Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 14:7
If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
7. If ye had known me ] In the better MSS, we have here again two different words for ‘know’ (see on Joh 7:26, Joh 8:55, Joh 13:7), and the emphasis in the first clause is on ‘known’ in the second on ‘Father.’ Beware of the common mistake of putting an emphasis on ‘Me.’ The meaning is: ‘If ye had recognized Me, ye would have known My Father also.’ The veil of Jewish prejudice was still on their hearts, hiding from them the true meaning both of Messianic prophecy and of the Messiah’s acts.
from henceforth ] The same expression as is mistranslated ‘now’ in Joh 13:19: it is to be understood literally, not proleptically.
ye know him ] Or, recognise Him. From this time, onwards, after the plain declaration of Himself in Joh 14:6, they begin to recognise the Father in Him. Philip’s request leads to a fuller statement of Joh 14:6.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
If ye had known me – By this Jesus does not intend to say that they were not truly his disciples, but that they had not a full and accurate knowledge of his character and designs. They still retained, to a large extent, the Jewish notions respecting a temporal Messiah, and did not fully understand that he was to die and be raised from the dead.
Ye should have known my Father also – You would have known the counsels and designs of my Father respecting my death and resurrection. If you had been divested of your Jewish prejudices about the Messiah, if you had understood that it was proper for me to die, you would also have understood the purposes and plans of God in my death; and, knowing that, you would have seen that it was wise and best. We see here that a correct knowledge of the character and work of Christ is the same as a correct knowledge of the counsels and plans of God; and we see, also, that the reasons why we have not such a knowledge are our previous prejudices and erroneous views.
From henceforth – From this time. From my death and resurrection you shall understand the plans and counsels of God.
Ye know him – You shall have just views of his plans and designs.
Have seen him – That is, they had seen Jesus Christ, his image, and the brightness of his glory Heb 1:3, which was the same as having seen the Father, Joh 14:9.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 7. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father] Because I and the Father are ONE, Joh 10:30. Or, if ye had properly examined the intention and design of the law, ye would have been convinced that it referred to me; and that all that I have done and instituted was according to the design and intention of the Father, as expressed in that law.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
If ye had known me as you ought to have known me, as I am indeed the eternal Son of God, sent by my Father into the world, you should have known my Father, with whom I am equal, and one and the same God, so as in knowing one of us, you must have known both: but you stick in my outward form and appearance, while I appear to you in the form of a man; and you stick in your prejudices sucked in from the notion you have of the Messiah, expecting I know not what temporal prince: these things blind you as to my Divine nature, (personally united to my human nature), that you see nothing of my Godhead, which if you had clearly known and believed, you would not have been at a loss to know the Father, the brightness of whose glory, and the express image of whose person, I am, though my glory be veiled by my human nature. And if you will yet believe what I say, from henceforth you do know the Father, and you have seen the Father so oft as you have seen me.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. from henceforthnow, orfrom this time, understand.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
If ye had known me,…. Christ having made mention of his Father’s house, and of himself, as the way thither, and the way of access to the Father, was willing to inform his disciples better concerning him before his departure from them, which he introduces, saying: “if ye had known me”; that is, more fully and perfectly; for that they knew Christ to be the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, and true Messiah, is certain, though they were not so thoroughly acquainted, as afterwards, with his person, power, and office:
ye should have known my Father also; for the knowledge of the Father, and of Christ, go together; he that sees the one, sees the other; he that believes in the one, believes in the other; and the knowledge of both is necessary to eternal life; and as a person increases in the knowledge of the one, so of the other. The disciples had some knowledge of them both, but what was very small and obscure, in comparison of what they afterwards had:
and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him; some read these words, “henceforwards ye shall know him, and see him”; that is, in a very short time, when the Spirit is poured down from on high upon you, and you have received the gifts of the Holy Ghost, you shall then have an enlarged knowledge both of me and my Father. Others render them, as an exhortation, “henceforward know ye him”; acknowledge the Father in all that I have done, believing that you see the Father in me, and in all my works; though they are rather to be considered as an assertion, declaring, that they then had some knowledge of the Father; “and now ye know him, and”, or “because ye have seen him”; in me, who am “the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person”.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
If ye had known me ( ). Past perfect indicative of , to know by personal experience, in condition of second class as is made plain by the conclusion ( ) where , not is used. Thomas and the rest had not really come to know Jesus, much as they loved him.
