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Joh_15:20. A recalling of Joh_13:16, presupposing, however, a different application than in that passage—namely, a slave has no better lot to claim than his lord (comp. Mat_10:24-25).
If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my word, they will also keep yours. Which of these two cases will in general occur, Jesus leaves to the judgment of the disciples themselves, since they in truth knew from experience how it had gone with Him. To take the second clause ironically (“quasi dicat: non est, quod hoc speretis,” Grotius, Lampe), is appropriate neither to the seriousness of the first, nor to the tone of the whole passage. Olshausen’s view is incorrect (comp. B. Crusius, Maier, Godet), “if many, etc.,” where, in the first half, according to Godet, we should have to think of the mass of the people. But the variation of the subjects is a pure importation. Finally, when Bengel and other older expositors (in Wolf) interpret τηρεῖν as watch, this is quite opposed to the Johannean usage of τὸν λόγ . τηρεῖν (Joh_8:51, Joh_14:23-24, and frequently), comp. Joh_15:10, and it would also be too weak a conception after the first half of the verse. Irrespective of this, usage would not stand in the way of such rendering, Gen_3:15 (according to the usual reading); Dem. 317 ult., 1252. 8; Soph. O. R. 808; Arist. Vesp. 364; Thuc. iv. 108. 1, vii. 80. 1; Lys. iii. 34.