John 7:28

Then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught, saying, Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am: and I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(28) Then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught.—The word rendered “cried,” implies always an elevation of voice answering to the intensity of the speaker’s feeling. (Comp. in this Gospel John 1:15; John 7:37; John 12:44.) Here this feeling has been roused by another instance of their misapprehension, because they think of the outward appearance only, and therefore do not grasp the inner truth. They know whence He is; they had been taught that no man should know the Messiah’s origin, and therefore they think He is not the Christ. And this technical reason, the meaning of which they have never fathomed, is enough to stifle every growing conviction, and to annul the force of all His words and all His works! St. John is impressed with the fact that it was in the very Temple itself, in the presence of the priests and rulers, in the act of public teaching, that He uttered these words, and he again notices this, though he has told us so before (John 7:14; John 7:26).

Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am.—He takes up their objection in order to refute it. There is, indeed, a sense in which it is true. Those features were well known alike to friend and foe. With minds glowing with the fire of love or of hate, they had gazed upon Him as He walked or taught, and His form had fixed itself on the memory. They knew about His earthly home and early life (John 7:27), but all this was far short of the real knowledge of Him. It is but little that the events of the outer life tell of the true life and being even of a brother man. Little does a man know even his bosom friend; how infinitely far were they, with minds which did not even approach the true method of knowledge, from knowing Him whom no mind can fully comprehend!

And I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true.—Once again He asserts that He claims no position of independence. He is the first great Apostle (comp. Hebrews 3:1), but He is not self-commissioned. Had He not been the Christ, their objection that they knew His origin might have had force. But sent by Him who is the really existent One, and whom they knew not, His origin is unknown to them, and their technical test is fulfilled. In the fullest sense, they neither knew Him nor from whence He came.

For the meaning of the word “true,” see Note on John 1:9. It is almost impossible to give the sense of the original except in a paraphrase. We must keep, therefore, the ordinary rendering, but bear in mind that it does not mean, “He that sent Me is truthful,” but “He that sent Me is the ideally true One.” “You talk of person, and of origin, of knowing Me, and from whence I came, but all this is knowledge of the senses, and in the region of the phenomenal world. Being is only truly known in relation to the Eternal Being. He that sent Me to manifest His Being in the world is the truly existent One. In Him is My true origin, and Him ye know not.”

Benson Commentary

John 7:28. Then cried Jesus — Probably with a loud and earnest voice, and with allusion to the words which they had just spoken in a private manner to each other, and which they imagined he could not have heard, as he taught in the temple at some distance from them; Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am — Or, as it seems the clause should rather be rendered, Do you know both me, and know whence I am? Thus it is read by Doddridge, Wesley, Wynne, and also by Campbell, who observes upon it, “As the words are plainly capable of being read as an interrogation, it is, in every respect, most eligible to translate them so in this place. In the way they are commonly rendered they contain a direct contradiction to what our Lord says, John 8:14; John 8:19. Nor does it satisfy that both may be true in different senses, since these different senses do not appear from the context. Nay, in effect, he contradicts them in the same breath, inasmuch as he tells the people, that they know not him who sent him. When they said, We know whence this man is, the same thing was evidently meant as when they said, (John 6:42,) Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? Now our Lord tells them plainly, that they did not know his father, and consequently could not tell whence (that is, of what parentage) he was. And I am not come of myself — With vain and false pretences to a divine mission; but he that sent me — And gives daily proof thereof, by the miracles which I perform in his name; is true — And therefore will not bear witness to a deceiver. Or, as the words may be paraphrased, “Though you pretend to know me and whence I am, it does not follow that I am destitute of the prophetical characters of the Messiah, and an impostor, come to you of my own accord. I am really sent to you by God, who is true in all the prophecies he uttered by his servants concerning the Messiah, for they are all fulfilled in me.” But him you know not — On the contrary, “You are wholly ignorant of his blessed perfections and gracious counsels, and have no inclination to obey his will.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

7:25-30 Christ proclaimed aloud, that they were in error in their thoughts about his origin. He was sent of God, who showed himself true to his promises. This declaration, that they knew not God, with his claim to peculiar knowledge, provoked the hearers; and they sought to take him, but God can tie men's hands, though he does not turn their hearts.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Ye know whence I am - You have sufficient evidence of my divine mission, and that I am the Messiah.

Is true - Is worthy to be believed. He has given evidence that I came from him, and he is worthy to be believed. Many read this as a question - Do ye know me, and know whence I am? I have not come from myself, etc.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

28, 29. cried Jesus—in a louder tone, and more solemn, witnessing style than usual.

Ye both, &c.—that is, "Yes, ye know both Myself and My local parentage, and (yet) I am not come of Myself."

but he that sent me is true, &c.—Probably the meaning is, "He that sent Me is the only real Sender of any one."

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am; you might have known me by the doctrine which I have taught, and the miracles which I have wrought among you; and you had known me, if you had not shut your eyes against the light, which shone in your face: or, you say and think that you know me. Others think that it is an irony, or as a question, Do you know me so well? If you did, you would know that I came not of myself, but was sent by my Father; and he that sent me is truth itself: but you know not the Father, and therefore cannot know me as indeed I am.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught,.... Overhearing the reasonings of these men, however, knowing what they said; so the Persic version adds, "having secretly known this"; exalted his voice as he was teaching in the temple, and in the midst of his discourse, publicly before all the people, in the temple, spoke out with a loud voice, that all might hear:

saying, ye both know me, and ye know whence I am; some, as the Ethiopic version, read these words by way of interrogation, "do ye both know me, and do ye know from whence I am?" no; you do not. Or they may be considered as an ironical concession; yes, you know me, and you know whence I am; you know me to be Jesus of Nazareth, but you are wrong, I am not of Nazareth; you suppose I come, from Galilee, but that is your ignorance; you take me to be the real son of Joseph, to be begotten by him on Mary, but that is your mistake: such is your knowledge of me: you know me indeed who I am, and from whence I come.

And I am not come of myself; into this world, by incarnation, or the assumption of human nature, to work out the salvation of men; the Father called him to it, and he agreeing to do it, was in the fulness of time sent about it; this was not a device of his own, or an honour he took to himself; he was not alone in it; it was a mutual agreement between him and his Father, in consequence of which he was sent and came.

But he that sent me is true; to the covenant he made with Christ, and to the promises he made to the fathers of the Old Testament, concerning the mission of his Son; and he is true to be believed, in the testimonies he gave of him, particularly by a voice from heaven, declaring him his beloved Son.

Whom ye know not; so that notwithstanding all their boasted knowledge of him, they knew not his Father, from whence he came, and by whom he was sent; and notwithstanding also their boasted knowledge of the one, only, true, and living God, see Romans 2:17; yet they knew him not in a spiritual sense; they knew him not in Christ, nor as the Father of Christ; they knew neither the Father nor the Son: and this their ignorance of both was the reason of their hatred of Christ, and of his followers, John 15:21.

Geneva Study Bible

{12} Then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught, saying, Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am: and I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not.

(12) The truth of Christ does not depend upon the judgment of man.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

John 7:28-29. The statement in John 7:27, which showed how utterly Christ’s higher nature and work were misunderstood by these people in consequence of the entirely outward character of their judgments, roused the emotion of Jesus, so that He raised His voice, crying aloud (ἔκραξεν, comp. John 1:5, John 7:37, John 12:44, Romans 9:27; κράζειν never means anything but to cry out; “clamores, quos edidit, magnas habuere causas,” Bengel), and thus uttered the solemn conclusion of this colloquy, while He taught in the temple, and said: κἀμὲ οἴδατε, κ.τ.λ. The ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ διδάσκων is in itself superfluous (see John 7:14), but serves the more vividly to describe the solemn moment of the ἔκραξεν, and is an indication of the original genuineness of the narrative.