From henceforth ye know him (‘ ). Probably inchoative present active indicative, “ye are beginning to know the Father from now on.”
And have seen him ( ). Perfect active indicative of . Because they had seen Jesus who is the Son of God, the Image of God, and like God (1:18). Hence God is like Jesus Christ. It is a bold and daring claim to deity. The only intelligible conception of God is precisely what Jesus here says. God is like Christ.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Had known [] . Rather, had learned to know, through my successive revelations of myself.
Ye should have known [ ] . The same verb as above. Some editors, however, read hdeite, the verb signifying absolute knowledge, the knowledge of intuition and satisfied conviction. If this is adopted, it marks a contrast with the progressive knowledge indicated by ejgnwkeite. See on 2 24.
My Father. Not the Father, as ver. 6. It is the knowledge of the Father in His relation to the Son. Through this knowledge the knowledge of God as the Father, “in the deepest verity of His being,” is attained. This latter knowledge is better expressed by oi=da. See on 4 21.
Have seen. See on 1 18.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “If ye had known me,” (ei egnokeite me) “if you all had known me,” fully, as you should, in my birth, my life, my character, my words, and my nature, and who is present in me.
2) “Ye should have known my Father also:” (kai ton patera mou an edeite) “You would also have known my Father,” or perceived who my Father is, who exists in me, whom I have manifested to the world, Joh 17:6-8; Joh 17:14.
3) “And from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.” (ap’ arti ginoskete auton) “From now (this moment) you all know him,” and have beheld Him, as you have beheld me, Heb 1:3; Joh 12:44-45; Col 1:15; 1Ti 6:16.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
7. If you had known me. He confirms what we have just now said, that it is a foolish and pernicious curiosity, when men, not satisfied with him, attempt to go to God by indirect and crooked paths. (64) They admit that there is nothing better than the knowledge of God; but when he is near them, and speaks to them familiarly, they wander through their own speculations, and seek above the clouds him whom they do not deign to acknowledge as present. Christ, therefore, blames the disciples for not acknowledging that the fullness of the Godhead was manifested in him. “I see,” (says he,) “that hitherto you have not known me in a right and proper manner, because you do not yet acknowledge the lively image of the Father which is exhibited in me.”
And henceforth you know him, and have seen him. He adds this, not only to soften the severity of the reproof, but likewise to accuse them of ingratitude and slothfulness, if they do not consider and inquire what has been given to them; for he said this rather for the purpose of commending his doctrine than of extolling their faith. The meaning therefore is, that God is now plainly exhibited to them if they would but open their eyes. The word see expresses the certainty of faith.
(64) “ Par voyes obliques et tortues.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(7) If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also.The thought here is made quite plain by what has preceded; but the form in which it is expressed demands attention. The emphasis of the first part of the sentence is not upon Me as is generally supposed, but upon known. In the second part the emphatic words are My Father. The English word known represents two Greek words in the better text which are not identical in meaning. The former means, to know by observation, the latter to know by reflection. It is the difference between connatre and savoir; between kennen (ken, k(e)now), and wissen (wit, wisdom). We may express the meaning more exactly thus, If ye had recognised Me, ye would have known My Father also. If ye had recognised who I really am; ye would have known that I and My Father are one.
And from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.Comp. Joh. 13:31, where the glorifying of the Son of Man is regarded as in the future which is immediately present. He can, therefore, say that from this time onwards, after the full declaration of Himself in Joh. 14:6; Joh. 14:9 et seq., they know and have seen the Father.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7. Known me known my Father For Christ the Son is at the same time the incarnation of God entire, of the entire Trinity at once. He is the human personation of God; showing to men how God would be, and how God would act, if God were himself a man. God in Christ became man-like that he might show man how to become godlike. Said the infidel Rosseau, “Socrates died like a philosopher, but Jesus Christ died like a god.”
