Reconciling the Father’s Voice in the Gospels and John 5
Question
I understand the voice from heaven in Luke 3:22 and John 12:28 to be the Father’s. How does that fit with John 5:37 where Jesus says his hearers had not heard the Father’s voice? Whose voice came from heaven?
Originally published in Vol. 1, Number 9, September 2026, Ask The Theologian Journal.
Answer
Luke 3:22 records a voice from heaven at Jesus’ baptism:
“Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.”
John 12:28 likewise reports:
“Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”
These are naturally and traditionally understood as the Father’s voice.
In John 5:37, however, Jesus says:
“Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.”
The question is how these statements fit together. The resolution lies in paying close attention to the pronoun “ye” and to the audiences involved.
1. Identifying the audiences
In John 5, beginning around verse 16, the context is:
“And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day.” John 5:16
They are angered by his Sabbath healing and by his claim that God is his Father, making himself equal with God. These are hostile, unbelieving Jews in Galilee.
To this specific group Jesus says:
“And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not.” John 5:37–38
The “ye” here is this particular group of opponents, characterized by unbelief and lack of God’s word abiding in them. Jesus is not making a blanket statement about all Israelites or all humans; he is addressing a concrete audience in front of him.
By contrast:
At the baptism (Luke 3), the audience consists of those coming to John at the Jordan, in Judea, to hear his preaching and receive his baptism—a group inclined at least to heed John’s call to repentance.
In John 12:28, the setting is Jerusalem at the feast; the bystanders include people who hear the voice, though some misinterpret it as thunder or an angelic sound.
There is no textual indication that the hostile group in John 5:37 was present at either the baptism in Luke 3 or the Jerusalem event in John 12. The simplest reading is that many had not been at those earlier events and, as a group, had not personally received the Father’s direct testimony.
2. The force of “ye have neither heard his voice”
Given that the Old Testament records instances of God speaking and that certain New Testament figures (such as those at the baptism and at the transfiguration) did hear a heavenly voice, John 5:37 cannot reasonably be taken as an absolute denial that no one has ever heard God’s voice. Rather, the statement is narrowed by the pronoun: “ye”—you people standing here in opposition to me—have not heard his voice.
The verse that follows confirms this focus:
“And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not.” John 5:38
Their lack of hearing and their lack of the word abiding in them are linked to their unbelief in the Son. The issue is their spiritual and experiential distance from the Father’s witness, not a denial that the Father has ever spoken audibly to anyone.
3. Other instances of the Father’s voice
The transfiguration provides another clear occasion of the Father’s voice:
“While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” Matt 17:5
This event likely took place in the north (often associated with Galilee or its vicinity), yet the audience was extremely limited: Peter, James, and John. Even if this is geographically near, temporally it occurs later than the discourse of John 5, and in any case it does not involve the hostile group Jesus addresses in John 5.
Taken together, these passages show that:
The Father has, on certain occasions, spoken audibly from heaven, bearing witness to the Son.
Only certain select groups or individuals were present on those occasions.
The unbelieving audience of John 5:37 had, as a group, not heard that voice or received it in faith.
4. Whose voice came from heaven?
On the basis of Luke 3:22, John 12:28, and Matthew 17:5, the voice from heaven is the Father’s. John 5:37 does not contradict this; it simply states that the particular opponents Jesus is addressing have not, at any time, heard that voice or seen his form. The apparent tension disappears when “ye” is read with its immediate, local reference rather than as a universal statement about all human experience.
Thus, the Father has indeed spoken audibly from heaven in witness to his Son, but the group rebuked in John 5 had neither heard nor received that witness. The passages are harmonious when the pronouns and contexts are carefully observed.