Michael's Abbey Bible Study - Gospel of John Chapter 8

John 7:53-8:11 does not appear in the earliest manuscripts we have at this time. However, oldest does not mean best. Textual criticism, (the academic term for scholarly analysis of the text,) that is legitimate does not say this section is not scriptural. What is legitimately argued is whether it really belongs at this point in John, with a minority arguing it actually belongs to a different gospel. However, the evidence points to it belonging to John more than anything else. The verses of 8:12-20 do not fit well after chapter 7 without 7:53-8:11. The majority of those who argue 7:53-8:11 doesn't belong in scripture are those trying to discredit scripture in general.
1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Instead of staying in someone's home, Jesus slept outdoors on the Mount of Olives. The Jewish officers would not be able to locate Him there without help.
The Mount of Olives is the southern most peak of a small range of three peaks east of Jerusalem. The tallest is the northern peak and the shortest is the middle peak. It is mentioned in 2 Samuel 15, and in Zechariah 14 which is a prophecy about eschaton, the end times.
2 Early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people were coming to Him; and He sat down and began to teach them. The Feast of Tents was over. But Jerusalem would still be very crowded, and certainly the temple was. Those that had not been able to sacrifice in the temple before would do so now before they returned home. Jesus again went to the temple, and the people gathered to hear him speak. This time John adds the detail that He sat down to teach.
3 The scribes and the Pharisees *brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, This is the only time John mentions the scribes. Unlike the hereditary priests, anyone could become a scribe through learning. In pre-exile Israel scribes were those who wrote down whatever was required such as legal documents, accounts and records. As literacy became universal in Israel, their profession became primarily a government function. In the Israeli royal household the chief scribe was the Secretary of State for the king. During the exile the scribes became the primary preservers of scripture. As a natural function of copying scripture they also becoming teachers of scripture. By the time of the New Testament they were still the main source of copies of scripture, but their primary function was to teach and interpret scripture.
That the scribes were added in this narrative shows that the situation had changed. The Pharisees already believed they had enough to arrest Jesus for His healing the blind man on the Sabbath in chapter 5. However, their attempts to arrest Him were frustrated by Jesus' words that publicly called into question their pretext for arresting Him. Additionally, some believed Jesus was the Messiah making it difficult to arrest Him in public, and miraculous intervention also played a part. The scribes were viewed as non-sectarian interpreters of the law, even if they were partisan in reality. Thus if the scribes could pin Jesus on a point of the law there wouldn't be much pushback by the people.
To entrap Jesus they brought a woman caught in the act of adultery. They thought that Jesus would not be able to escape this trap which they thought only left Jesus two options. One, He would have to counter the law, in which case they could easily arrest Him. Or two, He would have to abandon what they perceived to be a touchy-feely love-centric message they thought was counter to the law. If He did that His followers would abandon Him for being a hypocrite. Thus they set her in the center of the court for all to see and publicly spring their trap.
4 they *said to Him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. By their own words, they admit she was caught in the act. However, it takes two to tango. Therefore they let the man go free who must have also been caught in the act. It is speculation, but the most likely reason the man was not also brought was he was a scribe, Pharisee, or a high priest.
5 Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?" They were right, but were deliberately leaving out a crucial point of the law. The law in both Leviticus 20:10 and Deuteronomy 22:22 specifically addresses a man caught in adultery. He is to be put to death. It is only in the punishment part of the law that the woman adulterer is even mentioned. She is to be put to death as well. In their desire to get their way they left open this fatal flaw in their logic and plan.
6 They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. Jesus stopped teaching to deal with this situation. However, He did not immediately address the scribes and Pharisees or what they said. Instead He bent down and wrote in the dirt with His finger. Scripture doesn't say what Jesus wrote.
7 But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." The scribes and Pharisees again asked Jesus what He had to say, sure they had Him trapped. Jesus' reply was that whoever was innocent should throw the first stone. The inference is that they were guilty of this sin as well. The scribes and Pharisees claimed to be exemplary followers of the law and appeared to be so to the people at least superficially. Thus it would have been easy for them to claim to be innocent in reply to Jesus statement. Considering that the scribes and Pharisees were completely disarmed by these words, it seems there was something about what Jesus wrote in the dirt in verse 6. It is speculation but it may be that what Jesus wrote was the name of the man caught in adultery with this woman.
