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1
A Picture of Coming Joy
Jesus uses the universally understood experience of childbirth to illustrate a profound spiritual truth. Commentators explain that just as a mother's intense but temporary anguish is completely overshadowed by the joy of a new child, the disciples' deep sorrow over Jesus' death would be transformed into an overwhelming and lasting joy by His resurrection. This metaphor was common among Old Testament prophets to describe pain leading to deliverance.
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John
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Commentaries
10
AT Robertson
On John 16:21
A woman (η γυνη). "The woman," any woman.
When she is in travail (οταν τικτη). Indefinite temporal clause,…
Charles Ellicott
On John 16:21
19th Century
Bishop
A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow.—The Greek is more exactly, the woman . . . has pangs—that is, “the w…
Charles Spurgeon
On John 16:20–21
19th Century
Preacher
And ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but …
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Expositor's Bible Commentary
On John 16:21
The subsequent narrative develops the postresurrection period as a time in which the disciples’ fears are quelled, their doubts dispelled, and thei…
John Calvin
On John 16:21
16th Century
Theologian
A woman, when she is in labor. He uses a comparison to confirm the statement which he had just made, or rather, he expresses his meaning m…
John Gill
On John 16:21
17th Century
Pastor
A woman when she is in travail has sorrow
As was said she should have (Genesis 3:16). This is God's ordi…
Matthew Henry
On John 16:16–22
17th Century
Minister
It is good to consider how near our seasons of grace are to an end, that we may be stirred to make the most of them. But the sorrows of the discipl…