John Chapter 18 verse 21 Holy Bible
Why askest thou me? Ask them that have heard `me', what I spake unto them: behold, these know the things which I said.
read chapter 18 in ASV
Why are you questioning me? put questions to my hearers about what I have said to them: they have knowledge of what I said.
read chapter 18 in BBE
Why demandest thou of me? Demand of those who have heard, what I have spoken to them; behold, they know what I have said.
read chapter 18 in DARBY
Why askest thou me? ask them which heard me, what I have said unto them: behold, they know what I said.
read chapter 18 in KJV
read chapter 18 in WBT
Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me what I said to them. Behold, these know the things which I said."
read chapter 18 in WEB
why me dost thou question? question those having heard what I spake to them; lo, these have known what I said.'
read chapter 18 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 21. - Why askest thou me? If thou wantest evidence touching my design, my disciples, or my teaching, ask, interrogate, those who have heard me, what I have said to them. Lo, these (pointing to numbers in the angry crowd around him) know what I spake unto them (the ἐγώ at the end of this sentence is very emphatic). Christ thus rebukes the craftiness and hypocritical endeavor of his enemies to induce him to inculpate his disciples, or to give his prosecutors matter against him. To false witnesses he preserved an invincible silence, and before Caiaphas and Pilate he answered to many of their queries not a single word, insomuch that these governors marveled greatly. However, the case was altered when Caiaphas, in full Sanhedrin, officially challenged him to say whether he was the Christ, and adjured him to declare whether he was the Son of God. Then, on the most public scale, knowing well the issues of his declaration, and of his oath-bound word, he did not hesitate to confess that he was the Son of God, and would come in the glory of his Father, and that he was no less than the Christ of God. On the present occasion, when Annas was seeking to justify his own craft, and to utilize the disgraceful betrayal which he had diplomatically and cruelly contrived, Jesus refused to incriminate either himself or his disciples. Renan has the temerity to say that this great announcement was quite superfluous, and probably was never made. Any conclusion whatever may be derived from historical documents, if such liberties may be taken with impunity.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(21) Why askest thou me?--Comp. John 5:31. The pronoun "Me" is not the emphatic word as it is generally taken to be. The stress is on the interrogative, "Why, for what purpose, dost thou ask Me? If you want witnesses, ask them which heard Me."Behold, they know what I said.--Better, behold, these know what I said. He pointed probably to some who were then present. In the next verse there is a reference to the "officers" who, as we know from John 7:32; John 7:46, had heard this doctrine.
