he was about to betake himself to? he had no notion of his going out of the world, or to heaven to his Father, and therefore inquired nothing about it; and when Christ had suggested to his disciples, that he was going to his Father's house, to prepare mansions for them, they did not seem to understand him, (John 14:2John 14:3John 14:5) . Nor did they ask what he meant by his Father's house, or what those mansions were he was going to prepare; and what the glory was he was going to possess for himself and them; they ask neither about the place he was going to, nor the way to it, nor the happiness to be enjoyed there.