John 15:25

But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(25) But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled . . .—The words in italics are not found in the original, but they rightly complete the sense. For the phrase, “might be fulfilled,” comp. Notes on John 12:38; John 13:18.

That is written in their law.—Comp. Note on John 10:34.

They hated me without a cause.—The passage immediately referred to is probably that of the Messianic Psalm (69:4). The words are found also in Psalm 35:19 (see marg. ref.), and less distinctly in Psalm 109:3; Psalm 119:161. (Comp. especially Note on the quotation from this same Psalm in John 2:17.)

The words, “without a cause,” rightly express the meaning of the Hebrew word in the Psalm. The Greek follows the LXX., which expresses the thought “to no purpose,” or “in vain.” This is, however, not the idea of the context here. They had no reason for their sin, and therefore they hated Him without a cause. True were these words of many an earlier sufferer; but they were in their fulness true, they were “fulfilled,” only in the one sinless Sufferer.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

15:18-25 How little do many persons think, that in opposing the doctrine of Christ as our Prophet, Priest, and King, they prove themselves ignorant of the one living and true God, whom they profess to worship! The name into which Christ's disciples were baptized, is that which they will live and die by. It is a comfort to the greatest sufferers, if they suffer for Christ's name's sake. The world's ignorance is the true cause of its hatred to the disciples of Jesus. The clearer and fuller the discoveries of the grace and truth of Christ, the greater is our sin if we do not love him and believe in him.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

In their law - Psalm 35:19. All the Old Testament was sometimes called the law. The meaning here is that the same thing happened to him which did to the psalmist. The same words which David used respecting his enemies would express, also, the conduct of the Jews and their treatment of the Messiah. In both cases it was without cause. Jesus had broken no law, he had done no injury to his country or to any individual. It is still true that sinners hate him in the same way. He injures no one, but, amid all their hatred, he seeks their welfare; and, while they reject him in a manner for which they "can give no reason in the day of judgment," he still follows them with mercies and entreats them to return to him. Who has ever had any reason to hate the Lord Jesus? What injury has he ever done to any one of the human race? What evil has he ever said or thought of any one of them? What cause or reason had the Jews for putting him to death? What reason has the sinner for hating him now? What reason for neglecting him? No one can give a reason for it that will satisfy his own conscience, none that has the least show of plausibility. Yet no being on earth has ever been more hated, despised, or neglected, and in every instance it has been "without a cause." Reader, do you hate him? If so, I ask you why? Wherein has he injured you? or why should you think or speak reproachfully of the benevolent and pure Redeemer?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

25. that the word might be fulfilled … They hated me without a cause—quoted from the Messianic Ps 69:4, applied also in the same sense in Joh 2:17; Ac 1:20; Ro 11:9, 10; 15:3.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The particle that here again denotes not the final cause, but only the consequent; and the law here signifieth not strictly the law of Moses, but the whole Scripture, in which sense we have once and again met with the term. Saith our Saviour, This is no more than was prophesied of me by the prophet David; or no more than was fulfilled in me, being first done to David as my type: which also hath the force of another argument to uphold and encourage his disciples under their sufferings, that they were but the fulfilling of prophecies, no more than was foretold in holy writ.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But this cometh to pass,.... This hatred against Christ, and which is pointed at his people for his sake, and reaches to the Father also on his account, is suffered to be, and therefore should be patiently borne:

that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law: either in Psalm 35:19, or rather in Psalm 69:4; which is a psalm of Christ, as appears by citations out of it in the New Testament, or references to it; see John 2:17. The whole Scripture is sometimes called the law, as here; for not the law of Moses is meant, or the five books of Moses, but the writings of the Old Testament; which the Jews had in their hands, to them being committed the oracles of God; and sometimes are so called, when the book of Psalms is particularly referred to as now; see John 10:34; the words cited are,

they hated me without a cause; without any reason for it, Christ having given them no provocation, or just cause of offence, anger, or hatred. This sin of hating without a cause, is represented by the Jews as a very heinous one, and as the reason of the destruction of the second temple; under which they observe, that men studied in the law, and in the commandments, and in doing of good; and therefore ask why it was destroyed? the answer is, because there was under it, , "hatred without a cause": to teach us, that hatred without a cause is equal to the three (capital) transgressions, idolatry, adultery, and murder, for which they say the first temple was destroyed (w). This is a tacit acknowledgment that the sin here mentioned was a reigning one, or that it much abounded in the time of Christ.

(w) T. Bab, Yoma, fol. 9. 2. Hieros. Yoma, fol. 38. 3.

Geneva Study Bible

But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their {e} law, They hated me without a cause.

