John 7:29

But I know him: for I am from him, and he hath sent me.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(29) But I know him.—In contrast with their ignorance is His own full knowledge, which belonged to One only. (See Note on John 1:18.) The pronoun “I” here, as “ye” immediately before, is emphatic.

For I am from him, and he hath sent me.—This knowledge is here based upon His oneness of essence, and upon His true mission. He knows God because He is from Him, and in union ever one with Him. He knows God because He is in His human nature the representative of the Divine to mankind.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

7:25-30 Christ proclaimed aloud, that they were in error in their thoughts about his origin. He was sent of God, who showed himself true to his promises. This declaration, that they knew not God, with his claim to peculiar knowledge, provoked the hearers; and they sought to take him, but God can tie men's hands, though he does not turn their hearts.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Ye know whence I am - You have sufficient evidence of my divine mission, and that I am the Messiah.

Is true - Is worthy to be believed. He has given evidence that I came from him, and he is worthy to be believed. Many read this as a question - Do ye know me, and know whence I am? I have not come from myself, etc.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

28, 29. cried Jesus—in a louder tone, and more solemn, witnessing style than usual.

Ye both, &c.—that is, "Yes, ye know both Myself and My local parentage, and (yet) I am not come of Myself."

but he that sent me is true, &c.—Probably the meaning is, "He that sent Me is the only real Sender of any one."

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I know him, so as no man else knoweth him, Matthew 11:27; I know his essence, his will, his counsels, his laws;

for I am from him by an eternal generation, his only begotten Son; and I am sent by him, as the Mediator and Saviour of the world, to declare and to execute his will and pleasure, as to man’s salvation.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But I know him,.... His nature and perfections, his purposes and promises, his council and covenant, his mind and will; and indeed none knows him but he, and those to whom he pleases to reveal him; and there is good reason why he should have intimate and perfect knowledge of him:

for I am from him; being the only begotten of him, and as such lay in his bosom, and knew him, and his whole heart, and was privy to all of him, and that that is within him;

and he hath sent me; in an office capacity to redeem his people. This is the original descent of Christ, which the Jews knew not, though they pretended to know him, and whence he was.

Geneva Study Bible

But I know him: for I am from him, and he hath sent me.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

29. I know him] ‘I’ in emphatic contrast to the preceding ‘ye,’ which is also emphatic. ‘I know Him, for I came forth from Him, and it is He, and no other, that sent Me.’ ‘Sent’ is aorist, not perfect. Comp. the very remarkable passage Matthew 11:27.

Bengel's Gnomen

John 7:29. Παρʼ αὐτοῦ εἰμί, I am from Him) This denotes eternal generation; from which follows as a consequence His mission [His being sent]. There are two points marked: the first is to be referred to [Ye know] both me, the second to the whence [I am]. I am, in this verse and in the preceding, is to be referred to the is, which occurs twice in John 7:27, “We know this man, whence He is, but when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence He is.”

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 29. - (But) I know him; because I am from him - my inmost nature, the centre of my ego, proceeds, is derived, from him. I have come forth from him. There is that about me and my origin which has brought me into such intimate relations with the Father that I know him as ye do not know him (cf. John 8:55) - and he (whom I thus know, and to whom I refer, ἐκεῖνος) sent me. This sending is a further condition of the knowledge which you fail to appreciate, but which would make all things plain to you. If this knowledge should break as the daystar on their darkness, would they not at once see that, up to that point at least, in their experience they did not know, or had not known, whence he was, in the grandest sense. The charge of ignorance and the claim of supernatural knowledge, Divine origin, Divine commission, was too much for these Jerusalemites. They thought it blasphemy. John 7:29

Vincent's Word Studies

From him (παρ' αὐτοῦ)

See on John 6:46.