Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 10:37
If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.
37. believe me not ] A literal command. If His works are not those which His Father works, they ought not (not merely have no need) to believe what He says. Comp. Joh 5:24; Joh 5:46; Joh 6:30; Joh 8:31; Joh 8:45. His works are His Father’s (Joh 9:3, Joh 14:10).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
37, 38. Having met their technical charge in a technical manner He now proceeds to justify the assertion of His unity with the Father by an appeal to His works.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 37. If I do not the works, &c.] I desire you to believe only on the evidence of my works: if I do not do such works as God only can perform, then believe me not.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Our Saviour doth often appeal to his works to testify concerning his Divine mission and power; these works he here calleth the
works of his Father; by which he doth not only mean works that are pleasing and acceptable to God, as acts of obedience to the will of God performed by men may be called, and are, Joh 6:28,29; nor (as I conceive) only those works which he did by commission and authority from his Father, which, Joh 17:4, he calleth the work which his Father had given him to do; but those works which none but God could do; such were the multiplication of the loaves, Joh 6:1-14, the curing of him who was born blind, Joh 9:1-41, &c. If (saith our Saviour) I do not do those works which no mere man ever did, give me no credit; but if I do those works which can be done by no human art or power, you have reason to believe me.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
37-39. though ye believe not me,believe the worksThere was in Christ’s words, independently ofany miracles, a self-evidencing truth, majesty and grace, which thosewho had any spiritual susceptibility were unable to resist (Joh 7:46;Joh 8:30). But, for those whowanted this, “the works” were a mighty help. When thesefailed, the case was desperate indeed.
that ye may know and believethat the Father is in me, and I in himthus reiterating Hisclaim to essential oneness with the Father, which He had onlyseemed to soften down, that He might calm their rage and gettheir ear again for a moment.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
If I do not the works of my Father,…. Not only what the Father had given him to finish, and which he wrought by him as man, but such as were as great as the Father had done, and were equal to them; and which could not be done by any, but by the Father, or by one that is equal with him:
believe me not: Christ appeals to his miracles as proofs of his deity, sonship, and Messiahship, and desires no other credit than what they demand; see Mt 11:3.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
If I do not ( ). Condition of first class, assumed as true, with negative , not =unless.
Believe me not ( ). Prohibition with and the present active imperative. Either “cease believing me” or “do not have the habit of believing me.” Jesus rests his case on his doing the works of “my Father” ( ), repeating his claims to sonship and deity.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Believe me [ ] . Notice believe, with the simple dative; believe me, not on me. It is a question of faith in His testimony, not in His person. See on 1 12.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) ”If I do not the works of my Father,” (ei ou poio ta erga tou patros) “If I do not (perform or do) the works of my Father,” as I assert that I do, Joh 5:36; Joh 6:38; Joh 17:4-5; And Nicodemus witnessed it, as well as others of their own numbers, Joh 3:2; Joh 10:21.
2) “Believe me not.” (me pisteuete moi) “You all believe or trust me not,” but if I do them as I have repeatedly told you, believe in me, for I am the one all the true prophets have talked about, Act 10:43; Joh 20:30-31; And I have warned you or your destruction in eternity, if you do not repent of your sins and believe, Joh 8:21; Joh 8:24; Joh 8:32; Joh 8:36; Luk 13:3; Luk 13:5; Luk 19:10.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
37. If I do not the works Lest the Jews might reply that it was in vain for him to boast of sanctification, and of all that depended on it, he again draws their attention to his miracles, in which there was a sufficiently evident proof of his Divinity. This is in the shape of a concession, as if he had said, “I do not wish you to be bound to give me credit on any other condition than that you see the fact plainly before your eyes. (303) You may safely reject me, if God has not openly given testimony to me.”
The works of my Father. He gives them this name, because those works were truly Divine, and because so great power shone in them, that they could not be ascribed to a man.
(303) “ Sinon que vous voyez le faict evident devant vos yeux.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(37) If I do not the works of my Father.He has met the charge of blasphemy on technical grounds. In this and the following verse He advances from that defence to the ultimate test. Whether He is a blasphemer or not depends upon whether He represents God or not, and to prove this He appeals again to the works. Are they or are they not the works of the Father? (Joh. 10:32; comp. Joh. 5:17; Joh. 5:36; Joh. 9:3; Joh. 14:10.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
37. Works of my Father Here is proof of higher claim to divinity than human magistrates can show. Works of omnipotence show a profounder identification with the Omnipotent than any human office can arrogate.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. But if I do do them, then believe the works even though you do not believe me, so that you may know and go on knowing that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father’.
