Yohanes 16:20-22

16:20 I tell you the solemn truth, ¹  you will weep ²  and wail, ³  but the world will rejoice; you will be sad, ⁴  but your sadness will turn into ⁵  joy. 16:21 When a woman gives birth, she has distress ⁶  because her time ⁷  has come, but when her child is born, she no longer remembers the suffering because of her joy that a human being ⁸  has been born into the world. ⁹  16:22 So also you have sorrow ¹⁰  now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. ¹¹ 

Yohanes 14:1

Jesus’ Parting Words to His Disciples

14:1 “Do not let your hearts be distressed. ¹²  You believe in God; ¹³  believe also in me.

Yohanes 14:27-28

14:27 “Peace I leave with you; ¹⁴  my peace I give to you; I do not give it ¹⁵  to you as the world does. ¹⁶  Do not let your hearts be distressed or lacking in courage. ¹⁷  14:28 You heard me say to you, ¹⁸  ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad ¹⁹  that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I am. ²⁰ 

Yohanes 20:11-15

20:11 But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. As she wept, she bent down and looked into the tomb. 20:12 And she saw two angels in white sitting where Jesus’ body had been lying, one at the head and one at the feet. 20:13 They said ²¹  to her, “Woman, ²²  why are you weeping?” Mary replied, ²³  “They have taken my Lord away, and I do not know where they have put him!” 20:14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, ²⁴  but she did not know that it was Jesus.

20:15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?” Because she ²⁵  thought he was the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will take him.”

[16:20]  ¹ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[16:20]  ² tn Or “wail,” “cry.”

[16:20]  ³ tn Or “lament.”

[16:20]  ⁴ tn Or “sorrowful.”

[16:20]  ⁵ tn Grk “will become.”

[16:21]  ⁶ sn The same word translated distress here has been translated sadness in the previous verse (a wordplay that is not exactly reproducible in English).

[16:21]  ⁷ tn Grk “her hour.”

[16:21]  ⁸ tn Grk “that a man” (but in a generic sense, referring to a human being).

[16:21]  ⁹ sn Jesus now compares the situation of the disciples to a woman in childbirth. Just as the woman in the delivery of her child experiences real pain and anguish (has distress), so the disciples will also undergo real anguish at the crucifixion of Jesus. But once the child has been born, the mother’s anguish is turned into joy, and she forgets the past suffering. The same will be true of the disciples, who after Jesus’ resurrection and reappearance to them will forget the anguish they suffered at his death on account of their joy.

[16:22]  ¹⁰ tn Or “distress.”

[16:22]  ¹¹ sn An allusion to Isa 66:14 LXX, which reads: “Then you will see, and your heart will be glad, and your bones will flourish like the new grass; and the hand of the Lord will be made known to his servants, but he will be indignant toward his enemies.” The change from “you will see [me]” to I will see you places more emphasis on Jesus as the one who reinitiates the relationship with the disciples after his resurrection, but v. 16 (you will see me) is more like Isa 66:14. Further support for seeing this allusion as intentional is found in Isa 66:7, which uses the same imagery of the woman giving birth found in John 16:21. In the context of Isa 66 the passages refer to the institution of the messianic kingdom, and in fact the last clause of 66:14 along with the following verses (15-17) have yet to be fulfilled. This is part of the tension of present and future eschatological fulfillment that runs throughout the NT, by virtue of the fact that there are two advents. Some prophecies are fulfilled or partially fulfilled at the first advent, while other prophecies or parts of prophecies await fulfillment at the second.

[14:1]  ¹² sn The same verb is used to describe Jesus’ own state in John 11:33, 12:27, and 13:21. Jesus is looking ahead to the events of the evening and the next day, his arrest, trials, crucifixion, and death, which will cause his disciples extreme emotional distress.

[14:1]  ¹³ tn Or “Believe in God.” The translation of the two uses of πιστεύετε (pisteuete) is difficult. Both may be either indicative or imperative, and as L. Morris points out (John [NICNT], 637), this results in a bewildering variety of possibilities. To complicate matters further, the first may be understood as a question: “Do you believe in God? Believe also in me.” Morris argues against the KJV translation which renders the first πιστεύετε as indicative and the second as imperative on the grounds that for the writer of the Fourth Gospel, faith in Jesus is inseparable from faith in God. But this is precisely the point that Jesus is addressing in context. He is about to undergo rejection by his own people as their Messiah. The disciples’ faith in him as Messiah and Lord would be cast into extreme doubt by these events, which the author makes clear were not at this time foreseen by the disciples. After the resurrection it is this identification between Jesus and the Father which needs to be reaffirmed (cf. John 20:24-29). Thus it seems best to take the first πιστεύετε as indicative and the second as imperative, producing the translation “You believe in God; believe also in me.”

[14:27]  ¹⁴ sn Peace I leave with you. In spite of appearances, this verse does not introduce a new subject (peace). Jesus will use the phrase as a greeting to his disciples after his resurrection (20:19, 21, 26). It is here a reflection of the Hebrew shalom as a farewell. But Jesus says he leaves peace with his disciples. This should probably be understood ultimately in terms of the indwelling of the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, who has been the topic of the preceding verses. It is his presence, after Jesus has left the disciples and finally returned to the Father, which will remain with them and comfort them.

[14:27]  ¹⁵ tn The pronoun “it” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied. Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when clear from the context.

[14:27]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “not as the world gives do I give to you.”

[14:27]  ¹⁷ tn Or “distressed or fearful and cowardly.”

[14:28]  ¹⁸ tn Or “You have heard that I said to you.”

[14:28]  ¹⁹ tn Or “you would rejoice.”

[14:28]  ²⁰ sn Jesus’ statement the Father is greater than I am has caused much christological and trinitarian debate. Although the Arians appealed to this text to justify their subordinationist Christology, it seems evident that by the fact Jesus compares himself to the Father, his divine nature is taken for granted. There have been two orthodox interpretations: (1) The Son is eternally generated while the Father is not: Origen, Tertullian, Athanasius, Hilary, etc. (2) As man the incarnate Son was less than the Father: Cyril of Alexandria, Ambrose, Augustine. In the context of the Fourth Gospel the second explanation seems more plausible. But why should the disciples have rejoiced? Because Jesus was on the way to the Father who would glorify him (cf. 17:4-5); his departure now signifies that the work the Father has given him is completed (cf. 19:30). Now Jesus will be glorified with that glory that he had with the Father before the world was (cf. 17:5). This should be a cause of rejoicing to the disciples because when Jesus is glorified he will glorify his disciples as well (17:22).

[20:13]  ²¹ tn The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here.

[20:13]  ²² sn Woman was a polite form of address (see BDAG 208-9 s.v. γυνή 1), similar to “Madam” or “Ma’am” used in English in different regions. This occurs again in v. 15.

[20:13]  ²³ tn Grk “She said to them.”

[20:14]  ²⁴ tn The word “there” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[20:15]  ²⁵ tn Grk “that one” (referring to Mary Magdalene).