Chapter 8 Jesus - The Light of the World and the ‘I am’ (John 8.12-59)

Jesus the Light of the World (John 8.12-20)

These verses follow immediately on 7.52 in the original text. They proclaim Jesus as the Light of the world. All men recognised the importance of light. The day began when the sun arose, and ceased when the sun set. Although artificial light from torches allowed an extension of the day, it was never fully satisfactory. The day was the time for living.

At this point we should recognise that Jesus has likened Himself to those things which meet the basic needs of man. He has revealed Himself as the bread of life, as man’s basic food and provision, He has revealed Himself as the divine spring of living water, that resource which was necessary for all forms of life and brought life to the world, and now He reveals Himself as the light, that which originally drove back the darkness (Genesis 1.2-3), and in which men accomplished their major tasks.

8.12 ‘Again therefore Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world, he who follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life”.’

‘Spoke to them’ refers to the large crowd in 7.43. The controversy with the Pharisees continued. Jesus declared openly, while speaking to the crowds in the Temple treasury (presumably the place where the large trumpet shaped collecting boxes were in the court of the women - v.20), ‘I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life’. This is His second distinctive ‘I am’ saying. His first was ‘I am the bread of life’ (6.35). Here then is the One Who brings the ‘life which is the light of men’ (1.4), Who shines in the darkness (1.5) and is the true light which lightens every man (1.9).

These statements were specifically drawing attention to His uniqueness as God’s revelation and source of life to man, and Who cannot be ignored. Others would speak of the Scriptures as ‘a light’ (Psalm 119.105) to lead men into faith and truth. He speaks of Himself as the light. It compares with the way He could say ‘but I say to you’ in the Matthew 5.22 etc., a claim to unique authority.

In the Old Testament God is regularly revealed as the Light (Psalm 27.1; 36.9; Isaiah 2.5;10.17; 60.1-2, 19; Micah 7.8-9) and the Servant of God in Isaiah was to be a light to the nations (the world - 42.6; 49.6). And now One has come Who is that Light.

The mention of ‘light’ at this particular feast was especially significant. The feast was seen as a reminder of the journey through the wilderness under Moses, and a great lampstand of fiery flames would be erected in the Temple courtyard and the whole Temple illuminated as a reminder of the pillar of fire that illuminated the way for the people of Israel at that time. The pillar of fire was Israel’s light on the way to freedom, and the pillar of fire represented God Himself. Jesus was now saying that He is that light, seeking to lead all men to safety and a new life. Just as Israel of old followed the flame of fire as God led the way, safe because God was with them, so now all who become His people can follow the new manifestation of God, Jesus Christ Himself, the light of the world, the light of life.

But at the end of the feast that lamp would cease to be lighted. The courtyard in the Temple would cease to be brightly illuminated. Jesus, however, as the Light of the world would continue to shine on, shining ever brighter.

He was claiming uniquely to present men with truth and understanding, both about God and about themselves, giving them eternal life and shining in their hearts with the truth of God. His own life would act as a light to show men that truth, and along with His teaching would lead them ‘out of darkness into His most marvellous light’ (1 Peter 2.9). Men’s sins would be revealed in that light, and some would turn away from them and begin to live lives approved by God (John 3.19-21). Thus would they find life through faith in Him.

But His life and teaching also revealed His own glory, so that John could say ‘we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth’ (John 1.14). We see ‘the light of the good news of the glory of Christ who is the image of God’ (2 Corinthians 4.4). And, as we see it, this light shines in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God Himself in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4.6). No one has ever seen God, but the only Son, Who came from intimate closeness with the Father Himself, makes Him known (John 1.18). So through Him as the light, God is revealed as never before to those whose eyes are opened (compare Isaiah 60.1-2, 19).

These amazing benefits were and are available to all who follow Him and receive from Him ‘the light of life’ (see Psalm 36.9) by responding to His words and receiving the work of the Spirit in their hearts (John 6.63). This life would illuminate them so that they would see His glory and come to know Him for what He is, and gain a new awareness of God. They would receive a totally new spiritual and moral outlook as His light shone in their hearts. But conversely, those who did not respond would fail to see. They would walk in darkness.

Again we are reminded of those words, “the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death on them has the light shined’ (Isaiah 9.2), and as we have seen this is connected with Galilee (Isaiah 9.1). Originally 8.12 came directly after 7.52. This was Jesus reply to that denial that a prophet could arise out of Galilee. He was that light in the land of the shadow of death.

8.13 ‘The Pharisees therefore said to him, “You bear witness of yourself, your witness is not true”.’

The Pharisees recognised the enormity of His claim, and replied, ‘You testify about yourself. What you say is not true’. They were no doubt appalled that a man should claim to be the light of the world, and that in the context of the festal light which pointed to the presence of God with His people. Their prejudice had prevented them from giving fair consideration to His life and teaching and they therefore fell back on claiming that what a man says about himself carries no weight. Their Rabbinic law of evidence stated that a man’s own testimony to himself was invalid.

