John 16:2

Joh 16:2. Ἀλλʼ) Nay—ἵνα) that) whosoever killeth you, will think that he thus doeth God service. So Joh 16:32, ἔρχεται ὥρα ἵνα, κ.τ.λ—δόξῃ [will think] will appear) to himself and to those who are like him.—λατρείαν προσφέρειν) that he offers a gift or service. In the present day still the Jews, as Hensius observes, call the killing of a Christian קרבן, a gift, or service, in the case of which there is need of no expiation being made.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh_16:2-3. Of the ταῦτα, Joh_16:1, He now gives certain concrete manifestations, which might tend to their becoming offended.

ἀποσυναγ.] See on Joh_9:22, Joh_12:42.

ἀλλʼ] At, i.e. nay, further! it introduces the antithesis of a yet far heavier, of a bloody fate. Comp. on 2Co_7:11. To take ἀποσυναγ. ποιήσ. ὑμ. interrogatively (Ewald), is unnecessarily artificial.

ἵνα] That which will take place in the ὥρα is conceived as the object of its coming: there is coming an hour, in order that, etc. Comp. on Joh_12:23.

πᾶς ὁ ἀποκτ., κ.τ.λ.] that every one, who shall have put you to death, may think that he offers a sacrificial service to God (namely, through the shedding of your blood). On λατρεία, cultus (Plat. Apol. p. 23 C, Phaedr. p. 224 E; Rom_9:4), here, by means of the προσφέρειν, the standing word used of sacrifices (see Mat_5:23; Mat_8:4; Act_7:32; Heb_5:1; Schleusner, Thes. IV. p. 504), in the special reference of sacrificial divine service, comp. Rom_13:1; Heb_9:1; Heb_9:6. The maxim of Jewish fanaticism is well known (and how often was the pagan enmity against the apostles no better!): Omnis effundens sanguinem improborum, aequalis est illi, qui sacrificium facit, Bammidbar Rabba, f. 329. 1. On this δοκεῖν, comp. Sauls example, Act_26:9; Gal_1:13-14.

On Joh_16:3, comp. Joh_15:21. Jesus once more recalls with profound sadness this tragic source of such conduct, the inexcusableness of which, however, He had already decisively brought to light (Joh_15:22 ff.). The supposed purpose of making the adversaries contemptible in the eyes of the disciples (Calvin, Hengstenberg) must have been indicated had it existed.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 16:2 . ἀποσυναγώγους ποιήσουσιν ὑμᾶς . For the word ἀποσυν . see Joh 9:22 , Joh 12:42 ; “they will put you out of their synagogues,” they will make you outcasts from their synagogues. ἀλλʼ , “yea,” or “yea more”; used in this sense Rom 7:7 , 2Co 7:11 , where it occurs six times. Cf. Act 19:2 . ἔρχεται … Θεῷ . ἔρχεται ὥρα ἵνα , cf. Joh 12:23 , ἐλήλυθεν ἡ ὥρα ἵνα … ἵνα … and Burton, Moods and Tenses , 216, on the complementary limitation by ἵνα of nouns signifying set time, etc. And for πᾶς ὁ ἀποκτείνας , the aorist indicating those “who once do the act the single doing of which is the mark of the class,” see Burton, 124, cf. 148. δόξῃ λατρείαν προσφέρειν , “may think that he offers sacrificial service”. λατρεία is used in Exo 12:25 , etc., of the Passover; apparently used in a more general sense in 1Ma 2:19 ; 1Ma 2:22 ; and defined by Suicer “quicquid fit in honorem et cultum Dei,” and by Theophylact as θεάρεστον ἔργον , a work well pleasing to God. Cf. Rom 12:1 . Meyer and others quote the maxim of Jewish fanaticism, “Omnis effundens sanguinem improborum aequalis est illi qui sacrificium facit”.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They shall put you out of the synagogue-- (Joh 9:22; Joh 12:42).

the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service--The words mean religious service--"that he is offering a service to God." (So Saul of Tarsus, Gal 1:13-14; Phi 3:6).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 2. They shall put you out of the synagogues] They will excommunicate you, and consider you as execrable, and utterly unworthy to hold any commerce with God by religion; or with man by civil fellowship. See Clarke on Joh 9:22. In these excommunications they were spoiled of all their substance, see Ezr 10:8, and see also Heb 10:34, and deprived of their character, their influence, and every necessary of life. Though the Jewish people had the most humane laws, yet they were a most vindictive and cruel people.

