John 16:25-27

“ I have spoken these things to you in similitudes; but the hour is coming when I shall no more speak to you in similitudes, but when I shall speak to you openly of the Father. 26. In that day ye will need only to ask in my name; and I say not to you that I will pray the Father for you; 27, for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came forth from God. ”

It is not necessary to understand by the similitudes of which Jesus speaks the figures of the vine and the branches or the woman in childbirth, which He has just used, still less of the parables which have been preserved for us by the Synoptics. He means to characterize in general the manner of speaking of divine things in figurative language; comp. the terms Father's house, way, to come, to see again, to manifest oneself, to make one's abode, etc. It belongs only to the Spirit to speak the language which is really adequate to the divine truth. All teaching in words is but a figure, so long as the Spirit Himself does not explain. Παρρησία here: in appropriate terms, which do not compromise the idea by exposing it to a false interpretation; comp. John 11:14. On the word παροιμία, see John 10:6.

We may hesitate between the two verbs ἀπαγγέλλειν which signifies rather to announce (Alex.) and ἀναγγέλλειν, to declare (Byz.).

From the words περὶ τοῦ πατρός, concerning the Father, Weiss concludes that this promise can bear only upon the contents of John 16:23-24, and that the expression to speak in figures refers only to the symbolic term Father by which Jesus has just designated God. But how can we in a natural way explain in this sense the plurals ταῦτα and παροιμίαι ? Then Keil asks with good reason if the name of Father was for Jesus a simple figure. Is it not evident that the question here is of the teaching of the Holy Spirit, which will be a revelation of the Father, of His character, His will, His plans with relation to humanity? Besides, Weiss finds himself obliged, from John 16:25 onward, to acknowledge that there can be no longer a question as to the appearances of the Risen One, since the language in which Jesus spoke with His disciples after His resurrection did not differ at all from the ordinary human language which He had made use of previously. But how is it that he does not see that in acknowledging that the state described from John 16:25 onward is that which will follow the day of Pentecost, he retracts by this very fact his whole previous interpretation from ch. 14 onward? For John 16:26 evidently does not describe a different state from that in John 16:23-24; the day of which John 16:26 speaks and that of which John 16:23; John 16:25 speak cannot be any other than that of John 14:20-23. Why should not the speaking openly of the Father be the inward fact described in John 14:23: “The Father and I, we will come and make our abode with him.” And if the expression: I will openly announce in our John 16:25 refers to the day of Pentecost, as Weiss concedes, why should it not be the parallel of the: I will come again of John 14:18 ?

The declaration of John 16:26 seems, at the first glance, to contradict that of John 14:16. But in this latter passage, Jesus is still speaking of the time which will precede the day of Pentecost; He says that He will pray for the disciples, in order that He may be able to send the Spirit to them; here, on the contrary, the Paraclete is supposed to be already present and acting in them; this is the reason why they pray themselves to the Father in the name of Jesus, because they are in direct communication with Him. Consequently, as long as they abide in this state of union with God, the intercession of Jesus (Romans 8:34, Hebrews 7:25) is not necessary for them. But as soon as they sin, they have need of the advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous (1 John ii 1, 2). The expression: I say not that I will pray, is very admirably adapted to this state. He does not say that He will pray; for so long as they shall be in the normal state of fidelity, they will have no need of this; He prays then through them, not for them. Nevertheless, He does not say that He will not pray; for it may be that they will still have need of His intercession, if any separation intervenes between them and the Father. We see how completely Grotius and others have mistaken the idea in understanding the words: “I say not to you that...” in the sense: “ not to say that I also will pray for you.” This is to make Jesus say just the contrary of His thought, as is clearly shown by John 16:27.

On the words: The Father loves you because you have loved me, comp. John 14:21; John 14:23. The perfect tenses indicate a condition already gained: “Because you are become those who love me and believe....” In general Jesus does not place faith after love; but here He speaks of a special faith, of the belief in His divine origin. They were heartily attached to His person for a long time before comprehending all His greatness, as they were beginning to comprehend it now.

Jesus comes back in these words from the future, the day of Pentecost, to the work now accomplished in them, because this is the condition and basis of that future (John 14:17). And in fact the supreme moment is approaching: it is time to affix the seal to this faith now already formed.

To this end, Jesus formulates the essential contents of it in a definite proposition: “you have believed that I came forth from God. ” Tischendorf himself rejects the reading of the Sinaitic MS. and the other thirteen Mjj. which read: from the Father, instead of: from God. It is the divine origin and mission of Jesus, and not His filial relation with God, which must be emphasized at this moment as the essential object of the apostles' faith. The case is wholly different in John 16:28. The preposition παρά, from, and the verb ἐξῆλθον, I came forth, express more than the simple mission, which would be designated by ἀπό and ἐλήλυθα; these terms characterize the divine sphere, in general, from which Jesus derives His origin. They well bring out the heroism of the apostles' faith. In this being of flesh and bones, this weak, despised man, they have been able to recognize a being who came to them from the divine abode.