The
Pharisees therefore said to him, “You testify about yourself. Your testimony is not valid.” Jesus answered them, “Even if I testify about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from, and where I am going; but you don’t know where I came from, or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh. I judge no one. Even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent me.”
John 8:13-16
John 8 [12.] Again, therefore, Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.”
John 8 [13.] The Pharisees therefore said to him, “You testify about yourself. Your testimony is not valid.”
John 8 [14.] Jesus answered them, “Even if I testify about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from, and where I am going; but you don’t know where I came from, or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh. I judge no one. Even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent me. It’s also written in your law that the testimony of two people is valid. I am one who testifies about myself, and the Father who sent me testifies about me.”
John 8 [19.] They said therefore to him, “Where is your Father?”
Jesus answered, “You know neither me, nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” Jesus spoke these words in the treasury, as he taught in the temple. Yet no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come. Jesus said therefore again to them, “I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sins. Where I go, you can’t come.”
Meaning:
In the temple Jesus had declared, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). The Pharisees responded with a legal objection: a claim backed only by one’s own word could not be accepted. Jesus answers that his testimony is true because of who he is and where he comes from, and that his judgment is never his alone.
- “You testify about yourself. Your testimony is not valid.”
The Pharisees appealed to a principle of the Law. A single witness was not enough to establish a matter in court: “At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established” (Deuteronomy 19:15). Jesus himself had earlier acknowledged the principle in ordinary terms: “If I testify about myself, my witness is not valid” (John 5:31), and he had pointed to other witnesses: John the Baptist, his works, the Father and the Scriptures.
- “Even if I testify about myself, my testimony is true”
Now Jesus goes further. Even his own testimony is true, because he alone has the knowledge needed to give it: “for I know where I came from, and where I am going.” He came from the Father and was returning to him. On the night before his death John notes that Jesus knew “that he came from God, and was going to God” (John 13:3). No other witness could speak about his origin from personal knowledge.
- “But you don’t know where I came from, or where I am going”
His opponents thought they knew all about him: a man from Galilee, the son of a carpenter. At the feast some had said, “we know where this man comes from” (John 7:27). But they did not know his heavenly origin, and they could not follow where he was going (John 7:34).
- “You judge according to the flesh. I judge no one.”
To judge “according to the flesh” is to judge by outward, human standards. A few weeks earlier Jesus had told them, “Don’t judge according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment” (John 7:24). In contrast, Jesus says, “I judge no one.” He did not come to condemn: “For I came not to judge the world, but to save the world” (John 12:47).
- “Even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for I am not alone”
Jesus does have authority to judge. The Father “gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is a son of man” (John 5:27). When he does judge, his verdict is true, because it is never the verdict of one person alone: “I am with the Father who sent me.” This leads directly to his next point, that the Law’s requirement of two witnesses is met by the testimony of himself and the Father (John 8:17-18).
Even when his disciples deserted him, Jesus could say, “Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me” (John 16:32).
The Significance of John 8:13-16
- Jesus speaks with unique authority
Only Jesus knows from experience where he came from and where he is going. His testimony about God and about himself is first-hand.
- Beware of judging by appearance
The Pharisees judged Jesus by surface standards and missed who he was. We are prone to the same mistake with Jesus and with other people.
- Mercy before judgment
Jesus came first to save, not to condemn. Those who receive him need not fear his judgment, and those who reject him will meet a Judge whose verdict is true.
Cross-References:
Deuteronomy 19:15: "At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established." The legal principle the Pharisees cited.
John 13:3: "that he came from God, and was going to God," Jesus knew his origin and destiny.
John 12:47: "For I came not to judge the world, but to save the world." The purpose of his coming.
John 16:32: "Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me." Jesus is never alone.
Conclusion: When the Pharisees rejected Jesus’ claim to be the light of the world as mere self-testimony, he answered that his witness is true because he knows where he came from and where he is going. They judged by outward appearances, but he came not to condemn, and when he judges, his judgment is true because the Father is with him. The passage calls us to trust Jesus’ testimony and to stop judging by human standards.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible