Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 12:49
For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.
49. For ] Or, Because: it introduces the reason why one who rejects Christ’s word will be judged by His word; because that word is manifestly Divine and proceeds from the Father.
of myself ] Literally, out of Myself ( ek) without commission from the Father. Comp. from Myself ( apo) Joh 5:30, Joh 7:16; Joh 7:28, Joh 8:28.
he gave me ] Himself (and none other) hath given Me. See on Joh 10:18.
say speak ] ‘Say’ probably refers to the doctrine, ‘speak’ to the form in which it is expressed. See on Joh 8:43.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Of myself – Joh 7:16-18.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Joh 12:49-50
For I have not spoken of Myself.
Christ as a teacher
I. HIS PROFOUND HUMILITY. I have not spoken of Myself. As if He had said, I take no credit for the thoughts that I have addressed to men: they are not the flashes of my own genius, or the conclusions of my own reason. I am not their fountain but their channel. A teacher is great and divine just in proportion to his humility. Alas! the vanity of preachers has become proverbial.
II. HIS CONSCIOUS DIVINITY. But the Father which sent Me, etc. No man is a true spiritual teacher who is not conscious that the thoughts he utters are not his own but Gods. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 49. For I have not spoken of myself] I have not spoken for my secular interest: I have not aimed at making any gain of you: I have not set up myself as your teachers in general do, to be supported by my disciples, and to be credited on my own testimony. I have taught you, not the things of men, but the deep, everlasting truths of God. As his envoy, I came to you; and his truth only I proclaim.
Gave me a commandment] Or, commission. So I understand the original word, . Christ, as the Messiah, received his commission from God; what he should command-every thing that related to the formation and establishment of the Christian institution: and what he should speak – all his private conversations with his disciples or others, he, as man, commanded and spoke through the constant inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I do not speak what I say to you as mere man, or any thing but what is my Fathers will, and mine only as one with him, and as sent by him; I have said nothing but what my Father hath willed me to reveal to the world as his will.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
For I have not spoken of myself,…. As man, or as separate from his Father; his doctrine was not human, but divine, and therefore a rejection of it cannot escape notice at the future judgment:
but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment what I should say, and what I should speak; Christ, as man, had his mission, and commission, and his instructions from his Father to preach the Gospel unto men; he was anointed for it by the Holy Ghost; he was enjoined the preaching of it by his Father, and the several doctrines he published were delivered him by him; see Joh 8:28.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
He hath given (). Perfect active indicative. Christ has permanent commission.
What I should say and what I should speak ( ). Indirect question retaining the deliberative subjunctive (second aorist active , first aorist active ). Meyer and Westcott take to refer to the content and more to the varying manner of delivery. Possibly so.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Of myself [ ] . Out of myself. This formula occurs only here. The usual expression is ajp’ ejmautou. Apo, from, as distinguished from ejk, out of, marks rather the point of departure, while ejk, including this idea, emphasizes the point of departure as the living and impelling source of that which issues forth. In Joh 7:17, we read, “whether it be out of God [ ] , or whether I speak from myself [ ] .” Gave [] . The best texts read dedeken, the perfect tense, hath given, the result of the gift still abiding. So Rev.
Say – speak [ – ] . The former relating to the substance, and the latter to the form of Jesus ‘ utterances.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “For I have not spoken of myself;- (hoti ego eks emautou ouk elalesa) “Because I did not speak out of or from myself,” or just for myself, as a mere man speaks, Joh 5:30; Joh 7:16-17; Joh 7:28-29; Joh 8:26; Joh 8:28; Joh 8:38. He did not speak of His own resources.
2) “But the Father which sent me,” (all’ ho pempsas me pater) “But the Father who has sent me,” Joh 14:10; Joh 14:31.
3) “He gave me a commandment,” (autos moi entolen dedoken) “He has given me a commandment,” a law, rule, or mandate, that I came to obey, to fulfill, or to do, Joh 3:16; Joh 6:38; Joh 11:4-5.
4) “What I should say,” (ti eipo) “What I may say,” or determinations and decisions I should make in all matters, Joh 5:30. He did not create His teachings, or originate them, is the idea.
