John 8:38
New International Version
I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.”

New Living Translation
I am telling you what I saw when I was with my Father. But you are following the advice of your father.”

English Standard Version
I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”

Berean Standard Bible
I speak of what I have seen in the presence of the Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”

Berean Literal Bible
I speak that which I have seen with the Father; therefore you also do what you have heard from your father."

King James Bible
I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.

New King James Version
I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.”

New American Standard Bible
I speak of the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.”

NASB 1995
“I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.”

NASB 1977
“I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.”

Legacy Standard Bible
I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.”

Amplified Bible
I tell the things that I have seen at My Father’s side [in His very presence]; so you also do the things that you heard from your father.”

Christian Standard Bible
I speak what I have seen in the presence of the Father; so then, you do what you have heard from your father.”

Holman Christian Standard Bible
I speak what I have seen in the presence of the Father; therefore, you do what you have heard from your father."”

American Standard Version
I speak the things which I have seen with my Father: and ye also do the things which ye heard from your father.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
“I am speaking the thing I have seen with my Father; you are doing the thing that you have seen with your father.”

Contemporary English Version
I am telling you what my Father has shown me, just as you are doing what your father has taught you.

Douay-Rheims Bible
I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and you do the things that you have seen with your father.

English Revised Version
I speak the things which I have seen with my Father: and ye also do the things which ye heard from your father.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
What I'm saying is what I have seen in my Father's presence. But you do what you've heard from your father."

Good News Translation
I talk about what my Father has shown me, but you do what your father has told you."

International Standard Version
I declare what I've seen in my Father's presence, and you're doing what you've heard from your father."

Literal Standard Version
I speak that which I have seen with My Father, and you, therefore, do that which you have seen with your father.”

Majority Standard Bible
I speak of what I have seen in the presence of My Father, and you do what you have seen from your father.”

New American Bible
I tell you what I have seen in the Father’s presence; then do what you have heard from the Father.”

NET Bible
I am telling you the things I have seen while with the Father; as for you, practice the things you have heard from the Father!"

New Revised Standard Version
I declare what I have seen in the Father’s presence; as for you, you should do what you have heard from the Father.”

New Heart English Bible
I say the things which I have seen with my Father; and you also do the things which you have heard from your father."

Webster's Bible Translation
I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.

Weymouth New Testament
The words I speak are those I have learnt in the presence of the Father. Therefore you also should do what you have heard from your father."

World English Bible
I say the things which I have seen with my Father; and you also do the things which you have seen with your father.”

Young's Literal Translation
I -- that which I have seen with my Father do speak, and ye, therefore, that which ye have seen with your father -- ye do.'

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Children of the Devil
37I know you are Abraham’s descendants, but you are trying to kill Me because My word has no place within you. 38I speak of what I have seen in the presence of the Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.” 39“Abraham is our father,” they replied. “If you were children of Abraham,” said Jesus, “you would do the works of Abraham.…

Cross References
John 8:41
You are doing the works of your father." "We are not illegitimate children," they declared. "Our only Father is God Himself."

John 8:44
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out his desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, refusing to uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, because he is a liar and the father of lies.


Treasury of Scripture

I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and you do that which you have seen with your father.

speak.

John 8:26
I have many things to say and to judge of you: but he that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him.

John 3:32
And what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth; and no man receiveth his testimony.

John 5:19,30
Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise…

and ye.

John 8:41,44
Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God…

Matthew 3:7
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

1 John 3:8-10
He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil…

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John 8
1. Jesus delivers the woman taken in adultery.
12. He declares himself the light of the world, and justifies his doctrine;
31. promises freedom to those who believe;
33. answers the Jews who boasted of Abraham;
48. answers their reviling, by showing his authority and dignity;
59. and slips away from those who would stone him.














(38) I speak that which I have seen with my Father.--Some of the older MSS. read "the" for "My," but without change of sense. For the thought, comp. John 8:28, where we have the same connection between doing and speaking. He is the Word, and His work is to speak what He had seen in His eternal existence with the Father.

And ye do that which ye have seen with your father.--For "seen," the better reading is probably heard. Here, as in the previous clause, some MSS. omit the possessive pronoun with "father," but it is rightly inserted to express the meaning. The clauses are in direct opposition to each other, and this is shown by the emphatic personal pronouns--"I, on My part . . . My Father." "You, on your part . . . your father." The tenses of the verbs, too, are to be distinguished--"That which I have seen" (during My whole existence in eternity). "That which ye heard" (when ye became servants of sin). The cases of the substantives are also different--"I have seen with my Father" (signifying existence with. Comp. John 1:1). "Ye heard from your father" (what he directed).