That whosoever killeth you, c.] This Paul found for more than forty Jews bound themselves under a curse that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed him, Ac 23:12-13; and agreeably to this, it is said, in that Tract of the Talmud which is entitled Bammidbar, R. xxi. ad. Num. xxv. 13: "He who sheds the blood of the ungodly, is equal to him who brings an offering to God." What the Zealots did is notorious in history. They butchered any person, in cold blood, who, they pretended to believe, was an enemy to God, to the law, or to Moses; and thought they were fulfilling the will of God by these human sacrifices. We had the same kind of sacrifices here in the time of our Popish Queen Mary. May God ever save our state from the Stuarts!

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

2. They will drive you out of the synagogues. This was no light offense to disturb their minds, that they were to be banished like wicked men from the assembly of the godly, or, at least, of those who boasted that they were the people of God, and gloried in the title of The Church; for believers are subject not only to persecutions, but to ignominy and reproaches, as Paul tells us, (1 Corinthians 4:12, 18.) But Christ bids them stand firm against this attack; because, though they be banished from the synagogues, still they remain within the kingdom of God. His statement amounts to this, that we ought not to be dismayed by the perverse judgments of men, but ought to endure boldly the reproach of the cross of Christ, satisfied with this single consideration, that our cause which men unjustly and wickedly condemn, is approved by God.

Hence too we infer, that the ministers of the Gospel not only are ill treated by the avowed enemies of the faith, but sometimes also endure the greatest reproaches from those who appear to belong to the Church, and who are even regarded as its pillars. The scribes and priests, by whom the apostles were condemned, boasted that they were appointed by God to be judges of the Church; and, indeed, the ordinary government of the Church was in their hands, and the office of judging was from God, and not from men. But by their tyranny, they had corrupted the whole of that order which God had appointed. The consequence was, that the power which had been given to them for edification, was nothing else than a cruel oppression of the servants of God; and excommunication, which ought to have been a medicine for purifying the Church, was turned to an opposite purpose, for driving away from it the fear of God.

Since the apostles knew this by experience, in their own age, we have no reason to be greatly alarmed at the Pope’s excommunications, with which he thunders against us on account of the testimony of the Gospel; for we ought not to fear that they will do us any more injury than those ancient excommunications which were made against the apostles. Nay more, nothing is more desirable than to be driven out of that assembly from which Christ is banished. Yet let us observe that, though the abuse of excommunication was so gross, still it did not effect the destruction of that discipline which God had appointed in his Church from the beginning; for, though Satan devotes his utmost efforts to corrupt all the ordinances of God, we must not yield to him, so as to take away, on account of corruptions, what God has appointed to be perpetual. Excommunication, therefore, not less than Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, must be brought back, by the correction of abuses, to its pure and lawful use.

But the hour cometh. Christ dwells still more largely on this offense, that the enemies of the Gospel lay claim to so much authority, that they think they are offering sacrifices to God where they slay believers. It is sufficiently hard in itself, that innocent people should be cruelly tormented, but it is far more grievous and distressing that those outrages, which wicked men commit against the children of God, should be reckoned punishments justly due to them on account of their crimes. But we ought to be so fully assured of the protection of a good conscience, as to endure patiently to be oppressed for a time, till Christ appear from heaven, to defend his cause and ours.

It may be thought strange, however, that the enemies of the truth, though they are conscious of their own wickedness, not only impose on men, but even in the presence of God lay claim to praise for their unjust cruelty. I reply, hypocrites, though their conscience accuses them, always resort to flatteries to deceive themselves. They are ambitious, cruel, and proud, but they cover all these vices with the cloak of zeal, that they may indulge in them without restraint. To this is added what may be called a furious drunkenness, after having tasted the blood of martyrs.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(2) They shall put you out of the synagogues.—Comp. Notes on Joh_9:22; Joh_12:42.

