John 8:19

8:19 Throughout the festival, Jesus’ audience proved they were in the darkness as they misunderstood him. They wanted to meet Jesus’ father, who is God. Since they did not truly know God, they were unable to understand Jesus.

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

Joh 8:19. [221] ΠΟῦ, where) They ask, where, in order that they may know whence Jesus has come, having been sent by the Father.—οὔτε ἐμέ, neither Me) Jesus does not at once answer directly to the Jews’ interrogatory, where is Thy Father? but follows up the line of discourse He began, and at the same time, however, prepares the way for making a reply. For He shows the perversity of their interrogation, and teaches them, that they must first know the Son, whom they see and hear in the flesh, if they wish to know the Father. For when the Son is known, the Father is known: comp. Joh 8:16, “I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent Me;” Joh 8:18, “I am one that bear witness, and the Father that sent Me beareth witness of Me,” wherein the Son is named before the Father. Add Mat 11:27, “Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him;” and below, ch. Joh 14:9, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father: and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not, that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?” He shows plainly where the Father is, at Joh 8:23, “I am from above.” And also in this passage, when asked as to the Father, He answers as to Himself; presently after, in turn, when asked Himself, He answers as to the Father; Joh 8:25; Joh 8:27, “They said, Who art Thou? Jesus saith—Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning;—they understood not that He spake to them of the Father;” because Himself and the Father are one.—καί, also) Comp. ch. 14. [Joh 8:7] “If ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also; and from henceforth ye both know Him and have seen Him.”—ᾔδειτε ἄν, ye should have known) So that there should be no need for you to inquire, where He is. This passage contains a most clear testimony concerning the unity of the Father and of the Son: wherefore at Joh 8:20 [27?] it is described as something wonderful, that they did not understand Jesus.

[221] Ver. 18, καί, and) Here the two that bear witness are mentioned expressly: there is to be added the testimony of a third, the Holy Spirit.—V. g.

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

Joh_8:19. The question of the Pharisees, who only pretend not to understand what Jesus means by the words ὁ πέμψας με πατήρ, between which and Joh_8:27 there is no inconsistency, is frivolous mockery. Where is, then, this second witness, thy Father? He has no actual existence! He ought, surely, to be here on the spot, if, as thou hast said, He were a witness with thee on thy behalf! To regard their question as the expression of a veritable material apprehension on their part, that He referred to a physical father (Augustine, Bede, and several; also De Wette, Olshausen, Brückner, and, doubtfully, Lücke), some also having found in it a blasphemous allusion to bastardy (Cyril, Ammon), is irreconcilable with the circumstance that Jesus had already so frequently and unmistakeably pointed to God as His Father; the questioners themselves also betray their dissimulation by the word ποῦ; they do not ask τίς. Totally different is the relation of the question put by Philip in Joh_14:8.

The reply of Jesus unveils to them with clear composure whence it arose that they put so wicked a question. To take the words οὔτε ἐμὲ as far as μου as a question is less appropriate (Ewald), as it is scarcely likely that Jesus was taken by surprise. Εἰ ἐμὲ ᾔδειτε, etc., rest on the fact that the Father reveals Himself in Him. Comp. Joh_14:9, Joh_16:3.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

No man can know God, but in Christ only.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 19. Ye neither know me, c.] Ye know neither the Messiah, nor the God that sent him.

If ye had known me] If ye had received my teaching, ye would have got such an acquaintance with the nature and attributes of God as ye never could have had, and never can have any other way. That is a true saying, No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son, who lay an the bosom of the Father. he hath DECLARED him. The nature and perfections of God never can be properly known, but in the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is worthy of remark that, in all this discourse, our blessed Lord ever speaks of the Father and himself as two distinct persons. Therefore, the Father is not the Son, nor the Son the Father, as some persons vainly imagine though it is plain enough that the completest unity and equality subsists between them.

