John 16:2

They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time comes, that whosoever kills you will think that he does God service.
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Cornelius a Lapide

AD 1637
They shall put you out of the synagogue.—The assembly of the Jews was called a synagogue, as was also the place of the assembly. For God had ordained that there should be only one Temple in Judea, where sacrifices were to be offered. And this could not contain all the Jews, nor could they all attend it weekly. Accordingly the Jews had one or more Synagogues in every city (in Jerusalem at the time of its destruction there were480) which the people frequented weekly, only to pray, and to hear the Law expounded by the scribes. They seem to have been set up in the time of the judges. To be put out of the synagogue was accordingly the same as being excommunicated (see ch. ix.) But Christ here promised His Church to the Apostles, when the Jews excommunicated them. But the time cometh, that whoso killeth you will think that he doeth God service. Maldonatus takes "but" to mean "because" from the Hebrew word ki being so translated by the LXX. Service, the service that Isaiah , which is due to ...

Cyprian of Carthage

AD 258
But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them.". But these things have I told you, that when the hour shall come ye may remember them, because I told you.". Also in the same place: "The hour shall come, that every one that killeth you shall think he doeth service to God l but they shall do this also because they have not known the Father nor me."

Cyril of Alexandria

AD 444
He extends His forewarning of danger to that which is the most dreadful of all terrors, but not with the intention of arousing in His disciples an unmanly panic. For this would not harmonise with His anxiety to stimulate them to a fearless proclamation of the heavenly message. His object rather was that, thrusting aside the extremity of fear, as already anticipated and for this reason having lost its edge, they might gain a complete victory over every evil, and consider even the possible approach of intolerable evils as of no account whatsoever. For what loss could the lesser evil inflict on those who do not even dread the greater? And how could those who know how to be superior to the worst objects of fear be dismayed by any of the rest? In order then that they might have their minds bent on enduring everything with a cheerful courage, and to convince them of the necessity of so far withstanding the malice of the Jews as not even to fear an immediate and cruel death, He not only tells...

John Chrysostom

AD 407
(For the Jews had already agreed, that if any one should confess Christ, he should be put out of the synagogues John 9:22) Yea, the time comes, that whosoever kills you will think that he does God service. They shall so seek after your murder, as of an action pious and pleasing to God. Then again He adds the consolation,

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation - 2 Peter 1:20

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