κἀμὲ οἴδατε, κ.τ.λ.] i.e., “ye know not only my person, but ye also know my origin.” As the people really had this knowledge (John 6:42), and as the divine mission of Jesus was independent of His human nature and origin, while He Himself denies only their knowledge of His divine mission (see what follows; comp. John 8:19), there is nothing in the connection to sanction an interrogatory interpretation (Grotius, Lampe, Semler, Storr, Paulus, Kuinoel, Luthardt, Ewald), nor an ironical one (Luther, Calvin, Beza, and many others; likewise Lücke, Tholuck, Olshausen, B. Crusius, Lange, and Godet, who considers the words “légèrement ironique,” and that they have “certainement [?] une tournure interrogative”), nor the paraphrase: “Ye think that ye know” (Hengstenberg). Least of all can we read it as a reproach, that they knew His divine nature and origin, yet maliciously concealed it (Chrysostom, Nonnus, Theophylact, Euthymius Zigabenus, Maldonatus, and most). No; Jesus allows that they have that outward knowledge of Him which they had avowed in John 7:27, but He further—in the words καὶ ἀπʼ ἐμαυτοῦ, κ.τ.λ.—sets before them the higher relationship, which is here the main point, and which was unknown to them.

καὶ ἀπʼ ἐμ. οὐκ ἐλήλ.] and—though ye think that, on account of this knowledge of yours, ye must conclude that I am not the Messiah, but have come by self-appointment merely—of myself (αὐτοκέλευστος, Nonnus) am I not come; comp. John 8:42. This καί, which must not be regarded as the same with the two preceding, as if it stood for καὶ ὅτι (Baeumlein), often in John connects, like atque, a contrasted thought, and yet. See Hartung, Partikell. I. 147. We may pronounce the and with emphasis, and imagine a pause after it. Comp. Stallbaum, ad Plat. Apol. p. 29 B; Wolf, ad Leptin. p. 238.

ἀλλʼ ἔστιν ἀληθινὸς] but it is a real one who hath sent me, whom ye (ye people!) know not.[266] Ἀληθινὸς is not verax (Chrysostom, Euthymius Zigabenus, Luther, Stolz, Kuinoel, Klee, B. Crusius, Ewald, and most), but, according to the invariable usage of John (see on John 1:9), a real, genuine one, in whom the idea is realized. The substantive belonging to this adjective is not πατήρ, which Grotius gets out of πόθεν; but, according to the immediate context, it is to be inferred from ὁ πέμψας με, namely πέμπων, a real sender, a sender in the highest and fullest sense (comp. Matthiae, p. 1533; Kühner, II. 602). We cannot take ἀληθ. by itself as absolutely denoting the true essential God (Olshausen, Lange, Hengstenberg; comp. Kling: “one whose essence and action is pure truth”), because ἀληθινός in the Johannean sense is not an independent conception, but receives its definite meaning first from the substantive of which it is predicated.

John 7:29. I (antithesis to ὑμεῖς) know Him, for I am from Him, have come forth from Him (as in John 4:46); and no other than He (from whom I am) hath sent me. This weighty, and therefore independent κἀκεῖνός με ἀπέστ., not to be taken as dependent upon ὅτι, comprehends the full explanation of the πόθεν εἰμί in its higher sense, which was not known to the Ἱεροσολυμιταῖς, and, with the ἐγὼ οἶδα … εἰμί, bears the seal of immediate certainty. Comp. John 8:14.

