John 7:28

7:28 Then Jesus, while teaching in the temple courts, ¹  cried out, ²  “You both know me and know where I come from! ³  And I have not come on my own initiative, ⁴  but the one who sent me ⁵  is true. You do not know him, ⁶ 

John 5:31

More Testimony About Jesus

5:31 “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true.

John 8:18

8:18 I testify about myself ⁷  and the Father who sent me testifies about me.”

John 7:17

7:17 If anyone wants to do God’s will, ⁸  he will know about my teaching, whether it is from God or whether I speak from my own authority. ⁹ 

John 12:49

12:49 For I have not spoken from my own authority, ¹⁰  but the Father himself who sent me has commanded me ¹¹  what I should say and what I should speak.

John 5:30

5:30 I can do nothing on my own initiative. ¹²  Just as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, ¹³  because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the one who sent me. ¹⁴ 

John 8:28

8:28 Then Jesus said, ¹⁵  “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, ¹⁶  and I do nothing on my own initiative, ¹⁷  but I speak just what the Father taught me. ¹⁸ 

John 8:42

8:42 Jesus replied, ¹⁹  “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come from God and am now here. ²⁰  I ²¹  have not come on my own initiative, ²²  but he ²³  sent me.

John 10:18

10:18 No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down ²⁴  of my own free will. ²⁵  I have the authority ²⁶  to lay it down, and I have the authority ²⁷  to take it back again. This commandment ²⁸  I received from my Father.”

John 8:14

8:14 Jesus answered, ²⁹  “Even if I testify about myself, my testimony is true, because I know where I came from and where I am going. But you people ³⁰  do not know where I came from or where I am going. ³¹ 

John 14:10

14:10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? ³²  The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own initiative, ³³  but the Father residing in me performs ³⁴  his miraculous deeds. ³⁵ 

[7:28]  ¹ tn Grk “the temple.”

[7:28]  ² tn Grk “Then Jesus cried out in the temple, teaching and saying.”

[7:28]  ³ sn You both know me and know where I come from! Jesus’ response while teaching in the temple is difficult – it appears to concede too much understanding to his opponents. It is best to take the words as irony: “So you know me and know where I am from, do you?” On the physical, literal level, they did know where he was from: Nazareth of Galilee (at least they thought they knew). But on another deeper (spiritual) level, they did not: He came from heaven, from the Father. Jesus insisted that he has not come on his own initiative (cf. 5:37), but at the bidding of the Father who sent him.

[7:28]  ⁴ tn Grk “And I have not come from myself.”

[7:28]  ⁵ tn The phrase “the one who sent me” refers to God.

[7:28]  ⁶ tn Grk “the one who sent me is true, whom you do not know.”

[8:18]  ⁷ tn Grk “I am the one who testifies about myself.”

[7:17]  ¹³ tn Grk “his will.”

[7:17]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “or whether I speak from myself.”

[12:49]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “I have not spoken from myself.”

[12:49]  ²⁰ tn Grk “has given me commandment.”

[5:30]  ²⁵ tn Grk “nothing from myself.”

[5:30]  ²⁶ tn Or “righteous,” or “proper.”

[5:30]  ²⁷ tn That is, “the will of the Father who sent me.”

[8:28]  ³¹ tn Grk “Then Jesus said to them” (the words “to them” are not found in all mss).

[8:28]  ³² tn Grk “that I am.” See the note on this phrase in v. 24.

[8:28]  ³³ tn Grk “I do nothing from myself.”

[8:28]  ³⁴ tn Grk “but just as the Father taught me, these things I speak.”

[8:42]  ³⁷ tn Grk “Jesus said to them.”

[8:42]  ³⁸ tn Or “I came from God and have arrived.”

[8:42]  ³⁹ tn Grk “For I.” Here γάρ (gar) has not been translated.

[8:42]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “from myself.”

[8:42]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “that one” (referring to God).

[10:18]  ⁴³ tn Or “give it up.”

[10:18]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “of my own accord.” “Of my own free will” is given by BDAG 321 s.v. ἐμαυτοῦ c.

[10:18]  ⁴⁵ tn Or “I have the right.”

[10:18]  ⁴⁶ tn Or “I have the right.”

[10:18]  ⁴⁷ tn Or “order.”

[8:14]  ⁴⁹ tn Grk “Jesus answered and said to them.”

[8:14]  ⁵⁰ tn The word “people” is supplied in the translation to indicate that the pronoun (“you”) and verb (“do not know”) in Greek are plural.

[8:14]  ⁵¹ sn You people do not know where I came from or where I am going. The ignorance of the religious authorities regarding Jesus’ origin works on two levels at once: First, they thought Jesus came from Galilee (although he really came from Bethlehem in Judea) and second, they did not know that he came from heaven (from the Father), and this is where he would return. See further John 7:52.

[14:10]  ⁵⁵ 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]  ⁵⁶ tn Grk “I do not speak from myself.”

[14:10]  ⁵⁷ tn Or “does.”

[14:10]  ⁵⁸ tn Or “his mighty acts”; Grk “his works.”