8.14a ‘Jesus answered and said to them, “Even if I do bear witness of myself, my witness is true, for I know from where I came and where I am going”.’

Jesus replied that in His case the general principle was not true. This is because ‘I know where I have come from and where I am going’. This made Him a special case. As the heavenly Son of Man (John 3.13), who had come from Heaven and would return to Heaven, He had authority to testify about Himself, for no other man on earth could. He alone knew His source and His destiny. And besides, none would doubt that the Messiah could so speak.

8.14b-15 “But you do not know from where I come and where I am going. You judge after the flesh, I judge no man”.’

On the other hand they were not in a position to judge His testimony for they judged only ‘according to the flesh’ as earthly men. They were unable to enter Heaven and they were unaware of Who He was, where He had come from and where He was going. They were limited to earthly knowledge. That is why they saw only a man like themselves, which invalidated their judgment. How then could they know He Who ascends into Heaven Who came down from Heaven (3.13), the Son of Man?

‘I am not (at present) judging anyone’ (v.15) . The Judge of all the world was here but at present Jesus will not pass judgment, even on the Pharisees. There was still a chance for them to open their eyes and see. The heavenly court was in abeyance, waiting to see who would respond to Jesus, and who would turn away. The light was here and men would pass judgment on themselves, depending on how they responded (John 3.17-21).

The adulterous woman was a good example of this. Judgment had been deferred and she had received forgiveness. It was now up to her whether she took advantage of it. So His time to pass final judgment was still in the future. For now He shone as a light in the world, calling men to the light, and some came to Him aware that their sins were judged and forgiven and began to walk in the light, while others turned away into darkness.

8.16 “Yes, and even if I were to judge my judgment would be true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me” (v.16).

But if He were to judge, let them not doubt that His judgments would be accurate and just. His relationship with the Father was so close that any judgment He did make would be in association with the Father, would be one with the Father’s. Thus it would be totally reliable. For He and His Father judged as One.

So Jesus, while claiming to have the full ability to judge, puts Himself in parallel with His Father and stresses that any judgment He makes is equally the Father’s judgment. The truth of it could not therefore be doubted, and the fact was evidence of Whom He was.

8.17-18 “Yes, and in your Law it is written that the witness of two men is true, I am he who bears witness of myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness of me.”

He then pointed out that the law of Moses says that the testimony of two men is true (Deuteronomy 17.6; 19.15). Well, He can give them two witnesses, Himself as the sent One, and His Father Who sent Him, Who bears testimony through His works and His words, and by the Spirit.

‘Your Law.’ That is, the Law on which they laid such emphasis and which was the very basis of their lives, the Law which they had multiplied by a multiplicity of regulations. There is the specific suggestion here that they have altered God’s Law and replaced it with a Law of their own, making it far more onerous. Yet even their Law acknowledged that the witness of two men was true.

8.19a ‘They therefore said to him, “Where is your Father?” ’

Their reply to this was, ‘where is your father?’. They may have mistaken His meaning and have been genuinely confused. He kept speaking of His father. Well, where was his father? But it is possible that they were merely trying to blur the issue in terms of an earthly father because they did not want to accept His claim that God was His Father. Either way it enabled Him to press home His message.

Throughout the Gospel John constantly uses the misunderstanding of men to act as a platform to bring out the truth, and this is but another example of it. So their reply is that if as He says he has two witnesses, let Him produce the other one. Let them see him so that they can judge for themselves.

8.19b ‘You do not know either me or my Father, if you knew me you would know my Father also’.

Jesus simply replied that it was not possible for them to see the Father because they were spiritually blind. That is why they did not know the Father, nor recognise Him. In fact their failure to see what He meant was itself significant. They possibly thought they were being clever but they were really indicating that they did not know either Who He was or Who His Father was. They were demonstrating their spiritual blindness.

The truth was that as they did not recognise Him for what He was, it proved that they did not really know what God was like. For had they really known the Father they would have recognised His Father in Him and what He was doing. How then can He tell them of the Father? Of what use would it be. Their minds are equally closed to knowledge of the Father.

This showed that they were really blind. In spite of all He was saying and doing, which revealed the glory of God, their minds would not or could not grasp it. If then they could not recognise the truth when revealed by the Father through Him on earth, how could they claim to know the Father?

It demonstrated that with all their claim to special knowledge they actually did not know God. This was the real reason that they failed to recognise Him. For as the light of the world He had come to reveal the Father, and if they would but come to see Him for what He was, by considering His words and His activities, and what He was in Himself, and would respond to Him, then they would really come to know the Father too.

8.20 ‘These words he spoke in the treasury as he taught in the Temple, and no man arrested him because his hour was not yet come.’

‘In the treasury’, that is in the Court of the Women, (which was outside the raised court of Israel where only men could go), where there were thirteen trumpet shaped boxes to receive offerings.

‘No man arrested him.’ This brings out the constant threat of arrest that Jesus was under. All He said was in the light of that threat. Yet they seemed powerless to act against Him. This was because God was in control. His hour, the hour of His death, had not yet come. His oneness with His Father also ensured His safety until that hour.

