16:30a
Now: The Greek text again emphasizes the word Now. Here again it implies that the situation was different earlier. Previously the disciples had not realized that Jesus knew all things.
we understand that You know all things: This clause here implies that the disciples now knew that they could trust the things that Jesus said. They realized that he had full knowledge of everything that he talked about. The context indicates that they were particularly thinking about the way that Jesus showed that he knew their thoughts. See 16:19. Here are other ways to translate this clause:
We are certain now that you know everything. (Revised English Bible)
-or-
We can see now that you know all things. (New Century Version)
we: This pronoun is exclusive here because it refers to the disciples but not to Jesus.
16:30b
and that You have no need for anyone to question You: This clause probably indicates that people did not need to question Jesus before he knew what they were thinking. Jesus already knew their inner thoughts and questions, as he showed in 16:19. For example:
You can answer a person’s question even before it is asked. (New Century Version)
-or-
Even the questions that are in a person’s mind, they don’t need to be told to you, because you already know. (Kankanaey Back Translation)
16:30c
Because of this, we believe: This expression means “this is the reason that we believe.” The pronoun this refers to Jesus knowing their thoughts. In some languages it is more natural to begin a new sentence here. For example:
this is why we believe (English Standard Version)
-or-
by this we believe (New Revised Standard Version)
-or-
Therefore we believe
-or-
This makes us believe (Good News Translation)
that You came from God: This clause tells what the disciples believed. The disciples now were sure that Jesus was God’s messenger to them. This implies that he spoke with God’s authority and they could trust him.
© 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.