John 15:18-20

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. John 15:18 tn Grk “know.”
2. John 15:18 tn Grk “it hated me before you.”
3. John 15:19 tn Grk “if you were of the world.”
4. John 15:19 tn The words “you as” are not in the original but are supplied for clarity.
5. John 15:19 tn Grk “because you are not of the world.”
6. John 15:19 tn Or “world, therefore.”
7. John 15:19 sn I chose you out of the world…the world hates you. Two themes are brought together here. In 8:23 Jesus had distinguished himself from the world in addressing his Jewish opponents: “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world.” In 15:16 Jesus told the disciples “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you.” Now Jesus has united these two ideas as he informs the disciples that he has chosen them out of the world. While the disciples will still be “in” the world after Jesus has departed, they will not belong to it, and Jesus prays later in John 17:15-16 to the Father, “I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” The same theme also occurs in 1 John 4:5-6: “They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us.” Thus the basic reason why the world hates the disciples (as it hated Jesus before them) is because they are not of the world. They are born from above, and are not of the world. For this reason the world hates them.
8. John 15:20 tn Grk “Remember the word that I said to you.”
9. John 15:20 tn See the note on the word “slaves” in 4:51.
10. John 15:20 sn A slave is not greater than his master. Jesus now recalled a statement he had made to the disciples before, in John 13:16. As the master has been treated, so will the slaves be treated also. If the world had persecuted Jesus, then it would also persecute the disciples. If the world had kept Jesus’ word, it would likewise keep the word of the disciples. In this statement there is the implication that the disciples would carry on the ministry of Jesus after his departure; they would in their preaching and teaching continue to spread the message which Jesus himself had taught while he was with them. And they would meet with the same response, by and large, that he encountered.
11. John 15:20 tn Or “if they kept.”
12. John 15:20 tn Or “they will keep.”