And none of you asketh me: Whither goest thou? Or: “And does none of you ask Me: Whither goest thou”? Our Lord probably remained silent for a few moments after announcing His departure, in order to see if anyone would question Him further about it. Since no one [pg 280] did, He mildly reminds them in the words before us, that they are not sufficiently solicitous to learn the things that concerned Him; but, as He goes on to say in verse 6, are too much occupied with their own sorrows. No doubt, Peter had already asked Him: “Lord, whither goest Thou?” (John [xiii. 36]); and Thomas had said: “Lord, we know not whither Thou goest; and how can we know the way?” (John [xiv. 5]), but they had not persevered in asking; and at present, when He is just about to depart, they put Him no questions about the glory that was before Him, or the nature of the kingdom that awaited Him.
| 6. Sed quia haec locutus sum vobis: tristitia implevit cor vestrum. | 6. But because I have spoken these things to you sorrow hath filled your heart. |
6. These things we again take, as in verses 1 and 5, to refer to the persecutions which He had predicted, and to the coming of the Holy Ghost after His departure. That there is not question merely of persecutions predicted, is proved by the next verse, in which He goes on, in immediate connection with this (But I tell you the truth, it is expedient to you that I go) to reconcile them to His departure. For the same reason, there is not question merely of the coming of the Holy Ghost, since that was no cause for sorrow, but of His coming in Christ's place. The prediction of persecution, and of the coming of the Holy Ghost as implying the departure of Christ, was what filled their hearts with sorrow.
| 7. Sed ego veritatem dico vobis: expedit vobis ut ego vadam: si enim non abiero, Paraclitus non veniet ad vos: si autem abiero, mittam eum ad vos. | 7. But I tell you the truth: it is expedient to you that I go: for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you: but if I go, I will send him to you. |
7. But. The meaning is: notwithstanding your silence (verse 5), or: notwithstanding your sorrow (verse 6), I tell you the truth: it is expedient to you that I go. This expediency arose from the free disposition of the Divine economy that the Son of God should remove from among men His visible [pg 281] presence before the Holy Ghost should come. Nothing in the nature of things necessarily required this; but God freely decreed it so.
| 8. Et cum venerit ille, arguet mundum de peccato, et de iustitia, et de iudicio. | 8. And when he is come he will convince the world of sin, and of justice, and of judgment. |
| 9. De peccato quidem, quia non crediderunt in me: | 9. Of sin: because they believed not in me. |
| 10. De iustitia vero, quia ad Patrem vado, et iam non videbitis me: | 10. And of justice: because I go to the Father; and you shall see me no longer. |
| 11. De iudicio autem, quia princeps huius mundi iam iudicatus est. | 11. And of judgment: because the prince of this world is already judged. |
8-11. We may take these four verses together, as the three last explain the first. Christ goes on to show why it is expedient for the Apostles that He should leave them, and that the Holy Ghost should come. And when he is come, he will convince, &c. The Greek word for “will convince” is ἐλένξει, which may mean either—(a) to rebuke, or (b) to prove a thing clearly so that it must be admitted. It is not absolutely necessary that the word be used in the same sense throughout these verses; but since there is nothing to indicate that it is used in different senses, we take it in the same sense throughout. This sense we believe to be the second just indicated, for this alone suits verses 10 and 11.
The meaning of the whole passage, then, we take to be the following:—And when the Holy Ghost is come, He will clearly prove to the unbelieving world, principally through your preaching and miracles, its own sin, My justice, and its own condemnation. Its own sin of incredulity, which is proved by the fact that the children of this wicked world did not believe in Me (verse 9); My justice, which is proved by the fact that I go to God to reign with Him for ever, so that men shall see Me no more; its own condemnation, which is shown to be certain by the fact that its prince, the devil, is already condemned. Christ's victory over the devil at His death implied the condemnation of the devil's kingdom, the world. And as Christ's death was so near, the devil might be said to be already condemned.
If it be objected to our interpretation that, since there is question in verses 9 and 11 of the world's sin and condemnation, so there must be question of the world's justice in verse 10, we reply that Christ makes it sufficiently clear that He is speaking in verse 10 of His own justice by the words He adds: “Because I go to the Father, and you shall see Me no longer.”
If it be objected that the Holy Ghost did not prove to the world its own sin, nor Christ's justice, nor its own condemnation, we reply that He did, though the world in many of its children closed its eyes to the proof; Oculos habent et non videbunt. (Ps. cxiii. 5.) The world saw in the sanctity of the Christian religion, in the miracles wrought by Christ's followers, in the power of the Apostles and their successors over devils and those possessed by devils, what ought to have convinced it of Christ's Divinity, and of its own sin and inevitable condemnation.