8 Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Jesus bent down and continued to write in the dirt. It is speculation, but does fit the situation, that this writing was the names of the scribes and Pharisees with the names of their mistresses.
9 When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court. It doesn't seem like Jesus' words alone were enough to turn away those who were ready to kill the woman and Jesus. Thus the speculation that Jesus was revealing supernatural knowledge of their guilt in this sin would explain it. However, it could also be the conviction of the Holy Spirit that made them give up. That the older scribes and Pharisees gave up and left first seems to be a comment on the anger and emotion behind their attempt to trap Jesus. The younger and less wise are more prone to hold onto their anger longer when it is shown to be wrong and foolish.
Jesus and the woman were alone in the sense that the accusing scribes and Pharisees had all left. There certainly were a great many spectators to these exchanges still around as they were in the temple grounds.
10 Straightening up, Jesus said to her, "Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?" After all the accusing scribes and Pharisees had left, Jesus stops writing in the dirt and stands up to address the woman. An easy reading translation would be, "Woman, is there anyone here who accuses you?" Another way of putting it is where are your accusers, although this doesn't follow the Greek as well.
11 She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more."] The woman replies that there are none to accuse her. To which Jesus says He does not accuse her either. This is consistent with His role as the one who takes on the sins of the world. Many preachers, particularly "progressive" preachers, stop at that point in order to distort this story and support their permissive "God loves you just the way you are" false gospel. Jesus didn't stop there. He told the woman to go and sin no more.
Jesus does not excuse sin. He does not permit it. He does not ignore it. He died for the forgiveness of sins. But His standard is to repent, that is turn 180 degrees away from sin and not go back to it. He absolutely did not condone or justify remaining in sin. And He absolutely does not permit redefining sin as being okay. Jesus is a rescue from sin, like pulling someone out of quicksand. He does not say it's okay to stay in it or that it's not really quicksand.
12 Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life." Either some time has past since verse 11 or, most likely, the Pharisees Jesus engages with here were a different group than the ones trying to entrap him with the woman caught in adulatory. It does seem the clear accusation of Nicodemus in 7:51 had time to sink in as they are now listening to what Jesus had to say. But it is clear they didn't take the implied criticism on board as they were still operating outside the law. These Pharisees were ones that had heard Jesus speak in the past.
Jesus begins His statement with "I am", ego eimi in Greek, which is the Greek form of God's name Yahweh. However, in the context of the sentence it was not blasphemous. That Jesus is the light of the world has been a theme throughout the Gospel of John. In 3:19 Jesus said that the Light, which was Himself, had come into the world. But men loved the darkness rather than the Light because they did evil deeds. And here the Pharisees were the prime example of that judgement. That God is the light for us will literally be the case in the new heaven and earth as prophesied in Revelation 21:23-25.
13 So the Pharisees said to Him, "You are testifying about Yourself; Your testimony is not true." The Mishnah, which is the codified Pharisaical rules, states that none may be believed when he testifies of himself. Thus the Pharisees were arguing from the rules their own sect came up with known as the Mishnah. Whereas the Law of Moses in Deuteronomy 19:15-18 clearly states that the judges are to consider the testimony of a man about himself and investigate throughly who is telling the truth, the man or his accuser. The law does give more weight to multiple witnesses, but does not assume a man testifying about himself is lying. Thus the Pharisees were tossing out the law of Moses they claimed to revere in favor of their own doctrine that contradicts the law. Far from being real scholars of the law, they were turning away from the law in favor of stuff they made up. Like the Pharisees, those who argue only from their own doctrine risk putting themselves on the wrong side of the argument and against God.
In arguing that what he says is true Jesus counters this argument in John 5:31-47 by citing the works He did and the Father as outside testimony and proof. This met the standard for judicial proof both in the law and in the Mishna.
