Paragraph 8:13–18

The Jewish religious leaders challenged what Jesus said. They said that his witness to himself was worthless. Jesus defended his witness by saying that his Father, God himself, was also a witness. God the Father also said that what Jesus said was true.

8:13a-b

You are testifying about Yourself; Your testimony is not valid: The second clause in this sentence is the conclusion of the first clause. The Pharisees were saying that because Jesus testified for himself, his testimony (what he testified) could not be valid. (The word valid here means “acceptable in a court of law.”) It was not valid because a Jewish rule said that no one could testify for himself. In some languages you may want to make this implied connection explicit. For example:

“You testify for yourself, so/therefore your testimony cannot be accepted.”
-or-
What you say is not reliable because you are the one who gives evidence about yourself.

8:13a

So: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as So means “therefore” or “so.” Many English translations leave this word implied. Connect the events in a natural way in your language.

the Pharisees: The Pharisees were a Jewish religious group or party. It was very important to them to obey all of the Jewish religious laws carefully and exactly. See how you translated this term in 8:3a.

You are testifying about Yourself: The Berean Standard Bible translates literally the Greek phrase as about Yourself. The Pharisees were saying that Jesus was a witness who told about himself, and confirmed what he himself said. There was a Jewish rule that said that a man could not testify (give evidence) about himself. Try to use an expression for someone who might testify in a court of law to defend his own statements. For example:

Here you are, appearing as your own witness (New International Version)
-or-
You are the only one speaking for yourself (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
When you talk about yourself, you are the only one to say these things are true. (New Century Version)

8:13b

Your testimony is not valid: This clause is very similar to what Jesus said others thought about himself in 5:31. See the note there and how you translated that verse.

Here are other ways to translate this clause:

what you say proves nothing (Good News Translation)
-or-
We cannot accept what you say. (New Century Version)
-or-
We cannot accept your testimony as true.

Your testimony: The phrase Your testimony refers to what Jesus said about himself in 8:12. He said there that he was the light of the world.

is not valid: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as valid is more literally “true.” There are two ways to interpret the word here:

(1) In this context it means “accepted as true” or “acceptable as proof.” The Jewish leaders could not accept Jesus’ words about himself as proof of who he was. For example:

We cannot accept what you say. (New Century Version)

(New International Version, Good News Translation, Revised English Bible, New Revised Standard Version, New Living Translation (2004), New Century Version, TLV)

(2) It means “true.” For example:

and what you say isn’t true! (Contemporary English Version)

(New Jerusalem Bible, NET Bible Bible, English Standard Version, New American Standard Bible, Contemporary English Version, King James Version, Revised Standard Version, God’s Word)

It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1) and almost all Bible experts. The two ideas are closely related and probably both are included in what they said. The Pharisees said that there was not valid evidence, and so they did not think that what Jesus said was true.

General Comment on 8:13a–b

There is some implied information in this sentence. It is implied that Jesus was the only one who testified in support of what he said in 8:12. It may be necessary to supply this information so that the sentence is clearer. For example:

When you talk about yourself, you are the only one to say these things are true. We cannot accept what you say. (New Century Version)

© 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.