[266] Of course in a relative sense, as in John 4:22. If they had possessed the true and full knowledge of God, they would then have recognised the Interpreter of God, and not have rejected Him for such a reason as that in ver. 27. Comp. John 8:54-55; Matthew 11:27.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

28. Then cried Jesus] Better, Jesus therefore cried aloud. The word translated ‘cried’ signifies a loud expression of strong emotion. He is moved by their gross misconception of Him, a fact which the weakening of ‘therefore’ into ‘then’ obscures. Comp. John 7:37, John 1:15, John 12:44.

in the temple] S. John well remembers that moving cry in the Temple; the scene is still before him and he puts it before us, although neither ‘in the Temple’ nor ‘as He taught’ is needed for the narrative (see John 7:14).

Ye both know me, &c.] Various constructions have been put upon this: (1) that it is a question; (2) that it is ironical; (3) a mixture of the two; (4) a reproach, i.e. that they knew His Divine nature and maliciously concealed it. None of these are satisfactory. The words are best understood quite simply and literally. Christ admits the truth of what they say: they have an outward knowledge of Him and His origin (John 6:42); but He has an inner and higher origin, of which they know nothing. So that even their self-made test, for the sake of which they are willing to resist the evidence both of Scripture and of His works, is complied with; for they know not His real immediate origin.

and I am not come of myself] ‘Of Myself’ is emphatic; and (yet) of Myself I am not come. Comp. John 8:42. The ‘and’ introduces a contrast, as so often in S. John: ‘ye know My person, and ye know My parentage; and yet of the chief thing of all, My Divine mission, ye know nothing. See on John 7:30.

but he that sent me is true] The word for ‘true’ here is the same as occurs John 1:9 in ‘the true Light’ (see note there): the meaning, therefore, is not ‘truthful’ but ‘real, perfect;’ He that sendeth Me is a real sender, One who in the highest and most perfect sense can give a mission But perhaps here and in Revelation 3:7; Revelation 19:11 the distinction between the two words for ‘true’ is not very marked. Such refinements (the words being alike except in termination) have a tendency to become obscured.

Bengel's Gnomen

John 7:28. Ἔκραξεν, cried) with great earnestness, for the salvation of men; also on account of the great number of His auditors. Christ cried by no means often; Matthew 12:19, “He shall not strive, nor cry, neither shall any man hear His voice in the streets:” For which reason the cries, which He did utter, had a weighty cause in each instance. See presently after John 7:37, “In the last day—of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, If any man thirst, let him come to Me and drink;” John 11:43, “He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth;” John 12:44, “Jesus cried and said, “He that believeth on Me, believeth not on Me, but on Him that sent Me;” Hebrews 5:7, “When He had offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, unto Him that was able to save Him from death;” Matthew 27:50, “Jesus, when He had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.”—κἀμέ, both me) There are persons, who suppose irony to be employed here: but you will never find an instance of our Lord having employed irony. The speech of the Jews had had two parts, this man and the Christ: in reply to which at John 7:27, the speech of our Lord has also two parts, the “both Me” “and [I am not come] of Myself.” The former makes a concession, and leaves the question of knowledge concerning Jesus and His birth, regarded from an external point of view, in some measure where he found it; for His wont is never Himself to bring it forward; comp. 2 Corinthians 5:16, “Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more;” but He denies that they have a just [correct] knowledge of Himself as sent by the Father; comp. John 7:33, etc., “I go unto Him that sent Me;” and John 7:36, “What manner of saving is this that He said, Ye shall seek Me and shall not find Me, and where I am, thither ye cannot come;” chap. John 8:14, “Ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go.”—καὶ ἀπʼ ἐμαυτοῦ) and yet I am not come of Myself, as ye suppose.—ἀληθινός, true) This truth is of more consequence than that truly; “Do the rulers know truly that this is the Christ?”—ὅν ὑμεῖς οὐκ οἴδατε, whom ye know not) We must understand after this the clause which follows, that I am from Him, and that He has sent Me. The very demand of the Jews concerning Christ, expressed at John 7:27, was realized in Jesus, “When Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence He is.”