5) “And what I should speak.” (kai ti laleso) “And what I may speak,” Joh 8:38; Joh 14:10; Joh 14:24, The Father gave Him the doctrine, yet He expressed it in the person of His humanity which did no wrong, Heb 7:26.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
49. For I do not speak from myself. That the outward appearance of man may not lessen the majesty of God, Christ frequently sends us to the Father. This is the reason why he so often mentions the Father; and, indeed, since it would be unlawful to transfer to another a single spark of the Divine glory, the word, to which judgment is ascribed, must have proceeded from God. Now Christ here distinguishes himself from the Father, not simply as to his Divine Person, but rather as to his flesh; lest the doctrine should be judged after the manner of men, and, therefore, should have less weight. But if consciences were subject to the laws and doctrine of men, this argument of Christ would not apply, “My word (he says) will judge, because it has not proceeded from man;” according to that saying,
There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy, (Jas 4:12.)
We may likewise infer from it, how monstrous, is the sacrilege of the Pope in daring to bind souls by his inventions; for in this way he claims more for himself than the Son of God does, who declares that he does not speak but by the commandment of his Father.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(49) For I have not spoken of myself.Comp. Joh. 5:30; Joh. 7:16-17; Joh. 7:28-29; Joh. 8:26; Joh. 8:28; Joh. 8:38. The word for connects this by way of reason with the condemnatory power of His word.
The Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment.Comp. Note on Joh. 10:18. The reference is to the commission of His Messianic life.
What I should say, and what I should speak.It is clear that our Lord intends a distinction here between saying and speaking. We have had the same distinction in Joh. 8:43. That which He should say was the matter of the revelation which He made; that which He should speak was rather the method in which He made it. He claims for all the authority and commission of the Father. Every truth uttered by Him, and every work and word by which it was uttered, was ordained by the Fathers will. He was Himself the Word of God. Every tone and accent in which that Word spoke was divine.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
49. The Father gave me a commandment The Father is the background and original; the Son is the manifestation. The Son is Deity manifest, declaring, sent, obedient; the Father is primitive, declared, sending, commanding. Yet are both mysteriously One.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me, he has instructed me what I should say and speak. And I know that his instruction is eternal life’.
And this is because His words are God’s words in a unique sense, and carry a unique authority. He was sent by the Father, and His words carry the Father’s authority, for He is being carefully instructed by His Father, and will continue to be so. And when men receive that instruction it results for them in eternal life, for it is God’s word which illuminates their hearts and transforms them. Thus He is here to offer eternal life to all who will receive it. (See Joh 3:11; Joh 3:16; Joh 6:63; Joh 7:16; Joh 8:26; Joh 8:28; Joh 8:38).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Joh 12:49-50 . Comp. Joh 7:16 , Joh 5:30 .
] gives the reason for the expression in Joh 12:47-48 : for how plainly divine is this my word!
] , Nonnus.
] ipse .
. .] He has given (laid upon) me a charge, what I should say, and what I should speak . The former designates the doctrine according to its contents , the latter the publication of it through the delivery which makes it known. Comp. on Joh 8:43 ; Rom 3:19 . For similar accumulations of the verbs of speaking in Greek writers, see Dissen, ad Dem. de Cor. p. 187; Lobeck, Paral . p. 61.
] namely the commission which has just previously been more minutely designated. This is, because it is in truth the outflow and channel of the divine redemptive will, eternal life (according to its temporal development and eternal consummation); it is this, however (comp. Joh 6:33 , Joh 17:17 ; comp. Joh 11:25 , Joh 14:6 ), not as the mere means , but as, in its fulfilment, the efficient power of life in virtue of the grace and truth which are received by believers out of the fulness of Jesus, Joh 1:14 ; Joh 1:16 .
