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Joh_16:4. Ἀλλά ] At, breaks off the enumeration (Baeumlein, Partik. p. 15). Jesus will not go further into details, and recurs to the thought in Joh_16:1. The explanation: “although it is not to be expected otherwise, I have nevertheless foretold it to you” (Lücke, De Wette), is the less agreeable to the text, since ταῦτα λελάλ . had just been already said, and that without any antithetic reference of the kind. The explanations of Tholuck and Lange, again, are importations: “but so little would I terrify (?) you hereby, that I have only (?) said it to you,” etc.
ταῦτα ] What was said in Joh_16:2-3.
αὐτῶν , ὅτι ἐγὼ εἶπ . ὑμ .] Attraction. See Winer, p. 581 f. [E. T. p. 665 ff.]
ἐγώ ] with weighty emphasis: I, the Person, with whom your faith is concerned. Comp. Joh_16:1, ἵνα μὴ σκανδαλ .
ἐξ ἀρχῆς ] Joh_15:27. The question, how this declaration of Jesus may be reconciled with the announcements found in the Synoptics, even from the time of the Sermon on the Mount, of predestined sufferings (Mat_5:10 ff.; Luk_6:22 ff.; Mat_10:16 ff.; Luk_12:4 ff.; Mat_21:12 ff; Mat_24:9), is not solved by saying that here φοβερώτερα ἐκείνων (Euth. Zigabenus, comp. also Chrysostom) are announced (see, on the contrary, Mat_10:16-18; Mat_10:28); or that Christ spoke at an earlier period minus aperte et parcius (Bengel, comp. Grotius), and in much more general terms (Ebrard), but now more expressly set forth in its principles the character of the world’s attitude towards the disciples (Tholuck, comp. Lange); or, that He has now stated more definitely the cause of the hatred (Lampe); or, that He utters it here as a parting word (Luthardt); or even, that at an earlier period, because the thoughts of the disciples had not yet dwelt upon it, it was “for them as good as not said” (Hengstenberg); but the difference lies clearly before us, and is simply to be recognised (comp. also Godet), to be explained, however, from the fact that in the Synoptics more general and less definite allusions belonging to the earlier time appear with the more definite form and stamp of later expressions. The living recollection of John must here also preponderate as against the Synoptics so that his relation to theirs here is that of a corrector.
ὅτι μεθʼ ὑμῶν ἤμην ] It would have been unnecessary in the time of my personal association with you, since it is not till after my departure that your persecution (up to that time the hatred of the world affected Himself) is to commence. “Because you have me with you, they cannot well but leave you in peace, and can do nothing to you, they must have done it to me previously, but now it will begin,” etc., Luther. Comp. Chrysostom, Euth. Zigabenus, Grotius. As yet they had suffered no persecution; hence the thought, “I could console you” (Lücke, De Wette, and older expositors), is not to be introduced. The interpretation also: “now first, when I promise you the Spirit, can I thus openly speak to you” (Bengel, Tholuck), is not in harmony with the words.