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 28. - Jesus therefore cried - lifted up his voice in such a way as to cause wide astonishment. (The word is found in John 1:15 of John the Baptist, and ver. 37 and John 12:44; but frequently in the synoptists and Acts, and very frequently in the LXX.) The trumpet peal sounded through the courts of the temple, and the crowds rushed in the direction from which it proceeded. He cried in the temple. This clause is added, notwithstanding the statement of ver. 14, and it intimates a break in the discourse, a sudden and trenchant response to certain loudly uttered murmurs of the Jerusalem multitude. Ye both know me, and know whence I am. Surely (with De Wette, Meyer, Westcott, Moulton) the Lord distinctly concedes to the men of Jerusalem a certain amount of superficial knowledge. It is lamentably defective in respect of that for which they imagine it all-sufficient; and yet this knowledge was highly significant and important as far as it went. Such knowledge of his birthplace and his family, his provincial training, his Galilaean ministry, were all proofs to them of his humanity - that he belonged to their race, was bone of their bone, and sympathizing in their deepest sorrows, understood their noblest aspirations. Such a concession, moreover, repudiates the supposed docetic character of the Christ of the Fourth Gospel. Many commentators regard the exclamation its ironical and interrogatory (Grotius, Lampe, Calvin, Lucke, and even Godet), without sufficient warrant. Our Lord, however, soon shows that, though they are rightly informed about certain obvious facts, there were others of stupendous importance which could go a long way towards rcconciling their many-sided and conflicting ideas of Messiah, of which they were yet in ignorance. And yet (all commentators show that there is a certain adversative force about this third καί; see also ver. 30; John 8:20; John 9:30; Mark 12:12) I am not come from myself (see John 5:30). I have not risen upon the wings of my own ambition. It is not my mere human whim and purpose, or my desire for self-glorification, which brings me before you. You may know the home of my childhood; and watched as I have been by your eager spies, as you had full right to do, you may know all my public proceedings, and yet you have not fathomed the fact that I have not come on my own errand, nor does my humanity as you have grasped it cover the whole of the facts about me. There is a peculiarity, a uniqueness, about my coming that you have yet to learn. I have been sent to you; but he that sent me is real - a reality to me, which makes it an absolute reality in itself. The use of ἀληθινός is somewhat peculiar, and, unless with some commentators and Revisers we make it equal to ἀλήθης, and thus disturb the uniform usage of St. John, we must either imagine under the word a real "Sender," or one really answering to the idea already announced as of One competent to send. "He that sent me, the Father," of whom I spoke (John 5:37) when last we conversed together, is the overwhelming Reality in this case. Whom ye know not. The Jerusalem multitudes were suffering grievously from the superstitious limitations of their own faith, from the traditions, the symbolism, the letter, the form, which had well nigh strangled, suffocated, the underlying truths. They had in many ways lost the God whose great Name they honoured. They failed to apprehend his awful nearness to them, his love to every man, his compassion to the world, the demand of his righteousness, the condition of seeing him, the way to his rest - "Him ye know not." This was a serious rebuke of the entire system which prevailed at Jerusalem. Not understanding nor knowing the Father, they were unable to see the possibility of his having sent to them, through the life and lips of a Man whom they knew, his last and greatest message. John 7:28

Vincent's Word Studies

Then (οὗν)

Rev., rightly, therefore, giving the reason for the succeeding words in Jesus' emotion awakened by the misconceptions of the people.

Cried (ἔκραξεν)

See on Mark 5:5; see on Mark 9:24.

As He taught (διδάσκων)

Better, Rev., teaching. The expression cried teaching implies speaking in a peculiarly solemn manner and with an elevation of voice.

Me - whence Iam

Conceding the truth of the people's statement in John 7:27, we know this man whence he is, so far as His outward person and His earthly origin were concerned. He goes on to show that they are ignorant of His divine relationship.

True (ἀληθινὸς)

True to the ideal of a sender: a genuine sender in the highest sense of the term. See on John 1:9.