I have told you all this so you won’t stumble and fall away. 2 They will throw you out of the synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering service to God.[1][2] 3 And they will do these things because they have not known the Father or me. 4 But I have told you this so that when their time comes, you will remember that I told you about it.
I didn’t say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. 5 But now I am going to the one who sent me, and none of you asks me, “Where are you going?” 6 Instead, because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 But I am telling you the truth: it is better for you that I go away. For if I don’t go away, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.[3]
8 And when he comes, he will expose the world’s wrong about sin, about what is right, and about judgment: 9 about sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 about what is right, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; 11 and about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.[4]
12 I still have many things to say to you, but you can’t bear them right now. 13 But when he comes — the Spirit of truth — he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will announce to you what is coming. 14 He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and announce it to you. 15 Everything the Father has is mine. That is why I said he takes from what is mine and will announce it to you.
16 A little while, and you will see me no longer. And again a little while, and you will see me.
17 So some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this he’s telling us: ‘A little while and you won’t see me, and again a little while and you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” 18 So they kept saying, “What is this ‘little while’ he’s talking about? We don’t know what he means.”
19 Jesus knew they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Are you wondering among yourselves about this — that I said, ‘A little while and you won’t see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? 20 Amen, amen, I tell you, you will cry and mourn, but the world will rejoice. You will be full of sorrow, but your sorrow will turn into joy. 21 When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her time has come. But when she has delivered the child, she no longer remembers the trouble, because of the joy that a human being has been born into the world. 22 So you also have sorrow now. But I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.
23 On that day you will ask me nothing. Amen, amen, I tell you, whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. 24 Until now you have asked for nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.
25 I have spoken these things to you in figures of speech. A time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures, but I will tell you plainly about the Father.[5][6] 26 On that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf. 27 For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. 28 I came from the Father and have come into the world. Now I am leaving the world again and going to the Father.”
29 His disciples said, “Look, now you are speaking plainly and not using any figure of speech. 30 Now we know that you know everything and have no need for anyone to question you. This is why we believe that you came from God.”
31 Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? 32 Look, a time is coming — and has now come — when you will be scattered, each to his own, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. 33 I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have trouble. But take courage — I have overcome the world.”
Notes
Note 1. The word behind this, ἀποσυναγώγους, describes being formally banned from the synagogue. In a first-century Jewish town that was not just a religious loss but a social and economic one — the synagogue was the community’s center, and expulsion cut a person off from their standing, their support network, and often their livelihood. ↩
Note 2. The Greek (λατρείαν προσφέρειν) uses the language of worship and sacrifice for the act of killing. This reflects a strand of thought in which zealous violence for God’s honor could be seen as righteous — modeled on the priest Phinehas, praised in Numbers 25 for killing to defend God’s name, a story later invoked by militant “zealots.” ↩
Note 3. The Greek word is παράκλητος (paraclete), literally “one called alongside.” Its primary sense is legal — an advocate or defender who stands with you in court — though it also carries the ideas of helper, supporter, and comforter. English versions split between these shades because no single word holds them all. ↩
Note 4. This title (ὁ ἄρχων τοῦ κόσμου τούτου) is John’s phrase for Satan, used again in chapters 12 and 14. The word ἄρχων simply means “ruler” or “official” — the same term applied elsewhere to human authorities. ↩
Note 5. The Greek word is παροιμία — a proverb, riddle, or veiled saying that hints at truth rather than stating it flat. John never uses παραβολή, the word for “parable” that dominates the other three Gospels; this is his term for Jesus’ indirect way of speaking. ↩
Note 6. The word here is παρρησία, which in the Greek world meant frank, fearless speech — the freedom of a citizen to say things openly and without hiding. ↩