John 8:25

Then said they They said therefore.

Who art thou? It is incredible that the Jews can have failed to understand. Christ had just declared that He was from above, and not of this world. Even if the words -I am" were ambiguous in themselves, in this context they are plain enough. As in John 8:19, they pretend not to understand, and contemptuously ask, Thou, who art Thou?The pronoun is scornfully emphatic. Comp. Acts 19:15. Possibly both in John 8:19 and here they wish to draw from Him something more definite, more capable of being stated in a formal charge against Him.

Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning This is a passage of well-known difficulty, and the meaning will probably always remain uncertain. (1) It is doubtful whether it is a question or not. (2) Of the six or seven Greek words all excepting the word meaning -unto you" can have more than one meaning. (3) There is a doubt whether we have six or seven Greek words. To discuss all the possible renderings would go beyond the scope of this volume. What I from the beginning am also speaking to you ofis perhaps as likely as any translation to be right. And it matters little whether it be made interrogative or not. Either, -Do you ask that of which I have been speaking to you from the first?", in which case it is not unlike Christ's reply to Philip (John 14:9); or, -I am that of which I have been speaking to you all along."