Yohanes 8:23-30

8:23 Jesus replied, ¹  “You people ²  are from below; I am from above. You people are from this world; I am not from this world. 8:24 Thus I told you ³  that you will die in your sins. For unless you believe that I am he, ⁴  you will die in your sins.”

8:25 So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus replied, ⁵  “What I have told you from the beginning. 8:26 I have many things to say and to judge ⁶  about you, but the Father ⁷  who sent me is truthful, ⁸  and the things I have heard from him I speak to the world.” ⁹  8:27 (They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father.) ¹⁰ 

8:28 Then Jesus said, ¹¹  “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, ¹²  and I do nothing on my own initiative, ¹³  but I speak just what the Father taught me. ¹⁴  8:29 And the one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, ¹⁵  because I always do those things that please him.” 8:30 While he was saying these things, many people ¹⁶  believed in him.

[8:23]  ¹ tn Grk “And he said to them.”

[8:23]  ² tn The word “people” is supplied in English to clarify the plural Greek pronoun and verb.

[8:24]  ³ tn Grk “thus I said to you.”

[8:24]  ⁴ tn Grk “unless you believe that I am.” In this context there is an implied predicate nominative (“he”) following the “I am” phrase. What Jesus’ hearers had to acknowledge is that he was who he claimed to be, i.e., the Messiah (cf. 20:31). This view is also reflected in English translations like NIV (“if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be”), NLT (“unless you believe that I am who I say I am”), and CEV (“if you don’t have faith in me for who I am”). For a different view that takes this “I am” and the one in 8:28 as nonpredicated (i.e., absolute), see R. E. Brown, John (AB), 1:533-38. Such a view refers sees the nonpredicated “I am” as a reference to the divine Name revealed in Exod 3:14, and is reflected in English translations like NAB (“if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins”) and TEV (“you will die in your sins if you do not believe that ‘I Am Who I Am’”).

[8:24]  sn See the note on Christ in 1:20.

[8:25]  ⁵ tn Grk “Jesus said to them.”

[8:26]  ⁶ tn Or “I have many things to pronounce in judgment about you.” The two Greek infinitives could be understood as a hendiadys, resulting in one phrase.

[8:26]  ⁷ tn Grk “the one”; the referent (the Father) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:26]  ⁸ tn Grk “true” (in the sense of one who always tells the truth).

[8:26]  ⁹ tn Grk “and what things I have heard from him, these things I speak to the world.”

[8:27]  ¹⁰ sn They did not understand…about his Father is a parenthetical note by the author. This type of comment, intended for the benefit of the reader, is typical of the “omniscient author” convention adopted by the author, who is writing from a postresurrection point of view. He writes with the benefit of later knowledge that those who originally heard Jesus’ words would not have had.

[8:28]  ¹¹ tn Grk “Then Jesus said to them” (the words “to them” are not found in all mss).

[8:28]  ¹² tn Grk “that I am.” See the note on this phrase in v. 24.

[8:28]  ¹³ tn Grk “I do nothing from myself.”

[8:28]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “but just as the Father taught me, these things I speak.”

[8:29]  ¹⁵ tn That is, “he has not abandoned me.”

[8:30]  ¹⁶ tn The word “people” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied for clarity and smoothness in the translation.