26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

27 And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.

When Jesus says "because ye have been with me from the beginning", is He addressing only those in front of Him, or is He addressing these people AND future Christians. Does He mean only that these disciples have been with Him since the beginning of His ministry, or from the beginning of time? Makes a big difference to me, but I don't know what to think.

Bubbaguy

Ron, please no wise cracks about Quakers and such.

Hi Jake
He is referring to the remaining 11 disciples. The scene for this is the Upper Room where He had broken bread and washed their feet. He could only have been addressing those who were physically with Him at that time, and we know from John 13 and 14 that He had not left the Upper Room when He spoke these words.

It is part of the [u]record[/u] showing how the Apostles were specially chosen and specially equipped to be the unique link between Christ and the coming generations, which is also part of the reason why their written [u]testimony[/u] is so indispensable.

There is a derived sense in which those who receive the testimony of these [u]witness[/u]es. The word underlined in all these comments would be the same word martureo in the original Greek. The scriptures are the 'record' of the 'witnesses'.

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Ron Bailey