Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. Those who want to cut me off, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. I have to restore what I didn’t take away.
⛓ Read Psalm 69 forward — the whole chapter and its afterlife →Where this passage surfaces again, sorted by the strength of the link. Each kind of reuse — formal quotation, deliberate allusion, faint echo, figural pattern — carries its own mark. Follow any reference to read it in place.
Quotation1
A formal citation — high verbal volume, often introduced by a saying-formula.
'More than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause.' The other source of 15:25's formula; Ps 69 is heavily used of Jesus' passion elsewhere, raising its likelihood here. Exact verbal match to 'hated me without a cause.'
High confidenceAllusion1
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
'The world hated them' (v14) draws on 'those who hate me without cause are more than the hairs of my head,' a psalm John cites for groundless hatred (cf. 15:25 'they hated me without a cause'). Recurrence in the Johannine farewell makes the hatred-without-cause echo coherent here.
Medium confidence