The Mishnah was originally an oral tradition, and still was during Jesus' life. It was written down beginning around the time of Jesus and finalized in the early 3rd century. It makes up the first part of the Talmud, with two collections of interpretations, annotations and commentary on the Mishnah called the Gemara making up the rest of the Talmud. This essentially made Pharisaism the new Judaism.
14 Jesus answered and said to them, "Even if I testify about Myself, My testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. Jesus directly contradicted this bogus rule of the Pharisees by stating that He was telling the truth. To back up this He makes the point that He is from heaven and will return there even though the Pharisees don't know that is where He is from yet.
We could be understanding of the Pharisees ignorance of this fact. However, their responses make it clear that they would not accept any evidence that contradicted their position. It's like a person lecturing about what Japan is really like, (and getting it all wrong,) to a person who has been living there for years. The truth was not the objective of the Pharisees. They were only concerned with validating and defending their position against all opposed to it, even God Himself.
15 You judge according to the flesh; I am not judging anyone. Jesus said that they are judging in the flesh, which means they are not judging righteously and/or judging based on incomplete knowledge. Implied is that they are operating out of emotion rather than intellect. Whereas Jesus was not judging at all.
To be clear, this are referring to judging at this specific time and place. Jesus is the judge of the world in John 5:22 and 2 Timothy 4:1. He judges the scribes and Pharisees throughout the gospels. This verse is not saying Jesus never judges, just that He wasn't doing so here.
16 But even if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone in it, but I and the Father who sent Me. This is not a contradiction of 5:22. Jesus is not saying that if/when He judges it will be jointly with the Father. This is not a statement about how judging is done or by whom. It is a statement about the nature of the Son and the Father. The Father and Son are different persons but are one substance, which is God. Thus they have unity in the trinity.
17 Even in your law it has been written that the testimony of two men is true. Here Jesus is calling out all the Pharisees by referring to "your law". Some wrongly assert a hostility between the gospel and Judaism. However, this is not hostility towards the law of Moses, but towards the unscriptural Mishna. The Pharisees claimed to be following the law of Moses, interpreting it for others. By adding their "clarifications" in the Mishna they probably thought they were "helping" it. Scripture does not need our help. By referring to "your law" Jesus was saying that the Mishnah was not authoritative, but was separate, detached and even contrary to scripture. And thus it was illegitimate.
The same testimony from two people was acknowledged by both the Law of Moses and the Mishna as corroboration that their testimony is true. Thus Jesus was using their own tradition against them.
18 I am He who testifies about Myself, and the Father who sent Me testifies about Me." The Son and the Father give the same testimony about the Son, Jesus. Thus there are two witnesses which satisfies the legal requirement. Since they were trying to justify their wish to kill Jesus using the law, this was disarming.
19 So they were saying to Him, "Where is Your Father?" Jesus answered, "You know neither Me nor My Father; if you knew Me, you would know My Father also." The Pharisees take the tack of questioning where is Jesus' father, which is really to call into question who he is. This may have been from ignorance. However, some of the Pharisees must have connected the dots as to what Jesus had been implying, at least that He was sent by God if not all the way to Him being the Son of God. This is indicated by verse 20. Thus to take this tack was to discredit Jesus' arguments in turning the subject to an earthly father. Even those that understood the implications of what Jesus had been saying could not bring blasphemy charges yet as Jesus had been indirect in these statements. God was the Father of all the Israelites after all.
Jesus reply is an accusation that the Pharisees were deliberately ignorant, choosing not to learn who Jesus really was. This was valid as their behavior would be different if they really knew. That is not to say they would be on Jesus' side even if they knew the truth. Knowing and accepting are two different things. And those in sin reject God most of the time.
20 These words He spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one seized Him, because His hour had not yet come. This verse gives the setting for the debate in verses 12-19. The treasury could refer to the storage room where non-edible tithes and offerings were stored, but this is very unlikely. It is much more likely that this was in the vicinity of the depositories where people would drop in their coin donations. Mark 12:41-44 refers to these depositories as the treasury as well.