Jesus Is From Above (John 12.21-30)

8.21 ‘He said therefore again to them, “I am going away, and you will search for me and die in your sin, for where I am going you cannot come”.’

‘He said therefore again --’. We do not know how long after the previous verses He spoke these words. There is a strange pathos to them. Jesus was going away, as He knew, to Heaven via the cross. And they would go on looking for Him in vain. They would go on searching for eternal life and for a Messiah from God (‘for Me’), and they would fail in their efforts and would die in their sin, because unknowingly they had rejected the One they pretended to seek for, the only source of eternal life, the true Messiah. Because they would not come to Him their search would be blind and futile, and they could never go where He was going.

The word for ‘sin’ here is in the singular. It sums up their whole sinful attitude of heart.

8.22 ‘The Judaisers therefore said, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ‘where I am going you cannot come’?”

Jesus’ statement ‘where I am going you cannot come’ then made them ask themselves whether He was intending to kill Himself. This is pointed irony. Even while they were seeking His death they avoided the issue even among themselves, and pretended they had no such aims. Did they really think that He did not know what those aims were?

8.23-24 ‘And he said to them “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. That is why I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am you will die in your sins”.’

He now faced them with the central issue. He was as totally different from them as Heaven was from earth. They were from below. They had no knowledge or experience of where God dwells. They were tied to the ideas of the world. Their minds were unopened. But in contrast to them He was from above, He was not of this world. That is what they needed to recognise. The phrase ‘from above’ reflects Psalms 18.16; 144.7. It is the abode of God and His power.

That is why He has stated that they are without hope, because they would not recognise Him for what He is, the One from above, the One Who is not of this world, as the ‘I am’, but only hinted at here, compare verse 58. This phrase ‘I am’, used again specifically and unequivocally in verse 58, was the Name that God revealed to Moses and was the root of the divine name Yahweh (‘the One Who is’ - Exodus 3.14). That is why in Isaiah 43.10 God says, ‘that you may know and believe and understand that I am’. Jesus almost certainly had that verse in mind. He wanted them to know and believe and understand that He was the ‘I am’.

If they wished to be have eternal life they must accept His otherness, and His power to act, and His eternal being. (See also Isaiah 41.4; 43.13; 46.4; 48.12). At this stage, however, the phrase ‘I am’ was not unequivocal and was thus not seen as provocative. It could alternately mean ‘that I am the Messiah’. Some would in fact limit it to meaning ‘that I am He’, that is the coming One.

‘You will die in your sins.’ Compare Ezekiel 3.18 where these words are used. The Pharisees’ total aim was so to live as to obey all God’s laws and prove themselves faithful members of the covenant. They strove manfully to do this, seeking to fulfil hundreds of requirements, expanded in detail by themselves, in order to attempt to do so, hoping eventually to rise above their sins and prove themselves true members of the covenant. But Jesus warned them that unless they came to know Him they could only be unsuccessful. What they were striving for would be in vain.

The word for sins here is plural (contrast verse 21). A sinful attitude of heart results in many sins in the life, and the Pharisees above all, with their hundreds of regulations, were conscious of numerous failings.

8.25a ‘They therefore said to him, “Who are you?” ’

His statement has brought them up short. They recognised that He seemed to be claiming even more than they had realised. ‘Who are you?’ they asked. There was stress on the ‘you’. Was the statement one of awed curiosity, or of angry cynicism? Possibly a little of both, for among the questioners would be some who were willing to give His words consideration (see verse 31).

8.25b ‘Jesus said to them, “Even that which I have told you right from the beginning”.’

(We could in fact translate these words either as ‘even what I have told you from the beginning’ or as ‘why do I talk to you at all?’. Either is possible but the former seems more likely, for there would be some whose interest was genuine).

By now He considered they should be aware of the truth about Him but He patiently pointed back to what He had already said. He had been consistent in His claims from the start. If they had listened they would have known Who He was.

‘From the beginning.’ He was drawing their attention to His past words. He wanted them to know that He had consistently said the same thing and that nothing had changed. But the writer possibly has in mind John 1.1 and sees behind it a deeper inference. It is not only what He has said from the beginning of His ministry that is important, but what He has said from the beginning of time.

But Jesus was not deceived by them. He knew that many of them were still arguing because they hoped that He would fall into a trap. To this point His words, while clear, had not taken Him beyond the pale, and they were hoping for something that was incontrovertible with which to condemn Him..

8.26 “I have much to say about you and much to pass judgment on. However he who sent me is true, and the things which I heard from him, these I speak to the world”.’

He no longer saw any hope of their response to His teaching, so He wanted them to know that He was not blind to their failings. He pointed out that there was in fact a great deal He could say about them which was not to their credit. There was much that He could show up about their attitudes and teaching. However, He would not do so now, although one day He would. Meanwhile He has brought the truth from the One Who is true, to pass on to those who will receive it.

