John 16:25 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
John 16:25
These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father.
apparently a state alongside of supposition · noun — dative plural feminine
but
ἀλλὰalla
G235
properly · conjunction
I shall shew
ἀναγγέλλωanangéllō
G312
to announce (in detail)
you
ὑμῖνhymîn
G5213
to (with or by) you
plainly
παρρησίᾳparrēsia
G3954
all out-spokenness · noun — dative singular feminine
of
περὶperi
G4012
properly · preposition
the Father
πατρὸςpatros
G3962
a "father" (literally or figuratively · noun — genitive singular masculine, a title
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
John 16:12 I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
Matthew 13:34-35 All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them:
Mark 4:13 And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables?
John 10:6 This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them.
John 16:28-29 I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.
Psalms 49:4 I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp.
Psalms 78:2 I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:
Matthew 13:10-11 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on John 16:23-27
An answer to their askings is here promised, for their further comfort. Now there are two ways of asking: asking by way of enquiry, which is the asking of the ignorant; and asking by way of request, which is the asking of the indigent. Christ here speaks of both.
I. By way of enquiry, they should not need to ask (Joh 16:23): "In that day you shall ask me nothing;" ouk erōtēsete ouden - you shall ask no questions; "you shall have such a clear knowledge of gospel mysteries, by the opening of your understandings, that you shall not need to enquire" (as Heb 8:11, they shall not teach); "you shall have more knowledge on a sudden than hitherto you have had by diligent attendance." They had asked…
in proverbs--in obscure language, opposed to "showing plainly"--that is, by the Spirit's teaching.
Adam Clarke on John 16:25
In Proverbs - That is, words which, besides their plain, literal meaning, have another, viz. a spiritual or figurative one. I have represented heavenly things to you through the medium of earthly.
The time cometh - viz. the interval from his resurrection to his ascension, which consisted of forty days, during which he instructed his disciples in the most sublime mysteries and truths of his kingdom. Act 1:3.
John Gill on John 16:25
These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs,.... Concerning his Father, and his Father's house, and the many mansions in it, of his going to prepare a place for them there, and of the way unto it, all which they seemed not to understand; of the nature of communion with him and his Father, and of the manifestation of them to them, so as not unto the world, which they could not account for; of their union to him under the simile of the vine and its branches; and of his departure from them, and return unto them; and of the sorrow that should follow upon the one, and the joy that should attend the other, set forth in the case of a woman in travail, having sorrow, and being joyful when delive…
The Church Fathers
(xxx. Moral. viii.) When He declares that He will show them plainly of the Father, He alludes to the manifestation about to take place of His own majesty, which would both show His own equality with the Father, and the procession of the coeternal Spirit from both.
(Hom. lxxix) These words being obscure, He adds, These things have I spoken to you in proverbs, but the time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs: for forty days He talked with them as they were assembled, speaking of the kingdom of God. And now, He says, ye are in too great fear to attend to My words, but then, when you see Me risen again, you will be able to proclaim these things openly.
Whence the Lord also says in the Gospel; The hour cometh when I shall no longer speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father. For He asserts that He shews plainly of the Father, because by the appearance of His Majesty, which was then manifested, He shews both how He springs from the Father not unequal to Himself, and how the Spirit of Both proceeds coeternal with Both. For we shall then openly behold, how That Which Is by an origin, is not subsequent to Him from Whom It springs; how He Who is produced by procession, is not preceded by Those from Whom He proceeded. We shall then behold openly how both The One is divisibly Three, and the Three indivisibly One.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
John 16:25-28
25. These things I have spoken to you in proverbs; but the time cometh when I shall no longer speak to you in parables, but will tell you plainly about the Father. 26. In that day you shall ask in my name and I do not say that I will pray the Father for you; 27. For the Father himself loveth you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. 28. I came out from the Father, and am come into the world again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.
25. These things I have spoken to you in proverbs. The intention of Christ is to give courage to his disciples, that, entertaining good hopes of making better progress, they may not think that the instruction…
Jesus spoke using figures of speech, which could only be interpreted with God’s help (1 Cor 1:18-25). With the coming of the Spirit, the disciples would understand.
