KJV: Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
YLT: 'Ye search the Writings, because ye think in them to have life age-during, and these are they that are testifying concerning me;
Darby: Ye search the scriptures, for ye think that in them ye have life eternal, and they it is which bear witness concerning me;
ASV: Ye search the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of me;
| Ἐραυνᾶτε | You diligently search |
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Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Active, 2nd Person Plural Root: ἐραυνάω Sense: to search, examine into. |
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| γραφάς | Scriptures |
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Parse: Noun, Accusative Feminine Plural Root: γραφή Sense: a writing, thing written. |
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| δοκεῖτε | think |
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Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Active, 2nd Person Plural Root: δοκέω Sense: to be of opinion, think, suppose. |
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| ζωὴν | life |
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Parse: Noun, Accusative Feminine Singular Root: ζωή Sense: life. |
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| αἰώνιον | eternal |
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Parse: Adjective, Accusative Feminine Singular Root: αἰώνιος Sense: without beginning and end, that which always has been and always will be. |
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| ἔχειν | to have |
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Parse: Verb, Present Infinitive Active Root: ἔχω Sense: to have, i.e. to hold. |
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| ἐκεῖναί | these |
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Parse: Demonstrative Pronoun, Nominative Feminine Plural Root: ἐκεῖνος Sense: he, she it, etc. |
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| εἰσιν | are they |
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Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Active, 3rd Person Plural Root: εἰμί Sense: to be, to exist, to happen, to be present. |
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| αἱ | - |
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Parse: Article, Nominative Feminine Plural Root: ὁ Sense: this, that, these, etc. |
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| μαρτυροῦσαι | bearing witness |
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Parse: Verb, Present Participle Active, Nominative Feminine Plural 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. |
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| περὶ | concerning |
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Parse: Preposition Root: περί Sense: about, concerning, on account of, because of, around, near. |
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| ἐμοῦ | Me |
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Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Genitive 1st Person Singular Root: ἐγώ Sense: I, me, my. |
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Greek Commentary for John 5:39
Proper spelling as the papyri show rather than ερευνατε ereunāte the old form (from ερευνα ereuna search) as in John 7:52. The form here can be either present active indicative second person plural or the present active imperative second person plural. Only the context can decide. Either makes sense here, but the reason given “because ye think” The plural with the article refers to the well-known collection in the Old Testament (Matthew 21:42; Luke 24:27). Elsewhere in John the singular refers to a particular passage (John 2:22; John 7:38; John 10:35). In them ye have eternal life Indirect assertion after δοκειτε dokeite without “ye” expressed either as nominative Bernard holds that in John δοκεω dokeō always indicates a mistaken opinion (John 5:45; John 11:13, John 11:31; John 13:29; John 16:20; John 20:15). Certainly the rabbis did make a mechanical use of the letter of Scripture as a means of salvation. These are they The true value of the Scriptures is in their witness to Christ (of me, περι εμου peri emou). Luke (Luke 24:27, Luke 24:45) gives this same claim of Jesus, and yet some critics fail to find the Messiah in the Old Testament. But Jesus did. [source]
Rev., rightly, ye search. Jesus is appealing to a familiar practice of which for in them ye think is explanatory. See 1 Peter 1:11; Romans 8:27; 1 Corinthians 2:10; Revelation 2:23. [source]
Literally, the writings; possibly with a hint at the contrast with the word (John 5:38). [source]
Those very scriptures. [source]
Reverse Greek Commentary Search for John 5:39
Compare John 5:39. [source]
This pronoun is urged by some as a reason for regarding the witness as some other than John, because it is the pronoun of remote reference. But John 9:37shows clearly that a speaker can use this pronoun of himself; and it is, further, employed in this Gospel to indicate a person “as possessing the quality which is the point in question in an eminent or even exclusive degree” (Godet). See John 1:18; John 5:39. [source]
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]
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]