‘But he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him’. In contrast to them there is One Who is true. They might not listen but the world was waiting for the truth, and what He would like to say about His antagonists must give place to His message to the world at large, from the One Who is true.

8.27 ‘They did not perceive that he spoke to them of the Father.’

John comments, ‘they did not understand that He spoke to them of the Father’. They were so set in their own arguments that they did not stand back and consider what He was really saying. Having misinterpreted Him they continued to misinterpret Him, such was the stubbornness of their minds. He deliberately draws attention to their failure to respond with understanding. He hopes his readers will not be the same. Like Jesus no doubt was, he is concerned at their failure to listen to, and understand, what Jesus was saying. But it is one of the characteristics of all ages that men listen, and then hear only what they want to hear, rather than listening with hearts open to learn the truth.

8.28 ‘So Jesus said, ‘When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am, and that I do nothing of myself but say just what my Father has taught me’.

‘When you have lifted up the Son of Man.’ The phrase ‘lifted up’ occurs a number of times in John’s Gospel. In John 3.14 it refers to His crucifixion, but must contain the seeds of His glorification, for His lifting up will offer eternal life to those who believe in Him. In John 12.32 it is specifically stated to also refer to His crucifixion, but again must include the idea of His glorification, for how else could He draw all men to Him? Thus here it is probably intended again to include both, while considering mainly the latter. Without being aware of it they will contribute both to His lifting up in death and His lifting up in resurrection and exaltation.

The phrase was deliberately partly vague, and had a deliberate dual meaning. Jesus could not say blatantly ‘when you have killed me’, and besides that would only have signified one aspect of His death. He wanted to present His death both in its starkness and in its triumph, and ‘lifted up’ stressed both those things. Lifted up as a public spectacle (like the golden serpent - 3.14), and yet also lifted up to God.

The words here are general and not specific. ‘You’ refers to the Jews as a whole, yes, and even to the world. Their main significance is for those who would later believe, and there were many. It is they who will come to know that Jesus is the ‘I am’, and that He reflected His Father’s will. So His death will be a triumph because for many it will result in belief and understanding. But the Pharisees as a whole will know in a more general sense when they see the impact of His death and resurrection. Then they will have to face up to the truth about Him.

‘That I am.’ The Pharisees would understand this as meaning ‘that I am the Coming One.’ But the writer wants us to see the deeper meaning, ‘that I am the “I am”.’

8.29 “And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.”

In spite of His rejection by them He wants them to know that He is conscious that the Father is continually with Him. They may reject Him but His Father will not desert Him or leave Him on His own. For He is pleased with what He is doing. Indeed, Jesus stresses, He always does what pleases Him. His whole life is given up to pleasing the Father.

His words remind us of the words of the Servant in Isaiah 42.1, and the words spoken by God at His baptism, ‘the one in whom I am well pleased’ (although the Greek words for ‘please’ are not the same). Jesus is the faithful Servant. Although He is facing approaching death His Father has not deserted Him, for He is doing His Father’s will. Though He may be ‘lifted up’ on the cross He will not be left alone, for He was sent to be the One who would be led like a lamb to the slaughter that He may bear the sins of the world (Isaiah 53.6-7, 10).

8.30 ‘As he spoke these things many believed on Him’.

There was something in what He said which, while not fully understood, struck a cord in the hearts of some of His listeners. They responded in full faith. They ‘believed into him’ (eis auton - eis with the accusative), in contrast with the Jews of verse 31 who ‘had believed in him’ (auto - dative case ), the latter a faith similar to those in John 2.23 which could not be relied on. His words were not totally in vain. This is a typical Johannine contrast.

(The question of what is meant by a ‘believer’ is in constant tension in John. Sometimes it means full believers. Those whose response is total. At others it means those who are ‘won over’ by some aspect of His ministry without being actually totally committed. We can rest assured that there were always some of both kinds, just as there are today, and the one often became the other).

The Children of Abraham and the Children of the Devil (8.31 - 47)

8.31-32 ‘Jesus therefore said to those Judaisers who had believed in him, “If you dwell in my word then are you my disciples indeed, and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free”.’

Jesus then spoke a word to some of the Judaisers who had showed some response to Him, ‘If you persevere in and meditate on my teaching, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free’. There is only one test of true faith and that is perseverance and continuance. By such perseverance those who receive His teaching (‘word’) will come into a fuller understanding of truth, especially the truth about Him, and will thus find freedom from sin and its power. And then they will they find true freedom, not the freedom from the tyranny of Rome which they have previously longed for, but from the tyranny of that greatest despot of all, sin.

Even though some of the Judaisers have made some kind of response of faith towards accepting Him as from God, Jesus cannot rest satisfied until that faith is deeply rooted in the truth about Him.

There is an important lesson here. The only basis of assurance of salvation is continuance in responding to the truth. A ‘saved’ man can backslide, but he can have no assurance while in his backsliding, and, if it is permanent, abundant Scriptures testify to the fact that it indicates that he was not really saved. When the Saviour saves it is effective, even though there may be the occasional blip.

