Charles Ellicott Commentary John 3:11

"Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that which we know, and bear witness of that which we have seen; and ye receive not our witness." — John 3:11 (ASV)

Once again the “Verily, verily” of deeper truth. “We speak that we do know” is in sharp contrast to their formal teaching of matters external to the truth. The plural is not usual in the language of Christ, and the immediate transition to the singular prevents us from accepting the usual grammatical explanation that it is the plural of majesty.

He apparently joins others with Himself—those who have spoken and known and testified, and whose testimony has been rejected by the Jews. We have to think of him whose life-work was to bear witness of the Light (John 1:8), and of the band of disciples who formed a little school around their Master, and who in Jerusalem, as in Galilee, testified of Him. It may even be that this conversation took place in the house and presence of one of that band . They knew the power of the new life and had been baptized with water and spirit. In their measure and degree, as He in fullness, they spoke what they knew and testified what they had seen .

And ye receive not our witness—i.e., “you Jews,” the teachers, of whom Nicodemus was one, the representatives of His own who received Him not (John 1:11). This attitude of the mind which refused to accept the evidence of witnesses as to things they had known and seen was of the essence of unbelief, and made further revelation impossible. When the will closed the faculty of faith, it left open no access for fuller spiritual truth.