Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - John 16:11 - 16:11
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Joh_16:11. If the Paraclete by means of His testimony convinces the world of its sin of unbelief, and of Christ’s righteousness, then the third ἔλεγξις also cannot be wanting, which must refer to him, who rules the unbelieving world, and is the original enemy of Christ and His kingdom, to the devil. He is judged, i.e. actually condemned, by the fact that Christ has accomplished His world-redeeming work, whereby in truth every one who becomes a believer is withdrawn from the sway of the devil, so that his cause in and with the fulfilment of the redemptive work is objectively a lost one. Comp. on Joh_12:30-31. Of this the Paraclete will penally convict the world, dependent on the dominion of the devil, in order that the world, in acknowledgment of the sinfulness of its unbelief (Joh_16:9), and of the holy righteousness of the Christ rejected by it (Joh_16:10), may turn its back in penitence on the prince of the world, over whom already sentence has been pronounced (Joh_16:10). Thus, by means of the apostolic preaching is accomplished on the κόσμος the officium Spiritus s. elenchticum.
NOTE.
The three more precise definitions with ὅτι (Joh_16:9-11) express the relations from the standpoint of the presence of the speaker. Hence, in Joh_16:9, the present πιστεύουσιν (which was altered at a very early period—so Vulg. and It.—into ἐπίστευσαν ); hence also in Joh_16:10 the present ὑπάγω and the second person θεωρεῖτε , because Jesus is speaking to the disciples, and it is in fact His departure from them which is filling His mind, which lively directness of style De Wette unjustly criticizes as surprisingly inappropriate; hence, finally, in Joh_16:11 the perfect κέκριται , because Jesus sees Himself at the end of His work, and therewith the actual condemnation of Satan already completed and secured. Comp. Joh_16:33.