John 12:50

12:50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. ¹  Thus the things I say, I say just as the Father has told me.” ² 

John 7:17

7:17 If anyone wants to do God’s will, ³  he will know about my teaching, whether it is from God or whether I speak from my own authority. ⁴ 

John 8:25

8:25 So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus replied, ⁵  “What I have told you from the beginning.

John 8:38

8:38 I am telling you the things I have seen while with the ⁶  Father; ⁷  as for you, ⁸  practice the things you have heard from the ⁹  Father!”

John 17:13

17:13 But now I am coming to you, and I am saying these things in the world, so they may experience ¹⁰  my joy completed ¹¹  in themselves.

John 8:26

8:26 I have many things to say and to judge ¹²  about you, but the Father ¹³  who sent me is truthful, ¹⁴  and the things I have heard from him I speak to the world.” ¹⁵ 

John 8:28

8:28 Then Jesus said, ¹⁶  “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, ¹⁷  and I do nothing on my own initiative, ¹⁸  but I speak just what the Father taught me. ¹⁹ 

John 14:10

14:10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? ²⁰  The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own initiative, ²¹  but the Father residing in me performs ²²  his miraculous deeds. ²³ 

[12:50]  ¹ tn Or “his commandment results in eternal life.”

[12:50]  ² tn Grk “The things I speak, just as the Father has spoken to me, thus I speak.”

[7:17]  ³ tn Grk “his will.”

[7:17]  ⁴ tn Grk “or whether I speak from myself.”

[8:25]  ⁵ tn Grk “Jesus said to them.”

[8:38]  ⁷ tc The first person pronoun μου (mou, “my”) may be implied, especially if ὑμῶν (Jumwn, “your”) follows the second mention of “father” in this verse (as it does in the majority of mss); no doubt this implication gave rise to the reading μου found in most witnesses (א D Θ Ψ 0250 Ë^1,13 33 Ï it sy). No pronoun here is read by Ì^66,75 B C L 070 pc. This problem cannot be isolated from the second in the verse, however. See that discussion below.

[8:38]  ⁸ tn Grk “The things which I have seen with the Father I speak about.”

[8:38]  ⁹ tn Grk “and you.”

[8:38]  ¹⁰ tc A few significant witnesses lack ὑμῶν (Jumwn, “your”) here (Ì^66,75 B L W 070 pc), while the majority have the pronoun (א C D Θ Ψ 0250 Ë^1,13 33 565 892 Ï al lat sy). However, these mss do not agree on the placement of the pronoun: τοῦ πατρὸς ὑμῶν ποιεῖτε (tou patro" Jumwn poieite), τῷ πατρὶ ὑμῶν (tw patri Jumwn), and τῷ πατρὶ ὑμῶν ταῦτα (tw patri Jumwn tauta) all occur. If the pronoun is read, then the devil is in view and the text should be translated as “you are practicing the things you have heard from your father.” If it is not read, then the same Father mentioned in the first part of the verse is in view. In this case, ποιεῖτε should be taken as an imperative: “you [must] practice the things you have heard from the Father.” The omission is decidedly the harder reading, both because the contrast between God and the devil is now delayed until v. 41, and because ποιεῖτε could be read as an indicative, especially since the two clauses are joined by καί (kai, “and”). Thus, the pronoun looks to be a motivated reading. In light of the better external and internal evidence the omission is preferred.

[17:13]  ⁹ tn Grk “they may have.”

[17:13]  ¹⁰ tn Or “fulfilled.”

[8:26]  ¹¹ tn Or “I have many things to pronounce in judgment about you.” The two Greek infinitives could be understood as a hendiadys, resulting in one phrase.

[8:26]  ¹² tn Grk “the one”; the referent (the Father) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:26]  ¹³ tn Grk “true” (in the sense of one who always tells the truth).

[8:26]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “and what things I have heard from him, these things I speak to the world.”

[8:28]  ¹³ tn Grk “Then Jesus said to them” (the words “to them” are not found in all mss).

[8:28]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “that I am.” See the note on this phrase in v. 24.

[8:28]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “I do nothing from myself.”

[8:28]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “but just as the Father taught me, these things I speak.”

[14:10]  ¹⁵ tn The mutual interrelationship of the Father and the Son (ἐγὼ ἐν τῷ πατρὶ καὶ ὁ πατὴρ ἐν ἐμοί ἐστιν, egw en tw patri kai Jo pathr en emoi estin) is something that Jesus expected even his opponents to recognize (cf. John 10:38). The question Jesus asks of Philip (οὐ πιστεύεις, ou pisteuei") expects the answer “yes.” Note that the following statement is addressed to all the disciples, however, because the plural pronoun (ὑμῖν, Jumin) is used. Jesus says that his teaching (the words he spoke to them all) did not originate from himself, but the Father, who permanently remains (μένων, menwn) in relationship with Jesus, performs his works. One would have expected “speaks his words” here rather than “performs his works”; many of the church fathers (e.g., Augustine and Chrysostom) identified the two by saying that Jesus’ words were works. But there is an implicit contrast in the next verse between words and works, and v. 12 seems to demand that the works are real works, not just words. It is probably best to see the two terms as related but not identical; there is a progression in the idea here. Both Jesus’ words (recall the Samaritans’ response in John 4:42) and Jesus’ works are revelatory of who he is, but as the next verse indicates, works have greater confirmatory power than words.

[14:10]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “I do not speak from myself.”

[14:10]  ¹⁷ tn Or “does.”

[14:10]  ¹⁸ tn Or “his mighty acts”; Grk “his works.”