John 8:16

And yet if I judge, my judgment is true: for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(16) And yet if I judge, my judgment is true.—Though judgment was not the object of His mission, it was, as He had taught in John 3:19 (see Note there) the result of the manifestation of the Light. But in the cases in which the result followed, the judgment was not according to the flesh, but was in accord with the essential truth. The better reading here is, probably, the deeper word for ideally true, which we have had before. (Comp. Note on John 1:9.)

For I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me.—Comp. Note on John 5:30. Here, as there. He identifies every act of judgment with the eternal and unchangeable truth of the Father.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

8:12-16 Christ is the Light of the world. God is light, and Christ is the image of the invisible God. One sun enlightens the whole world; so does one Christ, and there needs no more. What a dark dungeon would the world be without the sun! So would it be without Jesus, by whom light came into the world. Those who follow Christ shall not walk in darkness. They shall not be left without the truths which are necessary to keep them from destroying error, and the directions in the way of duty, necessary to keep them from condemning sin.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And yet, if I judge - If I should express my judgment of men or things. He was not limited, nor forbidden to do it, nor restrained by any fear that his judgment would be erroneous.

My judgment is true - Is worthy to be regarded.

For I am not alone - I concur with the Father who hath sent me. His judgment you admit would be right, and my judgment would accord with his. He was commissioned by his Father, and his judgment would coincide with all that God had purposed or revealed. This was shown by the evidence that God gave that he had sent him into the world.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

16. And yet if I judge, my judgment is true, &c.—Ye not only form your carnal and warped judgments of Me, but are bent on carrying them into effect; I, though I form and utter My judgment of you, am not here to carry this into execution—that is reserved to a future day; yet the judgment I now pronounce and the witness I now bear is not Mine only as ye suppose, but His also that sent Me. (See on [1806]Joh 5:31, 32). And these are the two witnesses to any fact which your law requires.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

My testimony is not to be looked upon as a single testimony for myself; though I do judge, yet my judgment is true; for no act of mine is a single act: I and my Father are one; and what I do, my Father also doth, that sent me into the world as his ambassador. So as if the judgment of God be true, which you all own, grant, and acknowledge; then my judgment is true, because it is not mine only, but the judgment also of that God, whom you own, acknowledge, and worship, and who sent me into the world.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And yet if I judge, my judgment is true,.... Because he saw not as man did, nor looked unto, and judged according to the outward appearance of things; but looked into the heart, and knew what was in it, being the searcher and trier of it; to whom all things are naked and open, and therefore cannot be deceived or imposed upon; his judgment must be sure and infallible:

for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me; he was not separate from the Father, or at a distance from him, when he was here on earth; he was in his bosom, and in heaven, as the Son of God, when as the son of man, he was below; nor was he alone in his testimony and judgment, the Father joined with him therein: and which is a further proof of the truth of his testimony, and the certainty of his judgment.

Geneva Study Bible

And yet if I judge, my judgment is true: for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

16. And yet if I judge] Or, But even if I judge, like ‘even if I bear witness’ (John 8:14). ‘I judge no man; not because I have no authority, but because judging is not what I came to do. Even if I do in exceptional cases judge, My judgment is a genuine and authoritative one (see on John 1:9), not the mock sentence of an impostor. It is the sentence not of a mere man, nor even of one with a Divine commission yet acting independently; but of One sent by God acting in union with His Sender.’ Comp. John 5:30.

Bengel's Gnomen

John 8:16. Ἡ κρίσις ἡ ἐμή, My judgment) The same principle holds good of judgment as of testimony: John 8:14; John 8:17, “Though I bear record of Myself, yet My record is true;—the testimony of two—is true;” ch. John 5:30, etc., “As I hear I judge; and My judgment is just, because I seek not Mine own will, but the will of the Father.—There is another that beareth witness of Me,” etc. The testimony is in reference to God and the Son of God; the judgment is in reference to men.—ἀληθής, true) not according to the flesh, John 8:15.—μόνος οὐκ εἰμί, I am not alone) even in judging. Comp. ch. John 5:19, “The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do; for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.”—ὁ πέμψας με, He who hath sent Me) By this very expression He intimates whence He came.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 16. - And yet (the καὶ δέ, equivalent to atque etiam - so Meyer, Luthardt, etc. - "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light;" "The light shineth, and the darkness comprehendeth it not." The prince of this world is judged by the simple uplifting of the Son of God; and so, though he did not come to judge or condemn, yet judgments did, by the very necessity of his nature, proceed from him) even if I judge - if by the mere contact of his purity and love and healing power with those who will not come to him for life, judgment is pronounced - my judgment is true; i.e. trustworthy. The reading of Tischendorf, ἀληθινή, would mean that it "answers to the fundamental conception of a judgment." This thought would make the apparent paradox of the sentence more difficult to resolve. Because I am net alone, but (or, because, on the other hand) I and the Father who sent me, together deliver this judgment; i.e. it does not rest on my mere human consciousness, on what you who judge after the flesh might suppose it would rest, but on the eternal decisions of him who gave me my commission. The Father is in me and with me. I think the Father's thoughts and do the Father's will. Christ's testimony concerning himself, his implicit judgments on human nature, his indirect condemnation of the whole crowd, by his gracious refusal to condemn the sinful woman to immediate doom, all issue forth with the sign manual of Almighty God, with whom and in whom he dwells as the only begotten Son. John 8:16

Vincent's Word Studies

True (ἀληθής)

The best texts, however, read ἀληθινή, true to the perfect ideal of judgment.