John 8:25

John 8:25, in plain English

They ask: Who are You? And Jesus answers: Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. He has not been hiding anything. They just have not been listening.

Why it's here

Jesus has been revealing His identity the whole time. The answer to their question is in everything He has already said.

Who's speaking

Jesus answers their demand for identification by pointing back to everything He has already told them.

Where it sits in the story

Sometimes we ask God for answers He has already given. Jesus told them who He was over and over. The problem was not that the truth was unclear; it was that they refused to hear it.

The scholarly reading

The Jews ask Su tis ei (Who are You?), and Jesus responds with the enigmatic tēn archēn ho ti kai lalō humin, a notoriously difficult Greek phrase variously translated as essentially what I have been telling you or why do I speak to you at all?

Language and setting

The Greek phrase is among the most debated in the New Testament. Whether it means from the beginning what I told you or why do I even speak to you, both interpretations point to Jesus' consistent self-revelation.

Voice

The Jews demand a direct identification, and Jesus gives an answer that points back to everything He has already said.

Significance

When asked who He is, Jesus essentially says: I have been telling you from the start. His identity is not hidden; it is revealed in everything He has said and done. The problem is not a lack of evidence but a lack of faith.

23Then He told them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.

24That is why I told you that you would die in your sins. For unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

25“Who are You?” they asked.

26“I have much to say about you and much to judge. But the One who sent Me is truthful, and what I have heard from Him, I tell the world.”

27They did not understand that He was telling them about the Father.

Read all of John 8 — A woman caught in adultery, a claim to be the light of the world, and a statement so audacious the crowd picks up stones: before Abraham was, I am.