Look at what I have done, He said, and think about it. Ask yourselves where I have received this power from, and why I am doing what no one else has ever done. Jesus knew all along that to blatantly claim to be God would be futile. He would have been ridiculed, arrested and stoned to death, or treated as a madman. First He had to demonstrate Who He was by His acts of power and His depth of teaching. Then He had to wait for it to dawn on them little by little.
So let them think again over all He had said and done. Then let them recognise that this could only mean one thing, that the Father was in Him and He was in the Father. That there is indeed an essential unity between Him and His Father which can be expressed in no other way. They are one. Thus having disarmed them by using their own exegetical methods, He now reaffirmed His uniqueness.
So He has declared, “I and my Father are one”, and that He was the One Whom His Father ‘sanctified (set apart for a holy purpose) and sent into the world’, and that the Father was in Him and He is in the Father, and that He had power to lay down His life and take it again. Had He not therefore done what they asked, revealing clearly that He was the Messiah, even if not the type they were wanting? And revealing even more, that He was the true Son of God.
‘Know and go on knowing.’ This is the aorist and present tense of ginosko – ‘that you may come to know and go on knowing’. However, in place of the latter the verb ‘and believe’ has fairly strong support in the manuscripts. The point, however, is the same. He wants their complete response.
His words have succeeded in their purpose. They have puzzled the Judaisers sufficiently for them to calm down a little. But that does not mean that they believed Him, for they once more tried to arrange for His arrest.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Joh 10:37-39 . Your unbelief, which lies at the foundation of the judgment , would then be justifiable, if I were not, etc. In the other case, however, you ought to believe, if not me, at all events my works, in order that you, etc.
] if I leave them undone. Comp. Buttm. Neut. Gr . p. 297 [E. T. p. 346]; Baeumlein, Partik . p. 278.
. .] which my Father works; compare on Joh 9:3 , Joh 14:10 , also Joh 10:23 .
. ] not merely permissive, but an actual command , as in the case of the following (see the critical note). The alternative is decided : they ought not to believe Him, if, etc.
] My person in and by itself, apart from the actual testimony borne to it by the .
To believe the works , is to hold for true the testimony which is contained in them (Joh 5:36 ). The object of faith is that which Jesus declares concerning Himself, and what, in agreement therewith (comp. Joh 14:11 ), the works prove concerning Him. According to the reading . (see the critical note), which Hengstenberg, notwithstanding, rejects as giving an unbearable meaning, Jesus describes this as the end to be attained by His prescription: in order that ye may attain to knowledge, and may (permanently) know , etc. drawing a distinction between the act and the state of knowledge. Compare , Plat. Legg . viii. p. 849 B.
. ] This now is the unity which He meant in Joh 10:30 ; not essential unity (old orthodox explanation of the essentialis patris in filio et filii in patre, see Calovius), although it is metaphysically the fundamental condition, but dynamic unity: the Father lives and moves in Christ, who is His active organ, and again Christ is in the Father, so far as Christ in God is the power which determines the execution of the divine . The thought that Christ has in God “the ground of His existence and working” (De Wette), lies far remote from the words , because the relation of the clauses of the proposition must be equal . But this relation is nothing else than that of inner, active, reciprocal fellowship . In accordance therewith, the Father is in the Son, as in the executor of His work, as the Son is also in the Father, because Christ is the regulative and determining agens et movens of the work of redemption in the Father. Comp. the many Pauline passages which represent all the divine redemptive activity as taking place in Christ; e.g . Rom 8:39 ; Eph 1:3 ff.
Joh 10:39 . ] In consequence of this defence, which averted the threatened tumultuous stoning, for which the Jews had begun to prepare themselves. The supposition that denotes laying hold of with a view to carrying out the stoning , is opposed by the , which refers back to Joh 7:30 ; Joh 7:32 ; Joh 7:44 (against Calvin, Luthardt, Hengstenberg).
