Then said they to him—the hostile Jerusalem party—in scornful mockery, σὺ τίς εἶ; Who art thou? "Define thyself more closely; make thy claims clear and categorical. Give now a direct answer to a plain question."
It is very remarkable that the Lord often refuses to respond in the precise form in which his interlocutors demand an answer. He sees the multitudinous sides of every truth, and frequently gives to his questioners the means of answering their question from the ground of deep spiritual conviction, rather than furnishes them with a formula which might easily be abused.
Who art thou? How profoundly pathetic! How confirmatory of his own words, "Ye have not known me, nor my Father"! The reply which our Lord gave to the question has occasioned greater variety of interpretation than, perhaps, any other sentence in the Gospel: τὴν ἀρχὴν ὅτι (or ὅτι,) καὶ λαλῶὑμῖν.
The meaning of the words taken separately is disputable; the relation to the context has been very variously understood.