Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father - rather, 'the Father,' as the true reading appears to be. "The works that I do" and which they "should do also," were those miraculous credentials of their apostolic office which Christ empowered the Eleven to perform. But the "greater works than His" were not anymore transcendent miracles-for there could be none such and certainly they did none such-but such as He referred to in what He said to Nathanael (John 1:51) - that glorious ingathering of souls after His ascension-or "because He went to the Father" - which it was not His own Personal mission to the earth to accomplish. See on the promise. "From henceforth thou shall catch men," Luke 5:10, and Remark 4 at the close of section. The substance, then, of these five rich John 14:8-12 is this: that the Son is the ordained and perfect manifestation of the Father; that His own word for this ought, to His disciples, to be enough; that if any doubts remained His works ought to remove them; but yet that these works of His were designed merely to aid weak faith and would be repeated nay exceeded by His disciples, in virtue of the power He would confer on them after His departure. His miracles, accordingly, apostles performed, though wholly in His name and by His power; while the "greater" works-not in degree but in kind-were the conversion of thousands in a day, by His Spirit accompanying them.