What Does John 7:28 Mean?
Then Jesus cried out in the temple as he taught, saying, You both know me, and you know where I am from; and I have not come from myself, but the one who sent me is true, whom you do not know.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught, saying, Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am: and I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not.THE KEY
They can know Jesus and trace where he appears to come from while remaining strangers to the sender who is his true source.
THE MEANING
You can recognize the person before you and trace where he appears to come from, yet still not know the one who sends him. Jesus’ authority is not self-generated; it rests in the true sender. The verse sets familiarity with the messenger beside ignorance of his source.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Knowing facts about Jesus, even knowing where he comes from, does not by itself mean you know the one who sends him.
THE ROOT
πέμψας
pémpsas
GROWS FROM
πέμπω
pempō
To send or dispatch someone.
“the one who sent me” in this verse is pémpsas. The verse names Jesus through an act of sending: his source is the one who sends him, not himself. The contrast is between knowing the messenger’s apparent origin and knowing the sender.
ALSO GROWS
ekpempō: To send or dispatch outward.
ἐκπέμπω
The compound keeps the same sending root and makes the movement from a source outward explicit.
anapempō: To send back or refer onward.
ἀναπέμπω
This branch keeps the sender and the one sent in relation, helping the verse’s focus fall on who sends Jesus.
οἴδατε
oidate
GROWS FROM
οἶδα (oida), related to εἴδω (eídō)
To know; historically connected with seeing or perceiving.
The same verb for know appears in the claims about knowing Jesus and where he comes from, then again in the denial that they know his sender. Its history connects knowing with seeing, yet what is visible about the messenger does not reveal the source they do not know.
ALSO GROWS
eîdon: A form of the verb meaning to see.
εἶδον
It shows the old link between seeing and knowing that sits beneath οἶδα.
eîdos: The visible form or appearance of something.
εἶδος
It sharpens the distinction in the verse: recognizing what appears before you is not the same as knowing the sender.
THE PATTERN
A messenger’s visible presence does not establish that the source behind the message is known.
And God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM. And he said, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you.I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran; I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.Then they said to him, Where is your Father? Jesus answered, You have not seen me or my Father; had you seen me, you would have seen my Father also.THE THREAD
And the Father himself, who sent me, has borne witness about me. You have never heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.The same Greek verb πέμπω (pempō, to send) links the verses: Jesus is the one the Father sends. John 5:37 adds that the Father bears witness of him, putting the sender’s testimony beside the claim that the sender is not known.
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