John 8:30-50

ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

Vv. 30-50.

1. Whether the words of Jesus contained in these verses were spoken on the same day as those which precede (Meyer) or on the following day (Godet) Weiss says correctly that this point cannot be determined there is apparently a close connection between the two passages. Many believed in consequence of what He had just said. Of these some were of the leading Jewish party, the ᾿Ιουδαῖοι, but these latter were believers only in a sense corresponding with that indicated in John 2:23 ff. Jesus, therefore, takes up the thought of the preceding verses, and tells them that, in order to their being His disciples in the real sense of the word and their having a real knowledge of the truth, they must abide in His word i.e., they must believe that He is the one sent from above, and must inwardly live in the sphere of those teachings which, having heard from God, He speaks to the world.

2. The peculiar additional idea, beyond the preceding, which characterizes these verses, is that of freedom. This idea becomes the starting-point of the conversation and discourse which follow. Whether it was designedly introduced as a test of the reality of their faith, or was incidental to the development of His thought respecting the truth which He revealed, cannot be determined. Possibly it was intended to connect His thought with the idea of freedom from the Roman dominion, which so greatly occupied the minds of the Jews at the time; but all that can be confidently affirmed is, that the Jews here referred to understood it at first in the political sense.

3. The connection of the verses points strongly towards the Jews who believed Him as the subject of the verb answered in John 8:33. If this is the correct understanding of the writer's meaning, it must be inferred that their belief was of the most superficial character, and this case shows that the author uses the verb πιστεύειν even of the lowest degree of belief in Jesus. The different stages of development indicated by this word, in this Gospel, are very noticeable, and, when carefully observed, they throw light upon the author's plan.

4. The explanation of the words We have never been in bondage to any one, which is given by Godet, is favored by Weiss, and is perhaps the best one which can be given.

5. In John 8:37 Jesus addresses these persons as if they were seeking to kill Him. There is a difficulty in supposing that the believing Jews were now desiring to kill Him, but the Jewish party to which they belonged were undoubtedly forming their plans with this end in view. It is possible that He classes them with their party, not because He saw a feeling of this kind in their hearts at the moment, but because this was the feeling of those with whom they had acted, and He saw that they would return to a union with them when their superficial and temporary faith failed.

6. The contrast between the readiness to receive and abide in the truth and the state of mind in which the Jews are is continued throughout this entire passage. They would not believe that He was the one sent from above to speak the words of God (John 8:24). They would not abide in the word which, as such a Divine messenger, He spoke (John 8:31). They were even seeking to kill Him because He thus spoke the truth (John 8:40). They showed thus that they were slaves of sin and children of the devil, and, as they were resolved to continue as they now were, they would die in their sins (John 8:21). There is, thus, a manifest unity in the discourse, and the allusions to bondage and fatherhood are only for the purpose of more clearly and emphatically bringing out the ideas suggested in John 8:21 ff. This unity favors, but does not absolutely prove, that John 8:30-50 are to be placed on the same day with John 8:21-29.

7. There is evidently a turn of thought in John 8:41 ff., both on the part of the Jews and of Jesus from their relation to Abraham to their relation to God. The transition is through the words ἡμεῖς ἐκ πορνείας οὐ γεγεννήμεθα. These words, it will be observed, are contrasted with ἕνα πατέρα ἔχομεν τὸν θεόν, and are also evidently connected with the denial on Jesus' part that Abraham was their father. The true understanding of the passage therefore must, as it would seem, be found in connection with this twofold reference. As He denies their sonship to Abraham, they think that He may refer to sonship in another than the natural sense. But they did not conceive of their sonship in this other sense, except through their descent from Abraham. Hence they say, We are not other than real and legitimate children of Abraham, and therefore we are in the true and most direct sense children of God.

8. The words ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐξῆλθον indicate pre-existence, and, like the other expressions which Jesus uses of Himself in this discourse, as coming from and revealing the Father, they carry us back in thought to John 1:18. These expressions move forward, as we may say, towards John 8:58, where the pre-existence is most distinctly declared.

9. The tendency of opinion among the most recent commentators is very strongly towards referring the phrase “ He was a murderer from the beginning ” to the introduction of death into the world through sin (Romans 5:12). The argument for this view is derived from ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς; from the fact that the discourse in general has reference to the truth and the moral sphere and relationships; from the fact that the ψευστής of John 8:44 points most naturally to Satan's deception of our first parents; and from the somewhat similar passage, 1 John 3:18. The reference to the murder of Abel by Cain (de Wette, Lucke, and others) is favored by 1 John 3:12; by the fact that this reference of the words makes what is said of Satan exactly correspond with what is charged upon the Jews opposition to the truth and the desire of actual murder; and by the fact that the murder of Abel was the first one in history.

10. The last clause of John 8:44 is most simply explained by making αὐτοῦ refer to ψεῦδος. Westcott proposes, as a more probable translation, “Whenever a man speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for his father also is a liar” “that is, a man by lying reveals his parentage, and acts conformably with it.” This, however, involves an altogether improbable, not to say violent, change of subject from that of the immediately preceding sentence. 11. In closing this part of His discourse, Jesus appeals again to His own truthfulness and freedom from sin and self-seeking, as proving His claim that He is from God (John 8:45-49).