Will think that he doeth God service.—Better, will think that he offereth to God a sacrificial service. The word rendered “doeth” in the Authorised version, is the technical word for offering sacrifice. (Comp., e.g., Notes on Mat_5:23; Mat_8:4.) The word rendered “service” means the service of worship. This will be seen by a comparison of the other instances where it occurs in the New Testament—they are Rom_9:4; Rom_12:1, and Heb_9:1; Heb_9:6. A Rabbinic comment on Num_25:13, is, “Whosoever sheddeth the blood of the wicked is as he who offereth sacrifice.” The martyrdom of Stephen, or St. Paul’s account of himself as a persecutor (Act_26:9; Gal_1:13-14), shows how these words were fulfilled in the first years of the Church’s history, and such accounts are not absent from that history’s latest page.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. out of the synagogues] Or, out of the synagogue, i.e. excommunicate you. Comp. Joh_9:22; Joh_12:42.

yea, the time cometh] Better, nay, there cometh an hour. Comp. Joh_16:25. ‘You might think excommunication an extreme measure; but (ἀλλά) they will go far greater lengths than this.’

that whosoever] Literally, in order that every one who. The Divine purpose is again clearly indicated (see on Joh_12:33). Every one, Jew and Gentile alike, will put down the Christians as blasphemers and atheists and the perpetrators of every crime. The history of religious persecution is the fulfilment of this prophecy.

doeth God service] Better, offereth service to God. The verb expresses the offering of sacrifice (comp. Heb_5:1; Heb_8:3; Heb_9:7); the substantive expresses a religious service (Rom_9:4; Heb_9:1; Heb_9:6).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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, durst 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 "Niddui", and was a "separation" from a particular synagogue for a while; but the greater excommunication, either by "Cherem", or "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:

yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you, will think that he doth 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, &c. 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, (y) "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, , "offered a sacrifice to God", and so the Arabic and Ethiopic: and indeed this is a rule the Jews (z), 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,) , "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.

(y) Jarchi & Bartenora in Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 9. sect. 6. (z) Bemidbar Rabbit, Parash, 21. fol. 229. 3.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.

Ver. 2. Whosoerer killeth you, &c.] Maximinian, the persecutor, thought that the blood of Christians would be a well pleasing sacrifice to his gods: Christianorum sanguinem Diis gratissimam esse victimam. (Tertul.) Budaeus thinks that the apostle, 1Co 4:13, alludes to those heathenish expiations, wherein certain condemned persons were brought forth yearly with garlands upon their heads, and offered up as sacrifices to their gods, in time of any contagious infection especially; and these they termed καθαρματα and περιψηματα. At Colon certain divines preached, that the death of certain heretics (as they called them) should pacify the wrath of God which then plagued Germany grievously with a strange kind of sweating sickness. (Budaeus in Pandect.) In the sixth Council of Toledo, it was enacted that the king of Spain should suffer none to live in his dominions that professed not the Roman Catholic religion. King Philip, accordingly, having hardly escaped shipwreck, as he returned from the Low Countries, said he was delivered by the singular providence of God to root out Lutheranism, which he presently began to do, professing that he had rather have no subjects than such. Another Catholic king said that if he thought his shirt were infected with that heresy, he would tear it from his own back, and rather go woolward; nay, if any member of his body had caught the contagion, he would cut it off, that it might creep no further. O sancta simplicitas! Oh holy candour, said John Huss, when at the stake he observed a plain country fellow busier than the rest in fetching fagots.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Out of the synagogues - See the notes at Joh 9:22. They would excommunicate them from their religious assemblies. This was often done. Compare Act 6:13-14; Act 9:23-24; Act 17:5; Act 21:27-31.

Whosoever killeth you - This refers principally to the Jews. It is also true of the Gentiles, that in their persecution of Christians they supposed they were rendering acceptable service to their gods.