Again, there is a word in the original which it is hard to represent in English, and which our version altogether omits. It is not simply "and ye do," but "and ye therefore, or accordingly, do." It is the same principle of union between Father and Son which directs His work, which is to reveal God, and their work, of which the seeking to kill Him is an instance.

Verse 38. - I speak the things which I have seen with the (my) Father: and do you therefore the things which ye heard from the (your) father; or, and you therefore do the things which ye heard from your father. We need not, with Meyer, limit the Lord's vision of the Divine things which he saw with the Father to his premundane Personality. He describes himself in constant communion with the Father. The Father is with him. He knows the mind and will and good pleasure of the Father. His is the perfectly pure heart, which is as an eye forevermore beholding the Father. That the Only Begotten sees and knows what no other sees, is constantly taught in this Gospel (see John 3:32; John 6:46). In Christ, moreover, the disciple may verily see the Father (John 14:7, 9; 1 John 2:23). The probable textual reading given above would draw a species of contrast between Christ's "seeing" (παρὰ τῷ) with the Father, and the Jews' "hearing" (παρὰ τοῦ) from the Father, as though such communication were less intimate than "seeing." This must not be pressed (see ver. 40). If the ποιεῖτε be imperative, the language would be an appeal to the Jews to act out that which, from prophets and teachers and interpreters of the Divine will, they had heard. Moulton treats the clause as one more, one last, exhortation. The word of Christ had not advanced within them - it remained as a barren formula; let them give it free course now. Their opposition had not as yet been malignant or hopeless; one more chance is given them. The more ordinary interpretation is to make the ποιεῖτε indicative. If it be so, and still more if the ὑμῶν (omitted by B, L, P) be genuine, "the father" to whom reference is made as theirs, is in contrast with the Father of Christ, and, without pointedly saying so, Jesus implies that it is another father altogether. In ver. 44 Christ does indeed declare that the father with whom they are in ethical relation and sympathy is not God, but the devil - the very opposite of the God of Abraham, the very antithesis of the Father of infinite love. At this point he simply suggests, "Therefore the things which ye heard from your father ye do," ye habitually do, ye are now doing in your hatred and murderous sentiments towards myself. Surely this implies a severity which is hardly compatible with an address to Jews who believed him. The interpretation of the following verse is governed by that of this.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
I speak
λαλῶ (lalō)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 1st Person Singular
Strong's 2980: A prolonged form of an otherwise obsolete verb; to talk, i.e. Utter words.

of what
(ha)
Personal / Relative Pronoun - Accusative Neuter Plural
Strong's 3739: Who, which, what, that.

I
ἐγὼ (egō)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Nominative 1st Person Singular
Strong's 1473: I, the first-person pronoun. A primary pronoun of the first person I.

have seen
ἑώρακα (heōraka)
Verb - Perfect Indicative Active - 1st Person Singular
Strong's 3708: Properly, to stare at, i.e. to discern clearly; by extension, to attend to; by Hebraism, to experience; passively, to appear.

in the presence of
παρὰ (para)
Preposition
Strong's 3844: Gen: from; dat: beside, in the presence of; acc: alongside of.

the
τῷ (tō)
Article - Dative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

Father,
Πατρὶ (Patri)
Noun - Dative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3962: Father, (Heavenly) Father, ancestor, elder, senior. Apparently a primary word; a 'father'.

and
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

you
ὑμεῖς (hymeis)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Nominative 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 4771: You. The person pronoun of the second person singular; thou.

do
ποιεῖτε (poieite)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 4160: (a) I make, manufacture, construct, (b) I do, act, cause. Apparently a prolonged form of an obsolete primary; to make or do.

what
(ha)
Personal / Relative Pronoun - Accusative Neuter Plural
Strong's 3739: Who, which, what, that.

you have heard
ἠκούσατε (ēkousate)
Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 191: To hear, listen, comprehend by hearing; pass: is heard, reported. A primary verb; to hear.

from
παρὰ (para)
Preposition
Strong's 3844: Gen: from; dat: beside, in the presence of; acc: alongside of.

[your]
τοῦ (tou)
Article - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

father.”
πατρὸς (patros)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 3962: Father, (Heavenly) Father, ancestor, elder, senior. Apparently a primary word; a 'father'.


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NT Gospels: John 8:38 I say the things which I have (Jhn Jo Jn)
John 8:37
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