John 8:19
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“Where is Your Father?” they asked Him. “You do not know Me or My Father,” Jesus answered. “If you knew Me, you would know My Father as well.”
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
THE WOMAN TAKEN IN ADULTERY. (Joh 8:1-11) Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives--This should have formed the last verse of the foregoing chapter. "The return of the people to the inert quiet and security of their dwellings (Joh 7:53), at the close of the feast, is designedly contrasted with our Lord's homeless way, so to speak, of spending the short night, who is early in the morning on the scene again. One cannot well see why what is recorded in Luk 21:37-38 may not even thus early have taken place; it might have been the Lord's ordinary custom from the beginning to leave the brilliant misery of the city every night, that so He might compose His sorrowful and interceding heart, and collect His energies for new labors of love; preferring for His resting-place Bethany, and the Mount of Olives, the scene thus consecrated by many preparatory prayers for His final humiliation and exaltation" [STIER].
Open source ↗In this chapter we have, I. Christ's evading the snare which the Jews laid for him, in bringing to him a woman taken in adultery (Joh 8:1-11). II. Divers discourses or conferences of his with the Jews that cavilled at him, and sought occasion against him, and made every thing he said a matter of controversy. 1. Concerning his being the light of the world (Joh 8:12-20). 2. Concerning the ruin of the unbelieving Jews (Joh 8:21-30). 3. Concerning liberty and bondage (Joh 8:31-37). 4. Concerning his Father and their father (Joh 8:38-47). 5. Here is his discourse in answer to their blasphemous reproaches (Joh 8:48-50). 6. Concerning the immortality of believers (Joh 8:51-59). And in all this he endured the contradiction of sinners against himself.
Open source ↗8:19 Throughout the festival, Jesus’ audience proved they were in the darkness as they misunderstood him. They wanted to meet Jesus’ father, who is God. Since they did not truly know God, they were unable to understand Jesus.
Open source ↗Cross-references
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They will do these things because they have not known the Father or Me.
At that time Jesus declared, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.
Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “You know Me, and you know where I am from. I have not come of My own accord, but He who sent Me is true. You do not know Him,
He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him.
Sober up as you ought, and stop sinning; for some of you are ignorant of God. I say this to your shame.
Anyone who runs ahead without remaining in the teaching of Christ does not have God. Whoever remains in His teaching has both the Father and the Son.
I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the LORD. They will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with all their heart.
And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true—in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you are turning back to those weak and worthless principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?
Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.