John 8:19

19 Therefore they said to him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Neither ye know me, nor ye know my Father; if ye knew me, peradventure ye should know also my Father.

John 8:19 Meaning and Commentary

John 8:19

Then said they unto him, where is thy Father?
&c.] The Persic version adds, "show [him] unto us": produce this witness boasted of, let us see him; this they said in a sneering, taunting, and insulting manner; where is thy Father? what! he is in Galilee; fetch him from thence; it is Joseph the carpenter you mean; a goodly witness indeed!

Jesus answered, ye neither know me nor my Father; if ye had known
me, ye should have known my Father also;
they did not know the divine original of Christ, that he was the Son of God, and that God was his Father; they greatly boasted of their knowledge of God, but they knew him not; their ignorance of Christ showed it: the knowledge of both go together, and which is life eternal; nor can any truly know the one, without the other: and where the one is known, the other will be also; Christ is the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person: so that he that has seen the one, must know the other; and indeed, no one can know the Father, but he to whom the Son reveals him: this was a severe mortification to these men of knowledge.

John 8:19 In-Context

17 And in your law it is written, that the witnessing of two men is true.
18 I am, that bear witnessing of myself, and the Father that sent me, beareth witnessing of me.
19 Therefore they said to him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Neither ye know me, nor ye know my Father; if ye knew me, peradventure ye should know also my Father.
20 Jesus spake these words in the treasury, teaching in the temple; and no man took him, for his hour came not yet.
21 Therefore again Jesus said to them, Lo! I go, and ye shall seek me, and ye shall die in your sin; whither I go, ye be not able to come [whither I go, ye may not come].
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.