This was a very large public place in the temple, making arresting someone on bogus charges very difficult. Jesus repeatedly confounded their attempts to frame Him. And all who sought to have Him arrested were left scratching their heads as their arguments and plans fell apart. John states that it wasn't yet Jesus' time as the reason, implying supernatural assistance. And that is likely.
21 Then He said again to them, "I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come." This may be a different teaching session, or may be a continuation of the previous verses. Regardless, Jesus is addressing the mostly the same group of people. Although there may be additions and differences in specific individuals, it was still primarily the Pharisees He was debating with many of the people as witnesses.
Jesus repeats His previous statements that He is going away where they cannot come. But there is an addition that they will die in their sin. This was implied before, but here explicitly stated. This is as much a prophecy as a condemnation. To die in their sins means to die unforgiven and without the grace of God.
22 So the Jews were saying, "Surely He will not kill Himself, will He, since He says, 'Where I am going, you cannot come'?" Again, the Jews refers to the Jewish leaders, which would include Pharisees, scribes, and high priests. These got closer to the truth than the officers in chapter 7. They connected the dots that Jesus was willingly going to die, but their speculation went to suicide rather than the sacrifice for all as written in prophecy. In their human reasoning and knowledge they could not reconcile Jesus' statements.
23 And He was saying to them, "You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. Saying they were from below does not mean they were from Hell, although Jesus implies that is their future destination in verse 24. It means they are from earth. Being from above is clearly referring to Jesus' heavenly origin. Jesus clarifies by defining that they are of this world but He is not. When we become disciples of Jesus, we are adopted to be co-heirs with Him. This does not make us God like Him, but makes us adopted children of God. As such, earth is no longer our home. Our home address is changed to heaven. And this world is a foreign land in which we are legal aliens and strangers. As Jesus' disciples, we are also not of this world.
24 Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." Here Jesus asserts more directly that He is the way for our sins to be forgiven, although He is not completely clear. In saying they would die in their sins he was saying they would not go to heaven because they would die unforgiven and without the grace of God.
Where the NASB says "I am He" Jesus used ego eimi, Greek for "I am" which is Yahweh, the name of God. Although His wording left a little room for this to be understood to mean something else, He was implying that He is God and put it stronger than in verse 12. When Jesus used ego eimi in a way that could only be understood to mean He was saying He was God they would react with anger and try to kill Him.
25 So they were saying to Him, "Who are You?" Jesus said to them, "What have I been saying to you from the beginning? Jesus is still speaking to the Jewish leaders as identified in verse 22. It is unlikely that they did not pick up on the use of ego eimi in verse 24. And while their question was certainly seeking clarification, it is likely that they were hoping Jesus would explicitly claim the name of God. Then they would have all they needed to condemn Him, and the crowd would strongly support them. Even those that believed in Jesus wouldn't dare try to stop them.
Jesus response is a harsh rhetorical question that one would say to a misbehaving young student. He was saying they haven't been listening.
26 I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world." Jesus deflects the answer and turns the subject to the Father. While Jesus could say a lot on His own, like in verse 15 He states that He is relaying what is from the one who sent Him. That the one who sent Him is true and genuine is to point to that person being God the Father as only God is really true.
27 They did not realize that He had been speaking to them about the Father. While Jesus did directly use "the Father who sent me" in verses 16 and 18, He was indirect throughout most of this confrontation. The Jewish leaders did not connect the dots, so they didn't understand that Jesus was referring to God the Father. The problem was they were sure of their own knowledge despite it being not just wrong, but based on their own assumptions and prejudices about the Messiah. Here He was in front of them. But because He didn't conform to the way they thought the Messiah should be, they couldn't see the truth.
However, most of us would have had the same problem. Anyone who is sure they wouldn't be like the Jewish leaders only proves they would be just like them. The arrogance of the Jewish leaders kept them from seeing the truth. We have trouble seeing what doesn't fit our own preconceived notions just like them. Humility, a willingness to accept we are often wrong, a desire to learn the truth, and putting scripture above our own reasoning is the path to the truth.