8.33 ‘They answered him, “We are Abraham’s seed and have never been slaves to any man. How do you say that we will be made free?” ’

The question here is as to who are the ‘they’ mentioned here. The answer is clearly that it was the Pharisaic group as a whole and not just the believing Judaisers, with 8.31-32 being a parenthesis. The situation here is that with Jesus having addressed a word to the believing Judaisers the remainder come in and attack what He has said. What follows is thus not to be seen as meaning that the believing Judaisers were not genuine in their faith.

If we were to take the ‘they’ of verse 33 to refer to the group of ‘believing’ Judaisers then clearly the implication would be that the majority of them were not willing to hold to their belief when more deeply challenged. Now in some ways it is true that it was more difficult for them than for the common people to fully respond to the words of Jesus because they were so hidebound by their own teaching and ideas, and that this was something that they had to overcome. But there is good ground for thinking that this ‘they’ in verse 33 looks to the Judaisers as a whole, and not just to the responsive ones, for the context demands it. John’s distinctions are not always as clearly spelled out as they could be, possibly deliberately as he tries to make his readers think (compare his varied use of ‘disciples’).

The suggestion of not being free peaks the Pharisees. The boast of the Pharisees, and indeed of all Jews, was that they were free men because they were the children of Abraham. Whatever the tyranny they were under, they proudly believed and claimed that they had a freedom that came from the fact that they had God’s Law and were ruled by it and that they were the people of the covenant. Besides this outside interference and subjection was of secondary importance.

And indeed, under the Romans they did have specific rights to practise their own religion exclusively, and thus had reason to consider themselves as religiously free. And this had generally been true through the ages (sometimes their kings had had to bow to pressure from outside, but this had not necessarily always affected the ordinary people). And when they were persecuted they had been willing to die for what they believed in, in order to demonstrate that they were free. Thus they could say, ‘We are descendants of Abraham and have never been in bondage to any man’. This could only apply religiously as they well knew, but it was something of which they were proud. They were religiously free spirits, especially free from idolatry. So ‘How can you say that we must be made free?’

In their case pride in their ancestry was part of what kept them from Christ. In others it may be pride in national privilege or tradition, blind trust in rites and ceremonies, or the overstressing of some moral code. For sadly sometimes half truths can keep us from the full truth.

8.34 ‘Jesus answered them, “I tell you emphatically that every one who goes on sinning is a slave of sin”.’

So they think they are free, Jesus replies. Well, let them consider this. To sin is to be a slave. It is to be sin’s slave. As with drugs, men may think they have sin under control, but once they try to escape they soon find they are helplessly enslaved. As Paul puts it, ‘the good I want to do, I do not do. The evil that I do not want to do, I do’ (Romans 7.19). Indeed it is only when we are happy to continue in sin that we think we have control over it. Once we seek to escape from it we discover its bondage. We should note here that slaves, while not over common in Judea, were looked on religiously as equivalent to bastards. To be compared with a slave was thus an insult.

The problem for the Pharisees, as for many, was that they did not recognise that their very regulations brought them into slavery, and that they of all men were not free. Instead of making them sin less their regulations actually made them sin more, bringing them into deeper bondage. For the more they strove, the more they were conscious of sin.

8.35 - 36. ‘And the slave does not remain in the house for ever, the son remains for ever. So if the Son makes you free, you will indeed be free’.

There are three ways that we can look at the significance of this sentence. The first is to interpret it in detail. Thus it can be seen as saying that sin makes men slaves to their master Sin, as they serve in his household, while the Son makes men free sons in His household. The slave in ‘the household of sin’, with sin as his master, can only be a loser. Any seeming benefits are temporary. Let those who enjoy sin recognise that it will let them down in the end. The sinner may think that he gets the best bargain but he only receives what is temporary, for as a slave he has no rights and no standing, and will one day be thrown out and lose everything.

But one who receives sonship receives a permanent position. So the one who through breaking with sin by faith in Christ receives a place in ‘the household of God’ has permanent existence in that household. Thus if the Son makes men free, by bringing them into sonship, and removing them from the household of sin into the household of God, then their place in the household of God is eternal, not passing or fading away, and they are free indeed from the control of sin.

Alternately, the intention may have been the simple contrast of a temporary position in a household with a position of permanence, contrasting Isaac, the primary son, with Ishmael, the son of the slave girl, who was cast out. The idea then is that sin offers only what is temporary, while Jesus offers sonship, which is permanent, and gives total freedom (‘the house’ not having any interpretative significance).

Alternately ‘the son’ might refer to Jesus in both cases, in which case the meaning is that sin only gives you what is temporary while the Son invites you to forsake sin and share His permanence, thus receiving freedom from sin which is true freedom. In the end the overall meaning is the same.

8.37 “I know that you are Abraham’s seed. Yet you seek to kill me because my word does not have free course in you.”

Jesus then took up their claim to be Abraham’s children, and from now on, when He said ‘you’, He was certainly referring to the Judaisers as a whole.

