The Meaning of John 5:31 Explained

John 5:31

KJV: If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.

YLT: 'If I testify concerning myself, my testimony is not true;

Darby: If I bear witness concerning myself, my witness is not true.

ASV: If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

If  I  bear witness  of  myself,  my  witness  is  not  true. 

What does John 5:31 Mean?

Study Notes

witness
Cf. John 8:14 . In John 5:31 our Lord, defending His Messianic claims before Jews who denied those claims, accepts the biblical rule of evidence, which required "two witnesses"; John 8:17 ; Numbers 35:30 ; Deuteronomy 17:6 . A paraphrase of verse John 5:31 would be: "If I bear witness of myself ye will say my witness is not true." Cf. John 8:14 .

Context Summary

John 5:30-38 - Jesus' Works His Sufficient Witness
The one desire and purpose of our Lord was to do God's will. We cannot penetrate the mystery of His ineffable being, but clearly, so far as His human nature was concerned, he had a will which could be denied and subordinated to the Father's. See John 5:30; John 6:38; Luke 22:42. It meant shame, a breaking heart, a soul exceeding sorrowful, the cry of the forsaken, but he never swerved. He clung to it as to a hand rail down the steep dark staircase that led to Calvary. Let us live according to God's will. It feeds the spirit, John 4:34. It clears the judgment, John 5:30. It gives rest and tranquility to the heart, Matthew 11:29. It is the key of certain and assured knowledge, John 7:17. It introduces us into a great circle of others, who in the past and present, in heaven and on earth, are living with the same purpose. Our Lord cites as allies John the Baptist, John 5:6; the Scriptures, John 5:39; and Moses, John 5:45. Choose this life policy! There is no other way! Remember that God's will is goodwill, and that His love is endless and changeless. [source]

Chapter Summary: John 5

1  Jesus on the Sabbath day cures him who was diseased thirty-eight years
10  The Jews therefore object, and persecute him for it
17  He answers for himself, and reproves them, showing by the testimony of his Father,
31  of John,
36  of his works,
39  and of the Scriptures, who he is

Greek Commentary for John 5:31

If I bear witness of myself [Εαν εγω μαρτυρω περι εμαυτου]
Condition of third class, undetermined with prospect of determination The emphasis is on εγω — egō (I alone with no other witness). Is not true In law the testimony of a witness is not received in his own case (Jewish, Greek, Roman law). See Deuteronomy 19:15 and the allusion to it by Jesus in Matthew 18:16. See also 2 Corinthians 13:1; 1 Timothy 5:19. And yet in John 8:12-19 Jesus claims that his witness concerning himself is true because the Father gives confirmation of his message. The Father and the Son are the two witnesses (John 8:17). It is a paradox and yet true. But here Jesus yields to the rabbinical demand for proof outside of himself. He has the witness of another (the Father, John 5:32, John 5:37), the witness of the Baptist (John 5:33), the witness of the works of Jesus (John 5:36), the witness of the Scriptures (John 5:39), the witness of Moses in particular (John 5:45). [source]
If I [ἐὰν ἐγὼ]
The I expressed for emphasis: I alone. [source]
TRUE [ἀληθής]
As distinguished from false. See on John 1:9. [source]

Reverse Greek Commentary Search for John 5:31

John 1:9 TRUE [ἀληθινὸν]
Wyc., very light (compare the Nicene creed, “very God of very God”). This epithet is applied to light only here and 1 John 2:8, and is almost confined to the writings of John. A different word, ἀληθής , also rendered true, occurs at John 3:33; John 5:31; John 8:13, and elsewhere. The difference is that ἀληθινόζ signifies true, as contrasted with false; while ἀληθινός signifies what is real, perfect, and substantial, as contrasted with what is fanciful, shadowy, counterfeit, or merely symbolic. Thus God is ἀληθής (John 3:33) in that He cannot lie. He is ἀληθινός (1 Thessalonians 1:9), as distinguished from idols. In Hebrews 8:2, the heavenly tabernacle is called ἀληθινή , as distinguished from the Mosaic tabernacle, which was a figure of the heavenly reality (Hebrews 9:24). Thus the expression true light denotes the realization of the original divine idea of the Light - the archetypal Light, as contrasted with all imperfect manifestations: “the Light which fulfilled all that had been promised by the preparatory, partial, even fictitious lights which had existed in the world before.”“Our little systems have their day;They have their day and cease to be: They are but broken lights of Thee,-DIVIDER-
And Thou, O Lord, art more than they.”Tennyson, In Memoriam. [source]

John 1:7 For a witness [εἰς μαρτυρίαν]
Revised version of the New Testament, more correctly, for witness: a witness would be, μάρτυρα as Acts 1:8. The sense is for witness-bearing or to bear witness. On the word, see Acts 1:22; 1 Peter 5:1. It is one of John's characteristic words, occurring nearly fifty times in various forms in his Gospel, and thirty or forty times in the Epistles and Revelation. The emphatic development of the idea of witness is peculiar to this Gospel. “It evidently belongs to a time when men had begun to reason about the faith, and to analyze the grounds on which it rested” (Westcott). He develops the idea under the following forms: The witness of the Father (John 5:31, John 5:34, John 5:37); the witness of Christ himself (John 8:14; John 18:37); the witness of works (John 5:17, John 5:36; John 10:25; John 14:11; John 15:24); the witness of Scripture (John 5:39, John 5:40, John 5:46; John 1:46); the witness of the forerunner (John 1:7; John 5:33, John 5:35); the witness of the disciples (John 15:27; John 19:35; John 21:24; 1 John 1:2; 1 John 4:14); the witness of the Spirit (John 15:26; John 16:13, John 16:14; 1 John 5:6). Note the emphasis attached to the idea here, by the twofold form in which it is put: first, generally, for witness, and then by giving the subject of the testimony. [source]
John 8:13 Of thyself [περι σεαυτου]
This technical objection was according to the rules of evidence among the rabbis. “No man can give witness for himself” (Mishnah, Ketub. 11. 9). Hence, they say, “not true” (ουκ αλητες — ouk alēthes), not pertinent. “They were still in the region of pedantic rules and external tests.” In John 5:31 Jesus acknowledged this technical need of further witness outside of his own claims (John 5:19-30) and proceeded to give it (John 5:32-47) in the testimony of the Baptist, of the Father, of his works, of the Scriptures, and of Moses in particular. [source]

What do the individual words in John 5:31 mean?

If I bear witness concerning Myself the testimony of Me not is TRUE
Ἐὰν ἐγὼ μαρτυρῶ περὶ ἐμαυτοῦ μαρτυρία μου οὐκ ἔστιν ἀληθής

μαρτυρῶ  bear  witness 
Parse: Verb, Present Subjunctive Active, 1st Person Singular
Root: μαρτυρέω  
Sense: to be a witness, to bear witness, i.e. to affirm that one has seen or heard or experienced something, or that he knows it because taught by divine revelation or inspiration.
περὶ  concerning 
Parse: Preposition
Root: περί 
Sense: about, concerning, on account of, because of, around, near.
ἐμαυτοῦ  Myself 
Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Genitive Masculine 1st Person Singular
Root: ἐμαυτοῦ  
Sense: I, me, myself etc.
μαρτυρία  testimony 
Parse: Noun, Nominative Feminine Singular
Root: μαρτυρία  
Sense: a testifying.
μου  of  Me 
Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Genitive 1st Person Singular
Root: ἐγώ  
Sense: I, me, my.
ἀληθής  TRUE 
Parse: Adjective, Nominative Feminine Singular
Root: ἀληθής  
Sense: true.

What are the major concepts related to John 5:31?

Loading Information...