, etc.] And yet they were unable to carry their plan into execution; He escaped out of their hands , which are conceived as already stretched out after Him. How this deliverance was effected must be left undetermined. (Kuinoel: by the arrival of His adherents; Hengstenberg: by the indecision of His enemies); of any miraculous element ( e.g . becoming invisible) in His escape, although assumed by many early commentators, and even yet by B. Crusius and Luthardt, John gives no hint. Comp. on Joh 8:59 . Euth. Zigabenus: , .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
37 If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.
Ver. 37. If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not ] Thus said Christ, but so saith not Christ’s vicar, as the pope will needlessly be called, His placita pleasing must be obeyed, not examined; and though by his evil example he draw thousands to hell, none must mute, or say so much as, What doest thou?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
37, 38. ] Having put the charge of blasphemy aside, our Lord again has recourse to the testimony of His works , at which He hinted Joh 10:32 ; and here, to their character , as admitted by them in Joh 10:33 . ‘If they bear not the character of the Father, believe Me not: but if they do (which even yourselves admit), though ye may hate and disbelieve Me, recognize the unquestionable testimony of the works: that ye may be led on to the higher faith of the unity of Myself and the Father.’
. ] The distinction lies in the force of the present as denoting the continuance of a state, whereas the aorist implies an act of a moment. The nearest approach to it in English would perhaps be, that ye may perceive (the introductory act) and know (the abiding state). This distinction between the tenses not being appreciated, has been awkwardly changed to . Cf. Plato, Legg. viii. p. 849 , .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 10:37-38 . . “If I do not the works of my Father, do not believe me: but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works.” That is, if you do not credit my statements, accept the testimony of the deeds I do. And this, not to give me the glory but “that ye may know and believe [ cf. Joh 6:69 ] that the Father is in me, and I in the Father” [for read ].
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
believe. App-160.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
37, 38.] Having put the charge of blasphemy aside, our Lord again has recourse to the testimony of His works, at which He hinted Joh 10:32; and here, to their character, as admitted by them in Joh 10:33. If they bear not the character of the Father, believe Me not: but if they do (which even yourselves admit), though ye may hate and disbelieve Me, recognize the unquestionable testimony of the works:-that ye may be led on to the higher faith of the unity of Myself and the Father.
. ] The distinction lies in the force of the present as denoting the continuance of a state, whereas the aorist implies an act of a moment. The nearest approach to it in English would perhaps be, that ye may perceive (the introductory act) and know (the abiding state). This distinction between the tenses not being appreciated, has been awkwardly changed to . Cf. Plato, Legg. viii. p. 849 , .
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 10:37. , the works of My Father) Those very works of a divine nature, which My Father doeth, ch. Joh 14:10-11, The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of Myself; but the Father, that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me; or else believe Me for the very works sake. His words are characterized by the accompanying works.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 10:37
Joh 10:37
If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not-He presents the works he did in their midst as the witness that he was from God and that God was with him.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Joh 10:25, Joh 10:32, Joh 5:31, Joh 12:37-40, Joh 14:10, Joh 15:24, Mat 11:20-24
Reciprocal: Mat 8:4 – for Joh 5:36 – the works Joh 6:27 – for him Joh 9:4 – must Joh 11:42 – that they Act 2:22 – a man 1Jo 5:7 – The Father
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE EVIDENCE OF THE MIRACLES
If I do not the works of My Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not Me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.
Joh 10:37-38
Observe the importance which our Lord Jesus Christ attaches to His miracles. He appeals to them as the best evidence of His own Divine mission.
I. The mighty miracles which our Lord performed during the three years of His earthly ministry are not considered as much as they ought to be in the present day. These miracles were not few in number. Forty times and more we read in the Gospels of His doing things entirely out of the ordinary course of nature. We are so familiar with these things that we are apt to forget the mighty lesson they teach. They teach that He Who worked these miracles must be nothing less than very God. They stamp His doctrines and precepts with the mark of Divine authority.
II. Unbelieving men have tried to pour contempt on Christs miracles, and to deny that they were ever worked at all. But they labour in vain. Proofs upon proofs exist that our Lords ministry was accompanied by miracles; and that this was acknowledged by those who lived in our Lords time. Objectors of this sort would do well to take up the one single miracle of our Lords resurrection from the dead, and disprove it if they can. If they cannot disprove that, they ought, as honest men, to confess that miracles are possible. And then, if their hearts are truly humble, they ought to admit that He Whose mission was confirmed by such evidence must have been the Son of God.
