Pretense
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πρόφασις names an excuse, pretext, or outward show offered to justify or conceal a real motive. John 15:22 uses it for what Jesus' opponents no longer have: "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin.
Reader summary
Full entry for πρόφασις (G4392) · Open the biblical lexicon
πρόφασις names an excuse, pretext, or outward show offered to justify or conceal a real motive. John 15:22 uses it for what Jesus' opponents no longer have: "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin.
The BSB source-word alignment has 6 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include for a show (2), [any] pretext (1), by false motives (1), excuse (1), Pretending (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Mark 12:40. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Thessalonians (1), Acts (1), John (1), Luke (1).
πρόφασις names an excuse, pretext, or outward show offered to justify or conceal a real motive. John 15:22 uses it for what Jesus' opponents no longer have: "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin." The word ties guilt directly to revelation received. Jesus is not claiming his hearers were sinless before he arrived; he is claiming that his own words and presence removed a particular kind of excusable ignorance, leaving deliberate, informed rejection instead.
The same argument continues in John 15:24 regarding Jesus' works. Teachers should keep the word tied to its specific claim: exposure to Jesus' words and works changes the moral status of unbelief from excusable ignorance to willful, accountable rejection, without claiming this verse settles every question about culpability for those who have never heard the gospel at all.
John 15:22 sits inside Jesus' warning to the disciples that the world will hate them as it hated him. The verse is not primarily about the disciples' guilt; it is about the world's. Scripture consistently ties human accountability to the clarity of revelation received, from Romans 1:20's argument about creation to Jesus' own claim in John 15:22 that his words and works remove excuse from those who reject him, a pattern that magnifies both the gift of revelation and the seriousness of rejecting it.
If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin.
John 15:22 records Jesus' claim that his hearers 'have no excuse for their sin' because he has come and spoken to them.
If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have seen and hated both Me and My Father.
John 15:24 extends the same logic to Jesus' works, 'If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin,' doubling the argument with both word and deed.
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse.
Romans 1:20 uses a related argument about creation itself removing excuse for those who suppress the truth about God, showing Scripture's wider pattern of tying culpability to the clarity of revelation received.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. A false reason offered to hide one's true motive or intention behind an outward excuse.
A false reason offered to hide one's true motive or intention behind an outward excuse.
(φήμι), [in LXX: Psa.141:4 (עֲלִילָה), ??עֲלִילָה), ??Dan.6:4-5(5-6) (עִלָּה) Pro.18:1, Hos.10:4 * ;] a pretence, pretext: Mat.23:1 (WM, R, txt., om.), Mrk.12:40, Luk.20:47 Jhn.15:22, Act.27:30, Php.1:18, 1Th.2:5.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
7 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a pretext, an excuse
Read versea pretext, an excuse
Read versea pretext, an excuse
Read versea pretext, an excuse
Read versea pretext, an excuse
Read versea pretext, an excuse
Read versea pretext, an excuse
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 2 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
πρόφασις is built from these roots:
John 15:22 sits inside Jesus' warning to the disciples that the world will hate them as it hated him. The verse is not primarily about the disciples' guilt; it is about the world's. Jesus' own coming, his words and his works, changes the moral situation of those who reject him: what might have been treated as excusable ignorance becomes deliberate rejection of clear revelation.
Preachers can use this word to describe the real weight of hearing the gospel clearly, not to increase anxiety, but to honor the seriousness of the message being proclaimed and heard. This word opens a teaching doorway on the weight of revelation received: Jesus' own coming removes excuse from those who reject him, showing that hearing the gospel clearly changes the moral situation of the hearer, for better or worse.
It gives teachers language for the seriousness of proclamation without collapsing into fear-based motivation alone. It corrects readings that treat this verse as settling questions of culpability for those who have never heard the gospel; the claim is specific to those who received Jesus' own words and works. Frame πρόφασις as the specific excuse removed by direct exposure to Jesus' words and works, not as a general doctrine covering every case of unbelief regardless of what revelation a person has received.
John.15.22
Frame πρόφασις as the specific excuse removed by direct exposure to Jesus' words and works, not as a general doctrine covering every case of unbelief regardless of what revelation a person has received. Linguistically, πρόφασις should be allowed to name excuse, pretext without carrying claims the cited passages do not make.
Scripture consistently ties human accountability to the clarity of revelation received, from Romans 1:20's argument about creation to Jesus' own claim in John 15:22 that his words and works remove excuse from those who reject him, a pattern that magnifies both the gift of revelation and the seriousness of rejecting it.
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