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

19. Where is thy father? There can be no doubt whatever, that it was in mockery that they inquired about his Father For not only do they, with their wonted pride, treat contemptuously what he had said about the Father, but they likewise ridicule him for talking loftily about his Father, as if he had drawn his birth from heaven. By these words, therefore, they mean that they do not value so highly Christ’s Father, as to ascribe any thing to the Son on his account. And the reason why there are so many in the present day who, with daring presumption, despise Christ, is, that few consider that God has sent him.

You neither know me nor my Father. He does not deign to give them a direct reply, but in a few words reproaches them with the ignorance in which they flattered themselves. They inquired about the Father; and yet when they had the Son before their eyes, seeing, they did not see, (Matthew 13:13.) It was therefore a just punishment of their pride and wicked ingratitude, that they who despised the Son of God, who had been familiarly offered to them, never approached to the Father For how shall any mortal man ascend to the height of God, unless he be raised on high by the hand of his Son? God in Christ condescended to the mean condition of men, so as to stretch out his hand; and do not those who reject God, when he thus approaches to them, deserve to be excluded from heaven?

Let us know that the same thing is spoken to us all; for whoever aspires to know God, and does not begin with Christ, must wander — as it were — in a labyrinth; for it is not without good reason that Christ is called the image of the Father, as has been already said. Again, as all who, leaving Christ, attempt to rise to heaven, after the manner of the giants, are destitute of all right knowledge of God, so every man who shall direct his mind and all his senses to Christ, will be led straight to the Father. For on good grounds does God declare that,

by the mirror of the Gospel, we clearly behold God in the person of Christ, (2 Corinthians 3:18.)

And certainly it is an astonishing reward of the obedience of faith, that whosoever humbles himself before the Lord Jesus, penetrates above all the heavens, even to those mysteries which the angels behold and adore.

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.

(19) Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father?—The words seem to be asked in scorn. “You speak of two witnesses. We accept you as one. Where is the other? He should be present before us if his evidence is to be accepted.” They must have known well from the earlier discourse that He claimed God as His Father, and the recurring phrase, “the Father that sent Me,” must have now made this clear. We are not to read in these words, then, any reference to a father in the flesh, though this interpretation is that of many ancient and modern expositors. The question, moreover, is not, “Who is Thy Father?” but “Where is Thy Father?” The question is asked in another spirit in Joh_14:8.

It may be that to their scorn is added the desire to draw from Him express words on which to base an accusation. They perhaps expect an answer such as “My Father who is in heaven.” (Comp. the direct question in Joh_10:24, and the adjuration of the high priest, Mat_27:64.) But the time has not yet come. His answer contains no words which they could lay hold of as a technical ground for blasphemy.

Ye neither know me, nor my Father.—He traces their ignorance of the Father to its true cause, i.e., to their neglect of the only means by which God could be known. This thought has met us already in Joh_1:18 (see Note there), and will meet us again in Joh_14:9; Joh_16:3. Here the Pharisees think they know Him, and ask “Where is Thy Father?” The answer is. that if they really knew the witness of one, they would know the witness of both.

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

19. Then said they] They said therefore.

Where is thy Father?] They do not ask ‘who’ but ‘where;’ they know well enough by this time the meaning of Christ’s frequent reference to ‘Him that sent me:’ Joh_5:23-24; Joh_5:30; Joh_5:37-38, Joh_6:38-40; Joh_6:44, Joh_7:16; Joh_7:18; Joh_7:28; Joh_7:33. They ask, therefore, in mockery, what Philip (Joh_14:8) asks with earnest longing, ‘Shew us the Father: we see one of Thy two witnesses; shew us the other.’

if ye had known me, &c.] Better, If ye knew Me, ye would know, &c. (There is a similar error Joh_5:46). It is in the Son that the Father reveals Himself. Comp. Joh_14:9, Joh_16:3; and for the construction comp. Joh_8:42.