Have seen him They have not indeed seen the substance of the invisible God; for God the Spirit can be seen only by the spirit’s eye; but they had seen God as they had seen man, with the bodily eye, by looking upon the bodily person of Jesus.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“If you had fully known me you would have known my Father as well. And from now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Jesus now confirms His uniqueness. The question is, have they fully known Him? Let them now recognise Who He really is. He is the One Who has fully revealed the Father in such a way that to have known Him is to have fully known the Father. That is why John, in amazed wonder when enlightenment had fully come, could say, ‘We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only Son of the Father’ (Joh 1:14), and this is what Jesus is saying here. He is saying that as ‘the only Son of the Father’, that is as the only One of the same substance and essence as the Father, He is the only One Who reveals what God essentially is. In the words of Hebrews ‘He is the outshining of His glory and the exact representation of His substance’ (Heb 1:3). In consequence they not only know the Father through Him, but have actually seen the Father in Him in such a way as to describe it as having actually seen the Father. Through knowing Him they have known the Father in His essential Being.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Joh 14:7. If ye had known me, ye should have known, &c. If “you had an adequate idea of my character, from the miracles that I have performed, and from the marks of goodness, justice, and wisdom, which manifest themselves in mylife and doctrines, you could not have been ignorant of my Father, because his attributes are the same; and he being in his nature invisible, by seeing me, and the manifestation of the divine perfections in me, you have as true a sight of him as possible here below.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Joh 14:7 . Had you known me (for they had indeed not known that He was the Way), you would also have known the Father (of their non-acquaintance with whom their , , Joh 14:5 , had testified).
The emphasis changes (otherwise in Joh 8:19 ); it lies in the protasis on ., not on the enclitic ; in the apodosis on . . .
, . . .] and which I can nevertheless now add from henceforward (after I have told you in Joh 14:6 so definitely and fully what I am) you know Him, and have (in me, Joh 14:9 ) beheld Him . This view of the meaning, which flows immediately out of the context, Joh 14:6 ; Joh 14:9 , the point of which is the idea of the adequate self-revelation of God in Christ, entirely excludes any interpretation of the two verbs in a future sense (Chrysostom, Kuinoel, and many others), and the reference to a future terminus a quo (Chrysostom, Lcke, Ewald, and several others), which is wont to be assumed as the time of the communication of the Spirit, nay, even a mentally supplied “ I hope ” (De Wette) with . The reference of to the whole time of their fellowship with Christ since their conversion (Hengstenberg), is, even in a linguistic point of view, impossible. See on Joh 13:19 , Joh 1:51 . In that case only could stand. Godet’s remark is also incorrect: “ at the point at which my teaching has now arrived,” as if merely were expressed.
On , which, without altering its meaning, significantly subjoins an adversative clause ( and i.e . and nevertheless), see on Joh 7:28 .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
Ver. 7. And from henceforth ye know him ] Or else the more shame for you, having had me (his express image) so long among you. Christians have a privilege above the Church of the Old Testament. The sea about the altar was brazen,1Ki 7:231Ki 7:23 , and what eyes could pierce through it? Now, our sea about the throne is glassy, Rev 4:6 , like the crystal, clearly conveying the light and sight of God in Christ to our eyes.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
7. ] See ch. Joh 8:19 .
] There is no difficulty, if we bear in mind the of ch. Joh 13:31 . The henceforth is the future time, beginning with our Lord’s glorification, which was now at hand. Lcke remarks: “ is not entirely future nor entirely present, but the moment of transition, the identification of the present and future. Christ speaks here proleptically, in reference to the hour of His glorification being come” (ii. 598).
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 14:7 . He is the essential knowledge, Some press the distinction between and , “the first representing a knowledge acquired and progressive; the second a knowledge perceptive and immediate”. But this discrimination is here inappropriate. The clause explains the foregoing. The Father is in Jesus, and to know Him is to know the Father. They had unconsciously been coming to the Father and living in Him. Now they were to do so consciously: . The repeated brings out the point, that it was the Father that was henceforth to be recognised by them when they saw and thought of Jesus: “ye know Him and have seen Him ”.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
If, &c. App-118.
known. App-132.
from henceforth = from (Greek. apo. App-104. iv) now.
seen. App-133. Compare 1Jn 1:1.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
7.] See ch. Joh 8:19.
] There is no difficulty, if we bear in mind the of ch. Joh 13:31. The henceforth is the future time, beginning with our Lords glorification, which was now at hand. Lcke remarks: is not entirely future nor entirely present, but the moment of transition, the identification of the present and future. Christ speaks here proleptically, in reference to the hour of His glorification being come (ii. 598).
