Discovery BoxJohn 14:10 
Context14:10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? 1 The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own initiative, 2 but the Father residing in me performs 3 his miraculous deeds. 4
John 16:17
Context16:17 Then some of his disciples said to one another, “What is the meaning of what he is saying, 5 ‘In a little while you 6 will not see me; again after a little while, you 7 will see me,’ and, ‘because I am going to the Father’?” 8
John 18:37
Context18:37 Then Pilate said, 9 “So you are a king!” Jesus replied, “You say that I am a king. For this reason I was born, and for this reason I came into the world – to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to 10 my voice.”
1 tn The mutual interrelationship of the Father and the Son (ἐγὼ ἐν τῷ πατρὶ καὶ ὁ πατὴρ ἐν ἐμοί ἐστιν, egw en tw patri kai Jo pathr en emoi estin) is something that Jesus expected even his opponents to recognize (cf. John 10:38). The question Jesus asks of Philip (οὐ πιστεύεις, ou pisteuei") expects the answer “yes.” Note that the following statement is addressed to all the disciples, however, because the plural pronoun (ὑμῖν, Jumin) is used. Jesus says that his teaching (the words he spoke to them all) did not originate from himself, but the Father, who permanently remains (μένων, menwn) in relationship with Jesus, performs his works. One would have expected “speaks his words” here rather than “performs his works”; many of the church fathers (e.g., Augustine and Chrysostom) identified the two by saying that Jesus’ words were works. But there is an implicit contrast in the next verse between words and works, and v. 12 seems to demand that the works are real works, not just words. It is probably best to see the two terms as related but not identical; there is a progression in the idea here. Both Jesus’ words (recall the Samaritans’ response in John 4:42) and Jesus’ works are revelatory of who he is, but as the next verse indicates, works have greater confirmatory power than words.
2 tn Grk “I do not speak from myself.”
3 tn Or “does.”
4 tn Or “his mighty acts”; Grk “his works.”
sn Miraculous deeds is most likely a reference to the miraculous signs Jesus had performed, which he viewed as a manifestation of the mighty acts of God. Those he performed in the presence of the disciples served as a basis for faith (although a secondary basis to their personal relationship to him; see the following verse).
5 tn Grk “What is this that he is saying to us.”
6 tn Grk “A little while, and you.”
7 tn Grk “and again a little while, and you.”
8 sn These fragmentary quotations of Jesus’ statements are from 16:16 and 16:10, and indicate that the disciples heard only part of what Jesus had to say to them on this occasion.
9 tn Grk “said to him.”
10 tn Or “obeys”; Grk “hears.”
