John 8:27 Commentary and Bible Study

The word understood is rather an elastic word in the Greek. They accepted not. They would not have it that he spoke to them of the Father. It does not actually mean in this context they did not understand – that gives them an excuse. Their unbelief was deliberate. They accepted not that he spoke to them of the Father.So here is the solemn warning to them – ‘Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.’ Then they would know. Would it lead to their conversion? No. Not the leaders. Many of the ordinary Jewish people in Jerusalem would be saved. Three thousand on the day of Pentecost, five thousand shortly afterwards, even more after that. The estimate of the young church in Jerusalem in the months after the day of Pentecost is as high as forty thousand, but not the chief priests and the leaders of the scribes and the Pharisees.‘Then shall ye know that I am he.’ In the time after the crucifixion and the ascension of Christ, and the founding of the young church, and the acts of the apostles, and the miracles worked by the apostles, and the thousands upon thousands of conversions, they would sullenly, resentfully know within themselves that he was the Messiah. But to their dying day, they would not have him, and they would not turn to him. These words do not indicate that they were going to be saved.