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 14:7. , if) This if does not altogether deny [that they knew Him], but it draws their souls to onward progress: Joh 14:28.[345] [So Luk 17:6. If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed: after they had said, Lord, increase our faith.]-, ye have seen) The preterite: ye have begun to see, and see Him.
[345] If ye loved Me, ye would rejoice: not denying wholly that they loved Him, but inciting them to greater love.-E. and T.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 14:7
Joh 14:7
If ye had known me, ye would have known my Father also:-Jesus was the most complete and perfect representation of God that could be revealed to man. He was God manifested in the flesh. Man is so fleshly that he cannot apprehend or appreciate true spirit. [After associating with Jesus as their teacher for about three and a half years they did not yet know, only in part. The central truth here is to know God is to know Christ. The universe which he created reveals his grandeur, the Old Testament his moral government, but it is only in Christ that he reveals his surpassing love, mercy, and solicitude for the salvation of man. Through him he reveals himself as a Father. Previous to his coming men were not authorized to address God in prayer as Our Father who art in heaven.]
from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.-So God clothed himself as humanity that man might live and know him. Jesus was this manifestation. So to know Jesus is to have the most complete knowledge of God that it is possible for him to know, and no man can come to God save through Jesus Christ. [They would see Jesus crucified the next day and from the cross they would know him. From the grave would burst forth upon their minds a new revelation of the character and mission of Jesus whom they had up to this time thought to be only an earthly, temporal king.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? 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. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
There are seven things that this portion suggests, and the first is this: the Father is only known through the Son. Notice verse 7: If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Now it is perfectly true that God may be known through creation. We are told that in the first chapter of the epistle to the Romans. There we read that the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse (v. 20). So men who deny God, who refuse to believe in a God, who live as if there were no God are without excuse.
We are often asked, Will God condemn the poor heathen because they have not had the gospel? No, but He will condemn us because they have not heard the gospel. We are responsible to get it to them. We have been so selfish and content to enjoy our morsel alone. We have paid so little attention to the Lords command, Go ye into all the world (Mar 16:15). We have quibbled so much about whether the command belongs to our dispensation or to another, and have professed to have so much light and knowledge, so we have sat at home and let the heathen die in their sins. We shall have to answer to God for it some day. The heathen are lost, that is why they need a Savior. That is why you and I needed a Savior. The Son of Man [came] to seek and to save that which was lost (Mat 18:11; Luk 19:10). If the heathen were not lost they would not need a Savior, but they are lost because they did not want to keep God in their knowledge. They are condemned by their own consciences because of the sins of which they are guilty.
They will not be charged for the sin of rejecting Christ of whom they never heard but for the sins that they have actually committed. As they look into the heavens they must know there is a God. As they see the wonderful things He has prepared for man, as they consider their own bodies and all their marvelous functions they cannot help but realize that back of all this there must be a Creator to whom men are responsible. So His eternal power and Godhead are known through creation. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge (Psa 19:1-2). But the Fatherhood of God could only be revealed through the Lord Jesus Christ. Nature tells me there is a God, that He must be infinite in wisdom and power, but it does not tell me He has a Fathers heart. I would not know that except from the revelation He has given in His blessed Son. How thoughtless we are about that revelation sometimes.
I remember a lady with whom I was speaking at one time. If there is any one on earth who ought to thank God for the Christian revelation, it is the women of the world, for how marvelously their status has been changed in all lands where the gospel is known. But this lady said to me, with a toss of her pretty head, I am not interested in the gospel. I never read the Bible. It is enough for me to know that God is love. I said, Do you know that? Why, certainly, she said. You really know that God is love? Why, of course I do. Well, I inquired, pardon me, madam, but how did you find that out? Why, everybody knows that God is love.
