John 5:17
New International Version
In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.”

New Living Translation
But Jesus replied, “My Father is always working, and so am I.”

English Standard Version
But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

Berean Standard Bible
But Jesus answered them, “To this very day My Father is at His work, and I too am working.”

Berean Literal Bible
But Jesus answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I am working."

King James Bible
But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.

New King James Version
But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.”

New American Standard Bible
But He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.”

NASB 1995
But He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.”

NASB 1977
But He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.”

Legacy Standard Bible
But He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.”

Amplified Bible
But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now [He has never ceased working], and I too am working.”

Christian Standard Bible
Jesus responded to them, “My Father is still working, and I am working also.”

Holman Christian Standard Bible
But Jesus responded to them, “My Father is still working, and I am working also.”

American Standard Version
But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh even until now, and I work.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
But Yeshua himself said to them: “My Father is working until this hour, and I am also working.”

Contemporary English Version
But Jesus said, "My Father has never stopped working, and this is why I keep on working."

Douay-Rheims Bible
But Jesus answered them: My Father worketh until now; and I work.

English Revised Version
But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh even until now, and I work.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Jesus replied to them, "My Father is working right now, and so am I."

Good News Translation
Jesus answered them, "My Father is always working, and I too must work."

International Standard Version
But Jesus answered them, "My Father has been working until now, and I, too, am working."

Literal Standard Version
And Jesus answered them, “My Father works until now, and I work”;

Majority Standard Bible
But Jesus answered them, “To this very day My Father is at His work, and I too am working.”

New American Bible
But Jesus answered them, “My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.”

NET Bible
So he told them, "My Father is working until now, and I too am working."

New Revised Standard Version
But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.”

New Heart English Bible
But he answered them, "My Father is still working, so I am working, too."

Webster's Bible Translation
But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.

Weymouth New Testament
His reply to their accusation was, "My Father works unceasingly, and so do I."

World English Bible
But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, so I am working, too.”

Young's Literal Translation
And Jesus answered them, 'My Father till now doth work, and I work;'

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Father and the Son
16Now because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews began to persecute Him. 17But Jesus answered them, “To this very day My Father is at His work, and I too am working.” 18Because of this, the Jews tried all the harder to kill Him. Not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.…

Cross References
John 5:16
Now because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews began to persecute Him.

John 5:18
Because of this, the Jews tried all the harder to kill Him. Not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.

John 10:36
then what about the One whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world? How then can you accuse Me of blasphemy for stating that I am the Son of God?

1 Thessalonians 2:13
And we continually thank God because, when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as the true word of God--the word which is now at work in you who believe.


Treasury of Scripture

But Jesus answered them, My Father works till now, and I work.

My.

John 9:4
I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.

John 14:10
Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.

Genesis 2:1,2
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them…

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Accusation Always Hitherto Jesus Unceasingly Work Worketh Working Works
John 5
1. Jesus on the Sabbath day cures him who was diseased thirty-eight years.
10. The Jews therefore object, and persecute him for it.
17. He answers for himself, and reproves them, showing by the testimony of his Father,
31. of John,
36. of his works,
39. and of the Scriptures, who he is.














(17) My Father worketh hitherto (or, up to this moment).--They charge Him with breaking the law of God. His answer to this charge is that His action was the result of His Sonship and unity with that God. The very idea of God implied action. This was familiar to the thought of the day. Comp., e.g., in the contemporary Philo, "God never ceases working; but as to burn is the property of fire, and to be cold is the property of snow, thus also to work is the property of God, and much the more, inasmuch as He is the origin of action for all others" (Legis Allegor. i. 3. See the whole section. The English reader will find it in Bohn's Ed., vol i., p. 53). The rest on the seventh day was the completion of the works of creation (see this stated emphatically in Genesis 2:2-3). It was not, it could not be, a cessation in divine work, or in the flow of divine energy. That knew nor day nor night, nor summer nor winter, nor Sabbath nor Jubilee. For man, and animal, and tree, and field, this alternation of a time of production and a time of reception was needed, but God was the ever-constant source of energy and life for all in heaven and earth and sea. The power going forth to heal that sufferer was the same power which sustained them in well-being. The strength which passed through his half-dead frame, and bade it live, was the same which every Sabbath morning awoke them from death's image, sleep, and would awake from death itself (John 5:21). The sun shone, and fruitful showers fell, and flower burst its bud, and harvest ripened, and they themselves, in energy of life, had grown on every day alike. God ever worketh up to this present moment. That God is also Father. The Son, therefore, worketh in the same way. This poor sufferer, lying helpless, is of the same human nature with the Son of God. He has in faith and hope made himself receptive of the divine energy, and that energy which can know no Sabbath, but is ever going forth to every heart that can receive it, hath made him whole.