(e) Sometimes this word law refers to the five books of Moses, but in this place it refers to the whole scripture: for the place that he refers to is found in the Psalms.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

John 15:25. Yet this hatred against me stands in connection with the divine destiny,[169] according to which the word of Scripture must be fulfilled by their hatred: they have hated me groundlessly. The passage is Psalm 69:4, or Psalm 35:19, where the theocratic sufferer (David?) utters that saying which has reached its antitypical Messianic destination in the hatred of the unbelieving against Christ (comp. on John 13:18). The passage Psalm 109:3, which Hengstenberg further adduces, does not correspond so literally, as is also the case with Psalm 119:161 (Ewald).

ἀλλʼ] sc. μεμισήκασίν μΕ, as the ground-thought of what precedes.

ΔΩΡΕΆΝ] חִוָּם immerito, according to the LXX., but opposed to the Greek signification (gratis). Comp. 1 Samuel 19:5; Psalm 34:7 (where Symmachus has ἈΝΑΙΤΊΩς); Sir 20:21; Sir 29:6-7.

The irony which De Wette discovers in ἐν τῷ νόμῳ αὐτῶν: “they comply faithfully with what stands in their law,” is an erroneous assumption, since ἵνα πληρ. is the usual formula for the fulfilment of prophecies, and since ΝΌΜΟς here, as in John 10:34, stands in a wider sense, while ΑὐΤῶΝ is to be taken as Τῷ ὙΜΕΤΈΡῼ, John 8:17 (see in loc.), comp. ὑμῶν, John 10:34. Bengel well says: “in lege eorum, quam assidue terunt et jactant.”

[169] Which, as a matter of course, and according to vv. 22–24, does not do away with responsibility. Comp. Weiss, Lehrbegr. p. 151.

Expositor's Greek Testament

John 15:25. This almost incredible blindness and obduracy is accounted for, as in John 12:37, by the purpose of God disclosed in O.T. Scripture. “Their law” is here, as in John 10:34, etc., used of O.T. Scripture as a whole. αὐτῶν is inserted, as ὑμετέρῳ in John 8:17, to suggest that the very Scripture in which they had prided themselves would condemn them; see also John 5:45, John 5:39. The words ἐμίσησάν με δωρεάν do not occur in O.T.; but similar expressions are found in Psalm 34:19, οἱ μισοῦντές με δωρεάν, and Psalm 108:3, ἐπολέμησάν με δωρεάν. Entirely gratuitous was their hatred and rejection of Christ, so that they were inexcusable.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

25. in their law] ‘Law’ is used in the wide sense for the O.T. generally. Comp. John 10:34, John 12:34, John 15:25; Romans 3:19.

without a cause] The passage may be from either Psalm 69:4 or Psalm 35:19 : there are similar passages Psalm 109:3 and Psalm 119:161. ‘Without a cause,’ gratuitously; so that here again they are without excuse.

Bengel's Gnomen

John 15:25. Ἀλλʼ ἵνα, but that) But, viz. this cometh to pass.—λόγος, the word) the word of prophecy, the true word.—ἐν τῷ νόμῳ αὐτῶν, in their law) which they read over and over again, and make their boast of. The Psalms constitute a portion of the law in the wide sense of that term. Comp. Matthew 5:18; Matthew 5:17, “One tittle shall in nowise pass from the law” (including the prophets, etc., as appears from John 15:17), etc., “Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets.” We say the Bible.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 25. - Strange is it that even here the ancient psalmist, in portraying the ideal Sufferer (Psalm 69:4; Psalm 35:19), bad seized this feature, and thus anticipated the treatment of the Son of God. But this cometh to pass (some clause of this kind must be introduced to give true force to ἀλλὰ and ἵνα) that the word might be fulfilled that has been written in their Law. Not only here but elsewhere Jesus speaks of the Psalms as a part of the Law (see note, John 10:34). Other passages may, from their similarity, have been in Christ's mind, as receiving fulfillment or abundant illustration in their conduct. The use of the expression, "the Law," has been pressed by many as proof that the writer of this Gospel did not regard himself as a Jew at all. Such numerous indications occur of the opposite conclusion, that this expression must receive the more rational interpretation - the Law in which they pride themselves, the Law which is ever in their mouths, the Law which itself contains the portraiture of their spirit: They hated me gratuitously; causelessly. The true Christ was, when he came, the object of reason-less, causeless hate and opposition. Jesus knew, when he claimed to be the Christ, that he would have to complete and fulfill the solemn portraiture of the suffering, burden-bearing, and rejected Christ, as well as that of the triumphant Christ and King. John 15:25

Vincent's Word Studies

Without a cause (δωρεάν)

Gratuitously. Akin to δίδωμι, to give. Their hatred was a voluntary gift.