] Since that is of so great efficacy, how could I speak that which I speak otherwise than as the Father has said it to me (at my appointment)? Observe the correlation of and , as well as the measured simple solemnity of the close of this address.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
49 For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.
Ver. 49. For I have not spoken of myself ] The divine authority of gospel doctrine is here, in the close of this last sermon ad populum, most gravely asserted by our Saviour; as that which is undoubtedly authentic, because it comes from the Father, e cuius ore nil temere excidit. out of his mouth he destroys nothing rashly, David (saith one) sets the 119th Psalm as a poem of commendation before the book of God. The Son of David (say I) sets this text as his Imprimatur, his authoritative licence, at the end of the gospel. And as a friend once wrote to Aegidius, Abbot of Nuremberg, concerning the 119th Psalm, that they were, verba vivenda, non legenda, words not to be read, but lived; the same may I affirm of our Saviour’s sermons, and I know that his commandment is life everlasting.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
49. ] See ch. Joh 5:30 ; Joh 7:16-17 ; Joh 7:28-29 ; Joh 8:26 ; Joh 8:28 ; Joh 8:38 . On , ch. Joh 10:18 .
There does not appear to be any real difference here, though many have been suggested, between and : both are summed up in in the next verse: compare Mat 10:19 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 12:49 This word will judge him, “because” though spoken here on earth it is divine “I have not spoken at my own instance nor out of my own resources”; , not as in Joh 5:30 , Joh 7:16-18 , , but indicating somewhat more strictly the origin of the utterances. He did not create His teaching, , “but the Father who sent me Himself gave me commandment what I should say and what I should speak”. The former designates the doctrine according to its contents , the latter the varying manner of its delivery. Meyer and Westcott.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
I have not spoken of Myself: i.e. from Myself. The Lord’s constant claim was that His very words were what the Father had given Him to speak. Compare Joh 3:34; Joh 7:16-18; Joh 8:28, Joh 8:47; Joh 14:10, Joh 14:24; Joh 17:8, Joh 17:14.
say. Greek. eipon. This has to do with the matter, or subject.
speak. Greek. laleo. This word. which is very common in John’s Gospel, and occurs eight times in this chapter, refers to the words in which the message
was delivered. See note above and next verse.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
49.] See ch. Joh 5:30; Joh 7:16-17; Joh 7:28-29; Joh 8:26; Joh 8:28; Joh 8:38. On , ch. Joh 10:18.
There does not appear to be any real difference here, though many have been suggested, between and : both are summed up in in the next verse: compare Mat 10:19.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 12:49. , because [for]) This is the reason why the word shall judge the unbeliever; for it is the word of the Father: ch. Joh 14:24, The word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Fathers, which sent Me.-) Himself.- ) is said of a speech copious, and with but one side (one-sided, ): , of a speech brief, and relating to both sides [reciprocal; mutuo], ch. Joh 16:17, etc. [- , etc., ;–]. They differ as and among the Hebrews.[328]
[328] Tittmann, Syn. New Testament, says , is the mere enunciation of words, independently of any reason why they are uttered, the use of human voice and language; relates only to the words as spoken successively; refers to the sentiment and connection of the words.-E. and T.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 12:49
Joh 12:49
For I spake not from myself; but the Father that sent me, he hath given me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.-What Jesus spoke did not originate with him, but came from God. God gave the rule by which the world must be judged. Jesus as the Son of God, sent by him into the world, delivered no message or command of his own, but only the things given him of God. [The Son was the Fathers agent and he spake through him.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Joh 3:11, Joh 3:32, Joh 5:30, Joh 6:38-40, Joh 8:26, Joh 8:42, Joh 14:10, Joh 15:15, Joh 17:8, Deu 18:18, Rev 1:1
Reciprocal: Deu 31:30 – General Pro 3:22 – life Pro 7:2 – Keep Joh 5:19 – The Son Joh 6:63 – the words Joh 7:16 – My Joh 7:28 – and I Joh 8:28 – and that Joh 8:38 – speak Joh 15:10 – even Joh 16:13 – for Joh 17:3 – and Jesus Joh 17:7 – are
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
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It will be consistent for the Father to judge the unbeliever by the words of Jesus, because He has delivered to mankind the words that his Father gave him.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joh 12:49. Because I spake not of myself; but the Father which sent me, he hath given me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. With the first words compare chap. Joh 3:34, Joh 5:19, Joh 7:16-17, Joh 8:28, Joh 14:24. Of receiving a commandment from the Father Jesus has spoken once only (chap. Joh 10:18), but in later chapters we have the same thought (Joh 14:31, Joh 15:10), which indeed is implied wherever He has spoken of Himself as sent by the Father into the world. This commandment is the expression of the Divine plan for the salvation of the world (chap. Joh 3:14-16). The combination of say and speak in the last clause is remarkable: see the note on chap. Joh 8:43.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Vv. 49, 50. For I have not spoken from myself; but the Father who sent me has himself given me commandment what I should say and how I should say it; 50 and I know that his commandment is life eternal; what I say therefore I say even as my Father has said to me.