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 said Jesus again unto them,.... It may be, immediately after he had said the above words; or rather some time after, it may be on the same day:

I go my way; meaning, the way of all flesh, or that he should die: the way of speaking shows, that his death was certain, a determined thing; which must be, and yet was voluntary: he was not driven, nor forced, but went freely; this being the path, the way, through which he must enter into his kingdom and glory:

and ye shall seek me; that is, shall seek the Messiah, as their deliverer and Saviour, when in distress; and whom he calls himself, because he was the true Messiah, and the only Saviour and Redeemer of his people, in a spiritual sense; otherwise they would not, nor did they seek Jesus of Nazareth:

and shall die in your sins; or "in your sin"; so it is in the Greek text, and in the Vulgate Latin, and Persic versions: meaning, in their sin of unbelief, and rejection of him the true Messiah: the sense is, that in the midst of their calamities, which should come upon them, for their sin against him, they should in vain seek for the Messiah, as a temporal deliverer of them; for their nation, city, and temple, and they therein should utterly perish, for their iniquity; and their ruin would not only be temporal, but eternal: since it follows,

whither I, go ye cannot come, signifying, that whereas he was going to his Father, to heaven and glory; to enjoy eternal happiness at his Father's right hand, in the human nature; they should never come there, but whilst many sat down in the kingdom of heaven, with their fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who should come from afar, they would be shut out, and not suffered to enter in.

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

19 Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also.

Ver. 19. If ye had known me, &c.] For milk is not so like milk as Christ is like his Father.

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.

Where is thy Father? - This question was asked, doubtless, in derision. Jesus had often given them to understand that by his Father he meant God, Joh 5:6; They professed to be ignorant of this, and probably looked round in contempt for his Father, that he might adduce him as a witness in the case.

If ye had known me ... - If you had listened to my instructions, and had received me as the Messiah, you would also, at the same time, have been acquainted with God. We may here observe,

The manner in which Jesus answered them. He gave no heed to their cavil; he was not irritated by their contempt; he preserved his dignity, and gave them an answer worthy of the Son of God. We should meet the cavils and sneers of sinners in the same manner. We should not render railing for railing, but “in meekness instruct those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth,” 2Ti 2:25. The way to know God is to know Jesus Christ. “No man hath seen God at any time. The only-begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him,” Joh 1:18. No sinner can have just views of God but in Jesus Christ, 2Co 4:6.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Where is thy Father? They knew well enough by other discourses, that he had called and declared God to be his Father; but they had a mind to make him own it again, that they might accuse him as guilty of blasphemy. --- Neither me do you know, nor my Father: you will not own me to have been always his Son, nor him to have been always my Father, but did you know me to be his Son, always proceeding from him, you would know my Father also, and know him as my Father from all eternity. (Witham) --- As in common conversation we often say, "when you have seen one, you have seen the other;" when two persons or things seem perfectly alike as to outward appearances, so here Christ says, If you did know me, you would know my Father also: not that the Father is the Son, or the Son the Father, but because the Father is like the Son. (St. Augustine) --- Here might the Arians, and all who maintain that Christ is a mere creature, blush; for if he were a creature, how can any one who knows him likewise know God? Therefore is Christ consubstantial with the Father, for he who know the Son, knows the Father also. (Theophylactus)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Thou talkest much of thy Father, where is he? We know no father which thou hast but the carpenter, Joseph; we do not look upon him as so credible a witness in the case, as to take his testimony in such a matter as this is. Christ tells them, that the reason why they did not know the Father, was because they did not know and acknowledge, receive and believe him; for if they had received and believed him, they would not then have been at such a loss to have known where his Father was, or who he was. The eternal Father is not to be known but in, and by, and through the Son.

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

19. Where is thy Father?—If thy Father is thy witness, let him be produced. To this demand Jesus asserts his own identity with the Father.

He is Deity manifest, as the Father is Deity essential. In seeing him they see God in humanity. So uncompromising were the claims that the Son of God asserted!

