John 15:25

Ver. 25. ᾿Αλλά : “ But there is nothing astonishing in this.” The righteous man of the old covenant had already complained by the mouth of David (Psalms 35:19; Psa 69:5) of being the object of the gratuitous hatred of the enemies of God. If their hatred was wholly laid to their own charge, notwithstanding the faults of the imperfectly righteous man, with how much stronger reason can the perfectly righteous One appropriate to Himself this complaint, which is, at the same time, His consolation and that of those who suffer like Him and for Him! Weiss asserts here, as with reference to the other quotations of this kind, that the evangelist puts in the mouth of even the Messiah these words of the Old Testament. The evangelist would then imagine the Messiah as also uttering these words of John 15:6 from Psalms 69: O God, Thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from Thee; or he could never have read them! As for Psalms 35, it is impossible to find in it a line which could have led any reader whatever of the Old Testament to the Messianic application.

In order that depends on a “This has happened,” or “This must have happened,” understood, as in so many other cases (John 9:3; John 13:18; 1 John 2:19; Mark 14:49, etc.). On the term “ their law,” see on John 8:17. De Wette finds irony in these words: “They practise faithfully their law.” This meaning seems far-fetched.