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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - John 7:28 - 7:28
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28. ἔκραξεν οὗν. Jesus therefore (moved by their gross misconceptions) cried aloud. The word expresses loud expression of strong emotion; comp. Joh 7:37, Joh 1:15, Joh 12:44. S. John well remembers that moving cry in the midst of Christ’s teaching in the Temple. The scene is still before him and he puts it before us, although neither ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ nor διδάσκων is needed for the narrative (Joh 7:14).
κἀμὲ οἴδ. κ.τ.λ. Various constructions have been put upon this: (1) that it is a question; (2) ironical; (3) a mixture of the two; (4) a reproach, i.e. that they knew His Divine nature and maliciously concealed it. None of these are satisfactory. The words are best understood quite simply and literally. Christ admits the truth of what they say: they have an outward knowledge of Him and His origin (Joh 6:42); but He has an inner and higher origin, of which they know nothing. So that even their self-made test, for which they are willing to resist the evidence both of Scripture and of His works, is complied with; for they know not His real immediate origin.
καὶ ἀπ' ἐμαυτοῦ. Καί introduces a contrast, as so often in S. John (Joh 7:30); ἀπ. ἐμ, is emphatic; and (yet) of Myself I am not come (Joh 8:42). ‘Ye know My person, and ye know My parentage; and yet of the chief thing of all, My Divine mission, ye know nothing.’
ἀληθινὸς ὁ π.] He that sent Me is a true Sender, One who in the most real and perfect sense can give a mission; or possibly, a really existing Sender, and not a fiction. In either case the meaning is ‘I have a valid commission.’