John 7:29

7:29 I come from him: Jesus sidestepped the speculation (7:27, 40-44) about his earthly origins and focused on his heavenly origins. His astounding claim provoked the religious leaders to try to arrest him for blasphemy (7:30; cp. 10:30-33).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Joh 7:29. Παρʼ αὐτοῦ εἰμί, I am from Him) This denotes eternal generation; from which follows as a consequence His mission [His being sent]. There are two points marked: the first is to be referred to [Ye know] both me, the second to the whence [I am]. I am, in this verse and in the preceding, is to be referred to the is, which occurs twice in Joh 7:27, “We know this man, whence He is, but when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence He is.”

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 29. But I know him: for I am from him] Instead of ειμ, I am, some editions, the Syriac Hieros. read ειμι, I came, according to the Attics. Nonnus confirms this reading by paraphrasing the word by εληλυθα, I came. As the difference between the two words lies only in the accents, and as these are not found in ancient MSS., it is uncertain which way the word was understood by them: nor is the matter of much moment; both words amount nearly to the same meaning and ειμι, I came, seems too refined.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

29. But I know him. When he says that he knoweth God, he means that it is not without good grounds that he has risen to so great confidence; and by his example he warns us not to assume lightly the name of God, so as to vaunt of Him as the patron and defender of our cause. For many are too presumptuous in boasting of the authority of God; and, indeed, it is impossible to imagine greater readiness and boldness in rejecting the opinions of all men, than is to be found among fanatics who give out their own inventions as the oracles of God. But we are taught by these words of our Lord Jesus Christ that we ought especially to beware of proud and foolish confidence; and that, when we have fully ascertained the truth of God, we ought boldly to resist men. And he who is fully aware that God is on his side has no reason to dread the charge of being insolent, in trampling under foot all the haughtiness of the world.

Because I am from him, and he hath sent me. Some distinguish these two clauses in this manner. They refer the former clause — I am from him — to the Divine essence of Christ; and the latter clause — he hath sent me — to the office enjoined on him by the Father, for the sake of executing which he took upon him the flesh and human nature. Though I do not venture to reject this view, still I do not know if Christ intended to speak so abstrusely. I readily acknowledge that Christ’s heavenly descent may be inferred from it, but it would not be a sufficiently strong proof of his eternal Divinity against the Arians.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(29) But I know him.—In contrast with their ignorance is His own full knowledge, which belonged to One only. (See Note on Joh_1:18.) The pronoun “I” here, as “ye” immediately before, is emphatic.

For I am from him, and he hath sent me.—This knowledge is here based upon His oneness of essence, and upon His true mission. He knows God because He is from Him, and in union ever one with Him. He knows God because He is in His human nature the representative of the Divine to mankind.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

29. I know him] ‘I’ in emphatic contrast to the preceding ‘ye,’ which is also emphatic. ‘I know Him, for I came forth from Him, and it is He, and no other, that sent Me.’ ‘Sent’ is aorist, not perfect. Comp. the very remarkable passage Mat_11:27.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Then they sought to take him,.... By force, and carry him before the sanhedrim, in order to be tried and condemned as a blasphemer, being enraged to hear him claim a descent from God, whom they took to be a mere man, the son of Joseph the carpenter:

but no man laid hands on him; though they had a good will to it, they had no power to do it, being restrained by the, secret providence of God from it, and awed by the majesty of Christ, which showed itself in his looks and words; and perhaps also they might be afraid of the people, lest they should rise in his favour; and so every man being fearful of being the first that should seize him, no man did: however, so it was ordered by divine providence, that he should not be apprehended at, this time,

because his hour was not yet come; to suffer and die, to depart out of this world, and go to the Father: there was a precise time fixed for this in the council and covenant of God, by mutual compact, called "due time"; as his coming into the world is called "the fulness of time"; nor could he die before that time, and therefore no man was suffered to lay hands on him, whatever good will he had to it. And there is a time for every man's death, nor can any man die before that time, or live beyond it; see Ecc 3:2; and this is the sense of the ancient Jews; for they say (h),

"a man before his years, or his time, does not die;''

that is, before he comes to the years appointed for him: and they ask (i),

"who is there that goes before his time? i.e. dies before his time?''

And it is said (k) of a certain person who was in his house, and , "his time was come"; and he died without sickness: though it must be owned some of them were otherwise minded, and say (l), that death, by the hand of heaven, or God, shortens a man's years; and that there are some reasons for which righteous men depart out of this world before their time is come; and particularly of Enoch they say, God took him before his time was come (m).

(h) T. Bab. Yebamot, fol. 114. 2. & Sanhedrin, fol. 29. 1. & Bava Metzia, fol. 85. 1. (i) T. Bab. Chagiga, fol. 4. 2. (k) Zohar in Exod. fol. 71. 4. (l) Piske Tosephot. Sabbat, art. 113. (m) Zohar in Exod. fol. 4. 4.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

29 But I know him: for I am from him, and he hath sent me.

Ver. 29. But I know him] And am known of him. I will not therefore be baffled or beaten out of my confident boasting by any your frontless affronts or basest buffooneries.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I know him, so as no man else knoweth him, Mat 11:27; I know his essence, his will, his counsels, his laws;

for I am from him by an eternal generation, his only begotten Son; and I am sent by him, as the Mediator and Saviour of the world, to declare and to execute his will and pleasure, as to man’s salvation.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(But) I know him; because I am from him my inmost nature, the centre of my ego, proceeds, is derived, from him. I have come forth from him. There is that about me and my origin which has brought me into such intimate relations with the Father that I know him as ye do not know him (cf. Joh_8:55) and he (whom I thus know, and to whom I refer, ekeinov) sent me. This sending is a further condition of the knowledge which you fail to appreciate, but which would make all things plain to you. If this knowledge should break as the daystar on their darkness, would they not at once see that, up to that point at least, in their experience they did not know, or had not known, whence he was, in the grandest sense. The charge of ignorance and the claim of supernatural knowledge, Divine origin, Divine commission, was too much for these Jerusalemites. They thought it blasphemy.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

l am from him - By eternal generation: and he hath sent me - His mission follows from his generation. These two points answer those: Do ye know me? Do ye know whence I am?

