John 16:2Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Therefore He says that not only the ordinary thing will happen, and the malice or opposition of the Jews will not stop at expulsion from the synagogue. He says this so that they may have a soul ready to endure everything willingly. They must be ready to resist the injury coming from the Jews, without fearing even cruel death itself, if it should come. He also foretold that their impiety would reach such savagery that they would one day regard their extreme inhumanity as a path of piety leading them to God. That those who were seized by love for Christ were excommunicated from the synagogues among the Jews, and suffered such punishment at the very beginning of His work, is clear from the Evangelist's words. "Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogues" (Jn 12:42). Again: "The scribes and Pharisees had already agreed that if anyone confessed Him to be the Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue" (Jn 9:22). But if these plots of the Jews prove unbearable to some, He says, then from this one must know that the attacks against you will not stop there. Yet do not grieve at all, He says, if this should happen to you. The audacity of their impiety will go so far that they will regard killing you as service pleasing to God. We see that this happened with holy Stephen, the first-fruit of the martyrs, and with the divine Paul. They brought against Stephen the charge of blasphemy. Then they hid themselves behind zeal pleasing to God and put him to death by stoning (Acts 7:59). Likewise, some of the Jews raged so fiercely against the sacred and most wise Paul that "they bound themselves under an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed him" (Acts 23:21). We find this written in the Acts of the holy Apostles. Therefore the prediction is beautiful and very useful. It softens fear of afflictions beforehand and prepares the disciples for courage, as though they had already undergone them. For the weight of affliction must be somewhat moderated for sufferers when it is foreseen and its assault is weakened.

But since they refused, and did not allow Christ within, nothing remained for them but to expel those who had not abandoned Christ. In general, it does not seem to me that Jesus meant anything other than this. They were to understand and rejoice that in this way they could call many to Christ. This would happen when they were persecuted from the assemblies of the Jews. It would become clear that expelling them was not enough. The Jews would not allow them to live, fearing that all would be converted by their preaching in the name of Christ. Then they would cease to worship Judaism, as though the Jews themselves preached the very truth of God. Thus we should understand what was said concerning the Jews: 'They will put you out of the synagogues.' For the witnesses, that is, the martyrs of Christ, were also put to death by pagans. Yet the pagans did not think that in doing this they served God, but their false gods. Every Jew, however, who killed the preachers of Christ thought that he served God. He believed that one who turned to Christ departed from the God of Israel. Then He plainly says what they will suffer: 'They will put you out of the synagogues' (Jn 16:2). But what harm was there for the apostles in being expelled from the synagogues of the Jews? It was as though they themselves were not intending to separate from them, even if no one expelled them. Certainly He wished to make known beforehand that the Jews would not receive Christ, from Whom His disciples would not separate. Thus those who cannot exist without Him would be expelled together with Him by those who did not wish to be with Him. In fact, there was no other people of God except that which came from the seed of Abraham. If they had known and received Christ, they would have remained living branches on the olive tree (cf. Rom 11:17). Then it would not have happened that the churches of Christ were one thing and the synagogues of the Jews another. They would certainly have been one whole, if the Jews had wished to be in Him. But since they did not wish this, what else remained? Those remaining outside Christ expelled from the synagogues those who had not abandoned Christ. Certainly, after receiving the Holy Spirit, they became His witnesses. Yet they were not like those of whom it is said: 'Many even of the rulers believed in Him.' But because of fear of the Jews, lest they be put out of the synagogue, they did not dare to confess Him. They 'loved the praise of men more than the praise of God' (cf. Jn 12:42-43). They believed in Him, but not as He wished them to believe when He said: 'How can you believe, who receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?' (Jn 5:44). When the disciples believed in Him in this way, they were filled with the Holy Spirit, that is, with the gift of God's grace. They ceased to belong to those who, being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, did not submit to the righteousness of God (cf. Rom 10:3). Nor did they belong to those of whom it is said: 'They loved the praise of men more than the praise of God' (Jn 12:42). This agrees with the prophecy that seems to have been fulfilled in them: 'O Lord, they shall walk in the light of Thy countenance. In Thy name they shall rejoice all the day. In Thy righteousness they shall be exalted, for Thou art the glory of their strength' (cf. Ps 88:16-18). Deservedly it was said to them: 'They will put you out of the synagogues.' Those who have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, expel them. Because they are ignorant of God's righteousness and seek to establish their own (Rom 10:2-3), they expel those who are exalted not in their own righteousness, but in God's. These are not ashamed when men expel them, because the glory of their strength is He Himself. Finally, after saying this to them, He added: 'But the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think that he offers service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor Me' (cf. Jn 16:2-3). That is, they have known neither God, nor the Son of Him Whom they will think they serve by killing you. The Lord joined these words to the previous ones as though He were consoling His disciples, who would be expelled from the synagogues of the Jews. For, foretelling what evil they would have to endure for their witness to Him, He said: 'They will put you out of the synagogues.' Yet He did not say: 'And the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think that he offers service to God.' What did He say? 'But the hour is coming.' He said this as though foretelling something good after such evil. What did He mean by saying: 'They will put you out of the synagogues, but the hour is coming'? It was as though He intended to say to them: 'They will indeed separate you, but I will gather you.' Or: 'They will indeed separate you, but the hour of your joy is coming.' What role is played here by the phrase He uttered, 'But the hour is coming'? It seems to promise them consolation after trials. Yet He might seem rather to have said, in continuation, 'And the hour is coming.' That would have continued the speech with the conjunction 'and,' et, not opposed it with the adversative 'but,' sed. But He did not say, 'and it is coming,' although He foretold that trial would follow trial, not consolation after trial. Or perhaps their separation from the synagogue would have disturbed them so greatly that they would have preferred to die rather than remain in this life outside the assemblies of the Jews. Those who sought God's glory and not men's could not have been disturbed for this reason. What then does this mean: 'They will put you out of the synagogues, but the hour is coming'? It would seem that He should rather have said: 'And the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think that he offers service to God.' In any case, He did not say: 'But the hour is coming when they will kill you,' as though hinting that death would be their consolation in this separation. Rather, He said: 'But the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think that he offers service to God.' It does not seem to me at all that He wished to indicate anything else. They were to understand and rejoice at how many disciples they would gain for Christ after they were expelled from the assemblies of the Jews. The Jews would not be content with expelling them. Nor would they allow them to live, because by their preaching they were converting all to the name of Christ. They would turn men away from the worship of Judaism, so that they would not seek divine truth in it. We must understand that this was said about the Jews, concerning whom He said: 'They will put you out of the synagogues.' For if the witnesses, that is, the martyrs of Christ, were killed by pagans, still one could not think that the pagans served God in doing this. They served their false gods. But every Jew who killed a preacher of Christ thought that by this he served God. He believed that all who turned to Christ had abandoned the God of Israel. They were moved by the same reasoning when they thought to kill Christ. Indeed, their own words on this matter are written: 'Do you see that the whole world has gone after Him? If we let Him live, the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation' (cf. Jn 12:19; 11:48). It is also written what Caiaphas said: 'It is better for us that one man should die for the people, than that the whole nation should perish' (Jn 11:50). Thus, in those words He strengthened His disciples by His own example. He said to them: 'If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you' (Jn 15:20). Therefore, just as those Jews thought that by killing Him they served God, so they would think the same when killing them also. This, then, is the meaning contained in the Lord's words: 'They will put you out of the synagogues. But do not fear solitude, because, separated from their assembly, you will gather so many in My name that those Jews will fear. They will fear that the temple which belonged to them, and all the mysteries of the old Law, will be abandoned. They will kill you, and by shedding your blood they will think that they serve God.' See, this is what the Apostle said about them: 'They have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge' (Rom 10:2). They think that by killing the servants of God they serve God. O terrifying error! Must you kill one pleasing to God in order to please God? Must you destroy the living temple of God by murder, so that the stone temple of God may be preserved? O blindness worthy of curse! But this happened in Israel in part, until the fullness of the Gentiles should come in (cf. Rom 11:25). I say that it happened in part, not in the whole. For not all the branches, but only some, were broken off, that the wild olive might be grafted in (cf. Rom 11:17). When the disciples of Christ were filled with the Holy Spirit, they began to speak in the tongues of all nations. Through them many divine miracles were accomplished, and divine sayings spread abroad. Christ, even after being killed, proved so beloved that His disciples, expelled from the assemblies of the Jews, gathered a great multitude from among the Jews themselves. They feared no solitude.

