John Chapter 8 verse 54 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 54. - Our Lord does not immediately or directly reply to their question. He was not making himself to be anything. He was simply declaring the fact. He does not return on the astounding assertion of ver. 51, but confirms it by reaffirming his own relation to the Father, and that sense of absolute and perfect union with the Father on which his entire ministry was based. Jesus answered, If I glorify myself - if I, from the ground of my own human consciousness, and apart from the Father who is with me and in me, and who "seeketh my glory" (ver. 50), if I have no unique relation and access to the Father, as you Jews seem to imply - then my glory - the glory of giving eternal life, of conferring perfect freedom and sonship upon those who continue in and keep my word; then all this glory which I claim - is nothing. But neither is the hypothesis one of fact, nor is the conclusion (fair enough on that hypothesis) a truth. "I am not glorifying myself, making myself anything other than I am." It is my Father who is glorifying me (cf. ver. 50, both for construction and sense); of whom ye say, that he is our [your] God. They claimed for themselves that they were "of God," and that the Father of whom he spake was no other than their God and Father as well as his. But they have not comprehended their own Scriptures nor God's providence, nor all the revelation which the Father was making of himself in the Son; while their special and monopolizing claim concealed from them the face of the Father.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(54) If I honour myself, my honour is nothing.--The word rendered "honour" is not the same as that in John 8:49. It is better to read glorify here. Following all the better MSS. the tense is past. We have then, If I shall have glorified Myself, My glory is nothing. Stress is to be laid upon the pronoun. "If I, for My part, as distinct from the Father, shall have glorified Myself."It is my Father that honoureth me.--Better, as before, . . . glorifieth Me. This is the answer to their question, "Whom makest Thou Thyself?" The attribute of life in Himself, and the power to communicate this to those who kept His word, was the gift of the Father to the Son. (See Note on John 5:26.)Of whom ye say, that he is your God.--Some of the better MSS., and most modern editors, read . . . "He is our God." The identification of the Father with the God of Israel is important. It may be, as some have supposed, that the phrase, "He is our God," belonged to common liturgical forms or hymns, and was thus frequently on their lips.