Prior Book | Prior Chapter | Prior Verse | Next Verse | Next Chapter | Next Book | Viewing NASB and Amplified 2015 | |
NASB | John 8:47 "He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God." |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | John 8:47 "Whoever is of God and belongs to Him hears [the truth of] God's words; for this reason you do not hear them: because you are not of God and you are not in fellowship with Him." |
Bible Question:
We agree that it is a work of God for someone to become a believer, so why then does Jesus say they do not hear the words of God because they are not of God? In vs 31, it says that Jesus is specificly addressing those who had believed him, yet his response to them in that verse is a conditional statement. "IF you hold to my teachings, you are really my disciples." Does this indicate Jesus makes a distinction between a believer and a disciple? |
Bible Answer: Hi, Dayoak... One of the problems with interpretation of scripture is that we, as readers, bring everything that we are to the reading; i.e., our experience, culture, history, etc. As Westerners we are all immersed in Greek thinking. Formal logic teaches us to see things in the form "If A then B ..." (this is called sentential logic). So when we see language that has a sentential structure to it, we assume that we quickly assume we are seeing a logical statement. Now, there is nothing inherently wrong with this kind of thinking. It has benefitted our civilization in many ways. Furthermore, in the scriptures, Paul and Luke use this kind of thinking very frequently. Formal logic is a valuable tool. However, the scriptures were written predominantly by orientals, not occidentals. Christ, Himself, often uses reasoning and language that has a more oriental feel to it. In this forum you will often read where I have distinguished between prescriptive statements and descriptive statements. We often mistake descriptive statements as prescriptive statements. What you have described as a "conditional statement" would be of the prescriptive kind. Jesus was not prescribing the method by which people became His disciples. Instead he was describing the nature of His disciples. Thus, He was saying (if you will allow my paraphrase), "The ones who are of God always hear and believe My words. That is why you do not hear or believe: because you are not of God." I am confident that the original language bears me out -- although I am not a Greek scholar. However, what I am able to understand of the original language from the tools that are available to me appears to support what I have said above. I hope that I have made things a bit clearer for you. In Him, Doc |