God’s service - The Jews who persecuted the apostles regarded them as blasphemers, and as seeking to overthrow the temple service, and the system of religion which God had established. Thus, they supposed they were rendering service to God in putting. them to death, Act 6:13-14; Act 21:28-31. Sinners, especially hypocrites, often cloak enormous crimes under the pretence of great zeal for religion. Men often suppose, or profess to suppose, that they are rendering God service when they persecute others; and, under the pretence of great zeal for truth and purity, evince all possible bigotry, pride, malice, and uncharitableness. The people of God have suffered most from those who have been conscientious persecutors; and some of the most malignant foes which true Christians have ever had have been in the church, and have been professed ministers of the gospel, persecuting them under pretence of great zeal for the cause of purity and religion. It is no evidence of piety that a man is full of zeal against those whom he supposes to be heretics; and it is one of the best proofs that a man knows nothing of the religion of Jesus when he is eminent for self-conceit in his own views of orthodoxy, and firmly fixed in the opinion that all who differ from him and his sect must of course be wrong.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The term synagogue, as it is used often in Scripture to signify those places of public worship which they had in country towns and cities, is proper to the Jews; but as it signifieth an assembly of people met together in any place, it as well agreeth to other people as to them. Our Lord here, in pursuit of the argument which he hath been upon from Joh 15:18, forewarns his disciples, that when he should be taken from them, the Jews first should excommunicate them as heretics, or schismatics: and I know not why what our Saviour here saith may not also be extended as a prophecy of what hath since been done, and is yet doing, under the tyranny of the pope. As also the latter clause, which, though at first applicable to the Jews, who stoned Stephen upon a charge of blasphemy, in which it is apparent that they thought they did God good service, and doubtless slew many others; yet certainly it also referred to others, even as many as shall do the same thing to the end of the world.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

2. Put you out of the synagogues—Excommunicate you from the Old Testament Church, as if no longer Jews; though in reality they are the excommunicate and you are the Church. So even in the history of Christendom, a Church in form, yet apostate in spirit, may expel from its communion those who are in spirit and in truth the purer and the truer Church. Popery can expel the Reformers; Anglicanism can exclude from her churches a Wesley and a Whitefield. But happily often, even from the holy communion of the excommunicates, there returns a blessed influence, to purify and regenerate, more or less, the dead old organism that expelled them.

Killeth you… doeth God service—So utterly may churchmanship have put darkness for light that it may be with a religious intent that it persecutes religion itself. Especially is this liable to be the case when a dead organization persecutes men of the living Spirit. Nay, it is even possible that men, with the best light they have, and with the purest conscience their age and position permit, may persecute with a holy intention. Hence we may feel a pity even for good men betrayed into the sin of persecution.

Even in the minds of such, however, a worldly zeal for their own system, and a bitter human hatred, usually dwell. As Saul of Tarsus, who sincerely thought he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth, and that he ought to persecute even unto strange cities, did also breathe out threatenings and slaughter. With the honest zeal for truth, and earnest opposition against the defenders of error, there may mingle a fierce ambition, a cruel partizanship, a diabolical malignity. The former might be excused in the sight of God, however mistaken; the latter mingling brings them under deep condemnation, both from God and man. Honest error, moreover, may spring from a dishonest antecedent. Error must not only be itself honest, but it must be honestly come by.

Doeth God service—Doeth service to God. Bitterest and most cruel of all is likely to be the fate of that victim of persecution whose persecutor most deeply believes he is doing service to God. Our Lord therefore most justly brings this in as the final summit of the climax of suffering he predicts.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 2, 3. They (used impersonally, as the German man, or the French ou) shall make (or, declare) you excommunicate aposunagwgouv "put you out of the synagogue," expel you from the fellowship of your country"s worship (cf. Joh_9:22 and Joh_12:42) nay, further (the alla abruptly introduces a very much stronger assertion) an hour cometh, that ina is here, by Meyer and many others, said to involve a Divine order, purpose, or destiny, intended by the drawing on of the foreordained crisis; but it seems enough to convey by it the contemplated result (see Canon Evans, Expositor, 1882)whosoever killeth you will deem that he is offering service sacrificial homage to God. (prosferein ; both these words are persistently used with this meaning. See, for prosferein , Mat_5:23 Mat_8:4 Act_7:42 Heb_5:1) The well-known quotation from "Bammidbar Rabba," fol. 329. 1, "Every one shedding the blood of the wicked is equal to him who offers sacrifice," may throw light on the expression. The intensity of the fanaticism was well exhibited in the persecution in which Stephen fell, and which St. Paul deemed worthy service, and one which he ought to have rendered. (Act_26:9 Gal_1:13, Gal_1:14) The curse was long and deep and tragic, and Christ explains it by the awful reiteration, These things will they dobecause they have not known the Father, nor me. (Joh_15:22, etc.) He reiterates the explanation already given of the manner and form as well as the fact of the world"s hatred.

HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON Vers. 2, 3. Persecution foreseen and foretold.