Oh, no, everybody does not know it. They do not know it in India, in Africa, in lands where the gospel has not yet gone. They did not know it in the Islands of the Sea in the old cannibal days. No one knew that until Jesus came to declare the heart of God to needy men. And it is the Holy Spirit who told us God is love, and the evidence He gave of it was this, Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1Jn 4:10). Oh, we could have known that God was great, that God was powerful, that God was wise. We might even have known or gathered from the abundant provision He has made for His creatures that He is good, but we would never have known that He is love if Jesus had not come to reveal the Father. The Word [became] flesh, and [tabernacled] among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth (Joh 1:14). And so I repeat, we would never have known the Fatherhood of God apart from the revelation given us in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Then in the second place I would like to remind you of this, Christ is the exact expression of the Father. Do you say to yourself sometimes, Oh, I wish I understood God better. I wish I could know just how God the Father looks at things, and how He feels about things, and what His attitude is toward men in general, and His people in particular. Well, all you need to do is read the four Gospels and get better acquainted with the Lord Jesus Christ, for He has made the Father known in all His fullness.
I love those verses with which the epistle to the Hebrews opens: God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds [or ages]; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high (1:1-3). Those words, the express image of his person might well be rendered the exact expression of his character.
He is speaking about Jesus who is the exact expression of the Fathers character. So if you want to know what God, the Father, is like, just get better acquainted with the Lord Jesus Christ. The better you know Him, the better you know the Father. Everything in the character of Christ tells out that which is in the heart of God: His love for holiness, His delight in righteousness, His interest in men-even unconverted men. His deep tender affection for His own as evidenced by His love for that little company of disciples who walked with Him three-and-a-half years, of whom we read, Having loved His own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end (Joh 13:1). His sweet gracious interest in the little children, His love for the girls and boys, so that they delighted to come to Him and sit upon His knee. He took them in His arms and put His hands on them in blessing. All this tells us of God the Fathers love for the children.
Then on the other hand, the scorn of Jesus for sins such as hypocrisy, deceit, disobedience, and so forth, expresses the scorn of the Father Himself for everything unreal and consequently unholy. And then the glorious anger of Jesus! Oh, you say, I dont like to think that Jesus ever became angry. There are some people who insist that we should not get angry about anything. But Scripture says, Be ye angry, and sin not (Eph 4:26). Think of the anger of Jesus as He stood in the temple with flashing eyes and said, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves (Luk 19:46).
And remember that day in the synagogue in Capernaum when that poor woman, nearly bent double with her misery, came. The Scribes and the Pharisees were watching. They were saying, Will He dare to heal her on the sabbath day? Jesus said, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? (Mar 3:4; Luk 14:3). He looked round about upon them with anger, as He asked, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day? (Luk 14:5). And He said, Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day? (Luk 13:16).
Glorious indignation! Glorious anger! And the anger of Jesus is the anger of God. How is it that we are afraid of the wrath of God and yet we dont like to think of our Lord Jesus ever being angry? There is a time coming when men shall flee to the rocks and the mountains and shall cry to the rocks and the hills, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb (Rev 6:16)-the wrath of the Lord Jesus Christ! Yes, the Lambs indignation with men who have spurned His grace, refused His mercy, turned down every opportunity of salvation. I repeat, the anger of Jesus is the anger of God. If you want to know God just get better acquainted with Jesus.
Philip came to Him and said, Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us (Joh 14:8). You see, it was a new thing to Philip. Jesus talked so quietly and with such full knowledge of the Father. Philip says, Well, what do You mean, Lord? Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. And Jesus said, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father (v. 9). That is, you see, the Fathers character was fully told out in Jesus.
But now this involves the third thing I want to emphasize, and that is the unity of the Father and the Son. The unity of the Father and the Son does not involve the thought that Father and Son were exactly the same person. They were two persons, and yet one in the unity of Deity with the Holy Spirit-the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Joseph Cook used to say, The Father without the Son and the Holy Spirit would not be God in His fullness. The Son without the Father and the Holy Spirit would not be God. The Spirit without the Father and the Son would not be God. But the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit together are one God in three blessed, adorable persons. So Jesus was here on earth, the Man, Christ Jesus, and yet He was the Son of the Father. The Father was in the heavens and, of course, omnipresent in the whole universe. Jesus said, He that hath seen me hath seen the Father Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? (vv. 9-10a). The union is an indissoluble one. I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works (v. 10b). Everything that Jesus did as Man here in this world He did in fellowship with the Father. That is why He could say that the Son could do nothing of Himself but whatsoever He seeth the Father do. It was not possible that He, as the Son of the Father, should do anything that was not in harmony with the will of the Father: two persons and yet one in Deity.
