(This report is from an eyewitness giving an accurate account. He speaks the truth so that you also may continue to believe.)
Parallel translations
- WEB He who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, that you may believe.
- KJV And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.
- BSB The one who saw it has testified to this, and his testimony is true. He knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe.
- NKJV And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe.
- NASB And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
John stakes his eyewitness testimony on these events so that readers may believe. The truth of the cross rests on reliable witness.
Overview
The author affirms he saw these things and tells the truth, grounding the Gospel in firsthand testimony rather than legend. His stated purpose, 'that you may believe,' matches the Gospel's overall aim (20:31). The verse reminds us that Christian faith is rooted in real, witnessed history, not myth.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- John 21:24This is the disciple who testifies about these things, and wrote these things. We know that his witness is true.
- John 15:27You will also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.
- Heb 2:3–4how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation — which at the first having been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard;
- 1 Jn 1:1–3That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we saw, and our hands touched, concerning the Word of life
- Acts 10:39We are witnesses of everything he did both in the country of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they also killed, hanging him on a tree.
- John 20:31but these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.
- Rom 15:4For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that through perseverance and through encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
- 1 Pet 5:1Therefore I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and who will also share in the glory that will be revealed.
- John 17:20–21Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who believe in me through their word,
- John 14:29Now I have told you before it happens so that, when it happens, you may believe.
- 1 Jn 5:13These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
- John 11:42I know that you always listen to me, but because of the multitude that stands around I said this, that they may believe that you sent me.”
- John 11:15I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe. Nevertheless, let’s go to him.”
- John 19:26Therefore when Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing there, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
John declares him plainly: the eternal Word made flesh, the Lamb of God, the great 'I AM' — bread, light, door, shepherd, way, truth, life, resurrection — that you may believe and have life in his name.
How John 19:35 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.