The great aim of the Lord Jesus, in his final conversations with his apostles, was to convince them of their perfect union with himself. They were the branches of the living Vine; they were his beloved and confidential friends. Were these revelations made merely to assure them of privilege, merely to make them happy in the consciousness of an honorable and inseparable relation? Certainly not. This spiritual fellowship was to be the power for holy service and the motive to patient endurance. It is in this last respect that, in the verses before us, our Lord relied upon the revelation already made as sufficient to secure his disciples from being "offended" with him. He felt that, having explained the community of life and interest subsisting between himself and his own, he might open up before them the prospect of persecution. Forewarned, they would thus be forearmed. He treated them herein not as children, but as soldiers in a spiritual war, whose allegiance he did not doubt, and of whose fortitude he was perfectly assured.

I THE NATURE OF PERSECUTION. It was no new thing in the world that men should be pursued with bitter hostility for their devotion to truth, to duty, to righteousness, to God. The history of Israel contained but too many illustrations of the enmity with which the good have been assailed by those to whom their life and testimony were a rebuke. And Jesus foresaw that confessors and martyrs were to render a service in his kingdom, both by establishing the faith upon a basis of hard trial and proof, and by extending the truth amongst unbelievers. Jesus here refers to two ways in which his disciples should experience the hostility of an unbelieving world.

1. Ecclesiastical censure and excommunication. Doubtless the reference here is to the Jews. Even during our Lord"s ministry, those who confessed him were in some instances excluded from the synagogues. And when the Church was constituted by the descent of the Spirit, and especially when the broad designs of Christianity as a religion, not for Israel only, but for mankind, were clearly exhibited, then the hostility of the bigoted among the Jewish leaders and the Jewish populace knew no hounds. Reverencing everything connected with the Law and the prophets, the preachers of Christ would fain have resorted to the synagogues as of old, would fain have reasoned out of the Scriptures with a view of proving that Jesus was the Messiah, and of showing how his religion realized all the types and predictions of Judaism. But the merit and the glory of Christianity was, in the eyes of legalists and formalists, its chief offence; and a sharp line was drawn, over which the followers of the Nazarene were not suffered to step.

2. Temporal and corporal infliction, reaching even to death. The Jews did, as we know from the record of the Acts, even very early in the history of the Christian faith, carry their enmity so tar as to inflict capital punishment upon a Christian advocate. But it seems as if our Lord, in this prediction, looked forward to events which should follow the proclamation of the gospel among the Gentiles. The annals of the Church of Christ are rich indeed in instances of martyrdom. And it has passed into a proverb, that "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.

II THE MOTIVE TO PERSECUTION. Our Lord admitted that the motive to much of the persecution that should assail the professors of the faith was a conscientious and even a religious motive. Events have confirmed this attribution of motive. No doubt there have been persecutors who have acted from interested, selfish motives. But there have been those who have persecuted Christians in the belief that they were doing God a service, offering to him an acceptable sacrifice in the blood of the "faithful unto death" The Jews particularly were, in many instances, influenced in their hostility to Christians by a reverence for what they believed, however erroneously, to be the perfect religion, capable of no addition, no improvement. The professions and claims made first by Jesus, and afterwards by his servants on his behalf, were of a very high and authoritative character. Christ was either the Son of God or be was a blasphemer; and we know that the latter view was taken by many of the Jewish unbelievers. It is no justification of evil conduct that those guilty of it are sincere; yet sincere ignorance is an extenuation, though not a vindication, of guilt. Alas! what evils have been wrought in the name, not only of liberty, but of religion!

III THE EXPLANATION OF PERSECUTION. Our Lord was a Revealer of all hearts. He looked below the profession, and even below the belief. He penetrated deep into the spiritual nature of men, and was familiar with the hidden springs of thought and of action. There was a reason, not in every case known to the agents themselves, for the actions which they committed. The Lord Jesus was able to account for conduct by searching the inner nature. And so doing he discovered, in the spiritual ignorance of the persecutors, the true and all-sufficient reason for their attitude and proceedings. "They have not known the Father, nor me." They cannot "know" Christ by the knowledge, that is, of spiritual appreciation and sympathy, who persecute and slay his friends and the promulgators of his faith. They must utterly misunderstand him, his character, and his mission, if they suppose that God can be pleased when Christians are persecuted. For it is not to be believed that the Father can look with satisfaction upon injuries done to his own Son in the person of his followers. Had the Jews known Christ, they would not have slain the Lord of glory. And none who truly knew our Lord could have persecuted his faithful people in order to do his Father service. T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think he doth God service - But, blessed be God, the time is so far past, that those who bear the name of Christ do not now generally suppose they do him service by killing each other for a difference in opinion or mode of worship.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

