John 16: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Jesus warns them they will be thrown out of the synagogues and even killed by people who think they are serving God, and he explains that he must go away so that the Spirit of truth can come and guide them. He tells them their sorrow will turn to joy, that they may ask the Father directly in his name, and that they will scatter and leave him alone. He ends by saying he has told them these things so they may have peace in him, since he has overcome the world.

Claim by Claim

1. 16:1
   • Jesus said he has spoken these things to them.
   • Jesus said his purpose in speaking them was that they not be made to stumble.
2. 16:2
   • Jesus said they will be put out of the synagogues.
   • Jesus said an hour is coming.
   • Jesus said that in that hour anyone who kills them will think he is offering service to God.
3. 16:3
   • Jesus said they will do these things because they have not known the Father.
   • Jesus said they have not known Jesus either.
4. 16:4
   • Jesus said he has told them these things so that when the hour comes they will remember that he told them.
   • Jesus said he did not tell them these things from the beginning.
   • Jesus said the reason he did not tell them at the beginning was that he was with them.
5. 16:5
   • Jesus said he is now going to the one who sent him.
   • Jesus said none of them asks him where he is going.
6. 16:6
   • Jesus said sorrow has filled their heart.
   • Jesus said the sorrow came because he has said these things to them.
7. 16:7
   • Jesus said he is telling them the truth.
   • Jesus said it is to their advantage that he go away.
   • Jesus said that if he does not go away, the Comforter will not come to them.
   • Jesus said that if he goes, he will send the Comforter to them.
8. 16:8
   • Jesus said that when the Comforter comes he will convict the world concerning sin.
   • Jesus said he will convict the world concerning righteousness.
   • Jesus said he will convict the world concerning judgment.
9. 16:9
   • Jesus said the conviction concerning sin is because they do not believe in him.
10. 16:10
    • Jesus said the conviction concerning righteousness is because he is going to the Father.
    • Jesus said they will see him no longer.
11. 16:11
    • Jesus said the conviction concerning judgment is because the ruler of this world has been judged.
12. 16:12
    • Jesus said he still has many things to say to them.
    • Jesus said they cannot bear them now.
13. 16:13
    • Jesus said that when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide them into all truth.
    • Jesus said the Spirit will not speak from himself.
    • Jesus said the Spirit will speak whatever he hears.
    • Jesus said the Spirit will declare to them the things that are coming.
14. 16:14
    • Jesus said the Spirit will glorify him.
    • Jesus said the Spirit will take from what is his.
    • Jesus said the Spirit will declare it to them.
15. 16:15
    • Jesus said everything the Father has is his.
    • Jesus said that for this reason he said the Spirit takes from what is his and will declare it to them.
16. 16:16
    • Jesus said that in a little while they will not see him.
    • Jesus said that again in a little while they will see him.
    • Jesus said this is because he goes to the Father.
17. 16:17
    • Some of his disciples said to one another that they did not know what he meant by saying a little while and they will not see him, and again a little while and they will see him.
    • They also questioned what he meant by saying it is because he goes to the Father.
18. 16:18
    • The disciples asked what he means by 'a little while'.
    • The disciples said they do not know what he is talking about.
19. 16:19
    • Jesus knew they wanted to ask him.
    • Jesus asked them whether they were inquiring among themselves about his saying that in a little while they will not see him and again in a little while they will see him.
20. 16:20
    • Jesus said truly, truly to them.
    • Jesus said they will weep and lament.
    • Jesus said the world will rejoice.
    • Jesus said they will be sorrowful.
    • Jesus said their sorrow will become joy.
21. 16:21
    • Jesus said a woman giving birth has sorrow.
    • Jesus said her sorrow is because her hour has come.
    • Jesus said that once she has borne the child she no longer remembers the anguish.
    • Jesus said she forgets it because of joy that a human being has been born into the world.
22. 16:22
    • Jesus said they now have sorrow.
    • Jesus said he will see them again.
    • Jesus said their heart will rejoice.
    • Jesus said no one takes their joy from them.
23. 16:23
    • Jesus said that in that day they will ask him nothing.
    • Jesus said truly, truly to them.
    • Jesus said that whatever they ask the Father in his name, the Father will give them.
24. 16:24
    • Jesus said that until now they have asked nothing in his name.
    • Jesus told them to ask.
    • Jesus said they will receive.
    • Jesus said the purpose is that their joy may be full.
25. 16:25
    • Jesus said he has spoken these things to them in figures of speech.
    • Jesus said an hour is coming when he will no longer speak to them in figures of speech.
    • Jesus said he will instead tell them plainly about the Father.
26. 16:26
    • Jesus said that in that day they will ask in his name.
    • Jesus said he is not saying that he will ask the Father on their behalf.
27. 16:27
    • Jesus said the Father himself loves them.
    • Jesus said the Father loves them because they have loved Jesus.
    • Jesus said they have believed that he came out from God.
28. 16:28
    • Jesus said he came forth from the Father.
    • Jesus said he has come into the world.
    • Jesus said he is leaving the world again.
    • Jesus said he is going to the Father.
29. 16:29
    • His disciples said that he is now speaking plainly.
    • His disciples said he is speaking no figure of speech.
30. 16:30
    • The disciples said they now know that he knows all things.
    • The disciples said he has no need for anyone to question him.
    • The disciples said that by this they believe he came forth from God.
31. 16:31
    • Jesus answered them.
    • Jesus asked them whether they now believe.
32. 16:32
    • Jesus said an hour is coming and has come.
    • Jesus said in that hour they will be scattered, each to his own.
    • Jesus said they will leave him alone.
    • Jesus said he is not alone.
    • Jesus said he is not alone because the Father is with him.
33. 16:33
    • Jesus said he has spoken these things to them so that in him they may have peace.
    • Jesus said that in the world they have tribulation.
    • Jesus told them to take courage.
    • Jesus said he has overcome the world.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

16:1

"Offended" in 1611 did not mean insulted. It translates a Greek word for being tripped up or made to stumble, so that a person abandons the path they were on. The rendering's "give up and turn away" carries the sense.

