Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 14:11
Believe me that I [am] in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.
11. Believe me ] The English obliterates the fact that Christ now turns from S. Philip and addresses all the eleven: ‘believe’ is plural not singular. ‘You have been with Me long enough to believe what I say; but if not, at any rate believe what I do. My words need no credentials: but if credentials are demanded, there are My works.’ He had said the same, somewhat more severely, to the Jews (Joh 10:37-38); and he repeats it much more severely in reference to the Jews (Joh 15:22; Joh 15:24). Note the progress from ‘believe Me’ here to ‘believe on Me’ in the next verse; the one grows out of the other.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Believe me … – Believe my declarations that I am in the Father, etc. There were two grounds on which they might believe; one was his own testimony, the other was his works.
Or else – If credit is not given to my words, let there be to my miracles.
For the very works sake – On account of the works; or, be convinced by the miracles themselves. Either his own testimony was sufficient to convince them, or the many miracles which he had performed in healing the sick, raising the dead, etc.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Joh 14:11
Believe Me for the very works sake
The miracles
I.
SHOULD WE BELIEVE THE MIRACLES?
1. Are miracles possible? Hume, Spinosa, and others say, No: reason pronounces them impossible. But whose reason? Theirs? Then that contradicts the all but universal reason, which affirms that with God all things are possible.
2. Are miracles improbable and incredible? Yes, say the same authorities. But did they live when they are alleged to have been performed? One ground of disbelief is, that it is impossible to believe what contradicts experience. But what remains to be proved is, Did miracles contradict the experience of the professed witnesses? The denizens of the equator never saw ice. Their experience contradicts that of the Greenlanders. But which shall we accept? Another ground is that it is unlikely that the Creator would disturb the beneficent order of events. Granted, except for the best and wisest purposes, and in such a way as not to derange the order of the universe. This is what is claimed for Christ; and, indeed, on behalf of the freedom and beneficence of the Creator. The anti-miraculous position is the dethronement of God in favour of natural law.
3. Have we satisfactory ground to believe that Christ performed miracles? There is the same evidence for them as that Caesar entered Gaul and
Britain. Upon this evidence the Christian Church is built; the witnesses died to support their testimony. The fabrication of this testimony would be more miraculous than what it records.
II. SHOULD WE BE INDUCED BY THEM TO ADMIT CHRISTS DIVINE CLAIMS? Yes, for
1. They are the acts of a Creator. We recognize the same Voice saying, Let there be light! that said, Lazarus, come forth! We believe Him for the works sake.
2. Christ is the efficient Agent in all miracles. He promised, and gave to, the apostles their supernatural power; and they referred the effects of it back to Him, and exerted it to produce faith in Him.
3. Christ performed miracles by His own power and in His own name, which the apostles never did.
Conclusion:
1. The blessedness of belief in Christ.
2. The peril of disbelief. (E. N. Kirk, D. D.)
The reasonableness of the evidence of miracles, and its impotence alone
It is quite consistent with Gods wisdom to reveal Himself to the senses,as well as to the soul; and if the gospel were utterly deficient in this latter kind of proof, one great evidence that it is from God would be wanted–an evidence that we are fortified in expecting from the analogies of nature. God has written His glory–e.g., in the heart–at the same time, He has so constructed the visible universe, that the heavens declare the glory of God. And when the eternal Word is manifested into the world, we naturally expect that Divine power shall be shown, as well as Divine beneficence. Miracles, therefore, are exactly what we should expect; and I acknowledge a great corroboration and verification of His claims to Sonship. Besides, they startled and aroused many to His claims who otherwise would never have attended to them. Still the great truth remains untouched, that they, appealing only to the natural man, cannot convey the spiritual certainty of truth which the spiritual man alone apprehends. However, as the natural and spiritual in us are both from God, why should God not have spoken to both, and why should not Christ appeal to natural works, subordinate always to the spiritual self-evidence of Truth itself? (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Believe my words (for that is your duty); but yet if you will not believe my words, declaring to you my union with my Father, yet when you see me doing such works as none but God can do, believe me for their sake. It is true, that both the prophets and the apostles spake Gods words, not their own, to the people, and also did many great and mighty works; but still their doctrine led unto another, that was Christ; and their miracles were not wrought in their own names, but in the name of Christ. Elijah raised the Shunammites dead child to life by prayer to God that he would do it; and the apostles bid the lame man arise and walk, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christs doctrine terminated in himself; he called men to believe in him, and he wrought miracles by his own power, and by a virtue proceeding out of and from himself, though by the power of his Father also, because he and his Father were one in essence.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me,…. Take my word for the truth of this; you may assure yourselves that nothing is more certain; but if you will not believe upon my saying so, either believe for the sake of the doctrines I have preached unto you, which are such as never any mere man spoke, and which have been delivered in such a manner, and with such authority, as never were by man. Some copies read, by way of interrogation, and so the Ethiopic version; and the Vulgate Latin version reads, “believe ye not?”