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They said to him, in angry, wilful irony, Where is thy Father? that he may bear to thee the witness which thou art appropriating. "Thou hast freed thyself from the charge of bearing unsupported testimony to thyself, by assuming the coordinate testimony of thy Father? Let thy Father manifest himself!" There is no need to explain this of the absence or insignificance of the earthly father of Jesus, or to suppose that they looked for some human attestation of such a kind (Augustine, Lange). They rather scoffed at his claim of unique relation to the Father, and asked with mockery," Where is he?" not Who or what is he?" What proof has he given of any special relation to thee? Jesus answered this taunt with sublime patience and pity, with distress at the resolute and judicial blindness they were fastening upon themselves: Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye knew me, ye would know my Father also. Another stupendous utterance, implying the most intimate relation between his own personality and the Father"s. Any fair or adequate knowledge of himself must reveal to them that he is in the Father and the Father in him; must bring forth to their consciences the overshadowing presence, the Divine glory. "You are wrapping yourself in impenetrable mists; you are refusing the light of life, and all the evidence given to you that I am the Light of the world. You do not see less recondite truths, nor perceive ideas far more elementary still; you cannot, in your spiritual blindness, apprehend the outline of my human character. If you had done this, you would have known my Father at least enough to prevent the utterance of so crude and disheartening a query. You know me not: why should I talk to you? All this ministry of mine has left me, so far as you Pharisees are concerned, perfectly unknown." There is awful severity and unutterable pathos in these closing words of the discourse.

Vers. 19, 20. The scornful rejoinder of the Pharisees.

"Where is thy Father?

I THE APPEAL TO AN UNSEEN AND ABSENT WITNESS DOES NOT SATISFY THE ENEMIES OF JESUS. They ask not, "Who is thy Father?" but "Where is thy Father?" that he may be produced before us as a witness to thy claims.

II OUR LORD"S ANSWER. "Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye would have known my Father also.

1. Their ignorance of Christs Divine nature was patent all along.

2. Their ignorance of the Father was necessitated morally by their ignorance of the Son; for it is he who reveals the Father. "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father;" "No man can know the Father, but he to whom the Son reveals him." The eye of faith needed to supplement the eye of sense.

III THE PUBLICITY AND BOLDNESS OF OUR LORD"S TEACHING. "These words spake Jesus, as he taught near the treasury in the temple.

1. Therefore in the very centre of Jewish life, under the very eyes of the Sanhedrin.

2. The Jews, though ready to destroy him, were restrained by conscience and by public opinion from laying their hands upon him.

3. The hour of our Lord was not yet come.

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

Then said they to him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered - Showing the perverseness of their question; and teaching that they ought first to know the Son, if they would know the Father. Where the Father is - he shows, ver. 23. Meantime he plainly intimates that the Father and he were distinct persons, as they were two witnesses; and yet one in essence, as the knowledge of him includes the knowledge of the Father.

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

19. Where is thy Father? Asked in scorn, because he said “the Father beareth witness of me.” If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father. The knowledge of Christ leads to a knowledge of the Father. See John 14:8.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

General Information:

In verse 20 there is a break in Jesus' speaking where the author give us background information regarding where Jesus had been teaching. Some languages may require the information about the setting to be placed at the beginning of this part of the story in John 8:12. (See: Background Information)

You know neither me nor my Father; if you had known me, you would have known my Father also

Jesus indicates that to know him is to also know the Father. Both Father and Son are God. "Father" is an important title for God. (See: Translating Son and Father)

my Father

This is an important title for God. (See: Translating Son and Father)

his hour had not yet come

The word "hour" is a metonym for the time for Jesus to die. AT: "it was not yet the right time for Jesus to die" (See: Metonymy)

translationWords

temple

know

hour, hours

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

19. ποῦ ἐστίν. They do not ask ‘who’ but ‘where;’ they know well enough by this time the meaning of Christ’s frequent reference to ‘Him that sent Me:’ Joh 5:23-24; Joh 5:30; Joh 5:37-38, Joh 6:38-40; Joh 6:44, Joh 7:16; Joh 7:18; Joh 7:28; Joh 7:33. They ask, therefore, in mockery, what Philip (Joh 14:8) asks with earnest longing, ‘Shew us the Father: we see one of Thy two witnesses; shew us the other. Any liar can appeal to God.’

οὔτε ἐμὲ οἴδ. Ye know neither Me … If ye knew Me, ye would know, as in Joh 8:42: here and in Joh 8:46 the A.V. translates imperfects as aorists. It is in the Son that the Father reveals Himself: Joh 14:9, Joh 16:3. By learning to know the Son the disciples came to know the Father: the Jews could not know the Father because they refused to know the Son.

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.

19.] Augustine (in Joan. Tract. xxxvii. 2, vol. iii. pt. ii.) and others imagine that the Jews thought of a human father, in thus speaking. But surely before this, as Stier remarks (iv. 370, edn. 2), the Jews must have become accustomed to ὁ πατήρ μου too well to mistake its meaning. It is rather a question asked in mere scorn, by persons who know, but will not recognize, the meaning of a word uttered by another.

εἰ ἐμὲ ᾔδειτε] See ch. 14:9 ff. and note.

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

19. ποῦ ἐστιν ὁ πατήρ σου; This is the rejoinder of the Jewish objectors. They understand that by ὁ πατήρ (v. 16) Jesus means God the Father, and they do not ask “Who is He?” But they say “Where is He?” This second Witness, of whom Jesus had spoken, is not visible, and therefore (according to the Rabbinical doctrine of evidence) no appeal can be made to Him.

The answer of Jesus is, in effect, that their ignorance is invincible. God cannot, of course, be perceived by the senses. He is appealing to the witness of One whom no man can see.

οὔτε ἐμὲ οἴδατε οὔτε τὸν πατέρα μου. There is no inconsistency with 7:28 κἀμὲ οἴδατε, for there Jesus speaks only of the Jews’ knowledge of Him as man, and of the family at Nazareth; here He speaks of their ignorance of His true Personality, which is Divine (cf. v. 14). Being ignorant of this, and therefore of His relation to the Father, they betray ignorance also of the Father Himself. Cf. οὐκ ἐγνώκατε αὐτόν (v. 55), and οὐκ ἔγνωσαν τὸν πατέρα οὐδὲ ἐμέ (16:3). See Mat 11:27, Luk 10:22.

εἰ ἐμὲ ᾔδειτε, καὶ τὸν πατέρα μου ἄν ᾔδειτε. This principle is repeated 14:7, εἰ ἐγνώκειτέ με, καὶ τὸν πατέρα μου ἄν ᾔδειτε (cf. 12:45 and 14:9), and it is deep rooted in the Fourth Gospel. Jesus came to reveal the Father, not only by His words but by His life.

Note that εἰ ἐμὲ ᾔδειτε of this verse is replaced by εἰ ἐγνώκειτέ με at 14:7, showing what precarious ground we are on when an attempt is made to distinguish οἶδα from γιγνώσκω (see on 1:26).

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

Where. The testimony of an unseen and unheard witness would not satisfy them.

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

Ver. 19. “They said to him therefore, Where is thy father? Jesus answered, You know neither me nor my Father; if you knew me, you would know my Father also.”

Therefore: “In consequence of this declaration.” These discourses of Jesus are of so lofty import, that they sometimes produce upon us the effect of monologues, in which Jesus lays hold anew upon Himself and displays the treasures which He discovers in the centre of His being. The disciples themselves could only get glimpses of their meaning. John gathers them together as enigmas which the future would have to solve. But is not the same thing true at this hour, in the midst of the Christian Church, with reference to many of the words of the apostles? How many baptized persons comprehend what St. Paul said of the inner witness of the Spirit (Rom 8:16)? Thus the question of the hearers of Jesus has nothing inadmissible in it, asReuss asserts. Jesus spoke of a second witness; but a witness must be seen and heard. Otherwise, what purpose does he serve? And how can we fail to suppose, in that case, that he who invokes such testimony is a dreamer or an impostor? Luthardt: “It is as if they wished to intimate that every liar can also appeal to God.” The meaning of the question seems to me to be this: “If it is of God that thou art speaking, let Him make Himself heard; if it is of some one else, let him show himself.” The answer of Jesus means that it is impossible for Him to satisfy their demand. The living presence of God in a human being is a fact which cannot be perceived by the senses; but if they possessed the spiritual organ necessary for understanding this Jesus who manifests Himself to them, they would soon discern in Him the God who is in intimate communion with Him; and they would not ask: “Where is He?” Comp. Joh 14:10.

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.