Then notice in the fourth place that the works that He did were a testimony to this truth. Verse 11 reads, Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works sake. It is as though He challenged them, saying, If you are not prepared to take My declaration of My oneness with the Father, if there is still a question in your mind, see what I have done. Did any man ever do the works that I have done? Has any man ever been able to accomplish what I have accomplished? Be convinced by these works that God the Father is working through Me. If any other man had touched the leper he would have been defiled, but when Jesus touched him, He said, Be thou clean (Mat 8:3; Mar 1:41; Luk 5:13). His hands were not defiled. His hands healed the leprosy instead of the defilement of leprosy cleaving to Him. No mere man ever had power over the tempest, but Jesus could turn to the wind and the waves and say, Peace, be still (Mar 4:39). Man sows the seed and cultivates the ground, and eventually through the mercy of God, whose sunshine and rain falls on it and whose chemical action takes place beneath the sod, the earth brings forth the grain from which he can make his bread. But Jesus took five loaves and a few fish, and after giving thanks, produced food for over five thousand people. Why did He do these things? Not that people might look on with amazement or to attract attention to Himself, but in order that He might manifest the heart of God.
So the miracles of Jesus are a challenge to us. We see in them the evidence that He is the Eternal Son of the Father.
But now He was going away, and in the fifth place we notice a wonderful promise He makes to us which He would fulfill in His absence. Verse 12 reads, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. Now there are some people who say that He makes a promise here that He never fulfilled. They declare that no man has ever done greater works than these miracles. But He was not speaking of miracles. His chief work was not performing miracles but revealing the Father, bringing knowledge of the Father. It is that of which He was speaking.
As a result of His three-and-a-half years of ministry, when He left this scene He said good-bye to a group of about five hundred disciples. There were, doubtless, a few more scattered about but not very many. Very few saw in Him the revelation of the Father. But go on a few days-fifty days later. Ah, then Peter and the rest of the Eleven stand up on the day of Pentecost and the third person of the Trinity comes upon them in power, and they are prepared to witness for Him. They preached a crucified and risen Christ, and what happened? Three thousand believed! Probably more in that one day than in all the three-and-a-half years of our Lords ministry. Oh, it is not miracles of which He is speaking. If it were miracles, what was the greatest? Of the miracles concerning the body, was it not when He went to that tomb at Bethany and stood and cried, Lazarus, come forth (11:43), and he that was dead came forth-the man of whom his sister said, Lord, he hath been dead four days (v. 39). That was Jesus greatest work in regard to the body. Has anyone excelled that?
What was greatest in regard to the powers of nature? Was it turning the water into wine or multiplying the loaves and fishes? Or was it not perhaps in controlling the wind and the waves? No one else has been able to do that.
But His greatest work of all was to reveal the Father. When you realize that when Jesus left this scene, committing His gospel to a little group of eleven men in order that they might carry it to the ends of the earth, at that time the whole world with the exception of a few in Israel, was lost in the darkness of heathenism. But in three hundred years Christianity closed nearly all the temples of the heathen Roman Empire, and numbered its converts by millions. These were the greater works, and down through the centuries He still carries on this ministry.
In the sixth place, notice His promise to hear the prayers of His servants. Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do (Joh 14:13). [If] ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. Now somebody speaks up and says, Well, I asked God for something in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and He did not do it. Oh, but that was not necessarily asking in His name. To ask in His name is to ask by His authority, that is, to pray in accordance with His revealed will. It is as though He said to us, Whatever you ask by My authority, I will do. And so what you and I need is to be sure that we understand His will and that we have His authority for the requests that we make.