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

29. ἐγώ. Emphatic, in contrast to the preceding emphatic ὑμεῖς.

ὅτι παρ’ αὐ. εἰμι. Because I am from Him, and He, and no other, sent Me. Jesus knows God (1) because of His Divine generation, (2) because of His Divine mission. Comp. the very remarkable passage, Mat 11:27.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

29.] ἔκραξεν,—in the same open undisguised manner referred to in παῤῥησέᾳ λαλεῖ above; but διδάσκων, in the course of His teaching.

κἀμὲ οἴδατε.…] It has been questioned whether these words are to be taken ironically, interrogatively, or affirmatively. I incline to the last view, for this reason:—obviously no very high degree of knowledge whence He was is implied, for they knew not Him that sent Him (see also ch. 8:14, 19), and therefore could not know whence He was, in this sense. The answer is made in their own sense:—they knew that He was from Nazareth in Galilee, see ver. 41,—and probably that He was called the son of Joseph. In this sense they knew whence He was; but further than this they knew not.

καὶ ἀπʼ ἐμ … and moreover—and besides this—not = but.

The sense of ἀληθινός must be gathered from the context. I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is ἀληθινός—ye know Him not; I know Him,—for I came from Him, and He sent Me. The matter here impressed on them is the genuineness, the reality of the fact:—that Jesus was sent, and there was one who sent Him, though they knew Him not, and consequently knew not πόθεν ἐστίν. The nearest English word would be real: but this would not convey the meaning perspicuously to the ordinary mind;—perhaps the E. V. true is better, provided it be explained to mean objectively, not subjectively, true: really existent, not ‘truthful,’ which it may be questioned whether the word ἀληθινός will bear, although it is so maintained by Euthym., Cyril, Chrys., Theophylact, Lampe, Baumgarten-Crusius, Tholuck, and many others. See on this, ch. 8:16 and note. With the δέ of the . omitted the sense becomes more emphatic. It was probably inserted on account of the apparent want of connexion, as has been the case very frequently throughout the Gospel. We have here an instance of a usage of ἐκεῖνος which is very common in St. John, as emphasizing the main subject, not (as more commonly) diverting the attention to one more removed. In ignorance of this usage, Hilgenfeld, “Die Evangelia nach ihrer Entstehung, u. s. w.,” has argued from ch. 19:35, that the writer of this Gospel cannot himself have been an eye-witness of the crucifixion, because he there distinguishes that witness by ἐκεῖνος from himself. In consequence of this assertion, an article appeared in the Stud. u. Kritik. for 1859, pt. 3, by G. E. Steiss, in which the use of ἐκεῖνος by St. John is gone into, and Hilgenfeld’s mistake (which Köstlin had committed before him) was exposed. Referring to that article for the full treatment of the subject, I merely cite from among many other instances of the usage, ch. 1:18, 33; 5:11; 6:57; 10:1; 12:48; 14:12, 21, 26; 17:24.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

29. After ἐγώ, אDN add δέ; but om. BLTWΓΔΘ.

ἐγὼ οἴδα αὐτόν. This is repeated verbally 8:55, and again at 17:25 in the form ἐγὼ δέ σε ἔγνων. These three words contain the unique claim of Jesus, which is pressed all through the chapters of controversy with the Jews. But it is not more explicit, although it is more frequently expressed, in Jn. than in Mat 11:27, Luk 10:22.

ὅτι παρʼ αὐτοῦ εἰμι, “because I am from Him.” See on 6:46 for similar phrases in Jn., which imply a community of being between the Father and the Son (cf. 1:14 and 16:27, 28).

κἀκεῖνός με ἀπέστειλεν. This sentence is not dependent upon ὅτι. “I know Him, because I am from Him,” is the first point. “And He sent me” is the second (see on 3:17), ἐκεῖνος emphasising the main subject of the sentence, as so often in Jn. (see on 1:8).

For ἀπέστειλεν (BLTNW), אD have ἀπέσταλκεν.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

From him [παρ αυτου] . See on 6 46.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 29. To the ignorance of God with which He charges the Jews, Jesus opposes the intimate consciousness which He Himself has of God and of His true relation to Him. This relation is, first of all, a relation of essence (εἰμί, I am, I proceed from Him). In fact, this first clause cannot refer to the mission of Jesus which is expressly mentioned in the following one. Jesus affirms that He knows God, first by virtue of a community of essence which unites Him to Him. The second clause does not depend on the word because. It is an affirmation, which serves also to justify His claim to know God. The one sent has intimate communion with Him who sends Him, and consequently must know Him. Hence it follows that Jesus is the Messiah, and that in a sense much more exalted than that which the Jews attributed to this office.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.