Clear use of και kai in the adversative sense of “and yet” or “but.” They marvelled at Christ‘s “ignorance” and boasted of their own knowledge of the law of Moses. And yet they violated that law by not practising it. Why seek ye to kill me? A sudden and startling question as an illustration of their failure to do the law of Moses. Jesus had previously known (John 5:39, John 5:45-47) that the Jews really rejected the teaching of Moses while professing to believe it. On that very occasion they had sought to kill him (John 5:18), the very language used here. Apparently he had not been to Jerusalem since then. He undoubtedly alludes to their conduct then and charges them with the same purpose now. [source]
Prohibition with μη mē and the present imperative. See on John 5:39 for δοκεω dokeō for mistaken opinions in John. I will accuse you Emphasis on εγω egō (I). Future active indicative of κατηγορεω katēgoreō See Romans 3:9 for προαιτιαομαι proaitiaomai for making previous charge and Luke 16:1 for διαβαλλω diaballō a secret malicious accusation, and Romans 8:33 for εγκαλεω egkaleō for public charge, not necessarily before tribunal. Even Moses No “even” in the Greek. On whom ye have set your hope Perfect active indicative of ελπιζω elpizō state of repose in Moses. Only example of ελπιζω elpizō in John. See 2 Corinthians 1:10 for use of εις eis with ελπιζω elpizō instead of the usual επι epi (1 Timothy 4:10). [source]
See on John 5:39. Not, searcheth in order to discover; but of the ever active, accurate, careful sounding of the depths of God by the Spirit. [source]
Same form for imperative present active plural and indicative. Either makes sense as in John 5:39 εραυνατε eraunate and John 14:1 πιστευετε pisteuete [source]
For glory see on 1 Thessalonians 2:12. Ἱσχὺς powernot often in Paul. It is indwelling power put forth or embodied, either aggressively or as an obstacle to resistance: physical power organized or working under individual direction. An army and a fortress are both ἰσχυρὸς. The power inhering in the magistrate, which is put forth in laws or judicial decisions, is ἰσχὺς , and makes the edicts ἰσχυρὰ validand hard to resist. Δύναμις is the indwelling power which comes to manifestation in ἰσχὺς The precise phrase used here does not appear elsewhere in N.T. In lxx, Isaiah 2:10, Isaiah 2:19, Isaiah 2:21. The power ( δύναμις ) and glory of God are associated in Matthew 24:30; Mark 13:26; Luke 21:27; Revelation 4:11; Revelation 19:1. Comp. κράτος τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ strengthof his glory, Colossians 1:11. Additional Note on ὄλεθρον αἰώνιον eternaldestruction, 2 Thessalonians 1:9 Ἁιών transliterated eon is a period of time of longer or shorter duration, having a beginning and an end, and complete in itself. Aristotle ( περὶ οὐρανοῦ , i. 9,15) says: “The period which includes the whole time of each one's life is called the eon of each one.” Hence it often means the life of a man, as in Homer, where one's life ( αἰών ) is said to leave him or to consume away (Il. v. 685; Od. v. 160). It is not, however, limited to human life; it signifies any period in the course of events, as the period or age before Christ; the period of the millennium; the mytho-logical period before the beginnings of history. The word has not “a stationary and mechanical value” (De Quincey). It does not mean a period of a fixed length for all cases. There are as many eons as entities, the respective durations of which are fixed by the normal conditions of the several entities. There is one eon of a human life, another of the life of a nation, another of a crow's life, another of an oak's life. The length of the eon depends on the subject to which it is attached. It is sometimes translated world; world representing a period or a series of periods of time. See Matthew 12:32; Matthew 13:40, Matthew 13:49; Luke 1:70; 1 Corinthians 1:20; 1 Corinthians 2:6; Ephesians 1:21. Similarly οἱ αἰῶνες theworlds, the universe, the aggregate of the ages or periods, and their contents which are included in the duration of the world. 1 Corinthians 2:7; 1 Corinthians 10:11; Hebrews 1:2; Hebrews 9:26; Hebrews 11:3. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- The word always carries the notion of time, and not of eternity. It always means a period of time. Otherwise it would be impossible to account for the plural, or for such qualifying expressions as this age, or the age to come. It does not mean something endless or everlasting. To deduce that meaning from its relation to ἀεί is absurd; for, apart from the fact that the meaning of a word is not definitely fixed by its derivation, ἀεί does not signify endless duration. When the writer of the Pastoral Epistles quotes the saying that the Cretans are always ( ἀεί ) liars (Titus 1:12), he surely does not mean that the Cretans will go on lying to all eternity. See also Acts 7:51; 2 Corinthians 4:11; 2 Corinthians 6:10; Hebrews 3:10; 1 Peter 3:15. Ἁεί means habitually or continually within the limit of the subject's life. In our colloquial dialect everlastingly is used in the same way. “The boy is everlastingly tormenting me to buy him a drum.”