John 16:31-33

“ Jesus answered them: Now you believe. 32. Behold, the hour is coming, and is now come, when you shall be scattered every one to his own home, and when you shall leave me alone; but I am not alone, because the Father is with me. 33. I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace; in the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good courage, I have overcome the world. ”

Here is for Jesus a moment of unutterable sweetness; He is recognized and understood He Jesus by these eleven Galileans. This is for Him enough; His work is for the moment ended; the Holy Spirit will finish it by glorifying Him in them, and through them in mankind. There remains nothing further for Him but to close the conversation and give thanks. John alone understood the greatness of this moment, and has preserved for us the remembrance of it. The words: Now you believe, must not therefore be understood in an interrogative, and in some sort ironical sense, as if Jesus would call in question the reality of their faith. I do not think even that ἄρτι, now, forms a contrast with the very near want of fidelity to which Jesus is about to allude, as if He would say: “True, you believe now; but in a short time, how will you be acting!” Could Jesus, in ch. 17, give thanks to His Father with such outpouring of heart for a faith which He had just characterized in such a way? Comp. especially John 17:8: “ They have known truly (ἀληθῶς) that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me,” words in which Jesus certainly alludes to our John 16:30. The word now, therefore, seems to me rather to mean here: “Now at last you have reached the point to which I have been laboring to lead you: you have recognized me for what I am, and have received me as such.”

The connection in John 16:32 is not a but; it is a simple no doubt; in John 16:33 will be found the final but answering to this no doubt. This scarcely formed faith is about to be subjected, it is true, to a severe test; the bond will be broken, at least externally. But the spiritual bond will remain firm and will triumph over this trial and all others.

The νῦν, now, which we have rendered by already, is omitted by the Alexandrian authorities; it may have been rejected because it seemed that the moment indicated was not yet present.

The first aorist passive σκορπισθῆτε, you shall be scattered, is more suited to extenuate than to aggravate the fault of the disciples; it is, as it were, a violent blow which will strike and stun them. These words recall the quotation from Zechariah in the Synoptics: “ I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered ” (Matthew 27:31). It is in the following words: “ you will leave me alone,” that the idea of culpable desertion is expressed, but in the tone of sadness rather than of reproach. ῞Εκαστος εἰς ἴδια, each one to his own; each to his respective abode. Weiss finds in this expression the idea of the breaking off of the communion between them, as a sign of the shaking of their faith in the Messiah. It indicates rather the seeking of a secure shelter, far from the danger which touches their Master. Καί, evidently in the adversative sense: and yet.