The seventh thing is this: our Lords one purpose. The last part of verse 13 reads, That the Father may be glorified in the Son. It was the delight of the Lord Jesus, while here on earth, to glorify the Father, and now it is the joy of His heart to see His people carry on the mission He has given. Every time a soul is saved, it is to the glory of the Father and this is the joy of the Son. Every thing we do in loving obedience to His Word is that the Father may be glorified.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
ye: Joh 14:9, Joh 14:10, Joh 14:20, Joh 1:18, Joh 8:19, Joh 15:24, Joh 16:3, Joh 17:3, Joh 17:21, Joh 17:23, Mat 11:27, Luk 10:22, 2Co 4:6, Col 1:15-17, Col 2:2, Col 2:3, Heb 1:3
from: Joh 14:16-20, Joh 16:13-16, Joh 17:6, Joh 17:8, Joh 17:26
Reciprocal: Num 12:8 – similitude Mat 7:21 – my Joh 17:7 – they Phi 3:8 – the excellency 1Jo 2:13 – because
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
8
These were not new subjects, for Jesus had spoken to them many times along that same line. The human mind is sometimes very frail, especially when it is agitated. The shadow of sorrow over the near departure of their Lord, seemed to dull the thoughts of the apostles. This is directly indicated by what Jesus said in chapter 16:6. That is why Philip requested to see the Father, although Jesus had previously taught the principle that seeing Him was equivalent to seeing the Father.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
[If ye had known me, etc.] it was a very difficult thing to spell out the knowledge of the Messiah from the law and the prophets under the first Temple; but it was doubly more difficult under the second. For, under the first Temple, Moses had only his own veil over him, and the prophets only their own proper and original obscurity: but under the second Temple, the obscurity is doubled by the darkness and smoke of traditions; which had not only beclouded the true doctrines of faith and religion, but had also brought in other doctrines diametrically contrary to the chief and principal articles of faith: those for instance concerning justification, the person, reign, and office of the Messiah, etc.
With what measures of darkness these mists of tradition had covered the minds of the apostles, it is both difficult, and might be presumptuous, to determine. They did indeed own Jesus for the true Messiah, Joh 1:41; Mat 16:16; but if in some things they judged amiss concerning his office, undertaking, and government, we must put it upon the score of that epidemical distemper of the whole nation which they still did in some measure labour under. And to this may this clause have some reference, “If ye had known me; and had judged aright concerning the office, undertaking, and authority of the Messiah, ye would, in all these things which I teach and do, have known the will, command, and authority of the Father.”
[And from henceforth ye know him.] We may render it, Henceforward therefore know him; “Henceforward acknowledge the Father in all that I have done, brought in, and am to introduce still, and set your hearts to rest in it: believing that you see the Father in me, and in the things that I do.”
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Joh 14:7. If ye had learned to know me, ye would know my Father also. The change in this verse from the Father of Joh 14:6 to my Father, as well as the use in the original of two different verbs for know, is peculiarly instructive. The meaning seems to be, that when we have gained a knowledge of the Son, we find ourselves possessed of a knowledge of His Father; then, in that knowledge, the veil which hides from us in our natural condition the true knowledge of God is withdrawn, and we possess the highest knowledge of all, the knowledge of God in the deepest verity of His being, the knowledge of the Father. It is true that we immediately read, Prom henceforth ye learn to know Him, and have seen Him. But we must bear in mind that possession of a perfect knowledge of God is never reached by us. Each stage of knowing is but the beginning of a new stage of learning to know more; forgetting the things that are behind, we start ever afresh towards a knowledge of the Father, always increasing but never consummated. The same remark applies to have seen, by which we are to understand have begun to see. This knowledge, this sight, the disciples have from henceforth. The point of time is not Pentecost anticipated. It dates from the great Now of chap. Joh 13:31, and the explanation is to be found in the peculiar circumstances in which the disciples have been placed since then. They have been separated from all worldly thoughts of Jesus; His true glory and the true glory of the Father in Him have been revealed in all their brightness; and in an intimacy of communion with their Lord never enjoyed before they learn to know with an inward spiritual discernment, they have seen with a sharpness of spiritual intuition, not previously possessed by them. Another difficulty arises in the breast of Philip.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Observe here, 1. What a gross conception the apostles had, and St. Philip in particular, of the divine nature and being, as if God the Father could be seen with mortal eyes. Shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. It is not easy to determine what degrees of ignorance may consist with saving grace; doubtless, as the degrees of revelation and means of knowledge are more or less, so a person’s ignorance is more or less excusable before God.
Observe, 2. How meekly our Saviour reproves their ignorance, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? and then proceeds to instruct them in, and farther acquaint them with, the oneness of himself with the Father, and the personal union of the divine and human nature in himself.