or else believe me for the very work’s sake: meaning his miraculous works, such as raising the dead, cleansing the lepers, causing the deaf to hear, and giving sight to the blind; and which were such as none but a divine person could ever perform.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Believe me ( ). Repeated appeal (present active imperative of ) as in 14:1 to his disciples and as he had done with the hostile Jews to be influenced by his “works” at any rate (10:38).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Believe me [ ] . The plural of the imperative : “believe ye me.” Compare believest thou, ver. 10. These words are addressed to the disciples collectively, whose thought Philip had voiced.
Or else [ ] . Literally, but if not. If you do not believe on the authority of my personal statement.
For the very works’ sake [ ] . Literally, on account of the works themselves, irrespective of my oral testimony.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Believe me that I am in the Father,” (pisteuete moi hoti ego en to patri) “You all believe me, that I exist in the Father,” Joh 17:21. As Jesus, the Father, and the Spirit were one in the Godhead bodily (Col 2:9), so are His disciples to be and act as one body, assembly, or fellowship in His church work that He has mandated them to do, Rom 12:5.
2) “And the Father in me: (kai ho pater en emoi) “And the Father exists in me,” (Joh 17:23; As the Godhead was visibly manifest or reflected in and through the flesh of Jesus Christ for men to see, to behold, 1Ti 3:16; Joh 1:14; Joh 14:7.
3) “Or else believe me for the very works’ sake.” (ei de me dia ta erga auta pisteuete) “Or else you all believe in me because of the works themselves,” for the miraculous works are signs, evidence, testamentary evidence, that I am that one who was to come, the Son of God, the Redeemer, the Messiah, Deu 18:15-19; Isa 7:14; Isa 9:6; Joh 3:2;. See also Joh 5:36; Joh 10:38; Act 2:22.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(11) Believe me that I am in the Father.He passes now from Philip, and addresses Himself to the whole body of the apostles. He claims from them a personal trust in Himself, which should accept His statement that He and the Father were immanent in each other.
Or else believe me for the very works sake.If they cannot receive the truth on the testimony of His word, He will take lower ground with them. He will place before them the evidence He had placed before the Jews. Let them, if they will not hear Him, believe on account of the very works which He had done. (Comp. Note on Joh. 5:19-20; Joh. 10:37-38.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11. Believe me or for the very works’ sake That is, believe me from my own self-evident nature as you see me before you; or believe me for the sake of the very miracles I perform. The living character of Jesus was its own evidence, speaking for itself, and worthy to inspire faith of the highest kind in the higher order of mind. Even at the present day the person and character of Jesus, as mirrored in the Gospels, is a unique and powerful proof of its own divinity. But if Philip’s mind could not appreciate this proof, let him look at the divine works of Jesus, and acknowledge that he who possesses so supernatural a power in his deeds must possess a supernatural power in his words.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, or else believe me for the very works’ sake.”
Jesus now repeats what He has said in Joh 10:38. He longs that they may look at Him and consider His life and recognise His uniqueness as the One Who is the abode of the Father, recognise that He fully and actually represents the Father distinctively and completely, and that because They are in such unity that when One acts the Other is acting. But if the disciples are not quite there yet, let them rather contemplate His works and let His works speak for Him. For while that is not finally sufficient, it is a beginning. What is important is that they should step over the line from saying, ‘Master’, to saying ‘My Lord and My God’ (Joh 20:28).
