“quia verba quæ dedisti mihi, dedi eis : et ipsi acceperunt, et cognoverunt vere quia a te exivi, et crediderunt quia tu me misisti.”
“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.”
“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.”
“for the words which you have given me I have given to them, and they received them, and knew for sure that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me.”
“for the words which thou gavest me I have given unto them; and they received them, and knew of a truth that I came forth from thee, and they believed that thou didst send me.”
[4.] They have set their seal to it: They have known surely that I came out from God, v. 8. See here, First, What it is to believe; it is to know surely, to know that it is so of a truth. The disciples were very weak and defective in knowledge; yet Christ, who knew them better than they knew themselves, passes his word for them that they did believe. Note, We may know surely that which we neither do nor can know fully; may know the certainty of the things which are not seen, though we cannot particularly describe the nature of them. We walk by faith, which knows surely, not yet by sight, which knows clearly. Secondly, What it is we are to believe: that Jesus Christ came out from God, as he is the Son of God, in his person the image of the invisible God, and that God did not send him; that in his undertaking he is the ambassador of the eternal king: so that the Christian religion stands upon the same footing, and is of equal authority, with natural religion; and therefore all the doctrines of Christ are to be received as divine truths, all his commands obeyed as divine laws, and all his promises depended upon as divine securities.
Now they have known that all things which thou gavest me, are from thee. That is, says St. Augustine,[3] they now know, and will know more perfectly hereafter, that I myself am from thee, or proceed from thee, and am sent by thee to redeem the world. (Witham)