Learn hence, That the Father being invisible in his essence, to know or see him with mortal, bodily eyes is impossible; but he was seen in his Son, who is the express image of the Father, being one in essence with him, and one in operation also: He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Joh 14:7. If ye had known me As ye might and ought to have known me. If ye had earnestly sought and obtained that knowledge of me which is communicated by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, (Eph 1:17,) ye would have known my Father also In his various perfections, and in those blessed relations in which he stands to such as believe on Christ with a living faith, and are accepted through him, the beloved. If you had had an adequate idea of my character, from the miracles I have performed, and from the marks of goodness, justice, and wisdom, which have manifested themselves in my life and doctrine; you could not have been ignorant of my Father; because his attributes are the same. And from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him As it may be truly affirmed, considering the discoveries that I have made of him, and the manifestation of the divine perfections which you have seen in me.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ver. 7. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also; and from henceforth you know him and have seen him.
This verse reproduces the idea of the last clause of the preceding verse, that of coming to the Father through Jesus. If Jesus is really the manifestation of God (Joh 14:6), to have well known Him Himself would be enough for the arriving through Him at the knowledge of God (pluperfect ). This is the sense of the received reading which is perfectly suitable; it is also that of the reading of some Alexandrian authorities which read for the second . It seems that Jesus hereby denies to them this twofold knowledge; and in fact it is only after having received the Spirit that they will possess it fully (Joh 14:20). Yet He afterwards partially concedes it to them, because they possess the beginning of it already.Meyer takes the term from henceforth literally: since my preceding declaration (that of Joh 14:6). This sense is too restricted and even insignificant. Chrysostom and Lucke find here an anticipatory indication of the approaching illumination at Pentecost; but how can the from henceforth and the pluperfects allow this sense? Jesus alludes to all that has just occurred in the course of this last evening. The washing of the feet and the dismissal of Judas, with all that He had said to them since then, were well fitted to bring to light the true character of God and the spiritual nature of His kingdom. The germ of the true knowledge of God had from henceforth been deposited in them. By showing Himself to them, as He had just done, even the inmost depths of His heart, Jesus had revealed to them forever the essence of God. The reading of D, adopted by Tischendorf (8th ed.): If you have known me, you will know my Father also, comes doubtless from the scruple which the copyists felt at making Jesus say that His disciples had not known Him up to that moment (seeLuthardt). Weiss, accepting the reading of some Alexandrian authorities which omit the (and) before , from henceforth, makes an imperative, in this sense: Know Him from henceforth as He is revealed to you in me, and thereby you will have seen Him; you will be in possession of the life. But this imperative scarcely suits the adverb: from henceforth; and we do not say: Know God, as we say: Believe in God (Joh 14:1).
This last word: you have seen Him, seems intended, as already Joh 14:4, to call forth the expression of some opposite thought. It is, as it were, a new challenge offered to this inward trouble which Jesus perceives in them. To have become beholders of God (perfect, )was it not the greatest thing which the apostles could desire? This privilege had, to a certain degree, been granted to Moses and to Elijah, under the old covenant. Certainly, if Jesus could cause them to enjoy it, their faith would for the future be immovable. Isaiah had positively made this promise for the Messianic times: The glory of the Lord shall be manifested, and all flesh shall see it (Isa 40:5). Thus is the demand of Philip naturally explained: Thou sayest: you have seen; we answer: show us!
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Verse 7
Have seen him; seen him in Christ.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
14:7 {e} If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
(e) It is plain by this verse that to know God and to see God is the same thing. Now whereas he said before that no man saw God at any time, it is to be understood in this way: without Christ, or were it not through Christ, no man could ever see God, nor ever saw God, at any time: for as Chrysostom says, the Son is a very concise and plain setting forth of the Father’s nature to us.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The construction of the first clause in the Greek text suggests that the condition was true for the sake of the argument. We could translate this "first class condition" as "Since . . ." The Eleven had come to know by personal experience (Gr. ginosko) who Jesus really was. This knowledge was the key to their coming to know God the Father as well.
Since they had come to know who Jesus really was, they had come to know God. Their knowledge of God virtually amounted to seeing God. John used "knowing God" and "seeing God" synonymously in 1 John as well (cf. 1Jn 2:3-11; 1Jn 3:2-3). "From now on" (Gr. ap arti) also means "assuredly." Since the Eleven had come to know who Jesus really was, they had assuredly come to know the Father as well. Jesus was probably assuring the Eleven with this sentence rather than rebuking them, as some translations suggest.