-DIVIDER- In the New Testament the history of the world is conceived as developed through a succession of eons. A series of such eons precedes the introduction of a new series inaugurated by the Christian dispensation, and the end of the world and the second coming of Christ are to mark the beginning of another series. See Ephesians 3:11. Paul contemplates eons before and after the Christian era. Ephesians 1:21; Ephesians 2:7; Ephesians 3:9, Ephesians 3:21; 1 Corinthians 10:11; comp. Hebrews 9:26. He includes the series of eons in one great eon, ὁ αἰὼν τῶν αἰώνων theeon of the eons (Ephesians 3:21); and the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews describes the throne of God as enduring unto the eon of the eons (Hebrews 1:8). The plural is also used, eons of the eons, signifying all the successive periods which make up the sum total of the ages collectively. Romans 16:27; Galatians 1:5; Philemon 4:20, etc. This plural phrase is applied by Paul to God only. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- The adjective αἰώνιος in like manner carries the idea of time. Neither the noun nor the adjective, in themselves, carry the sense of endless or everlasting. They may acquire that sense by their connotation, as, on the other hand, ἀΐ̀διος , which means everlasting, has its meaning limited to a given point of time in Judges 1:6. Ἁιώνιος means enduring through or pertaining to a period of time. Both the noun and the adjective are applied to limited periods. Thus the phrase εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα , habitually rendered forever, is often used of duration which is limited in the very nature of the case. See, for a few out of many instances, lxx, Exodus 21:6; Exodus 29:9; Exodus 32:13; Joshua 14:9; 1 Samuel 8:13; Leviticus 25:46; Deuteronomy 15:17; 1 Chronicles 28:4. See also Matthew 21:19; John 13:8; 1 Corinthians 8:13. The same is true of αἰώνιος . Out of 150 instances in lxx, four-fifths imply limited duration. For a few instances see Genesis 48:4; Numbers 10:8; Numbers 15:15; Proverbs 22:28; Jonah 2:6; Habakkuk 3:6; Isaiah 61:8. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- Words which are habitually applied to things temporal or material can not carry in themselves the sense of endlessness. Even when applied to God, we are not forced to render αἰώνιος everlastingOf course the life of God is endless; but the question is whether, in describing God as αἰώνιος , it was intended to describe the duration of his being, or whether some different and larger idea was not contemplated. That God lives longer than men, and lives on everlastingly, and has lived everlastingly, are, no doubt, great and significant facts; yet they are not the dominant or the most impressive facts in God's relations to time. God's eternity does not stand merely or chiefly for a scale of length. It is not primarily a mathematical but a moral fact. The relations of God to time include and imply far more than the bare fact of endless continuance. They carry with them the fact that God transcends time; works on different principles and on a vaster scale than the wisdom of time provides; oversteps the conditions and the motives of time; marshals the successive eons from a point outside of time, on lines which run out into his own measureless cycles, and for sublime moral ends which the creature of threescore and ten years cannot grasp and does not even suspect. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- There is a word for everlasting if that idea is demanded. That αἰώνιος occurs rarely in the New Testament and in lxx does not prove that its place was taken by αἰώνιος . It rather goes to show that less importance was attached to the bare idea of everlastingness than later theological thought has given it. Paul uses the word once, in Romans 1:20, where he speaks of “the everlasting power and divinity of God.” In Romans 16:26he speaks of the eternal God ( τοῦ αἰωνίου θεοῦ ); but that he does not mean the everlasting God is perfectly clear from the context. He has said that “the mystery” has been kept in silence in times eternal ( χρόνοις αἰωνίοις ), by which he does not mean everlasting times, but the successive eons which elapsed before Christ was proclaimed. God therefore is described as the God of the eons, the God who pervaded and controlled those periods before the incarnation. To the same effect is the title ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν αἰώνων theKing of the eons, applied to God in 1 Timothy 1:17; Revelation 15:3; comp. 2Timothy href="/desk/?q=2ti+1:9&sr=1">2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 1:2), cannot mean before everlasting times. To say that God bestowed grace on men, or promised them eternal life before endless times, would be absurd. The meaning is of old, as Luke 1:70. The grace and the promise were given in time, but far back in the ages, before the times of reckoning the eons. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- Ζωὴ αἰώνιος eternallife, which occurs 42 times in N.T., but not in lxx, is not endless life, but life pertaining to a certain age or eon, or continuing during that eon. I repeat, life may be endless. The life in union with Christ is endless, but the fact is not expressed by αἰώνιος . Κόλασις αἰώνιος , rendered everlasting punishment (Matthew 25:46), is the punishment peculiar to an eon other than that in which Christ is speaking. In some cases ζωὴ αἰώνιος does not refer specifically to the life beyond time, but rather to the eon or dispensation of Messiah which succeeds the legal dispensation. See Matthew 19:16; John 5:39. John says that ζωὴ αἰώνιος is the present possession of those who believe on the Son of God, John 3:36; John 5:24; John 6:47, John 6:64. The Father's commandment is ζωὴ αἰώσιος , John 12:50; to know the only true God and Jesus Christ is ζωὴ αἰώνιος , John 17:3. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- Bishop Westcott very justly says, commenting upon the terms used by John to describe life under different aspects: “In considering these phrases it is necessary to premise that in spiritual things we must guard against all conclusions which rest upon the notions of succession and duration. 'Eternal life' is that which St. Paul speaks of as ἡ ὄντως ζωὴ thelife which is life indeed, and ἡ ζωὴ τοῦ θεοῦ thelife of God. It is not an endless duration of being in time, but being of which time is not a measure. We have indeed no powers to grasp the idea except through forms and images of sense. These must be used, but we must not transfer them as realities to another order.”-DIVIDER- Thus, while αἰώνιος carries the idea of time, though not of endlessness, there belongs to it also, more or less, a sense of quality. Its character is ethical rather than mathematical. The deepest significance of the life beyond time lies, not in endlessness, but in the moral quality of the eon into which the life passes. It is comparatively unimportant whether or not the rich fool, when his soul was required of him (Luke 12:20), entered upon a state that was endless. The principal, the tremendous fact, as Christ unmistakably puts it, was that, in the new eon, the motives, the aims, the conditions, the successes and awards of time counted for nothing. In time, his barns and their contents were everything; the soul was nothing. In the new life the soul was first and everything, and the barns and storehouses nothing. The bliss of the sanctified does not consist primarily in its endlessness, but in the nobler moral conditions of the new eon, - the years of the holy and eternal God. Duration is a secondary idea. When it enters it enters as an accompaniment and outgrowth of moral conditions. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- In the present passage it is urged that ὄλεθρον destructionpoints to an unchangeable, irremediable, and endless condition. If this be true, if ὄλεθρος isextinction, then the passage teaches the annihilation of the wicked, in which case the adjective αἰώνιος is superfluous, since extinction is final, and excludes the idea of duration. But ὄλεθρος does not always mean destruction or extinction. Take the kindred verb ἀπόλλυμι todestroy, put an end to, or in the middle voice, to be lost, to perish. Peter says, “the world being deluged with water, perished ” ( ἀπολοῦνται 2 Peter 3:6); but the world did not become extinct, it was renewed. In Hebrews 1:11, Hebrews 1:12quoted from Isaiah href="/desk/?q=isa+51:6&sr=1">Isaiah 51:6, Isaiah 51:16; Isaiah 65:17; Isaiah 66:22; 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1. Similarly, “the Son of man came to save that which was lost ” ( ἀπολωλός ), Luke 19:10. Jesus charged his apostles to go to the lost ( ἀπολωλότα ) sheep of the house of Israel, Matthew 10:6, comp. Matthew 15:24. “He that shall lose ( ἀπολέσῃ ) his life for my sake shall find it,” Matthew 16:25. Comp. Luke 15:6, Luke 15:9, Luke 15:32. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- In this passage the word destruction is qualified. It is “destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power, “ at his second coming, in the new eon. In other words, it is the severance, at a given point of time, of those who obey not the gospel from the presence and the glory of Christ. Ἁιώνιος may therefore describe this severance as continuing during the millennial eon between Christ's coming and the final judgment; as being for the wicked prolonged throughout that eon and characteristic of it, or it may describe the severance as characterizing or enduring through a period or eon succeeding the final judgment, the extent of which period is not defined. In neither case is αἰώνιος to be interpreted as everlasting or endless.sa180 [source]
Comp. 2 Timothy 3:16. To the Jews ἡ γραφή signified the O.T. canon of Scripture; but in most cases ἡ γραφή is used of a particular passage of Scripture which is indicated in the context. See John 7:38, John 7:42; Acts 1:16; Acts 8:32, Acts 8:35; Romans 4:3; Romans 9:17; Romans 10:11; Galatians 3:8. Where the reference is to the sacred writings as a whole, the plural γραφαὶ or αἱ γραφαὶ is used, as Matthew 21:42; Luke 24:32; John 5:39; Romans 15:4. Once γραφαὶ ἅγιαι holyScriptures, Romans 1:2. Ἑτέρα γραφὴ anotheror a different Scripture, John 19:37; ἡ γραφὴ αὕτη this Scripture, Luke 4:21; πᾶσα γραφὴ everyScripture, 2 Timothy 3:16. See on writings, John 2:22. The passage cited here is Deuteronomy 25:4, also by Paul, 1 Corinthians 9:9. [source]
Kin to German faul, first slight, ordinary, then bad. The steps are cheap, paltry, evil. Opposed to αγατα agatha (good) in John 5:39. [source]
See John 5:39; John 7:52; Romans 8:27. Compare Jeremiah 11:20; Jeremiah 17:10; Jeremiah 20:12; 1 Peter 1:11. Denoting a careful search, a following up or tracking. See Genesis 31:35; 1 Kings 20:6; Proverbs 20:27; 1 Corinthians 2:10. [source]