‘I know that you are descendants of Abraham.’ He did not deny that in the flesh these men could call themselves children of Abraham. They belonged to a nation whose roots were in Abraham, and they proudly sought to trace their ancestry back to him (although often the relationship was only by adoption). But He then pointed out that they were not behaving like it. ‘Yet you seek to kill me because my words find no place in you’.

Among Israelites ‘son of --’ could have two levels of significance. On the one it meant by ancestry, on the other it meant by behaviour. Thus the ‘sons of Belial’ were those who behaved like Belial (Judges 19.22; 1 Samuel 2.12; 1 Kings 21.10). A true son is revealed by his behaviour. What He was thus going to say was that while they might be natural sons of Abraham they did not behave like it and were therefore not true sons of Abraham (compare John the Baptiser’s contemptuous dismissal of their claim in Matthew 3.9).

So while there were some among them who were friendly disposed and had given His words entry, the wider group still sought His death, and it was they whom, identifying themselves as ‘children of Abraham’, Jesus was addressing.. That Abraham would not have behaved like they did is implied, (and stated in verse 40), thus they were not truly ‘sons of Abraham’.

8.38 “I speak the things which I have seen with my Father, and you also do the things that you have heard from your father.”

Jesus now contrasted Himself with them enigmatically. He pointed out that He spoke only of what He had seen with His Father. Thus what He spoke was good and true. His abiding in the Father was constant and affected all He said. But the Judaisers on the other hand spoke what they had heard from their father. The implication was that their father was less worthy. (Later he would show that this referred to the Devil, for it was he, not Abraham, whose ways they followed).

8.39a ‘They answered and said to him, “Our father is Abraham”.’

His listeners were quick to pick up the fact that He was distinguishing His Father from theirs. This immediately set them on their mettle. ‘Abraham is our father’, they proudly and firmly declared. Surely being connected with Abraham could only be good?

Like many they thought that they could be judged by their connections. They were inordinately proud of their connection with Abraham for it was to him that God’s great promises were given. But Jesus would now point out that if they were Abraham’s children it only counted if they behaved like Abraham. And this was something that they should indeed have recognised, for their history and their Scriptures were full of God’s rejection of those who did not obey Him. We can compare Matthew 3.9 where to the same claim to be sons of Abraham, John the Baptiser says wryly that God is able to raise up ‘these stones’ to be sons of Abraham. There is nothing to a name. Evidence of true sonship lies in behaviour.

8.39b-40 ‘Jesus says to them, “If you were Abraham’s children you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I have heard from God. This is not what Abraham did”.’

Jesus now explained that if they were really Abraham’s children they would behave as Abraham behaved. But the very fact that they were plotting His death proved that they were not. He had come as a man who had told them the truth which He had heard from God and they were seeking to kill Him. Abraham, in contrast, welcomed the messengers that came from God (Genesis 18.2 etc.). Thus they were not behaving like Abraham.

8.41a “You do the works of your father.”

He repeated His enigmatic statement. ‘You (Judaisers) are doing just what your father does.’ They could hardly fail to realise that there was an unpleasant implication behind His words. He was linking their ‘father’, whoever that might mean, with a murderous attitude. So recognising that they could no longer defend themselves by reference to Abraham they changed tack.

8.41b ‘We (Judaisers) were not born of fornication. We have one Father, God’.

This may well have been a sneer at the mystery surrounding the birth of Jesus. Alternately it may have been because they saw non-Jews as impure, and not true children of God. Both were possibly in their thoughts. They may well also have been still smarting at having been called ‘slaves’ to sin, for slaves were equated to bastards. So they contrasted that state with their own. They were proud of the fact that God was their Father as the Old Testament often implied (Isaiah 63.16; 64.8; Hosea 11.1; Malachi 1.6; 2.10) and overlooked the strictures in Malachi, which they thought (rightly to a certain extent) no longer applied to themselves. They overlooked the fact that there might be other things that could exclude them from God’s Fatherhood.

8.42-43 ‘Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father you would love me, for I have come forth and am come from God, and I did not come of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear my word.’

Jesus now denied what they claimed. Their very attitude was clear proof that they were not true children of God, for if they were they would have loved Him, the One Who came from God at the express will of God. And the reason that they did not understand this was because they did not want to, simply because His preaching was too uncomfortable. It demanded far reaching changes and an acceptance that the system on which they had built their lives might not be as satisfactory as they thought. ‘Cannot hear my word’ means cannot because their prejudice prevents them from hearing it.

8.44 “You are of your father the Devil, and it is your will to do the longings of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and did not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own, for he is a liar and a father of them.”

Now He was no longer restrained, and explained His enigmatic earlier statement about them being like their father. They were showing themselves to be like their father the Devil, for they were behaving as he did. They were plotting to murder Him and they were unwilling to face up to the truth. The Devil too was a murderer, right from the beginning, and he too did not hold to the truth, and that was because there was no truth in him. When he lied he spoke according to his own nature, for he was a liar and ‘the father of lies’. The corollary was that there was no truth in them either, and that they too were deceivers.

