John 5:36 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

Bible Comments

For “hath given Me” read, with the better MSS., gave Me. The pronouns in “But I have” and in “that I do,” are emphatic.

In this verse He returns to the thought of John 5:32. The parenthesis in John 5:33-35 show that John was not the other there spoken of, and this verse shows that the special form of witness which He referred to was that of the works, which works He was then doing, and the voice of which they ought to have heard.

These “works” are not confined to what we speak of as miracles, but include the several parts of His Messianic work, which it was His food to finish (John 4:34), and which He speaks of as finished (John 17:4; see Note there). There is a special reference here to the power to quicken and authority to judge, in John 5:21-22.

John 5:36

36 But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.