Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
John 15:18-16:15, Hated by the world and put out of the synagogue
Jesus warns that the world will hate his followers as it hated him, that they will be put out of the synagogues and even killed by people who think they are serving God, and that the Advocate will prove the world wrong.
John 15:18-16:15, in every translation this tool compares.
Jesus warns the disciples that the world will hate and persecute them as it did him. They will be expelled from synagogues, and some who kill them will think they are serving God. He promises the Advocate, the Spirit of truth, who will testify about him, expose the world's error and lead the disciples into the truth, and he says his going away is for their good.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/put-out-of-the-synagogue\/","n":"Put out of the synagogue","s":"A Jewish community could punish a member by shutting him out of its life for a time or for good. Since the synagogue was the center of town life, expulsion cut a person off from neighbors and worship, and often from a living.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/imperial-cult\/","n":"Caesar worshiped as savior and lord","s":"Augustus and the emperors after him were hailed as savior, lord and son of a god, and in the eastern provinces they were worshiped. The titles the Gospels give Jesus were already being used for Caesar.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/witnesses-and-advocates\/","n":"Witnesses and advocates in court","s":"Jewish law convicted no one on a single witness: it demanded two or three, examined them closely and gave little weight to the word of women. Courts also had accusers and advocates, and Jewish pictures of God's heavenly court gave those roles to Satan and to defenders of Israel.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/spirit-of-prophecy\/","n":"The Spirit of prophecy","s":"Jews of Jesus' day linked God's Spirit above all with prophecy. Many believed the prophets had fallen silent long ago, and they looked for the day God would pour out his Spirit again.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/the-satan\/","n":"The satan, the tempter","s":"The accuser, tempter and deceiver of Jewish belief, seen as the power behind human and political evil. In the Gospels he tests Jesus and is the strong man Jesus binds, and John calls him the ruler of this world.","r":""}
In the Mediterranean world friendship normally meant taking on a friend's enemies, so the world that hates Jesus hates his friends (the cultural backgrounds notes). Jesus foresaw his followers being shunned, but John's repeated stress on expulsion probably spoke to his first readers, who without recognized Jewish status could lose their exemption from the imperial cult and face charges of disloyalty (Keener and his notes); Carson, Moo and Morris note that the theory dating such expulsions after a ban on Christians agreed at Jamnia after AD 85 has been challenged at every point. Who was expected to do the killing is disputed: the CSB Study Bible thinks Jewish persecution most likely; the cultural backgrounds notes say fatal persecution came especially from Gentiles; Keener says synagogue leaders in Asia handed believers to Rome rather than killing them. Keener says the Spirit, the believers' Advocate, becomes the world's prosecutor: Rome had no state prosecutors, so a case went forward only when someone with a stake in it brought the charge, and here the Spirit brings the world's case before God's court. Wright likewise pictures the Spirit as the advocate in a lawsuit who proves the world in the wrong.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on John 15:22-24, 15:26, 15:27, 16:2-4, 16:5-7 and 16:8-11
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on John 15:18, 15:22, 15:26, 16:2, 16:7 and 16:8
- CSB Study Bible, note on John 16:2
- N. T. Wright, John for Everyone, Part Two, comment on John 16:1-11
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 5, John, Date
