| 13. Dixerunt ergo ei pharisaei: Tu de teipso testimonium perhibes: testimonium tuum non est verum. | 13. The Pharisees therefore said to him: Thou givest testimony of thyself: thy testimony is not true. |
13. Thy testimony is not true; that is to say, is not juridical, such as ought to be accepted.
| 14. Respondit Iesus, et dixit eis: Et si ego testimonium perhibeo de meipso, verum est testimonium meum: quia scio unde veni, et quo vado: vos autem nescitis unde venio, aut quo vado. | 14. Jesus answered, and said to them: Although I give testimony of myself, my testimony is true: For I know whence I came, and whither I go: but you know not whence I come, or whither I go. |
14. Christ's answer is: though I bear testimony of Myself, My testimony should be accepted, because I am God (I know whence I came, and whither I go); self-interest and self-love can have no influence on Me, so as to warp My judgment or weaken My testimony.
| 15. Vos secundum carnem iudicatis: ego non iudico quemquam: | 15. You judge according to the flesh: I judge not any man. |
15. You judge according to the flesh; i.e., according to appearances, as though I were a mere man; or, more probably, according to your carnal ideas (Rom. viii. 4-6); thinking Me an impostor, you condemn Me. I judge not any man. The sense is that Christ at His first coming, condemned no one, for it is of the judgment of condemnation there is question, according to what seems the most probable view. Compare iii. 17; xii. 47.
| 16. Et si iudico ego, iudicium meum verum est, quia solus non sum: sed ego, et qui misit me, Pater. | 16. And if I do judge, my judgment is true: because I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me. |
16. The meaning is: if I did judge, My judgment would be just, because not the judgment of a mere man, but identical with the judgment of My Father. See [x. 30]; [xiv. 10].
| 17. Et in lege vestra scriptum est, quia duorum hominum testimonium verum est. | 17. And in your law it is written, that the testimony of two men is true. |
17. Καὶ ... δὲ, indicate the transition in which He passes from speaking of condemnation to speak of His testimony. Your law, He says, requires and is satisfied with two Witnesses (Deut. xvii. 6).