It is quite evident that by ‘the Father in me and I in the Father’ He was here intending to indicate His own unique Oneness with the Father (compare Joh 10:30; Joh 10:38), for the whole context demands it. No one else could have said these words with this significance, nor can. It is true that later He can say that the Father is in His disciples (Joh 14:23), and that we can claim to be ‘in Him’, but it is obvious from the context that what He says here is in a different sense from that. He never suggests that when people see the disciples they actually see the Father. His disciples may become the dwelling place of the Father through the activity of Jesus and His Spirit, (and thus spiritually), and as a result reveal something of the Father, but in the case of Jesus the oneness is such a permanent and essential reality that to see Him is to see the fullness of God, something revealed by His works which only God could do.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.
Ver. 11. Believe me that I am, &c. ] Take my bare word without any further pawn or proof. This is an honour due to Christ only, that he is , He is Amen, “the faithful and true witness,” Rev 3:14 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
11 24. ] Jesus will make proof of His abiding union with the Father, in His union with His own: and this, Joh 14:12-14 , in answering prayer: Joh 14:15-17 , in the sending of the Spirit: Joh 14:18 ff., as a pledge of the completion of this union in His personal return . The Lord now unfolds out of this , the great promise of the Paraclete.
] See ch. Joh 10:38 . The object here seems to be, to fix their attention on the works as a plain testimony even to such as could not simply believe so deep a thing on His assertion ( . ), and one which ( Joh 14:12 ) should become subjective in themselves hereafter, by virtue of their living union with Him who is gone to the Father, and become the dispenser and channel of the Spirit. “Qui Christo de se loquenti credit, in Christum credit.” Bengel.
. ] This word . is not to be evaded (so as to = , Lampe), but taken in its full strict sense. And the keys to its meaning will be found ch. Joh 1:51 ; Joh 5:20 . The works which Jesus did, His Apostles also did, scil., raising the dead, &c.; greater works than those , they did, not in degree , but in kind: spiritual works, under the dispensation of the Spirit, which had not yet come in . But they did them, not as separate from Him: but in Him, and by Him; and so (ch. Joh 5:21 ) He is said to do them. The work which He did by Peter’s sermon, Act 2 , was one of these , the first-fruits of the unspeakable gift.
This union of them with and in Him is expressed here by . , .
“He has sown, we reap; and the harvest is greater than the seed-time,” Stier. ver. 189, edn. 2.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 14:11 . . “Believe me,” i.e. , my assertion, not my manifestation, “or if you find that difficult, believe on account of the works themselves”. The mention of His works and the evidence they afford that He is in the Father suggests to Him a ground of comfort for His disciples in view of His departure. And from this point onwards in this chapter it is to the comforting of the disciples our Lord addresses Himself. First, in Joh 14:12-14 ; second, in Joh 14:15-17 ; third, in Joh 14:18-21 . The mention of the Paraclete in connection with this third item of encouragement gives rise to a fourth interruption, this time by Judas, Joh 14:22-24 ; and at Joh 14:25 . Jesus resumes His explanation of the Paraclete’s function, and closes with several considerations calculated to remove their fears.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Believe Me that, &c. App-150.
believe Me. App-150.
for . . . sake = On account of. Greek. dia. App-104. Joh 14:2.
very works = works themselves.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
11-24.] Jesus will make proof of His abiding union with the Father, in His union with His own: and this, Joh 14:12-14, in answering prayer: Joh 14:15-17, in the sending of the Spirit: Joh 14:18 ff., as a pledge of the completion of this union in His personal return. The Lord now unfolds out of this , the great promise of the Paraclete.
] See ch. Joh 10:38. The object here seems to be, to fix their attention on the works as a plain testimony even to such as could not simply believe so deep a thing on His assertion (. ), and one which (Joh 14:12) should become subjective in themselves hereafter,-by virtue of their living union with Him who is gone to the Father, and become the dispenser and channel of the Spirit. Qui Christo de se loquenti credit, in Christum credit. Bengel.
. ] This word . is not to be evaded (so as to = , Lampe), but taken in its full strict sense. And the keys to its meaning will be found ch. Joh 1:51; Joh 5:20. The works which Jesus did, His Apostles also did,-scil., raising the dead, &c.;-greater works than those, they did,-not in degree, but in kind: spiritual works, under the dispensation of the Spirit, which had not yet come in. But they did them, not as separate from Him: but in Him, and by Him; and so (ch. Joh 5:21) He is said to do them. The work which He did by Peters sermon, Acts 2, was one of these ,-the first-fruits of the unspeakable gift.
This union of them with and in Him is expressed here by . , .
He has sown, we reap; and the harvest is greater than the seed-time, Stier. ver. 189, edn. 2.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 14:11. ) Non creditis is the reading of the Lat. Vulg. arising from alliteration [the transcribers eye catching the similar letters and word] at the preceding verse, which also had, Non credis quia. Thence the Latin transcriber also has omitted mihi[347] also at the end of the verse. Believe, Believe: an instance of Epanalepsis [See Append., When the same word is in the beginning of the preceding member, and in the end of the following member of the sentence].-) because [but Engl. Vers. that]: with which comp. the , for the sake of presently after. Believe Me for the sake of, My very affirmation, which is sufficient ground for believers to rest on. This is the first motive to faith; one which Christ alone could have proposed: a second is afforded by the miracles, on account of which the apostles also could have been believed [could claim their hearers faith] concerning Christ.-, the works) which ye have heretofore seen, and which ye are about to see: Joh 14:12, etc., Greater works than these shall he do. [For these could not have been of any other, save Divine origination. Psa 72:18, The Lord God-who only doeth wondrous things; Psa 136:4, To Him, who alone doeth great wonders. The footing on which false miracles rest is altogether distinct: 2Th 2:9, The working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders.-V. g.]- , believe Me) , on Me, in the foll. verse. He who believes Christ, when speaking concerning Himself, believes on Christ: whereas, he who believes Peter, when speaking concerning Christ, believes not on Peter, but on Christ.
[347] This word, both in the beginning and in the end of this verse, though it is not reckoned among the inferior readings by the margin of Ed. 2, yet is exiled from the second place [the end of the verse] by the Germ. Vers.-E. B. ABQab Rec. Text have at the end of the ver. But Dc Vulg. Syr. and L omit it.-E. and T.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 14:11
Joh 14:11
Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works sake.-If he could not believe on the teachings of Jesus as from God, the works that he did through Jesus ought to convince him that God was in Jesus. Both the mercy and power shown in the works of Jesus proclaimed him divine. [The works Jesus did were never done by man, and they ought to convince them that he was divine.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
or: Joh 5:36, Joh 10:25, Joh 10:32, Joh 10:38, Joh 12:38-40, Mat 11:4, Mat 11:5, Luk 7:21-23, Act 2:22, Heb 2:4
Reciprocal: Num 16:28 – Hereby Joh 8:29 – he that sent Joh 9:3 – but Joh 9:16 – This man Joh 11:15 – to Joh 16:32 – yet 2Co 5:19 – God 2Pe 1:17 – God
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1
The strongest evidence of the divinity of Jesus was the work he was doing. He could not have accomplished his wonderful works without the aid of his Father. That is why he told the apostles they ought to believe him for the very works’ sake.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joh 14:11. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe for his works sake. Jesus has established the proposition by which He would show Philip the impropriety of his request. He now calls upon him, and upon the other disciples through him, to receive it. First, they ought to do this upon the authority of His own statement, the statement of One who is in the Father; but, if that be not enough, then upon the authority of the Fathers works in Him. By these last we are certainly not to understand miracles alone. Miracles are, no doubt, included, although not simply as works of supernatural power. All the works of the Father in the Son are meant, all bearing on them those tokens of the Father which appeal to the heart, and ought to satisfy men that, in doing them, Jesus reveals not Himself but the Father. The second part of the reply follows in
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Jesus cited another proof of His union with the Father beside His words, namely, His works (Gr. erga). Specifically He meant His miracles (cf. Joh 5:36; Joh 10:25; Joh 10:37-38; Joh 11:47; Joh 12:37; Joh 20:30-31). Jesus’ miracles were signs that signified His divine identity (cf. Joh 2:11). What we regard as a miracle was nothing more than a normal work for Jesus. [Note: For a discussion of Jesus’ "works," see Morris, pp. 607-13.]