John 8:23

Ye are from beneath At first sight it might seem as if this meant -ye are from hell." Christ uses strong language later on (John 8:44), and this interpretation would make good sense with what precedes. -Ye suggest that I am going to hell by self-destruction: it is ye who come from thence." But what follows forbids this. The two halves of the verse are manifestly equivalent, and -ye are from beneath" = -ye are of this world." The pronouns throughout are emphatically opposed. The whole verse is a good instance of -the spirit of parallelism, the informing power of Hebrew poetry," which runs more or less through the whole Gospel. Comp. John 14:27.