What Does John 8:27 Mean?
They did not come to know that he was speaking to them about the Father.
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
They understood not that he spake to them of the Father.THE KEY
It is possible to hear true words about the Father without perceiving what they reveal.
THE MEANING
Words about the Father are audible here, but their subject remains unrecognized. The reader can hear true speech and still miss what it points toward; hearing alone does not ensure perception. The gap is between hearing the words and recognizing whom they disclose.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Hearing religious words is the same as recognizing the Father.
THE ROOT
ἔγνωσαν
egnōsan
GROWS FROM
γνω-
gnō-
know, recognize, perceive
“did not come to know” in this verse is egnōsan. “Understood” can sound like a purely intellectual failure, but the verb also carries the sense of recognition. The verse reveals a gap between hearing Jesus speak and perceiving whom his words concern.
ALSO GROWS
gnōsis: knowledge or recognition
γνῶσις
This related word keeps the verb connected to a wider field of knowing, beyond simply grasping a sentence.
gnōstos: known or recognizable
γνωστός
It highlights the distance between hearing about the Father and recognizing the one being spoken of.
THE PATTERN
The source becomes perceptible through what expresses it, though the expression does not force recognition.
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens recount the weight of God; and the expanse sets forth the work of his hands.Jesus said to him, Have I been with you for so long a time, and you have not known me, Philip? The one who has perceived me has perceived the Father. How can you say, Point us to the Father?All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son chooses to uncover him.THE THREAD
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.John 8:19 uses the same Greek verb for knowing when Jesus says they neither know him nor his Father. Recognition of the Father and recognition of the one speaking are joined.
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