I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and you do the things that you have seen with your father.
εγω ο εωρακα παρα τω πατρι μου λαλω και υμεις ουν ο εωρακατε παρα τω πατρι υμων ποιειτε
11 Church Fathers comment on this verse
What then? Perhaps they could say, “You speak this from Yourself.” Therefore He added: “I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.” As I, He says, reveal the Father both by words and by truth, so you reveal your father by your deeds. I have not only the same essence as the Father, but also the same truth.
So that they might not again say to Him, "We rightly hate You even for Your word, because You speak to us not from God but from Yourself, and therefore we cannot accept Your teaching," He adds this.
I do not speak from Myself, but I speak what I have seen with My Father. You do what you have seen with your father. I, He says, proclaim divine and heavenly things, and thereby reveal My Father. You reveal your father, that is, the devil, by your deeds.
When you hear these words, "I speak what I have seen," do not think of bodily sight. Understand natural, true, and most certain knowledge.
Just as eyes, when they see a thing and the truth soundly, see truly and are not deceived, so I truly speak what I have learned from the Father.
Having said that His word had no place among the Jews, and that for this reason they rose up against Him and were convicted as murderers, He considered it necessary to add these words also. I shall again set forth the reason.
He was not ignorant, as we must think, that some of the Jews would rise up and arm themselves against His words. Belching forth from their own evil-mindedness, they would again say: "It is not without reason, as you claim, that some have murderous thoughts against You. They are striving for this on valid grounds. This intention in them is beloved of God, and this zeal is not justly deserving of blame. For Your word has no place in them, since You have made it, or Yourself, contrary to God.
You teach us an error alien to His will, draw us away from the path according to the Mosaic Law, and transfer us to something pleasing only to You." Such things the Jews probably whispered in secret or pondered within themselves.
The Lord again forestalls them, knowing the movements of thought occurring in them, for He is true God. Therefore He says: "I speak what I have seen with the Father." I have beheld the nature of My Father. Of Myself and in Myself I have seen the Begetter and have become the beholder of His desires. Clearly, I have seen by innate knowledge what deeds He loves, and this I "speak" to you.
I do not appear at all to speak contrary to Him, nor have I established anything against His will. I strive to call My hearers to this, without departing from My own desires. For His desires are in Me, and Mine likewise are in Him. But if I, being such by nature and being of one will in all things with God the Father, seem to you untrue and am considered to be turning you away from the divine instructions, let such an accusation cease. Cast away such suspicion.
"What you have heard from the Father, do." He spoke to you through Moses. Fulfill the commandment. You heard His words: "You shall not kill the innocent and righteous" (Ex 23:7). How then do you seek to kill Me, thereby violating the Father's commandment?
But the saying can also be understood in another sense: "And you also, therefore, do what you have heard from the Father." He spoke to you through the prophets. You heard the words: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Proclaim, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King comes to you, righteous and saving, mounted on a young colt, the foal of a beast of burden" (Zech 9:9).
Again also by the voice of Isaiah: "Go up on a high mountain, you who bring good tidings to Zion! Lift up your voice with strength, you who bring good tidings to Jerusalem! Lift it up, fear not! Behold your God. Behold, the Lord comes with strength, and His arm with authority. Behold, His reward is with Him and His work before Him. He will feed His flock like a shepherd, and with His arm He will gather the lambs and comfort those with young" (Is 40:9-11).
Therefore, obeying the Father's commandments, receive Him who was proclaimed beforehand. Honor with faith the One announced beforehand. At least give the Father's words authority within yourselves.
One must know that when He says the Law belongs to God the Father, although it was uttered by Him through angels, He does not exclude Himself from the giving of the Law. Rather, He does this in condescension to the Jews, who thought this was how it had been, and for their profit He does not refute their opinion. For He often shamed them for not receiving Him by bringing forward the Father's name.
The Lord means God the Father when He says, "I speak what I have seen with My Father." I have seen the truth and speak of the truth, for I am the Truth.
If the Lord speaks of the truth which He sees with the Father, then He sees Himself and speaks of Himself. For He Himself is the Truth of the Father, which He sees with the Father. He Himself is the Word Who was with God (Jn 1:1).
You have already heard how the Lord said, "I know that you are Abraham's children." Listen to what He said afterward: "I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father."
He had already said, "I know that you are Abraham's children." What, then, do they do? What He said to them: "You seek to kill Me." They never saw this in Abraham.
The Lord wanted them to think of God the Father when He said, "I speak what I have seen with My Father." "I have seen the truth, I speak the truth, for I am the Truth."
If the Lord spoke the truth which He saw with the Father, then He saw Himself and spoke Himself. For He Himself is the Truth of the Father, which He saw with the Father. He Himself is the Word Who was with God.
Where, then, did those Jews see the evil they were doing, which the Lord censures and rebukes? With their father. When we later hear more plainly who their father is said to be, then we shall understand what they saw with such a father.
For the moment He does not name their father. A little above He mentioned Abraham, but in relation to their bodily descent, not in the sense that they imitated their father's way of life.
