John 8:14

Ver. 14. “ Jesus answered and said to them; Even if I bear witness of myself, my witness is true, because I know whence I came and whither I go; but you know not whence I come or whither I go. ”

Jesus had accepted in chap. 5 the position of an ordinary man; this is the reason why he had cited in His favor the double testimony of the Father, through the miracles and through the Scriptures. Here, He asserts Himself and claims His true position, which He had voluntarily abandoned. This difference arises from the fact that the rupture between Him and His hearers is now further advanced. He asserts Himself more categorically. The inner light which He possesses with regard to His person places Him absolutely beyond the illusions of pride.

And this is the reason why He is, at the same time, the light for others. The term οἶδα, I know, designates that unchangeably clear and transparent consciousness which Jesus has of Himself; it bears at once on the place of His origin and of that to which He would return, on the beginning and the end of His existence. He who distinctly knows these two limits of His life comprehends it altogether. Jesus is distinctly conscious of Himself as of a being coming from on high and returning on high, and as one for whom, consequently, the earthly life is only a passing period with a mission to fulfill, a transition from heaven to heaven. The whole of Christianity rests upon this consciousness which Jesus had of His person. It is the heroism of faith to give oneself up to the extraordinary testimony which this being has borne to Himself. The words: “ you know not,” are more than the announcement of a fact; they contain a reproach. They also could know, if only they had their minds open to perceive. In the heavenly and holy character of the appearance of Jesus, every upright heart can discern the divinity of His origin as well as that of His destination. The disjunctive particle ἤ, or, in the second clause (see the critical note) is more forcible than the simple καί, and, in the first: Jesus adds knowledge to knowledge; hence the and; but as for them, when they are inquired of with reference to one point or another, they show always the same ignorance; hence the or.