What is John chapter 16 about?

Answer 1

A:John chapter 16 has Jesus prophesy to the disciples of things to come. It has him talk of his imminent death and of the Christians being put out of the synagogues, although this would have been something of an anachronism to the disciples at the time he spoke, in 30-33 CE.

The disciples would of course have been concerned about Christians being put out of the Temple, but would have had little interest in synagogues until after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. Also, the Jews only banned Christians from the synagogues in the late eighties and early nineties, when the disciples would have long since been dead. The explanation for this puzzling prophecy is that the author of John's Gospel was writing early in the second century, after the Christians really had been put out of the synagogues, which would have been more important and of more immediate interest to this author than the Temple.

John 16:2: "They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service."