Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also.

They said therefore to him: Where is thy Father? Jesus answered: Neither me do you know, nor my Father: if you did know me, perhaps you would know my Father also.

They said to him therefore, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye know neither me nor my Father. If ye had known me, ye would have known also my Father.

"Where is your Father?" they asked. "You know my Father as little as you know me." He replied; "if you knew me, you would know my Father also."

Then they said to him, Where is your Father? Jesus said in answer, You have no knowledge of me or of my Father: if you had knowledge of me you would have knowledge of my Father.

Therefore, they said to him, "Where is your Father?" Jesus answered: "You know neither me, nor my Father. If you did know me, perhaps you would know my Father also."

"Where is your father, then?" they asked. "You know neither me nor my Father," replied Jesus. "If you had known me, you would have also known my Father."

Where is thy father? There can be no doubt whatever, that it was in mockery that they inquired about his Father For not only do they, with their wonted pride, treat contemptuously what he had said about the Father, but they likewise ridicule him for talking loftily about his Father, as if he had drawn his birth from heaven. By these words, therefore, they mean that they do not value so highly Christ's Father, as to ascribe any thing to the Son on his account. And the reason why there are so many in the present day who, with daring presumption, despise Christ, is, that few consider that God has sent him. You neither know me nor my Father. He does not deign to give them a direct reply, but in a few words reproaches them with the ignorance in which they flattered themselves. They inquired about the Father; and yet when they had the Son before their eyes, seeing, they did not see, (Matthew 13:13.) It was therefore a just punishment of their pride and wicked ingratitude, that they who despised the Son of God, who had been familiarly offered to them, never approached to the Father For how shall any mortal man ascend to the height of God, unless he be raised on high by the hand of his Son? God in Christ condescended to the mean condition of men, so as to stretch out his hand; and do not those who reject God, when he thus approaches to them, deserve to be excluded from heaven? Let us know that the same thing is spoken to us all; for whoever aspires to know God, and does not begin with Christ, must wander -- as it were -- in a labyrinth; for it is not without good reason that Christ is called the image of the Father, as has been already said. Again, as all who, leaving Christ, attempt to rise to heaven, after the manner of the giants, [1] are destitute of all right knowledge of God, so every man who shall direct his mind and all his senses to Christ, will be led straight to the Father. For on good grounds does God declare that, by the mirror of the Gospel, we clearly behold God in the person of Christ, (2-Corinthians 3:18.) And certainly it is an astonishing reward of the obedience of faith, that whosoever humbles himself before the Lord Jesus, [2] penetrates above all the heavens, even to those mysteries which the angels behold and adore.

Footnotes

1 - See [11]page 223, n. 1.

2 - "Quiconque s'humilie devant le Seigneur Jesus."

Where is thy Father? - This question was asked, doubtless, in derision. Jesus had often given them to understand that by his Father he meant God, John 5:6; They professed to be ignorant of this, and probably looked round in contempt for his Father, that he might adduce him as a witness in the case.
If ye had known me - If you had listened to my instructions, and had received me as the Messiah, you would also, at the same time, have been acquainted with God. We may here observe,
1. The manner in which Jesus answered them. He gave no heed to their cavil; he was not irritated by their contempt; he preserved his dignity, and gave them an answer worthy of the Son of God.
2. We should meet the cavils and sneers of sinners in the same manner. We should not render railing for railing, but "in meekness instruct those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth," 2-Timothy 2:25.
3. The way to know God is to know Jesus Christ. "No man hath seen God at any time. The only-begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him," John 1:18. No sinner can have just views of God but in Jesus Christ, 2-Corinthians 4:6.

Ye neither know me, etc. - Ye know neither the Messiah, nor the God that sent him.
If ye had known me - If ye had received my teaching, ye would have got such an acquaintance with the nature and attributes of God as ye never could have had, and never can have any other way. That is a true saying, No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son, who lay an the bosom of the Father. he hath Declared him. The nature and perfections of God never can be properly known, but in the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is worthy of remark that, in all this discourse, our blessed Lord ever speaks of the Father and himself as two distinct persons. Therefore, the Father is not the Son, nor the Son the Father, as some persons vainly imagine; though it is plain enough that the completest unity and equality subsists between them.

(6) Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also.
(6) No man can know God except in Christ alone.

Then said they unto him, where is thy Father?.... The Persic version adds, "show him unto us": produce this witness boasted of, let us see him; this they said in a sneering, taunting, and insulting manner; where is thy Father? what! he is in Galilee; fetch him from thence; it is Joseph the carpenter you mean; a goodly witness indeed!
Jesus answered, ye neither know me nor my Father; if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also; they did not know the divine original of Christ, that he was the Son of God, and that God was his Father; they greatly boasted of their knowledge of God, but they knew him not; their ignorance of Christ showed it: the knowledge of both go together, and which is life eternal; nor can any truly know the one, without the other: and where the one is known, the other will be also; Christ is the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person: so that he that has seen the one, must know the other; and indeed, no one can know the Father, but he to whom the Son reveals him: this was a severe mortification to these men of knowledge.

Where is thy Father? Asked in scorn, because he said "the Father beareth witness of me."
If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father. The knowledge of Christ leads to a knowledge of the Father. See John 14:8.

Then said they to him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered - Showing the perverseness of their question; and teaching that they ought first to know the Son, if they would know the Father. Where the Father is - he shows, John 8:23. Meantime he plainly intimates that the Father and he were distinct persons, as they were two witnesses; and yet one in essence, as the knowledge of him includes the knowledge of the Father.