‘He was a murderer.’ He brought death into the world for Adam and Eve, and through his interference Cain slew his brother and from then on all men died.

‘Did not stand in the truth’ could be aspirated to mean ‘does not stand in the truth’, meaning ‘has nothing to do with the truth’. He had ever been, and would always be, a deceiver.

‘According to his own nature.’ From his first efforts in the Garden of Eden he had demonstrated that deceit and falsehood were an intrinsic part of him. That is what his nature had become through rebellion against God. Indeed deceit began with him. He was ‘the father of lies’.

They were like ‘their father the Devil’ in that they longed for His death and could not bear the truth. They clung to their beliefs regardless of reality, deliberately refusing to see the weaknesses in them. These were traits of the Devil which were clearly coming out in them. Far from being the children of God, they were showing themselves by this to be as far from God as it was possible to be. Among the Jews it was customary to say that someone was a ‘child of’ whatever influenced them. Thus Jesus was saying to the Judaisers that their behaviour marked them out as ‘children of the Devil’ because they behaved like him.

8.45 ‘But because I tell you the truth you do not believe me’.

How could they believe when they were so dishonest that they behaved like the Devil, He is saying. Had He brought them lies they would have believed, (as later they would believe other false Messiahs who pandered to them). What they could not stand was the truth. They were determined to hold on to their prejudices rather than admit that there were things in their teachings and attitudes that needed putting right.

Facing up to the fact that we might be wrong is a problem we all have. We too become so set in our ways and our ideas that we do not step back to look. No one person or church is fully right. We must learn that there is truth that we have yet to find, and that what we consider the truth may only be partially so. There is only One Who is ‘the Truth’.

8.46a “Which of you convicts me of sin?”

What an amazing test. Jesus threw Himself open to His enemies. His recent life had been subjected to constant investigation and examination, and yet He was unafraid to lay down His challenge. This demonstrated His supreme confidence that He was without sin. A belief in such a state is sometimes possible to a hardened sinner unaware of his own failings, but the first thing a man does when he comes to know God is admit his sinfulness. Once he sees himself in God’s eyes he repents deeply. This is the first test of the genuineness of religious experience. When Isaiah saw himself in God’s eyes he declared woe on himself because of his unclean lips (Isaiah 6.5). When Job saw God he hated himself and repented deeply (Job 42.6). Yet Jesus, with all His knowledge of, and fellowship with, God, had no consciousness of sin. This was remarkable evidence of His uniqueness.

Furthermore not one of His enemies could point a finger at anything in His life, apart from His disagreement with them on theological matters, that even hinted at sin. And He knew that that would be so. All good men are deeply aware of their own faults, yet here was One Who not only claimed to be without fault, but also challenged others to disprove His claim. And He did it without a hint of spiritual pride. In this too Jesus was unique.

8.46b-47 ‘If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? He who is of God, hears the words of God. The reason you do not hear them is because you are not of God’.

His life substantiated His teaching. If they could not fault the one they should have accepted the other. Their response to His teaching showed the truth about their lives, for what He taught was the truth. Whatever their claims might be, they were not of God, for any man who studied the teachings of Jesus, and then turned away from them, was demonstrating thereby his own sinfulness. For if his heart was right he would have had to respond.

Jesus the ‘I Am’ (8.48-58)

8.48 ‘The Judaisers answered and said to him, “Do we not rightly say that you are a Samaritan and have a devil?” ’

Turning to insults is the refuge of men who have been beaten in arguments, and the Judaisers responded hotly. ‘Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?’ To call Him a Samaritan was to accuse Him of being heretical. But the term was intended to be even more insulting than that, for they deeply despised the Samaritans. To call him a Samaritan was one of the biggest insults a Jew could direct at another Jew.

Furthermore, the Judaisers considered that to link them with the Devil was a clear sign of demon-possession. (Yet they had previously linked Jesus with the Devil because He cast out demons (Mark 3.22-30). What did that say about them?). The way they linked the Samaritans with the idea of demon-possession also demonstrated their general attitude towards Samaritans. And perhaps they had become aware of what He had done among the Samaritans.

8.49-50 ‘Jesus answered, ‘I am not demon-possessed, but I honour my Father and you dishonour me. Yet I do not seek my own glory, for there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge’.

Jesus denied their charge. Rather than being demon possessed He honoured the Father. That was something no demon possessed person would do. Furthermore He was not fighting for His own honour, He pointed out, for there was Another Who would defend His honour. And that One was the Judge of all men. And as judge He was seeking to glorify Jesus. By seeking to dishonour Him the Judaisers were thus attacking God Himself.

8.51 ‘In very truth I tell you, if a man keeps my word he will never see death’.

The fact is that His words offered life. Those who fully responded to them would never die. Jesus was of course speaking about eternal death. The way to eternal life, He was telling them, was by studying Jesus’ words, receiving the truth about Him, believing in Him, and then obeying His teaching. The Pharisees taught that eternal life was obtainable by a constant study of the words of Moses, and a determined effort to obey them as they were expounded by the Rabbis, demonstrating their participation in the God’s covenant. Jesus was now replacing Moses and putting Himself in his place.

