Chapter XVI.
1-4. Christ points out the violence of the persecutions which await the Apostles, and His object in forewarning them.
5-7. He again consoles them, and tries to reconcile them to His departure, by telling them that it is necessary, in order that the Holy Ghost may come to them.
8-15. He points out that the Holy Ghost will convince the world vv. (8-11), instruct them in what they were not yet able to learn (vv. 12-13), and give glory to Christ Himself (vv. 14-15). Hence they ought to desire the Holy Ghost's coming.
16-22. He promises that after a brief absence, during which they shall have bitter sorrow, He will return to them, and their sorrow shall give place to joy.
23, 24. He bids them to pray to the Father in His name, and promises that such prayer will be heard.
25-28. Though He has spoken obscurely to them in this last discourse, the time is at hand when He will speak plainly—a time when they will ask the Father in His name.
| 1. Haec locutus sum vobis, ut non scandalizemini. | 1. These things have I spoken to you, that you may not be scandalized. |
1. His object in foretelling these things was that the Apostles might not be scandalized; i.e., might not waver in the faith amid the trials that were before them. But what are “these things” to which He refers? Some, as St. Aug., understand the reference to be to the promise of the Comforter ([xv. 26, 27]). Others, as Mald., to the persecutions that awaited the Apostles, because the prediction of those persecutions now would prepare the Apostles for them; nay, when those persecutions should come, they would be another proof of the omniscience, and, therefore, of the Divinity of Christ. Others, as A Lap., combine both the preceding opinions. This appears to us the correct view, for Christ has [pg 278] spoken towards the end of the preceding chapter, both of the persecutions that the Apostles were to endure, and of the Comforter, who was to come to them; and the prediction of both facts was calculated to sustain them when trials should come. On the one hand, they would not become disspirited by unexpected reverses; on the other, they would trust in the Comforter, who had been promised.