2. They shall put you out of the synagogues. Excommunicate you. The first persecutions were Jewish. Whosoever killeth you, etc. Even so Saul of Tarsus thought while persecuting the saints. Fanaticism has always held the slaughter of those who are deemed heretics to be praiseworthy.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

2. ἀποσυναγώγους. see on Joh 9:32. The ἀλλά introduces a gradation, as in 2Co 7:11: Nay, there cometh an hour. ‘You may think excommunication a strong measure, but they will go greater lengths than this.’ In ἵνα the Divine purpose again seems indicated (Joh 12:23, Joh 13:1); ‘an hour for every one that killeth you to think,’ ut omnis … arbitretur. In πᾶς the universality of the delusion appears: Jew and Gentile alike will put down Christians as blasphemers and atheists and the perpetrators of every crime. The history of religious persecution is the fulfilment of this prophecy: comp. Act 8:1; Act 9:1. Λατρείαν expresses a religious service (Rom 9:4; Heb 9:1; Heb 9:6); προσφέρειν the offering of sacrifice (Heb 5:1; Heb 8:3; Heb 9:7): offereth service to God.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2.] On ἀποσυν. see reff.

ἀλλʼ, yea, and,—see reff. It introduces a yet more grievous and decisive proof of their nature.

ἵνα] “That which shall happen in the ὥρα, is regarded as the object of its coming.” Meyer.

προσφέρειν, the technical word for offering a sacrifice—see reff.

λατρείαν] “Quis-quis effundit sanguinem impii, idem facit ac si sacrificium offerat.” Jalkut Schimeoni, cited by De Wette, &c., see 1Co 4:13. But the sense of ‘sacrificium’ must not be too much pressed, as Stier remarks, to mean in every case an expiatory offering: see reff.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. ἀποσυναγώγους ποιήσουσιν ὑμᾶς, “they will put you out of synagogue,” i.e. excommunicate you. For ἀποσυνάγωγος, see on 9:22 and 12:42.

ἀλλʼ ἔρχεται ὥρα, “indeed, furthermore, a time is coming.” ἀλλά has no adversative sense here, nor must we press ὥρα to mean “the predestined time,” as if it were ἡ ὥρα (but cf. v. 4), although, as we have seen (2:4), the idea of the inevitableness of what has been foreordained is a favourite one in Jn. See 4:21.

ἵνα, i.e. “when”; see note on 12:23.

πᾶς ὁ ἀποκτείνας ὑμᾶς, “whosoever killeth you,” whether he be Jew or Gentile.

δόξῃ λατρείαν προσφέρειν τῷ θεῷ, “shall think (so blind will he be) that he is offering service to God.” (λατρεία does not occur elsewhere in the Gospels.) Paul’s persecution of the early disciples was a notable instance of such mistaken zeal (cf. Act 22:3, Act 22:4, Act 22:26:9, also 8:1, 9:1). A Midrash on Num 25:13 (cited by De Wette) has the maxim, “Quisquis effundit sanguinem impii idem facit ac si sacrificium offerat.” And among Gentiles the same fanaticism has often displayed itself. Tacitus (Ann. xv. 44) evidently thought that persecution of Christians to their death was morally justified. Many persecutors are sincere, but their sincerity does not excuse them, if they might have learnt the truth, and did not do so.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They shall put you out of the synagogues. See on 9 22.

Yea [αλλ] . Literally, but. They shall excommunicate you, but worse than this, the hour cometh, etc.

The hour cometh that [ινα] . Literally, "there cometh an hour in order that." The hour is ordained with that end in view : it comes fraught with the fulfillment of a divine purpose.

Whosoever [πας ο] . Literally, everyone who.

Doeth service [λατρειαν προσφερειν] . Literally, bringeth or offereth service. Latreia means, strictly, service for hire, but is used of any service, and frequently of the service of God.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.