John 8:55

Joh_8:55

Ye have not known Him; but I know Him

I.

THE JEWS IGNORANCES.

1. They knew Him not in His majesty, His infinity, His mercifulness, since they conceived of Him only after a low and material idea.

2. They knew Him as the Maker of the world, but not as the Almighty Father of mankind; they saw in Him only their own God, and refused to think of Him as the God of the whole human race.

3. They knew Him not as He is, one in essence though three in person; as the Eternal Father, by whom the Eternal Son was begotten, and from both of whom proceeds the one Sanctifying and Eternal Spirit. Hence their blindness to the meaning of the words of Christ and their rejection of Him as the Messiah.

4. They knew Him not through the way of obedience to His laws, without which there can be no real knowledge of the Father. Thus, although their faith came from God, and was based upon His revelation of Himself, their works were from Satan, and in this way they proved that they knew not God who is One in His faith and in His works. Thus were they liars, not because they said He had a devil, which is not the meaning here, but because they declared that they knew God whilst every one of their actions declared that they had no true real knowledge of Him.

II. CHRISTS KNOWLEDGE.

1. As being Himself God, of the same substance and nature with the Father, dwelling from all eternity in the bosom of the Father, and so always beholding Him as He is in His essential Godhead.

2. As the man Christ Jesus He knew Him, since He had the knowledge of Divine things by impartation from the Father.

3. As man, again, He knew Him through His perfect obedience to the whole will of the Father, and His doing all things which were well pleasing in the sight of the Eternal Father. We also, if we would receive and retain

God in our thoughts, and come to the knowledge of Him, must receive and keep His saying. (W. Denton, M. A.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 8:55. Οἶδα) He had lately said, οὐκ ἐγνώκάτε· now He says, not ἐγιωκα but οἶδα· ἔγνωκα implies in some degree a beginning to know [I come to know]: but the Son’s knowledge of the Father is eternal: He knows the Father and the glory [honour] which the Father hath assigned to Him.—ψεύστης, a liar) He is a liar, who either affirms what he ought to deny, or denies what he ought to affirm.—οἶδα αὐτόν, καὶ τὸν λόγον αὐτοῦ τηρῶ, I know Him, and keep His saying) First He saith, I know; then afterwards, I keep: for He is the Son. But believers, under His direction, keep the word, and so acquire knowledge; ch. Joh 7:17, notes, “If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine,” etc.

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

There is no right knowledge of God, without Christ, neither any right knowledge of Christ without his word.

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

I shall be a liar like unto you--now rising to the summit of holy, naked severity, thereby to draw this long dialogue to a head.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(55) Yet ye have not known him; but I know him.—The frequency of lip-assertion was not accompanied by any true heart-knowledge. The Father who glorified Him was the God whom they professed to serve. Their question, “Whom makest Thou Thyself? “has its explanation in the fact that this service was independent of any real knowledge of God. The two verbs “know” and “known” here do not represent the same Greek word. More exactly the rendering should be, And ye have not come to know Him: but I know Him. The one clause expresses acquired recognition; the other expresses immediate essential knowledge. (Comp. Note on Joh_14:7.)

If I should say, I know him not.—The thought of their want of perception of God has led to the assertion by contrast of His own full intuitive knowledge of God. To assert this knowledge is to make Himself greater than Abraham and the prophets; but there is untruth in silence as well as in utterance, and His very truthfulness demands the assertion.

But I know him, and keep his saying.—Or better, His word, as in Joh_8:51-52. Again the positive statement is made in the certainty of His full knowledge, and this is followed by a statement of the observance of the same condition of communion with the Father which He had made necessary for communion of the disciples with Himself.

