EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
John 16:5-6.
Now, however, this my
μεθʼ ὑμᾶν εἶναι is past!
Now I go away to Him who has sent me, and in what a mood of mind are you at the prospect of this my impending departure!
None of you asks me: whither dost Thou go away? but because I have spoken this to you, namely, that after my departure such sufferings shall befall you,
grief has filled your heart, so that you have become quite dumb from sorrow, and blunted to the higher interest which lies in my going home to Him who sent me. According to De Wette and Lücke, there is said to be a
want of exactness in the entire presentation, resting on the fact that
John 16:6 does not stand before
καὶ οὐδείς. The incorrectness of this assumption, in itself quite unnecessary, lies in this, that the first proposition of
John 16:5 is thus completed: “But now at my departure I could not keep silence concerning it,” by which the 6th verse is anticipated. According to Kuinoel and Olshausen, a full point should be placed after
πέμψ.
με, and a
pause is to be assumed, in which Jesus in vain awaited a question, so that He continued subsequently
with an interrogation: “Nullusne vestrum me amplius interrogat, quo abiturus sim?” But the assumption of pauses (others, including De Wette, make the pause after
John 16:5) is, when the correlation of the conjunctions is so definitely progressive, unwarranted.
The fact that already in
John 13:36 the question had been put by Peter
ποῦ ὑπάγεις (comp. the question of Thomas,
John 14:5), does not stand in contradiction with the present passage; but Jesus censures simply the degree of distress, which they had
now reached, in which
none among them fixed his eye on the
goal of the departing One, and could come to a question for more definite information respecting it.
ἡ λύπη] simply,
in abstracto: sadness.
John 16:5.
νῦν δὲ, “but now,” in contrast to
ἐξ ἀρχῆς,
ὑπάγω, “I go away,” in contrast to
μεθʼ ὑμῶν ἤμην,
πρὸς …
με, “to Him that sent me,” as one who has discharged the duty committed to Him.
καὶ οὐδεὶς ἐξ ὑμῶν …
ὑπάγεις, “and no one of you asks me, Where are you going?” They were so absorbed in the thought of His departure and its consequences of bereavement to themselves that they had failed to ascertain clearly where He was going.
ἀλλʼ ὅτι …
καρδίαν. The consequence of their absorption in one aspect of the crisis which He had been explaining to them was that grief had filled their heart to the exclusion of every other feeling.
CfJohn 14:28.
5.
I go my way to] Or,
I goaway unto; the notion is that of withdrawal (see on
John 16:7). Hitherto He has been with them to protect them and to be the main object of attack: soon
they will have to bear the brunt without Him. This is all that they feel at present,—how His departure affects themselves, not how it affects Him. And yet this latter point is all important even as regards themselves, for He is going in order to send the Paraclete.
none of you asketh] As far as words go S. Peter had asked this very question (
John 13:36) and S. Thomas had suggested it (
John 14:5); but altogether in a different spirit from what is meant here. They were looking only at their own loss instead of at His gain.
John 16:5. [
Νῦν δὲ,
but now) Now at the proper season, saith He, the fact is declared to you.—V. g.]—
οὐδεὶς)
None of you now proceeds to ask Me, whereas ye ought to do so especially. They had often asked questions on many subjects: and on this very subject in ch.
John 13:36. But their question had more reference in their thoughts to His departure, than to the place, whither the Lord was going. Afterwards they ceased to ask the question. Therefore the Lord here teaches them even to ask, which if they had done of their own accord, it would have very much pleased Him.
Verses 5, 6. -
Now - at this very moment -
I go away to him that sent me. I have completed his work, and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? This seems at variance with Peter's inquiry, "
Whither goest thou?" (
John 13:36), and with Thomas's question (
John 14:5), "We know not whither thou goest," etc.? yet they are only opposed in appearance. Peter's question had obviously turned the whole matter back upon himself, and the way in which the Lord's departure affected his own duties and position; and the same may be said of Thomas. They had both lost sight of the "whither" in the pain and anguish of the departure. Our Lord had great difficulty in inducing them to realize the blessedness that would befall themselves from his own exaltation, and even now, after all that he had said about this great power and glory which awaited him, he added,
Because I have spoken these things to you - since all along you are taking the dark side, and looking on the anguish of my departure and desolateness of your own condition, instead of the grandeur of the new kingdom and dispensation of which you will be witnesses and organs -
sorrow hath filled your heart; the one heart which I throughout have been seeking to comfort. You are not looking on the
end of my departure, or on the fullness of my glory, or on the addition to your own blessedness, but on your own loss, disappointment, and chagrin. John 16:5
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