If the word of Jesus is the standard of judgment, it is because it is that of God Himself, both as to substance ( ) and as to form ( ). The , the commandment, of which Jesus here speaks is not a mandate received once for all before leaving heaven. This idea is incompatible with Joh 3:34,Joh 5:19-20; Joh 5:30, Joh 8:16 (see Gess, pp. 542, 543). Jesus receives for each case the commission which He has to fulfill; He hears before speaking, and He hears because He listens. This constant docility arises in Him (Joh 12:50) from the certainty which he has of the vivifying and regenerating force of that word which the Father intrusts to Him. Whatever may be the objections which it excites, or the doubts which are set in opposition to it, He is conscious of its virtue by means of which it produces in souls eternal life. For this reason (even as, Joh 12:50 b), He gives it to men just as He receives it, without allowing Himself to make any change in it. Comp. Joh 5:30; Joh 7:16-17; Joh 8:28; then Joh 6:63; Joh 6:68.
John formulates very exactly in these few propositions the absolute value which Jesus had constantly attributed to His person and His word. This summary cannot be that of a discourse which the evangelist had the consciousness of having himself composed. It is not possible that he would have drawn up this formidable charge against the unbelief of Israel in the name of discourses which Jesus had never given; still more impossible that he could have founded his indictment, in Joh 12:37, on miracles which were only inventions of his own. To attribute to him such a mode of proceeding would be to make him a shameless impostor or a madman.
And what is to be thought of the writer who should put into the mouth of Jesus these words: I have said nothing from myself; my Father has commanded me what I should say, and how I should say it, and who should make Him say this, while having the consciousness of having himself made Him speak all along and of making Him still do so at this time? Are there not enough impossibilities here? Let us remark also how this retrospective glance, interrupting the narrative, fails of appropriateness if we suppose it to have been composed in the second century, at a time when the question of the rejection by the Jews was no longer an actuality; on the contrary, how natural it is on the part of a man who was himself an eye-witness of this abnormal and unexpected fact of Jewish unbelief.
Before leaving this second part of the gospel story, let us cast a glance backward over the course of the narrative. We have seen in process of accomplishment before our eyes, through all the vicissitudes so dramatically described, the development of the national unbelief and the progressive separation between a people almost wholly fanaticized by its rulers and a feeble minority of believers. Well! Let us for an instant, by a thought, suppress this entire picture, all these journeys of Jesus to Jerusalem, all these conflicts in the very centre of the theocracyas must be done as soon as we reject the credibility of our Gospelbehold, we are in presence of the final catastrophe attested by the Synoptics no less than by St. John: How are we to explain this sudden and tragic denouement? Only by the collisions which took place in a retired province of the Holy Land on occasion of a few Sabbath cures? No: the serious historian, even when accounting for the entrance on Palm-day, can never dispense with this whole series of conflicts in Jerusalem at which we have just been present.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Jesus did not speak a message that He had devised but one that He had received from the Father (cf. Deu 18:18-19). What God had commanded Him to say resulted in eternal life for those who believed it. Consequently Jesus was careful to convey this message exactly as He had received it.
This exhortation explains what John recorded of Jesus’ public ministry.
"The great subject of chap. 12 is the meaning of the death and resurrection of Jesus." [Note: Beasley-Murray, p. 218.]