Bible Strands
John 17:8
For I have given them the words You gave Me, and they have received them. They knew with certainty that I came from You, and they believed that You sent Me.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jesus addresses the Father in the High Priestly Prayer, moments before the Passion, speaking about the disciples he has kept during his earthly ministry.
The words — ρῆματα (rhēmata) means "declarations" or "spoken words," not the abstract λόγος; it points to concrete utterances handed from one person to another.
The thread — John 17:14 restates the same transmission ("I have given them Your word"), and John 16:30 records the disciples' resulting confession of belief in response to Jesus' teaching.
Why it lands — The verse makes belief a matter of receiving specific words passed along a chain (Father → Jesus → them), not a private emotional state; it asks the reader to locate their own faith in that same transmission.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
Cross-references
- John 17:14 I have given them Your word and the world has hated them. For they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
- John 15:15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have learned from My Father I have made known to you.
- John 16:30 Now we understand that You know all things and that You have no need for anyone to question You. Because of this, we believe that You came from God.”
- 1 Thessalonians 2:13 And we continually thank God because, when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God, which is also now at work in you who believe.
- John 16:27 For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came from God.
- John 8:42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on My own, but He sent Me.
- John 12:49 I have not spoken on My own, but the Father who sent Me has commanded Me what to say and how to say it.
- John 17:21 that all of them may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You. May they also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
- 1 John 4:14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.
- Proverbs 1:3 and for receiving instruction in wise living and in righteousness, justice, and equity.