John 8:25

Who art thou?

(Συ τις ει;). Proleptic use of συ before τις, "Thou, who art thou?" Cf. John 1:19. He had virtually claimed to be the Messiah and on a par with God as in John 5:15. They wish to pin him down and to charge him with blasphemy.Even that which I have also spoken unto you from the beginning

(την αρχην οτ κα λαλω υμιν). A difficult sentence. It is not clear whether it is an affirmation or a question. The Latin and Syriac versions treat it as affirmative. Westcott and Hort follow Meyer and take it as interrogative. The Greek fathers take it as an exclamation. It seems clear that the adverbial accusative την αρχην cannot mean "from the beginning" like απ' αρχης (John 15:27) or εξ αρχης (John 16:4). The LXX has την αρχην for "at the beginning" or "at the first" (Genesis 43:20). There are examples in Greek, chiefly negative, where την αρχην means "at all," "essentially," "primarily." Vincent and Bernard so take it here, "Primarily what I am telling you." Jesus avoids the term Messiah with its political connotations. He stands by his high claims already made.