John 8:51-59

ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

Vv. 51-59.

1. In John 8:51 Jesus turns the discourse to the more positive side, and brings out one of the great thoughts presented in this Gospel, namely, that the eternal life, which begins in the soul at the moment of believing, has no experience of death forever. Physical death is a mere incidental event in the continuous progress of that life; death as the contrast to the life of the Messianic Kingdom (that is, in the spiritual sense), and thus the death of the future, is altogether excluded.

2. It is the misunderstanding and opposition of the Jews which leads Jesus away from the direct development of the thought of John 8:51, and brings Him again to set forth and defend His claims, and to carry forward His expressions to greater distinctness. The two special points of consideration in the verses which follow are those in John 8:56 and John 8:58.

3. The statement of John 8:56 is to be explained in view of the contrast between ἠγαλλ. ἵνα ἴδη and εἶδεν. No satisfactory account can be given of this contrast, except on the supposition of a vision given to Abraham during his earthly life, and the realization of the vision as he saw the fact from his heavenly abode. This verse is Jesus' answer to the question of the Jews in John 8:53, “ Art thou greater than our father Abraham? ”

4. John 8:58 may be said to be, in a certain sense, His answer to their question, “ Whom makest thou thyself? ” That John 8:58 declares His pre-existence is placed beyond doubt, (a) by the contrast between εἰμί and γενέσθαι; (b) by the fact that, as distinguished from the other places in this Gospel where the phrase ἐγώ εἰμι is found, no predicate is here suggested by the context, and that thus εἰμί must have the meaning to exist; (c) by the reference to time in the words of the Jews in John 8:57; (d) by the fact that the whole thought of the context is that of His superiority to Abraham, as connected with having seen him and with freedom from death.

5. If we take into consideration the various points in this chapter: The uniting of Himself with the Father as the only two witnesses who can bear witness as to the one sent from heaven; the declaration that, if they knew Him, they would know God, and that their true relation to God was dependent on their true relation to Him; the claim that His words are the truth of God, and that He derives what He says from what He has seen with His Father; the making death in sins and exclusion from the Messianic Kingdom, on the one hand, and freedom from all real sight and experience of death, on the other, to rest upon the acceptance or rejection of Him; the affirmation of pre-existence, of a coming out from God, of a being from Him, of being all that is contained in His discoursing with respect to Himself from first to last; if we take all this into consideration, we may clearly perceive how closely related this chapter is to ch. 5, and how, here, as there, He “makes Himself equal with God” only there He calls the thoughts of His hearers to His life-giving power and the final judgment and resurrection as the proofs of this equality, while here He refers them to His pre-existence and His intimate knowledge of God and union with Him. In the natural order of presentation, as well as of impressiveness in the way of proof for the minds of the disciples, the thoughts of the fifth chapter belong before those of the eighth. Ch. 5 sets forth the fact of His life-giving power for the soul; ch. 6 explains this power as like that of food in the physical life; ch. John 7:37; John 8:14, present it as the quickening and enlivening spiritual force and the light of the soul; ch. 8 exhibits it as the Divine truth known by Jesus from His intimate union with the Father and revealed to the world by Him as sent from the Father.

6. The action of the Jews in John 8:59 is similar to that in John 8:18 they were moved by the claims which they understood Him to make, to attempt to kill Him. When the progress and connection of the thought in the Chapter s are observed, this action on their part may be regarded as indicating that they still thought Him, in the eighth chapter, to be claiming for Himself equality with God. In this connection it is also noticeable that, while Jesus had in ch. 5 presented God only as the witness for His claims, in this chapter He places Himself with God, and demands recognition in view of the testimony of the two as fulfilling the requirement of the Mosaic law.

7. The discourses of chs. 5, 7, 8 were given to the Jews of Jerusalem, that of ch. 6 to a company of people in Galilee; but the condition of heart and will was alike in both. Though addressed to different audiences, the thoughts fall into a natural order, and they are presented by the author, according to his principle of selection, in the succession both of time and proof.