The Judaisers, probably mainly Pharisees, either could not understand, or probably preferred not to understand. They preferred to take His words literally.

8.52-53 ‘The Judaisers said to him, “Now we know that you are demon-possessed. Abraham is dead, and so are the prophets. And you say, ‘If a man keep my word he will never taste of death’. Are you greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? And the prophets are dead. Who are you making yourself out to be?” ’

They were trying to ridicule His teaching. They must have known what He really meant but were as aware as He was that others were listening. They had changed ‘see death’ to ‘taste of death’ with the intention of emphasising physical death, as their comments about Abraham and the prophets demonstrated. They were refusing to acknowledge that He was speaking of ‘the second death’, something that they too believed in.

‘Are you greater than our father Abraham?’ In the Greek the question is put in such a way as to assume a negative answer.

‘Who is dead, and the prophets are dead.’ The Pharisees believed in the resurrection from the dead. Thus on this at least they should have acknowledged what Jesus meant. They too believed that Abraham and the prophets would live again. But caricature is the weapon of deceivers, and that was what they were. So they pretended to believe that He meant physical death. They were playing to the crowds.

8.54-55 ‘Jesus answered, ‘If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say that he is your God. But you have not known him. But I know him, and if I said that I did not know him I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and keep his word’.

Jesus diffused their argument by disclaiming any desire to glorify Himself. They claimed that His Father was their God. Well, the One they claimed as their God was the One Who would glorify Jesus. Thus by not recognising Him they were proving that they did not actually know the Father. On the other hand Jesus did know Him and kept His word, as their failure to convict Him of sin proved. To suggest any other position would make Him a liar like them. There was obviously now no holding back. Both had made their positions clear.

‘You have not known Him --- but I know Him.’ The first ‘know’ is ginosko, to know by experience, the second is oida, to know by understanding. This may be an intentional contrast, stressing that Jesus had not only experienced His Father but knew His mind. He knew Him through and through.

At this point Jesus, in full awareness of what He was doing, then made His past comments absolutely clear. They had asked Him whether He was greater than Abraham. Well, He would now tell them.

8.56 “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad’.

Abraham was told by God that ‘by you all the families of the earth will be blessed’ (Genesis 12.3 compare Genesis 22.18-19), and as he looked forward to kings being born from him, might well have associated the coming time of blessing with the coming of a righteous future king descended from him, one who would rule nations as he ruled his family tribe. How else could the nations of the world be blessed through him? Abraham thus rejoiced in the great day when God and the world would be at one through his descendants and looked forward to that day of God. This came out especially when at last the chosen son, through whom the promises would begin fulfilment, was born, for laughter was continually associated with that birth, even in the very name Isaac itself (meaning ‘laughter’). Abraham rejoiced at the birth of Isaac for he rejoiced at him as the sign of the fulfilment of the promises in the future.

There was also a Rabbinic tradition that when God made His covenant with Abraham He showed him the day of the Messiah. Genesis Rabbah 44.25ff states that Rabbi Akiba, in a debate with Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai, held that Abraham had been shown not this world only but the world to come, which would include the days of the Messiah.

But the statement of Jesus, taken over-literally, produced derision.

8.57 The Judaisers therefore said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”.’

Their reply was over literal. They must have known something of what Jesus meant but they were pandering to the crowds. This mature rather than old man having met Abraham? It was ludicrous. And what they were suggesting to be the truth was indeed ludicrous, but it was all part of their deceit. In their hearts they must have known, had they considered it fairly, that Jesus had meant that Abraham looked forward as a prophet.

But now they got what they wanted. Jesus reply was an unequivocal statement of His divine origin.

8.58 ‘Jesus said to them, “In very truth I tell you that before Abraham was, I am’.

This final statement could not be misunderstood. Whatever He had meant before Jesus was now patently claiming to have eternal existence, to have been in continual being long before Abraham. He was indeed saying that He was the ‘I am’, the eternally existing God, existing even before the world was created.

In the Septuagint (LXX - the Greek Old Testament) God claimed in Exodus 3.14 to be the ‘I am’ (ego eimi), the phrase Jesus used here, and His Name Yahweh meant ‘the one who is’. Now His claim was unequivocal. He pre-existed Abraham in perpetual existence.

8.59 ‘They took up stones therefore to hurl at Him. But Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.

The Judaisers understood His meaning precisely and in fury picked up stones to stone Him, risking the wrath of the Romans, although they did have certain rights to inflict the death penalty for blasphemy. Thus did they openly demonstrate their desire for His death. But Jesus was able to slip away and hide, no doubt assisted by supporters, after which He left the Temple. (‘Going though the midst of them and so passed by’ is certainly a later interpolation, although it has fair manuscript support and must have been introduced fairly early in the areas where it was introduced). His end was not yet.