John 16:16-18

“ Yet a little while, and you see me no more;again, a little while, and you shall see me, because I go to the Father. 17. Therefore some of his disciples said among themselves: What does this mean, which he says to us: Yet a little while and you do not see me;again, a little while and you will see me? And that other word: Because I go to the Father. 18. They said therefore: What does he mean by this word:A little while? We do not understand what He says. ”

The promise of Jesus' return, in order to be consoling, must not be at too long a remove. Jesus affirms its very near realization. Two brief periods of time and it will take place! Weiss, with Lange, Hengstenberg, etc., refers this return to the appearances of Jesus after His resurrection. The sequel (see especially John 16:25-26) will show the impossibility of this explanation. But from this point the asyndeton between John 16:15-16 leads us to suppose a much more profound connection of thought between these two sayings than could be the case with this meaning. If, in conformity with what precedes, the passage in John 16:16 ff. is referred to the spiritual seeing again through the coming of the promised Paraclete, as in John 14:17-23, everything in what follows is simply explained. Filled with the idea of His glorification by the Spirit in the hearts of the disciples (John 16:13-16), Jesus calls this return a mutual seeing again (John 16:16; John 16:22).

It is in this living reappearance in the soul of His own that the approaching separation will end without delay. The first μικρόν, a little while, refers to the short space of time which separates the present moment from that of His death; the second, to the interval between His death and the day of Pentecost. Four Alexandrian authorities reject the words which close the verse: Because I go to my Father; they would, in this case, have been introduced here in the other documents from John 16:17. But it seems to me rather that the expression: You will see me because I go away, appeared absurd and contradictory, and that these last words were omitted here. If they were allowed to remain in John 16:17, it was because there the ὅτι might be regarded as depending on ὃ λέγει, in the sense of that, and not on you will see in the sense of because.

But it was not considered that, by preserving them in John 16:17, their omission in John 16:16 was condemned, since John 16:17 is the repetition of John 16:16. A glance at Tischendorf's note shows that Origen is probably the author of this omission, as of so many other errors in the Alexandrian text. This because, which embarrassed Origen, is clear as one refers this seeing again to Pentecost. It is because Jesus returns to the Father that He can again be seen by believers through the Holy Spirit (John 7:39, John 16:7).

Nevertheless, in expressing Himself as He does, Jesus proposed a problem to His disciples; He is not unaware of it. These two brief delays (a little while), which were to have opposite results, and the apparently contradictory idea: “ You will see me because I go away,” must have been for them enigmas. We find here again the educational process which we have already observed in John 14:4; John 14:7. By these paradoxical expressions, Jesus designedly calls forth the revelation of their last doubts, to the end of having the power entirely to remove them.

The kind of aside which took place among some of the apostles (John 16:17) would not be easily explained, if they were still surrounding Jesus, as had been the fact at the time when He uttered the words of John 15:1 ff. It is probable, therefore, that, when uttering the 16th verse, Jesus puts Himself again on His course of march, the disciples following Him at some distance. This explains how they can be conversing with each other, as is related in John 16:17-18. The words: I go away to my Father, were perhaps the signal for starting.

The objections of the disciples are natural, from their point of view. Where for us all is clear, for them all was mysterious. If Jesus wishes to found the Messianic kingdom, why go away? If He does not wish it, why return? Then, how can they imagine these contrary phases which are to be accomplished one after another? Finally: I come, because I go away! Is there not reason for their crying out: We do not understand what He says (John 16:18)? All this clearly proves the truth of the narrative; could a later writer have thus placed himself in the very quick of this situation? Καὶ ὅτι : “and this, because. ” This word increases for them the difficulty of understanding. There is, as it were, a kind of impatience in their manner of expression in John 16:18.