John 8:28 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
John 8:28
Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.
to speak or say (by word or writing) · verb — second aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular
Jesus
Ἰησοῦς·Iēsous
G2424
Jesus (i.e. Jehoshua) · noun — nominative singular masculine, a proper name
them
αὐτοῖςautois
G846
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — dative plural masculine
When
ὅτανhotan
G3752
whenever (implying hypothesis or more or less uncertain… · conjunction
ye have lifted up
ὑψώσητεhupsōsēte
G5312
to elevate (literally or figuratively) · verb — aorist active subjunctive, 2nd person plural
the Son
υἱὸνhuion
G5207
a "son" (sometimes of animals) · noun — accusative singular masculine, a title
of man
ἀνθρώπου,anthrōpou
G444
from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι)) · noun — genitive singular masculine, a title
then
τότεtote
G5119
the when · adverb
shall ye know
γνώσεσθεgnōsesthe
G1097
to "know" (absolutely) in a great variety of applicatio… · verb — future middle deponent indicative, 2nd person plural
that
ὅτιhoti
G3754
demonstrative · conjunction
I
ἐγώegō
G1473
I · personal pronoun — 1st person nominative singular
am
εἰμι,eimi
G1510
I exist (used only when emphatic) · verb — present active indicative, 1st person singular
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
do
ποιῶpoiō
G4160
to make or do (in a very wide application · verb — present active indicative, 1st person singular
nothing
οὐδέν,ouden
G3762
not even one (man · adjective — accusative singular neuter
of
ἀπ᾽ap᾽
G575
"off · preposition
myself
ἐμαυτοῦemautoû
G1683
of myself so likewise the dative case
but
ἀλλὰalla
G235
properly · conjunction
as
καθὼςkathōs
G2531
just (or inasmuch) as · conjunction
my
μοῦmoû
G3450
of me
Father
πατὴρpatēr
G3962
a "father" (literally or figuratively · noun — nominative singular masculine, a title
hath taught
ἐδίδαξένedidaxen
G1321
to teach (in the same broad application) · verb — aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular
me
μεme
G3165
me · personal pronoun — 1st person accusative singular
I speak
λαλῶ.lalō
G2980
to talk · verb — present active indicative, 1st person singular
these things
ταῦταtaûta
G5023
these things
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
John 5:19 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:…
John 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father…
John 6:38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
John 12:49-50 For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.
John 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
John 12:32-34 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
1 Thessalonians 2:15-16 Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:
Matthew 27:50-54 Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on John 8:21-30
Christ here gives fair warning to the careless unbelieving Jews to consider what would be the consequence of their infidelity, that they might prevent it before it was too late; for he spoke words of terror as well as words of grace. Observe here,
I. The wrath threatened (Joh 8:21): Jesus said again unto them that which might be likely to do them good. He continued to teach, in kindness to those few who received his doctrine, though there were many that resisted it, which is an example to ministers to go on with their work, notwithstanding opposition, because a remnant shall be saved. Here Christ changes his voice; he had piped to them in the offers of his grace, and they had not danced; now…
When ye have lifted up the Son of man--The plainest intimation He had yet given in public of the manner and the authors of His death.
then shall ye know that I am he, &c.--that is, find out, or have sufficient evidence, how true was all He said, though they would be far from owning it.
Adam Clarke on John 8:28
When ye have lifted up - When ye have crucified me, and thus filled up the measure of your iniquities, ye shall know that I am the Christ, by the signs that shall follow; and ye shall know that what I spoke is true, by the judgments that shall follow. To be lifted up, is a common mode of expression, among the Jewish writers, for to die, or to be killed.
John Gill on John 8:28
Then said Jesus unto them,.... Upbraiding them with their ignorance, and giving them a sign, as well as pointing out the time when they either, by good or sad experience, should have knowledge of him:
when ye have lift up the son of man; meaning himself, who was to be lifted up upon the cross, as the serpent was upon the pole, in the wilderness; and which signified the manner of death he should die, the death of the cross; and suggested, that what the Jews designed for his reproach, shame, and abasement, would be the way and means of his rise and exaltation; and this lifting him up, or crucifying him, he ascribes to them, because they would deliver him to Pontius Pilate to be condemned, and…
The Church Fathers
In accordance with which, Christ Himself says: "Then shall ye know that I am He and that I am saying nothing of my own self; but that, as my Father hath taught me, so I speak, because He that sent me is with me." This also amounts to a proof that they were Two, (although) undivided.
Here Jesus is saying, "Since you are looking only to the flesh, you believe that I am merely a man, and you suppose that I am just like you. But the dignity and the glory of the Godhead does not even enter your mind. However, you shall know that I am God of true God and Light of light through your dreadful and lawless act—my death on the cross. For when you see your mad foolishness come to nothing and the snare of death crushed in pieces—for I shall surely rise from the dead—ultimately you will be forced, even against your will, to agree with what I said, and you shall confess that I am God by nature.
This is the sign which before He had promised to give them when they asked it, saying, "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas;" meaning His cross, and His death, His burial, and His resurrection. And again, declaring in another way the virtue of the cross, He said, "When ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am He." And what He saith is to this purport: "When ye have crucified me, and think ye have overcome me, then, above all, shall ye know my might." For after the crucifixion, the city was destroyed, and the Jewish state came to an end, they fell away from their polity and their freedom, the gospel flourished, the word was spread abroad to the ends of the world; both sea and land, both the inhabited earth and the desert perpetually proclaim its power.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Christ, The Prophet · Declared his doctrine to be that of the Father — Declared his doctrine to be that of the Father
Obedience · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John 8:25-29
25. Then they said to him. Who art thou? Jesus said to them, From the beginning, [225] because I also speak to you. [226] 26. I have many things to speak and judge of you; but he who hath sent me is true, and I speak to the world those things which I have heard from him. 27. They knew not that he spoke to them of the Father. Jesus therefore said to them, 28. When you shall have exalted the Son of man, then shall you know that I am, and that I do nothing of myself; but as the Father hath taught me, I speak. 29. And he who hath sent me is with me. The Father hath not left me alone, because I always do the things which please him.
25. From the beginning. They who translate the wo…
The synoptic Gospels describe Jesus as predicting his death three times (e.g., Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:33-34). John parallels this (John 3:14; 8:28; 12:33-34), showing that the Father governs his Son’s fate.