III. Christianity has abundant evidence that it is a religion from God.Whether we appeal to the internal evidence of the Bible, or to the lives of the first Christians, or to prophecy, or to miracles, or to history, we get one and the same answer. All say with one voice, Jesus is the Son of God, and believers have life through His Name,
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
7
Jesus was willing to rest his reputation upon the works that he did. The Jews would not have been able to name a single thing that Jesus performed that God condemned in the Scriptures. That would indicate the works were of the Father and it should have caused them to become believers.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joh 10:37. If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. In the last verse the Father was the Name of which Jesus spoke, thus bringing together in thought God who spoke in the psalm and His Father who sent Him into the world. Here, after the mention of the Son of God, He says the works of my Father. If He does no such works they have no right to believe His word and acknowledge His claims. It is otherwise it He does them.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Here we have a second argument, by which our Saviour proves, that it was no blasphemy to call himself God; but that he was God in very deed; namely, an argument taken from his works: If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not; and the argument runs thus; If (says Christ) I do those miraculous works, which no power less than a divine power can effect, then you ought by these works to be led to believe and acknowledge, that I am truly and really God: but the works which I do are the effect and product of an omnipotent power, therefore you ought to believe, that I am one in essence with the Father, there being a mutual in-existence of one person in the other, so that he Father is in me, and I in him; and thus I and the Father are one.
Learn hence, That Christ never required of his disciples and followers an implicit faith, or a blind obedience; but as he submitted his doctrine to the trial of reason, so he submitted his miracles to the examination and judgment of sense: therefore he says, If I do not the works of my Father, that is, divine works, believe me not to be a divine person.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Joh 10:37-39. If I do not the works of my Father, &c. When I claim the character of the Son of God, I do not expect to be credited merely on my own affirmation: if I do not such glorious works as could not be performed by any but a divine agent, believe me not: but if I do If it be apparent that I do such works, though you believe not me, and are regardless of my own testimony in the case, yet, at least, believe the works; and let their evidence remove the prejudices you have entertained; that ye may know, &c., that the Father is in me, and I in him Namely, by such a union as abundantly justifies the expression which seems to give you such peculiar offence. In other words, Though ye do not believe what I say concerning my personal dignity, on my own authority, you ought to believe it on account of my miracles, which are plainly of such a kind, that it is impossible for any deceiver to perform them; they are the works of God himself, and therefore you ought to consider them as such. Therefore they sought again to take him For this defence was so far from pacifying them, that they were rather the more enraged at him through it. But he escaped out of their hand Withdrew himself, as he had done before, in an extraordinary manner. See Joh 8:59; Luk 4:30.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Vv. 37-38. If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not; 38 but if I do them, though you believe not me, believe my works, to the end that you may know and may understand that my Father is in me and I am in him.
There is much of gentleness in the manner in which Jesus here expresses Himself and reasons. He appeals with calmness from passion to sound reason. He consents that they should not believe on the ground of the word, although the testimony of a being like Himself ought to carry its proof in itself. But to His testimony there are unitedthe works which the Father has accomplished through Him. If they have not ears, they have eyes; and what they do not infer from His words, they should, at least, infer from such works. The words: If you do not believe me, mean: If you do not accord belief to my personal affirmations. The reading of some Alexandrian authorities: , seems to me the best one: To the end that you may learn to know () and at last may understand (). These two terms taken together express the long and painful labor of that discovery which might have resulted from the first glance: Come and see (Joh 1:47). The apparently pleonastic sense of this reading not having been understood by the copyists, they gave to the text the more common form which we find in the received reading: to the end that you may understand and believe. The words: the Father in me, and I in the Father, which indicate the contents of this obtained knowledge, recall the declaration of Joh 10:30 (we are one), but it does not follow from this, that, as Weiss will have it, it exhausts the sense of that declaration. It must not be forgotten that Joh 10:30; Joh 10:36 are the immediate expression of the contents of the consciousness of Jesus Himself, while Joh 10:38 formulates these contents only in the measure in which they can and should become the object of the moral apperception of believers. By beholding with the eye of faith, they will discover more and more clearly two things: the full communication which God makes of His riches to this human being, His organ on the earth (the Father in me); and the complete self- divesting by which Jesus, renouncing His own life, draws everything solely from the fullness of the Father and His gifts (I in him). This is the form in which faith can apprehend here below the unity of the Father and the Son. This relation is the manifestation of their essential unity, which Jesus had affirmed as the contents of His own consciousness.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Jesus next identified the evidence that His critics should consider, namely, His works, including His miracles (cf. Joh 10:25). He acknowledged that verbal claims were not sufficient in themselves. The Jews should learn from them and continue to learn from them that He was doing the same kinds of good works that God did. Jesus manifested divine compassion and divine power in His works. These traits also marked God’s works.