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

55. Yet ye have not known him; but I know him] Once more we have two different Greek words for ‘know’ in close proximity, and the difference is obliterated in our version (comp. Joh_7:15; Joh_7:17; Joh_7:26-27, Joh_13:7, Joh_14:7, and see on Joh_7:26). Here the meaning is, And ye have not recognised Him; but I know Him, the latter clause referring to His immediate essential knowledge of the Father.

a liar like unto you] Or, Like unto you, a liar. Referring back to Joh_8:44.

keep his saying] Or, keep His word, as in Joh_8:51-52. Christ’s whole life was a continual practice of obedience: Heb_5:8; Rom_5:19; Php_2:8.

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.

Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you,.... Whether it will be believed or not, it is certainly fact:

before Abraham was, I am; which is to be understood, not of his being in the purpose and decree of God, foreordained to sufferings, and to glory; for so all the elect of God may be said to be before Abraham, being chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world: or that Christ was man, before Abraham became the father of many nations; that is, before the calling of the Gentiles; for nothing is said in the text about his being the father of many nations; it is a bold and impudent addition to it: and besides, Abraham was made the father of many nations, as Ishmaelites, Israelites, Hagarenes, &c. long before the incarnation of Christ; yea, he was so from the very promise in Gen 17:5, which so runs, "a father of many nations have I made thee"; so that this appears a false sense of the text, which is to be understood of the deity, eternity, and immutability of Christ, and refers to the passage in Exo 3:14. "I am that I am--I am hath sent me unto you", the true Jehovah; and so Christ was before Abraham was in being, the everlasting I am, the eternal God, which is, and was, and is to come: he appeared in an human form to our first parents before Abraham was, and was manifested as the Mediator, Saviour, and living Redeemer, to whom all the patriarchs before Abraham looked, and by whom they were saved: he was concerned in the creation of all things out of nothing, as the efficient cause thereof; he was set up from everlasting as Mediator; and the covenant of grace was made with him, and the blessings and promises of it were put into his hands before the world began; the eternal election of men to everlasting life was made in him before the foundation of the world; and he had a glory with his Father before the world was; yea, from all eternity he was the Son of God, of the same nature with him, and equal to him; and his being of the same nature proves his eternity, as well as deity, that he is from everlasting to everlasting God; and is what he ever was, and will be what he now is: he is immutable, the same today, yesterday, and for ever; in his nature, love, grace, and fulness, he is the invariable and unchangeable I am.

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

55 Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying.

Ver. 55. Yet ye have not known him] There is a twofold knowledge of God. 1. Apprehensive; 2. Affective, or cognoscitiva, standing in speculation, and directiva vitae.

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.

Knowing here signifies more than a notional knowledge, or comprehending in our understanding so much of God as may by natural powers be comprehended; it signifies affections, and a conversation suitable to such a knowledge. But I (saith our Saviour) fully and perfectly know him, both as to his essence, counsels, and will, and am fully obedient to him.

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

55. Have not known him—Have not understood him, or you would have recognized him in his Son.

I know him not—To know him as truly as I know him, and yet deny my knowledge of him, would be basest falsehood and apostacy.

Liar like unto you—He would forthwith place himself upon a par with them, denying that the Father is in the Son, and so in truth denying the Son.

Keep—Not contradict and disobey.

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

And (i.e. while you thus speak, and though you call him your God; cf. a similar use of kai , very nearly expressed, but not exactly, by the "yet" of the Authorized Version) ye have not come to know him by all the experiences through which you have passed. (cf. Joh_7:29 Joh_17:25; and ver. 19) You do not know the only true God, you have not the knowledge which is life eternal. But I know him, absolutely, intuitively, by the open eye of clearest consciousness, with invincible and perfect assent. The use and contrast of the two verbs egnwkate and oida , here and elsewhere, is very striking. (see Joh_3:10 Joh_21:17) When our Lord, however, was broadly contrasting the Jewish knowledge of God with that of the Samaritans, and identifying himself with the Jews, (Joh_4:22) he uses oidameN . if I should say that I know him not which I do not and dare not say. Christ could not admit that his absolute knowledge was a delusion. The reality of the Father in his Divine-human consciousness, expressing itself through his human thought and word, was supreme, overmastering, sublimeI shall be, like you, a liar; I should deceive you wilfully, as you are deceiving yourselves. We cannot fail here again to observe the severity of Jesus as portrayed in this Gospel. (There is nothing surely here, or in other numerous utterances in this discourse, inconsistent with the Son of Thunder.) No cowardly modesty (Lange) is possible to him. He knows, and must speak. He cannot, dare not, be silent, or allow these bitter enemies, with their ready malice and perverse and continuous misinterpretation of his words, to be ignorant, either of the ground of his self-consciousness or his penetration of their flimsy excuses. So once more he adds, But I know him, and keep (thrw ) his word. He will not allow this Divine consciousness to be taken from him, even by the shame and agony of the cross (Lange).