Another father will also be named. He did not beget them, nor did he create them so that they might be men. Yet they were his children in being evil, not in being human. They were his children by imitation, not by creation.
“I speak what I have seen with My Father,” that is, what I have learned from His Father and what He has been taught by Him. “And you do what you have seen with your father,” that is, murder. Here He means the devil by their father. Just as they lose the right to have Abraham as their father through dissimilarity of works, so perfect likeness of works shows that their father is the devil. He too is a murderer, as will be said more clearly afterward.
Noticing their growing frenzy, He continued: You call yourselves Abraham's seed, but look whether the same dispositions are in you as were in Abraham. A son usually bears the stamp of his father.
In Me, in My words and actions, one may recognize My Father. But in your words, in your intentions and actions, can one find your father?
I speak to you the words of the Father, but My word has no place in you. You are ready to kill Me. Does this not show that your dispositions come from a wholly different source than My words?
Does it not show in you the children of another father?
Then Jesus Christ explains to them what slavery and what freedom He is speaking about (34-36). Afterward He proves from their own conduct that they unworthily call themselves Abraham's seed (37-38). "Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin."
In an ordinary house, a slave is not a member of the family and does not remain in the house forever. He may be driven out of it or sold. The son remains in the house forever, as heir both of the house and of all his father's estate (Gen 21:10; Gal 4:30).
So also in the house, or Kingdom, of God, only the Son of God remains forever. He is heir both of the house itself and of all its blessings and gifts. The slave of sin may be cast out of the Kingdom of God (Mt 8:12).
Therefore, if the Son sets you free, that is, from sin, He will leave you with Himself forever in the house, or Kingdom, of God. You will be adopted children of God and His brothers, and then you will be truly free.
I know that according to the flesh you are descended from Abraham, yet you seek to kill Me. The descendants of Abraham, to whom the promise of the Messiah was given, seek to kill the Messiah Who has come to them. What an absurdity.
You seek to kill Me because My word has no place in you and finds nothing akin to itself in your heart. I speak to you what I have seen with My Father (3:11-13; 5:19-20), while you do what you have seen from your father.
The second "seen," of course, does not have a literal meaning. It is used to complete the comparison and means generally that Christ's hearers are obedient children of their father. Between My teaching and your heart there is decisive opposition and enmity.
Although you are descendants of Abraham, you cannot justify your actions by this descent from him, because you seek an opportunity to kill Me. You do not understand Me. My teaching finds no room in you. This happens because I speak to you what I have seen with My Father, while you do what you have seen with your father.
"I speak what," and so on. The inner reason why the Lord's word has no place in them is that His teaching and their deeds have an entirely different source, from which each proceeds.
His teaching comes from God, while they do what they have learned from the devil. For this reason they do not understand the divine teaching.
"I speak," and so on: see the note on Jn 3:11-13. "What you have seen with your father" means what they have learned from the devil (Jn 8:44).
In contrast to the Son's vision and knowledge of the mysteries and works of the Father (Jn 5:19-20 and parallels), Who reveals all things to the Son, the Jews, as enemies of Christ and children of the devil, are represented as seeing and knowing what their father does.
He also reveals his will to them. Of course, their vision and knowledge differ completely from the Son's vision and knowledge, not only in content and essence, but also in manner. They are placed side by side as opposites.
Christ then explained the thought that the Jews, who boasted of their bodily descent from Abraham, were alien to Abraham in spirit. By their deeds they testify that they are not Abraham's children.
"If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man Who has told you the truth which He heard from God" (vv. 39-40).
Being alien to Abraham in spirit, they have no right to call themselves children of God, although they boast of true knowledge of God before the Gentiles.
"If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded and came from God" (v. 42).
The Lord Jesus again points to His unity with God the Father (cf. vv. 26-29), and to that eternal source of wisdom, righteousness, and love from which His deeds and words flow, although He is in the form of man. Cf. Gregory the Theologian, Oration 36.
He especially shows the Jews that their words and deeds proceed from an evil principle, from the father of lies. In response to the Jews' constantly repeated boast that they are sons of Abraham, the Lord insistently points out the immense moral difference between them and Abraham.
Abraham did the works of God. What, then, are they plotting, the Lord asks, the murder of the righteous One?
In verse 40 an expression appears on the lips of the Lord that occurs nowhere else. The Lord says, "You seek to kill Me, a man, ἂνθρωπον, who has told you the truth."
To display more clearly the vileness of the crime, the Lord temporarily even sets aside the sacred names Son of God and Son of Man.
He calls Himself simply a man. Speaking of Himself as an ordinary mortal, He shows the Jews all the blackness of their soul, which is capable of plotting the murder of their brother, as Cain murdered Abel, simply because the latter was pleasing to God.
With such an indication, there was no room even for those false pretexts with which the so-called zealots of the Law covered themselves. They claimed they persecuted the Lord because He broke the Law and called Himself the Son of God.
The Lord lays bare their own heart and shows them that they are murderers, like their father the devil. See below, verse 44. They seek the innocent blood of their brother.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 16 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS