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Joh_7:28-29. The statement in Joh_7:27, which showed how utterly Christ’s higher nature and work were misunderstood by these people in consequence of the entirely outward character of their judgments, roused the emotion of Jesus, so that He raised His voice, crying aloud ( ἔκραξεν , comp. Joh_1:5, Joh_7:37, Joh_12:44, Rom_9:27; κράζειν never means anything but to cry out; “clamores, quos edidit, magnas habuere causas,” Bengel), and thus uttered the solemn conclusion of this colloquy, while He taught in the temple, and said: κἀμὲ οἴδατε , κ . τ . λ . The ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ διδάσκων is in itself superfluous (see Joh_7:14), but serves the more vividly to describe the solemn moment of the ἔκραξεν , and is an indication of the original genuineness of the narrative.
κἀμὲ οἴδατε , κ . τ . λ .] i.e., “ye know not only my person, but ye also know my origin.” As the people really had this knowledge (Joh_6:42), and as the divine mission of Jesus was independent of His human nature and origin, while He Himself denies only their knowledge of His divine mission (see what follows; comp. Joh_8:19), there is nothing in the connection to sanction an interrogatory interpretation (Grotius, Lampe, Semler, Storr, Paulus, Kuinoel, Luthardt, Ewald), nor an ironical one (Luther, Calvin, Beza, and many others; likewise Lücke, Tholuck, Olshausen, B. Crusius, Lange, and Godet, who considers the words “légèrement ironique,” and that they have “certainement [?] une tournure interrogative”), nor the paraphrase: “Ye think that ye know” (Hengstenberg). Least of all can we read it as a reproach, that they knew His divine nature and origin, yet maliciously concealed it (Chrysostom, Nonnus, Theophylact, Euthymius Zigabenus, Maldonatus, and most). No; Jesus allows that they have that outward knowledge of Him which they had avowed in Joh_7:27, but He further—in the words καὶ ἀπʼ ἐμαυτοῦ , κ . τ . λ .—sets before them the higher relationship, which is here the main point, and which was unknown to them.
καὶ ἀπʼ ἐμ . οὐκ ἐλήλ .] and—though ye think that, on account of this knowledge of yours, ye must conclude that I am not the Messiah, but have come by self-appointment merely—of myself ( αὐτοκέλευστος , Nonnus) am I not come; comp. Joh_8:42. This καί , which must not be regarded as the same with the two preceding, as if it stood for καὶ ὅτι (Baeumlein), often in John connects, like atque, a contrasted thought, and yet. See Hartung, Partikell. I. 147. We may pronounce the and with emphasis, and imagine a pause after it. Comp. Stallbaum, ad Plat. Apol. p. 29 B; Wolf, ad Leptin. p. 238.
ἀλλʼ ἔστιν ἀληθινὸς ] but it is a real one who hath sent me, whom ye (ye people!) know not.[266] Ἀληθινὸς is not verax (Chrysostom, Euthymius Zigabenus, Luther, Stolz, Kuinoel, Klee, B. Crusius, Ewald, and most), but, according to the invariable usage of John (see on Joh_1:9), a real, genuine one, in whom the idea is realized. The substantive belonging to this adjective is not πατήρ , which Grotius gets out of πόθεν ; but, according to the immediate context, it is to be inferred from ὁ πέμψας με , namely πέμπων , a real sender, a sender in the highest and fullest sense (comp. Matthiae, p. 1533; Kühner, II. 602). We cannot take ἀληθ . by itself as absolutely denoting the true essential God (Olshausen, Lange, Hengstenberg; comp. Kling: “one whose essence and action is pure truth”), because ἀληθινός in the Johannean sense is not an independent conception, but receives its definite meaning first from the substantive of which it is predicated.
Joh_7:29. I (antithesis to ὑμεῖς ) know Him, for I am from Him, have come forth from Him (as in Joh_4:46); and no other than He (from whom I am) hath sent me. This weighty, and therefore independent κἀκεῖνός με ἀπέστ ., not to be taken as dependent upon ὅτι , comprehends the full explanation of the πόθεν εἰμί in its higher sense, which was not known to the Ἱεροσολυμιταῖς , and, with the ἐγὼ οἶδα … εἰμί , bears the seal of immediate certainty. Comp. Joh_8:14.
[266] Of course in a relative sense, as in Joh_4:22. If they had possessed the true and full knowledge of God, they would then have recognised the Interpreter of God, and not have rejected Him for such a reason as that in ver. 27. Comp. Joh_8:54-55; Mat_11:27.