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

55. ἐγνώκατε … οἶδα. And ye have not learned to know Him (Joh 8:52); but I know Him. Οἶδα refers to His immediate essential knowledge of the Father, ἐγνώκατε to the progressive knowledge of mankind by means of revelation. Here and elsewhere (Joh 7:15; Joh 7:17; Joh 7:26-27, Joh 13:7, Joh 21:17) A.V. obliterates the distinction between the two verbs. Comp. Joh 14:7. ἔσομαι … ψεύστης. Preserve the order; I shall be like unto you, a liar: referring back to Joh 8:44. Winer, p. 243.

τ. λ. αὐ. τηρῶ. Christ’s whole life is a continual practice of obedience (Heb 5:8; Rom 5:19; Php 2:8): His relation to the Father is analogous to that of the believer to Christ (Joh 15:10, Joh 17:11; Joh 17:18).

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.

55.] The argument in these verses is: ‘The same God who is the God of Abraham, is my Father;—He it is who honours (glorifies) me, and it is His word that I keep. I was promised by Him to Abraham.’

δοξάσω, ‘glorify myself to this high designation, of being able to deliver from death.’

ὃν λέγ.] Whom you are in the habit of calling your God (for so of course the θεὸς ἡμῶν imports)—i.e. the God of Israel. A most important identification, from the mouth of our Lord Himself, of the Father, with the God of Israel in the O.T. The καί here is not ‘but,’ nor ‘although;’ the sense is, of Whom ye say ‘He is our God,’ and know Him not. Then what follows sets forth the contrast between them, the pretended children of Abraham, who know not Abraham’s God (the liars), and Him who knows Him, and keeps His word, so that His word works in and by Him; yea, He is ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ. His allowing their denial of this state of knowledge and union would be as great a lie in Him, as their assumption of it was in them.

ὅμοιος ὑμῶν (instead of the more usual ὑμῖν) signifies the being ‘one of them;’ as we say, ‘the like of them.’

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

55. καὶ οὐκ ἐγνώκατε αὐτόν. So at 16:3; and cf. 1:10, 17:23, 25, 1Jn 3:1, 1Jn 3:6. The verb οἶδα is used in similar contexts 7:28 (where see note) 8:19, 15:21. Although the Jews claimed God as their Father (v. 41), they did not know Him.

ἐγὼ δὲ οἶδα αὐτόν. Cf. 7:29 ἐγὼ οἶδα αὐτὸν ὅτι παρʼ αὐτοῦ εἰμι, and for the same claim, the verb γινώσκω being used, cf. 10:15, 17:25. See note on 1:26.

This unique knowledge of the Father, Jesus could not disclaim without denying the validity of His mission: ἔσομαι ὅμοιος ὑμῖν ψεύστης. He had not yet directly accused the Jewish objectors of lying, but He had told them that they were the children of the devil, who is the father of lies (v. 44).

ὅμοιος ὑμῖν. So ABDWΘ. ὑμῶν is read by אCLNΓΔ (cf. Job 35:8), which would be doubtful Greek.

τὸν λόγον αὐτοῦ τηρῶ. See on v. 51 above.

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

Saying [λογον] . Properly, word, as ver. 51. So Rev.

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