These things have I spoken unto you, that you should not be offended.
All Commentaries on John 16:1 Go To John 16
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. (1.) Some think that this refers to Matt. xxvi31 , All ye shall be offended because of Me this night. And that the meaning Isaiah , I have foretold you, that ye would flee away, when ye shall see Me taken: and I did Song of Solomon , in order that your shock and trouble of mind might be less, when it came to pass; and that thus ye might regain your courage and come back to Me. (2.) S. Cyril (x34), Maldonatus, and others, refer these words to the persecutions which Christ just before said were impending on the Apostles. And He did so that they might strengthen themselves against them. For evils which come unexpectedly, greatly stagger even brave men, while those which are foreseen take less effect. (3.) Bede, Euthymius, and others refer the words to the Holy Spirit Who had just been spoken of, thus explaining them, I have spoken these things of the Holy Spirit Who will come to you, in order that ye may not be offended when ye see yourselves assailed by persecutions, but may boldly withstand them with the thought that the Holy Spirit will render you His aid. S. Augustine says (in loc.) much the same:—"Having promised the Holy Spirit, by whose operation they would become His witnesses, He rightly added, These things have I spoken unto you; for when the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given us, great peace is theirs who love the Law of God ( Psalm 119:165), so that they are not offended." (4.) Toletus, Ribera, and others, by the last two explanations, give the best meaning:—"I have said all these things about persecution and the hatred of the world, and also of the coming of the Holy Spirit to strengthen you, that ye may not stumble in the way of eternal life in which ye are walking, and fall away from Me, as though I did not foresee, or were unwilling to warn you, or as if your sufferings were intolerable, and had befallen you unexpectedly. He removes therefore from the Apostles a stumbling-block, and ground of offence, both by forewarning them of the danger, and by promising the aid of the Holy Spirit to withstand it." The Syriac and the Arabic connect this verse with what follows by the word "for," meaning thereby that persecutions would be a ground of offence.
