I know that his commandment is eternal life. The things therefore which I speak, even as the Father has said to me, so I speak.”
Parallel Translations
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I know that his commandment is eternal life. The things therefore which I speak, even as the Father has said to me, so I speak.”
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And I knowe that this comaundement is lyfe everlastinge. Whatsoever I speake therfore even as the father bade me so I speake.
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And I knowe that his commandement is life euerlasting: the thinges therefore that I speake, I speake them so as the Father sayde vnto me.
Cross-references (9)
Passages linked to John 12:50 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- John 17:3 This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
- John 6:68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.
- John 6:63 It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and are life.
- 1 John 5:20 We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding, that we know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
- John 20:31 but these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.
- 1 Timothy 1:16 However, for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first, Jesus Christ might display all his patience for an example of those who were going to believe in him for eternal life.
- 1 John 2:25 This is the promise which he promised us, the eternal life.
- 1 John 3:23-24 This is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, even as he commanded. He who keeps his commandments remains in him, and he in him. By this we know that he remains in us, by the Spirit which he gave us.
- 1 John 5:11-13 The testimony is this, that God gave to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has the life. He who doesn’t have God’s Son doesn’t have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (9 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 50. And I know that his commandment is eternal…
50. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. He again applauds the fruit of his doctrine, that all may more willingly yield to it; and it is reasonable that wicked men should feel the vengeance of God, whom they now refuse to have as the Author of life.
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 50 And I know that his commandment is life…
50 And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.
Ver. 50. {See Trapp on "Joh 12:49"}
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 I am assured that the way to life everlasting…
I am assured that the way to life everlasting is to obey his commandments; and that makes me speak, and deliver all that, and nothing but that, which I have in charge from my Father:
as the Father said unto me, so I speak. Therefore look you to it, in rejecting me, you reject my Father, whom you own and acknowledge for your God; and in disobeying me, you disobey my Father, and him whom you own as your Father also.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain His commandment - Kept, is life everlasting - That…
His commandment - Kept, is life everlasting - That is the way to it, and the beginning of it.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 50. I know that this commandment is life…
Verse 50. I know that this commandment is life everlasting] These words of our Lord are similar to that saying in St. John's first epistle, 1Jo 5:11-12. This is the record, that God hath given unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life. God's commandment or commission is, Preach salvation to a lost world, and give thyself a ransom for all; and whosoever believeth on thee shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Every word of Christ, properly credited, and carefully applied, leads to peace and happiness here, and to glory hereafter. What an amiable view of the Gospel of the grace of God does this give us? It is a system of eternal life, Divinely calculated to answer every important purpose to dying, miserable man. This sacred truth Jesus witnessed with his last breath. He began his public ministry proclaiming the kingdom of God; and he now finishes it by asserting that the whole commission is eternal life; and, having attested this, he went out of the temple, and retired to Bethany.
THE public work of our Lord was now done; and the remnant of his time, previously to his crucifixion, he spent in teaching his disciples-instructing them in the nature of his kingdom, his intercession, and the mission of the Holy Spirit; and in that heavenly life which all true believers live with the Father, through faith in the Son, by the operation of the Holy Ghost.
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Many persons are liberal in their condemnation of the Jews, because they did not believe on the Son of God; and doubtless their unbelief has merited and received the most signal punishment. But those who condemn them do not reflect that they are probably committing the same sort of transgression, in circumstances which heighten the iniquity of their sin. Will it avail any man, that he has believed that Christ has come in the flesh to destroy the works of the devil, who does not come unto him that he may have life, but continues to live under the power and guilt of sin? Paradoxical as it may seem, it is nevertheless possible, for a man to credit the four evangelists, and yet live and die an infidel, as far as his own salvation is concerned. Reader, it is possible to hold the truth in unrighteousness. Pray to God that this may not be thy condemnation. For a farther improvement of the principal subjects of this chapter, see the notes on verses 24, 32, and 39. Joh 12:24; Joh 12:32; Joh 12:39
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Is life everlasting - Is the cause or source…
Is life everlasting - Is the cause or source of everlasting life. He that obeys the commandment of God shall obtain everlasting life; and this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his only-begotten Son, 1Jo 3:22. We see here the reason of the earnestness and fidelity of the Lord Jesus. It was because he saw that eternal life depended on the faithful preaching of the message of God. He therefore proclaimed it in the face of all opposition, contempt, and persecution. And we see also:
That every minister of religion should have a deep and abiding conviction that he delivers a message that is to be connected with the eternal welfare of his hearers. And, Under the influence of this belief, he should fearlessly deliver his message in the face of bonds, poverty, contempt, persecution, and death.
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It may not be improper to remark here that this is the close of the public preaching of Christ. The rest of his ministry was employed in the private instruction of his apostles, and in preparing them for his approaching death. It is such a close as all his ministers should desire to make a solemn, deliberate, firm exhibition of the truth of God, under a belief that on it was depending the eternal salvation of his hearers, and uttering without fear the solemn message of the Most High to a lost world.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 50. Commandment is life everlasting—God’s divine, authoritative word implanted…
50. Commandment is life everlasting—God’s divine, authoritative word implanted within our soul is eternal life in its very element and essence.
As the Father said… so I speak—And therefore rejecting my words is rejecting God’s words, and rejecting me is rejecting God. When Israel therefore rejected Christ she rejected the ancient Israel’s God; and all history since proclaims that she is of God rejected. And this thus far concludes our Evangelist’s history of the public ministry of Jesus to his countrymen and the world. It is a conclusion for weeping, and yet he is solemnly calm.
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Through the remainder of this entire Gospel, (Joh_12:13-21,) being nearly half of the whole, we have Jesus’s private ministry within his apostolic college, until he comes forth for the sacrifice, with the consummation.
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 50. And I know] The Son’s testimony to the…
50. And I know] The Son’s testimony to the Father. ‘The commission which He hath given Me is eternal life.’ (See on Joh_3:16.) His commission is to save the world.
as the Father said] The same distinction as in the previous verse: the matter of the revelation comes from the Father, the external expression of it from the Son.
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With this the first main division of the Gospel ends. Christ’s revelation of Himself to the world in His ministry is concluded. The Evangelist has set before us the Testimony to the Christ, the Work of the Christ, and the Judgment respecting the work, which has ended in a conflict, and the conflict has reached a climax. We have reached the beginning of the end.
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 (50) And I know that his commandment is life…
(50) And I know that his commandment is life everlasting.—i.e., the commission of the Messianic work. It is better to read here, as before, eternal life. (Comp. Joh_3:15, et al.) The Son speaks not of Himself, but He speaks as executing this commission, which brings spiritual and eternal life to the world. It could not be otherwise. This commandment being eternal life, the whole teaching of the Messiah must simply be an utterance of it.
As the Father said unto me, so I speak.—This clause answers to “what I should say and what I should speak” in the last verse. The external revelation is regarded as the work of the Son. That which the Father says is the truth revealed, and the matter and form are here identified.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.