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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - John 16:4 - 16:4
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4. ἀλλά. But, to return (to Joh 16:1), these things have I spoken to you (Joh 16:1; Joh 16:4; Joh 16:6 must be rendered alike), that when their hour (the hour appointed for these things; Joh 16:2) is come, ye may remember them, how that I told you, Ἐγώ is emphatic, ‘I Myself, the object of your faith.’
ἐξ ἀρχῆς. Here and Joh 6:64 only: it expresses consequence and continuity, whereas ἀπ' ἀρχῆς (Joh 15:27) expresses simple departure. And these things I told you not from the beginning. There is no inconsistency between this statement and passages like Mat 10:16-39; Mat 24:9; Luk 6:22 : ταῦτα covers not only the prediction of persecutions, but the explanation of them, and the promise of the Paraclete, &c. All this was new. While He was with them to explain and exhort, they did not need these truths.