But if I do them, though you don’t believe me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”
Parallel Translations
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But if I do them, though you don’t believe me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”
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But if I do though ye beleve not me yet beleve the workes that ye maye knowe and beleve that the father is in me and I in him.
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But if I doe, then though ye beleeue not mee, yet beleeue the workes, that ye may knowe and beleeue, that the Father is in me, and I in him.
Cross-references (10)
Passages linked to John 10:38 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- John 10:30 I and the Father are one.”
- John 14:20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
- John 10:25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you don’t believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name, these testify about me.
- John 14:9-11 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you such a long time, and do you not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I tell you, I speak not from myself; but the Father who lives in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me; or else believe me for the very works’ sake.
- John 3:2 The same came to him by night, and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.”
- John 17:21-23 that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me. The glory which you have given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that you sent me and loved them, even as you loved me.
- Acts 2:22 “Men of Israel, hear these words! Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God to you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him among you, even as you yourselves know,
- John 5:36 But the testimony which I have is greater than that of John, for the works which the Father gave me to accomplish, the very works that I do, testify about me, that the Father has sent me.
- John 17:11 I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them through your name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are.
- Acts 4:8-12 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “You rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, if we are examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, may it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, this man stands here before you whole in him. He is ‘the stone which was regarded as worthless by you, the builders, which has become the head of the corner.’ There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that is given among men, by which we must be saved!”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (11 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 38. But if I do. He shows that they…
38. But if I do. He shows that they are held plainly convicted of unbelieving and sacrilegious contempt, because they render no reverence or honor to what are undoubtedly the works of God. This is a second concession, when he says, “Though I allow you to doubt of my doctrine, you cannot deny, at least, that the miracles which I have performed are from God. You therefore openly reject God, and not a man.”
That you may know and believe. Though he places knowledge before faith, as if faith were inferior to it, he does so, because he has to do with unbelieving and obstinate men, who never yield to God, until they are vanquished and constrained by experience; for rebels wish to know before they believe And yet our gracious God indulges us so far, that he prepares us for faith by a knowledge of his works. But the knowledge of God and of his secret wisdom comes after faith, because the obedience of faith opens to us the door of the kingdom of heaven.
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That the Father is in me, and I in him. He repeats the same thing which he had said before in other words, I and my Father are one All tends to this point, that in his ministry there is nothing contrary to his Father. “The Father, he says, is in me; that is, Divine power is manifested in me.”
And I am in my Father; that is, “I do nothing but by the command of God, so that there is a mutual connection between me and my Father.” For this discourse does not relate to the unity of essence, but to the manifestation of Divine power in the person of Christ, from which it was evident that he was sent by God.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 38 But if I do, though ye believe not…
38 But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.
Ver. 38. But if I do, though ye, &c.] q.d. Stumble not at the meanness of my person, condition, followers, &c. When it was sometimes disputed among the Romans in the council, using to deify great men, whether Christ, having done many wonderful works, should be received into the number of the gods? it was at length concluded (saith the historian) quod non deberet recipi inter Deos, pro eo quod non haberet cultores, propter hoc quod paupertatem praedicaret et eligeret, quam mundus contemnit.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain If I do such works as can be done…
If I do such works as can be done by no less than a Divine power, being beyond the power and ability of all creatures; then, though you will not give credit to any bare affirmations of myself, because I say I am the Son of God, yet believe the things for the testimony that my works give unto it. Proper effects give testimony to the proper cause; he who doth those things which none but God can do, must needs be God, or empowered by God to do them. This is the way for you to know, be persuaded, and believe, that the Father is in me by his mighty, Divine, working power: Joh 14:10, The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works; and I work in and together with him. This phrase, The Father is in me, and I in him, teacheth us three things concerning Christ:
1. His oneness in nature and essence with the Father.
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2. His personal distinction from his Father: here are two mentioned, the Father, and me: none can properly be said to be in himself.