This is the highest degree of blindness: to imagine that one is serving God while doing something that expresses enmity against God. This happened with the persecutors of Christians. In persecuting the innocent, they imagined that they were doing what pleased God. By shedding the blood of Christ's disciples, whom they regarded as blasphemers and impious, they thought they were offering God a kind of propitiatory sacrifice. Jewish fanaticism reached such a point in this matter that it established something like a law: "Whoever sheds the blood of the impious does the same as one who offers sacrifice." Later pagan persecutors of Christians acted in the same way, imagining that by exterminating them they served their gods. The first example of such supposed service to God by the Jews was shown in the stoning of the Protomartyr Stephen (Acts 7 and following). Even Saul, later the chief apostle, thought that by taking part in this murder he was doing what pleased God (Acts 8:1; 22:20; 26:9).

They were also to remember that this truth would conquer the world. How great the moral martyrdom of Christians was in the first two centuries after Christ we see from the Acts of the Apostles, from Church history, and from Roman writers. Here we are not speaking of the physical torments to which Christians were subjected. We are speaking of such hatred as the oath of many Jews not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul (Acts 23:14). We are also speaking of the contempt with which serious writers such as Tacitus and Suetonius branded Christians. Tacitus, Annals XV, 44; Suetonius, Nero Claudius, section 16. They expressed the view of their contemporaries. They even thought that the monster Nero acted justly when he sought to destroy the "hated sect" of Christians, upon whom he blamed the fire of Rome. In His last discourse the Lord revealed with complete clarity to His disciples the picture of their future moral sufferings. He warned them that these sufferings would be a stumbling block for them. Yet He also showed that they would overcome this temptation by remaining united with Him. Chrysostom asks why He told them this now, and not later, when they had already been counted worthy of the Spirit. He answers: so that we may know that their souls were great and honorable souls. If they had heard these words after being counted worthy to receive the Spirit and had remained steadfast, we would surely have had to ascribe their strength above all to the strengthening grace of the Holy Spirit. But they had not yet received the Holy Spirit. When they heard the Lord's words, they were struck dumb with grief (vv. 5-6). Yet despite all the sorrow that overcame them, they did not fall away from the Lord. Therefore their faithfulness to the departing Christ must be credited to them. "This is entirely the fruit of their soul," Chrysostom adds, "and a clear proof of the love for Christ that flowed from their own heart."