“They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.”
They will put you out of the synagogues; and indeed, the hour is coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God — the persecution Jesus predicts is both social (exclusion from synagogue community) and violent (execution). The tragic irony is that persecutors will believe they are serving God in killing Jesus' disciples; religious zeal becomes the cover for violence. This is the world's fundamental blindness: it mistakes opposition to God's work for service to God.
Church Fathers on John 16:2
After the promise of the Holy Spirit, to inspire them with strength to give witness; He well adds, These things have I spoken to you, that you should not be offended. For when the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us (Romans 5:5), then great peace have they that love God’s law, and they are not offended at it (Psalms 118). What they were about to suffer follows next: They shall put you out of the synagogues.
For the Jews had already agreed, if any confessed that He was Christ, that he should be put out of the synagogue.
Read all 8 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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