Objection: John 14:12 in the Greek Is Collective – We Collectively Do Jesus’ Works but No One Person Will Do Them
The objector gets an “A” when it comes to realizing that Jesus’ works are to be done today by believers. This puts him far ahead of most other objectors. Unfortunately, he gets an “F” in Greek.
I am unaware of even ONE translation (at this writing) that supports this “collective” idea by translating the passage as “they who believe” as opposed to “he who believes.” Young’s Literal Translation, a good first check for Greek claims, says “he who is believing in me.”
But it’s not my style to just take Young’s word for it. So I checked the Greek word in John 14:12 and the word in John 7:39 translated “they that believe” and found that they are indeed different Greek words. The root word is the same but the ending is different. Greek is a precise language, so if Jesus meant “they that believe” instead of “he that believes,” we would expect to see the same word there, and we don’t.
We can cite another example without even leaving John 14:12! This verse contains the phrase “shall he do” which is a translation of a certain Greek word with a future active indicative tense. If we look at 1 Corinthians 15:29, John 15:21 and John 16:3 in a Greek New Testament, we find “shall they do” in the first case and “will they do” in the last two. The word once again has a different ending from the word translated “shall he do” in John 14:12 despite the fact that these other 3 words also have a future active indicative tense. So without leaving John 14:12 we can prove not just once but twice that the objector is simply wrong about the Greek – it is NOT collective but refers to any single person.
Also, exactly the same Greek word translated “he that believeth” in John 14:12 is also translated “he that believeth” in John 3:18, John 3:36, John 7:38, 1 Peter 2:6, 1 John 5:5 and 1 John 5:10. (These verses are shown below.) Go check it out for yourself in a Greek New Testament if you don’t believe it! I don’t know anyone who would claim that any of those verses are “collective” either, but maybe someone who really wants to believe that John 14:12 is collective will try to convince us in the future (in vain) that these other verses are collective too:
John 3:18:
He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
John 3:36:
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
John 7:38:
He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
1 Peter 2:6:
Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
1 John 5:5:
Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
1 John 5:10:
He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.
I don’t see anything collective here. Do you?
This is really just another experience-based objection hiding behind a flawed statement about the Greek. Jesus meant “he who believes.” If our experience does not match what He said, we need to upgrade our experience to match what He said, not water down what He said to match our experience.
Jesus didn’t imply that all of us will quit our jobs and go out and have full-time healing ministries, doing nothing other than preaching to the sick and healing them in His name. But He surely indicated that everyone who believes in Him should expect to do the same works He did and greater, even if not in the same quantity that He did them as a full-time preacher.