16:2

Being "put out of the synagogue" meant formal expulsion from the local Jewish assembly, which was the center of worship, schooling, legal life and social standing in a town. It was not just losing a place to attend; it cut a person off from their community. The phrase "doeth God service" translates a word used for the offering of formal worship, so the sense is that the killer thinks he is performing an act of religious devotion.

16:3

Jesus often called God his Father. That was his own special name for God.

16:4

The Greek says "when their hour comes," meaning the hour belonging to those things, the moment when they happen. "The time" here is that appointed moment, not time in general.

16:5

Earlier the same evening Peter asks "Lord, whither goest thou?" (13:36) and Thomas says "we know not whither thou goest" (14:5). The point here is about the present moment: now that the sorrow has settled on them, no one is pressing the question any further.

16:7

"Expedient" in 1611 meant advantageous or beneficial, with none of the modern hint of cutting corners. "Comforter" translates the Greek word parakletos, literally someone called to your side. It covered a supporter, an advocate who speaks for you in a legal setting, and one who strengthens or consoles. No single English word holds all of it, which is why translations vary between Comforter, Helper, Advocate and Counselor.

16:8

"Reprove" in 1611 meant to convict, to expose someone as being in the wrong and prove the case against them. The Greek verb is at home in a courtroom. The preposition translated "of" means "concerning," so the three items are the subjects on which the world's judgment is shown to be wrong.

16:11

"Prince" here means ruler or the one in charge, not a king's son. The phrase refers to the power that governs the present world order, a figure John's readers would have understood as the accuser or adversary. "Is judged" is a past-tense form: the verdict has already been handed down.

16:12

"Bear" means carry the weight of, as with a load. The sense is not that they are forbidden to hear it but that they cannot yet take it in.

16:13

"He shall not speak of himself" is easily misread today. The Greek means "he will not speak on his own authority," that is, out of his own initiative, rather than "he will not speak about himself." "Shew" is simply the older spelling of show.

16:14

To "glorify" someone means to show how great that person really is. It is not flattery. It is letting people see what was true all along.

16:16

The words "because I go to the Father" at the end of this verse are missing from the oldest surviving Greek manuscripts, though they appear in verse 17 where the disciples repeat them. The King James follows later manuscripts that include them in both places.

16:17

Jesus' followers were called disciples. A disciple is someone who learns from a teacher and goes with him.

16:20

"Verily, verily" translates "Amen, amen," a doubled Hebrew word meaning "truly" or "it is so." Used at the front of a sentence rather than the end, it marks what follows as a solemn declaration. The word for "lament" means loud public mourning, the audible wailing expected at a death, not quiet sadness.

16:21

"Travail" is the old word for the labor of childbirth, and "delivered of the child" means having given birth. "A man is born into the world" uses a Greek word that means a human being, not specifically a male child.

16:22

"No man" in the King James regularly means "no one, nobody," with no restriction to males. The same holds for "any man" in verse 30.

16:23

Two different Greek verbs sit behind the one English word "ask" in this verse. The first ("ye shall ask me nothing") is the verb for putting a question to someone. The second ("whatsoever ye shall ask the Father") is the verb for making a request. So the first half is about questioning and the second about petitioning.

16:24

The King James word "hitherto" simply means "until now."

16:25

"Proverbs" here does not mean short sayings of the kind collected in the book of Proverbs. The Greek word means veiled or figurative speech, language that carries its meaning indirectly and needs unpacking. The same word lies behind "proverb" in verse 29.

16:26

"Pray" in 1611 English simply meant to ask or request, and could be said of asking anyone for anything. It carried no necessary sense of worship. The Greek verb here is the ordinary word for making a request of someone.

16:27

The verb for "love" in this verse, used of both the Father and the disciples, is the one built on the word for a friend, suggesting warm personal affection. Elsewhere in John a different love word is more common. Ancient writers often used the two interchangeably, so how much weight the difference carries here is disputed.

16:29

"Lo" in the King James just means "look" or "listen."

16:30

They mean that Jesus knows what a person wants to ask before it is spoken, which is precisely what he had just done in verse 19, answering the question they were only muttering to each other.

16:31

The Greek has no punctuation, so this line can be read either as a question ("Do you believe now?") or as a statement ("Now you believe"). Translators have to pick one; the ambiguity is in the original.

16:32

"Every man to his own" means each of you to your own home or your own belongings, the place you came from. The Greek is a shorthand phrase, literally "to his own things."

16:33

"Tribulation" translates a word whose root sense is pressure or crushing, the squeezing of something under weight, and so hardship of any kind. "Be of good cheer" is stronger than it sounds to a modern ear: it is a command to take courage, not an invitation to cheer up. "Overcome" is in a tense that presents the victory as already accomplished.