Verses 17, 18. -

(a) The claim of special relation with the Father. Verse 17. - But Jesus answered them (ἀπεκρίνατο; here and ver. 19 are the only places where the author uses this aorist, My Father worketh hitherto; i.e. until now; has not, has never, ceased from working. Some critics, eager for disparaging comment, have said "this is point blank denial of the sabbath rest of the Creator as exhibited in Genesis 1, 2, and Exodus 20. But, on the contrary, it is the true exposition of those grand utterances. God through his Logos, the Father through his Son, did bring his strictly creative works to an end with the six days; but then he entered on the seventh day, the rest of his preserving, protective, reproductive energy; then he began to pursue his redeeming and quickening operations in all regions of his dominion. My Father worketh, energizes, until now. His "rest" is an infinite activity of wisdom and power, of righteousness and mercy. The true sabbath is this rest of God. Man has to enter into this rest, and cooperate with and utterly abandon himself to the will of God. Sabbath keeping is the great symbol of such entire satisfaction with God. The activities from which man has to cease on the holy day are man's own, man's self-centred labours; but he, too, may combine the highest activity with profound repose. "My Father worketh until now, and I work - I, who am his Instrument, his Word, his Manifestation, his Messenger, abstaining from all mere self-originated, self-poised, self-centering toil, I work with him for him. I work obviously and visibly that you may see for yourselves what he has ever been doing silently and unobserved." Philo had said ('Leg. All.,' 1:3) "that God never ceases to create, nor takes a holiday from his works;" and the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews

(4) had grasped, as an echo of Christ's own teaching, the perpetuity of Divine rest through all the ages of work; but the naked thought here soars far above them both. The dawning of every clay, the opening of the flowers, the flowing of the rivers, the sustenance of vegetable, animal, and human life, reveal through every moment of the agelong sabbath rest, and on every sabbath day, his intense and constant activity.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
But
δὲ (de)
Conjunction
Strong's 1161: A primary particle; but, and, etc.

Jesus
Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 2424: Of Hebrew origin; Jesus, the name of our Lord and two other Israelites.

answered
ἀπεκρίνατο (apekrinato)
Verb - Aorist Indicative Middle - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 611: From apo and krino; to conclude for oneself, i.e. to respond; by Hebraism to begin to speak.

them,
αὐτοῖς (autois)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Dative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
Strong's 846: He, she, it, they, them, same. From the particle au; the reflexive pronoun self, used of the third person, and of the other persons.

“To
ἕως (heōs)
Preposition
Strong's 2193: A conjunction, preposition and adverb of continuance, until.

this very day
ἄρτι (arti)
Adverb
Strong's 737: Now, just now, at this moment. Adverb from a derivative of airo through the idea of suspension; just now.

My
μου (mou)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Genitive 1st Person Singular
Strong's 1473: I, the first-person pronoun. A primary pronoun of the first person I.

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

is at His work,
ἐργάζεται (ergazetai)
Verb - Present Indicative Middle or Passive - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 2038: To work, trade, perform, do, practice, commit, acquire by labor.

and I too
κἀγὼ (kagō)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Nominative 1st Person Singular
Strong's 2504: To also, I too, but I. From kai and ego; so also the dative case kamoi, and accusative case kame and I, me.

am working.”
ἐργάζομαι (ergazomai)
Verb - Present Indicative Middle or Passive - 1st Person Singular
Strong's 2038: To work, trade, perform, do, practice, commit, acquire by labor.


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NT Gospels: John 5:17 But Jesus answered them My Father (Jhn Jo Jn)
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