John 16:2

The synagogues. See on ch. 9:22.

Doetli God service. The Jews who persecuted the apostles reasoned that these evangelists were blasphemers who sought to overthrow the religion that God had established (see Acts 6:13, 14; Acts 21:28-31). A reflection of the Jews’ zeal for their religion and the jealousy with which they sought to protect its worship is found in one of the precepts of the Mishnah: “If one steals the Kiswah, or curses by enchantment, or cohabits with a heathen [lit., Syrian] woman, he is punished by zealots. If a priest performs the Temple service whilst unclean, his brother priests do not charge him therein at Beth Din, but the young priests take him out of the Temple Court and split his skull with clubs. [Of] a layman who performed the service in the Temple, R. Akiba said: He is strangled; the Sages say: [His death is] at the hands of Heaven” (Sanhedrin 9.6, Soncino ed. of the Talmud, p. 542). The pages of history record repeated persecutions carried out in the name of religion.