John 8:25

John 8:25. They said therefore unto him, Who art thou? Had they been patient, willing listeners, they would have seen His meaning; but now He seems to them to have left out the one essential word, in thus saying, ‘Except ye shall believe that I am.' What is that word? ‘Who art thou?' The tone of the preceding words makes it certain that the question is one of impatience and scorn, not of a spirit eager and ready to learn. This is a point of importance, as throwing light on our Lord's reply.

Jesus said unto them, How is it that I even speak to you at all? The true nature and meaning of this reply are points on which the greatest difference of opinion has existed and still exists. The question is one of translation, not interpretation merely; and a discussion on a matter or Greek philology would be out of place here. The first words of the sentence are ‘The beginning;' and many have endeavoured to retain these words in translation, but in very different ways. Some have taken ‘The beginning' as a name applied by our Lord to Himself; others understand the words adverbially, as meaning ‘in the beginning,' ‘from the very first,' ‘before all things.' But none of these explanations can be obtained without doing violence to the Greek; and we are therefore bound to consider them all untenable. Even if they were possible renderings, they would present a serious difficulty to an attentive student of the words of Jesus, especially as contained in this Gospel. Our Lord is not wont directly to answer a question so presented. His whole treatment of ‘the Jews' is based on the fact that He had given them abundant evidence regarding Himself and His work. They who will not see must rest in their blindness (chap. John 9:39). No sign from heaven shall be wrought at the bidding of those to whom no former signs have brought instruction (Matthew 16:1-2): certainly no direct answer will be vouchsafed to men who, having heard all that He has said before, have just shown themselves able awfully to pervert His simplest sayings. One line of translation only seems to be allowed by the Greek, that which takes the words as a question (or exclamation), and gives to the first words (‘the beginning') a meaning which in such sentences they often bear, viz. ‘at all'(as ‘Does he act at all?' is equivalent to ‘Does he even make a beginning of action?'). This is the interpretation which tire early Greek writers Cyril of Alexandria and Chrysostom gave to the words; and we cannot but lay stress on the fact that such men, who habitually spoke Greek, seem not to have thought of any other meaning. Whether the sentence is an exclamation or a question, the general sense is the same, viz. Why am I even speaking to you at all? Much has He to say concerning them (John 8:26) and to judge; but why does He any longer speak to men who will not understand His word? The words remind us of Matthew 17:17, ‘O faithless and perverse generation! How long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you?' And yet those words were said to slow-minded Galileans, not to the hostile ‘Jews.'