3. The most perfect and intimate indwelling of one of the Persons in the Holy Trinity in the other.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Therefore they sought again to take him,.... Not to…
Therefore they sought again to take him,.... Not to take away his life by stoning him, as before, in the manner the furious zealots did, and was the part they were about to act just now; but to lay hold upon him and bring him before the sanhedrim, as they had done in Joh 5:18, he being so far from clearing himself from the charge of blasphemy, they had brought against him, that in their opinion he had greatly strengthened it; and they thought they had now sufficient proof and evidence to convict him as a blasphemer, in their high court of judicature; and therefore attempted to lay hands on him, and bring him thither:
but he escaped out of their hands; either by withdrawing from them in some private way; or by open force, exerting his power, and obliging them on every side to fall back, and give way to him; or by rendering himself invisible to them; and this he did, not through fear of death, but because his time was not yet come, and he had other work to do, before he suffered and died.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain That ye may know and believe - In some…
That ye may know and believe - In some a more exact knowledge precedes, in others it follows faith. I am in the Father and the Father in me. I and the Father are one - These two sentences illustrate each other.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 38. Believe the works] Though ye do not…
Verse 38. Believe the works] Though ye do not now credit what I have said to you, yet consider my works, and then ye will see that these works prove that I am in the Father and the Father in me; and, consequently, that I and the Father are one. This seems to be the force of our Lord's argument; and every man must see and feel that it is conclusive. There was no possibility of weakening the force of this reasoning but by asserting that these miracles were not wrought by the power of God; and then they must have proved that not only a man, but a bad man, such as they said Jesus was, could work these miracles. As this was impossible, then the argument of Christ had a complete triumph.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 38. Believe the works—The blind-born (Joh_9:35-38) believed the works;…
38. Believe the works—The blind-born (Joh_9:35-38) believed the works; therefore his faith was ready to underwrite whatever the author of the works should say of himself.
The Father is in me—If Omnipotence energizes my actions, the Omnipotent must pervade my person.
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Our Lord’s argument here shows, 1. The use of the divine name to designate inferior beings, does not derogate from its supreme sense when applied to him. 2. The humanity of Christ is taken into the divinity, enveloped with its dignity, without changing it out of its true human nature. So that the so-called hypostatic union results in perfect man and perfect God in oneness.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 38. believe the works] ‘Blessed are they that have…
38. believe the works] ‘Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed’ (Joh_20:29); but it is better to have the faith that comes with sight than none at all.
that ye may know, and believe] The better reading probably is, that ye may come to know and continually know; ‘attain to knowledge and advance in knowledge in contrast to your state of suspense’ (Joh_10:24). In the Greek it is the aorist and present of the same verb ‘to come to know, perceive, recognise:’ the aorist denotes the single act, the present the permanent growth. The apparent awkwardness of having the same verb twice in the same clause has probably caused a large number of authorities to substitute another verb in the second case. But the change of tense is full of meaning, especially in reference to the Jews. Many of them attained to a momentary conviction that He was the Messiah (Joh_2:23, Joh_6:14-15, Joh_7:41, Joh_8:30, Joh_10:42, Joh_11:45); very few of them went beyond a transitory conviction (Joh_2:24, Joh_6:66, Joh_8:31).
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the Father is in me, and I in him] For ‘in Him’ read with the best authorities in the Father. An instance of the solemnity and emphasis derived from repetition, so frequent in this Gospel.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (38) But if I do, though ye believe not…
(38) But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works.—A higher faith would have believed Him. Had they truly known their own spiritual needs, and truly known the meaning of that great truth He had taught, they would have found in Him the true satisfaction of the mind’s cravings, and the faculty of faith would have rested in the object of its existence. For all this the Old Testament had been a preparation; but their minds had not been prepared by it. He will take therefore their own lower ground, and appeal to the sight of those who have not faith. (Comp. Note on Joh_20:29.) Let them test the works, think of their character, as some of them had already done (Joh_9:16), and see at least that these are of the Father.
That ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me.—The more probable text is, that ye may perceive, and may (permanently) know that the Father is in Me . . . Failing the intuitive faith-knowledge, He appeals to the intellectual perception, which is not immediate, but from which they may ascend to that knowledge, and may then really know that such works can be only of the Father; and that, therefore, the Father is present in Him who does them, and that He who does them is one with the Father Joh_10:30).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain But if I do if I am performing the…
But if I do if I am performing the works of my Father, if these acts of healing and helping, of mighty consolation and symbolic grace, are obviously such as you can recognize as the Father"s, believe them; learn that much, it is for your life and if you make that acquisition, though ye believe not me though you do not credit my assertion on my own authority, though you do not take me at once on my own wordbelieve the works; you may then take the further step, and both know and understand, or know broadly and completely, and then learn in details, that the Father is in me, and I in the Father. Between the assertion of ver. 30, "I and my Father are one," and that of this verse, "the works" are introduced works that are recognized as Divine, "the Father"s," but seen and known also to be Christ"s own works. Why should they stone him for blasphemy if they have evidence so resistless as this, even if it comes short of proof, that he is absolutely one with the Father? The intuitive perception of the Divine in Christ is the highest and noblest spiritual experience. His word should be, might be, enough; but, suppose it should fail, miracles, "works," come in to link the Divine Personality of the Speaker with the supreme Father. The works may teach them that he is in the Father, and the Father in him. Not by a flash of light, but by growing intellectual conviction, they must come to a conclusion which the great assertion," I and the Father are one," finally confirms.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 10:38 Jesus’ miraculous works should help true believers know…
10:38 Jesus’ miraculous works should help true believers know and understand that the full reality of God dwells in Jesus.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.