Bible Strands
John 16:2
They will put you out of the synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jesus addresses his disciples during the Farewell Discourse, immediately after warning them not to fall away (16:1) and before explaining the motive as ignorance of the Father and himself (16:3).
The words — ἀποσυναγώγους (aposynagōgous) is a compound of ἀπό ("away from") and συναγωγή ("assembly"), literally "out of the assemblies," marking formal expulsion from the Jewish communal space. ὥρα (hōra, "an hour") in Johannine usage typically denotes a decisive, divinely appointed moment rather than a vague future time.
The thread — The mechanism is the same in John 9:22, where the Jews had already determined expulsion for anyone confessing Jesus, and in Acts 26:9, where Paul himself once acted against the name of Jesus with full conviction. Romans 10:2 names the underlying condition: zeal for God not grounded in knowledge.
Why it lands — The verse removes the comfort that persecution signals the victim's error or the persecutor's obvious malice; the killer believes he is serving God. A reader must be prepared to meet opposition from people whose sincerity is not in question, and to resist the impulse to explain it away as mere hatred.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.
Cross-references
- John 9:22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews. For the Jews had already determined that anyone who confessed Jesus as the Christ would be put out of the synagogue.
- Acts 26:9 So then, I too was convinced that I ought to do all I could to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
- Romans 10:2 For I testify about them that they are zealous for God, but not on the basis of knowledge.
- Matthew 10:28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Instead, fear the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
- Acts 22:3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but raised in this city. I was educated at the feet of Gamaliel in strict conformity to the law of our fathers. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today.
- John 12:42 Nevertheless, many of the leaders believed in Him. But because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue.
- Revelation 6:9 And when the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony they had upheld.
- Isaiah 66:5 You who tremble at His word, hear the word of the LORD: “Your brothers who hate you and exclude you because of My name have said, ‘Let the LORD be glorified that we may see your joy!’ But they will be put to shame.”
- Luke 6:22 Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man.
- Acts 22:19 ‘Lord,’ I answered, ‘they know very well that in one synagogue after another I imprisoned and beat those who believed in You.