28 So Jesus said, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. Here Jesus connects some of the dots for them, but this verse is primarily a prophecy. Son of Man is a title for the Messiah in the prophecies of Daniel 7:13 and Psalm 80:17. Here Jesus prophesied that they would know He was the Messiah when they lift Him up. In John 3:14-17 Jesus compared the Son of Man being lifted up to Moses lifting up the bronze serpent to save the Israelites. And by that all would be saved. In other words, Jesus was prophesying that He would be crucified both here and in chapter 3. So Jesus is saying they will know He is the Messiah when He is crucified. At that time the sky went dark, the earth shook, and the temple veil between the people and the Holy of Holies was torn in two. These were all signs that pointed to the truth.
Finally, Jesus again referred directly to the Father, saying He was doing the Father's will and teaching what the Father taught.
It should be noted that Jesus refers to them lifting up the Son of Man. Yet crucifixion was a Roman method of execution. The Jewish method was stoning. It was against Roman law for anyone not a Roman authority to carry out an execution on their own. So even though the Romans would be the ones who sentence and crucify Jesus, He was stating that the Jewish leaders would be the ones responsible.
29 And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him." Jesus uses "the one who sent me" here, directly connecting this to "the Father" making it clear that they are interchangeable. The relationship between the Son and the Father is continual. Thus their relationship went beyond Jesus' daily prayers. It may be that Jesus' daily prayer was as an example to us. And our relationship with Jesus and the Father is also continual.
At the end, Jesus is explicitly stating that His healing of the blind man on the Sabbath was pleasing to the Father, and therefore could not be a sin as was accused by the Pharisees.
30 As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him. It is not stated who came to believe in Jesus. There were Jewish leaders there and common people there. Since those who were trying to trap Him had left, it is plausible that this includes some of the Jewish leaders that remained. And it is certain that this included many of the people.
31 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; Here Jesus specifically addressed those who believed in Him. That is the first condition to be free, that we believe. The second condition is that believers continue in His word. Continue is meinete in Greek, which means to remain, stay, and abide. In other words, it means to live in His word. Our existence must be in His word. We must read it, study it, meditate on it, and live it out daily.
To be clear, Christian meditation is absolutely nothing like the pagan/new age meditation. Pagan meditation wrongly teaches to empty the mind, which is the path to demonic influence. Matthew 12:43-45 and Luke 11:24-26 are an example of the worst possible version of this. Whenever we push out God, we open ourselves up to evil influence. Christian meditation is to fill our minds with with scripture and think carefully of what it means, checking our thoughts against other scriptures to make sure we are thinking rightly, and then on how we can live it out in our lives.
If we meet those two conditions, then we are truly Jesus' disciples. Those who do not meet those two conditions are not. They may believe, but they do not follow Jesus. James 2:19 tells us that even the demons believe, but it does them no good. In Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus said many who said "Lord, Lord", such as those who just believe, will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Even some who prophesied in Jesus' name, cast out demons, and performed miracles will not enter heaven. It is those who do the will of the Father that will enter heaven. Someone who is not in scripture cannot know the will of the Father, so they cannot do it.
However, simply studying scripture is not enough. Someone can spend all of their time studying scripture and still not be a disciple of Jesus. It is when we study scripture with humility to learn what it really says, even when it contradicts what we think and believe, and act on it that we are a true disciple of Jesus. Too many people will "study" scripture and only see confirmation of their wrong-headed beliefs and assumptions, and ignore the parts that are direct conviction of their anti-biblical beliefs. These are disciples of themselves, not Jesus. The Pharisees entire lives were supposedly dedicated to the study and teaching of scripture. Yet most of them were really studying their own thoughts, ideas and philosophy, placing those thought above scripture and serving themselves. Let me be perfectly clear, this is the very definition of being pagan and evil. Far too many people will leave a Bible study just as much a son of Satan as when they came. A servant of Satan is still a servant of Satan no matter how much they appear to be serving Christ and studying scripture. This is what a wolf in sheep's clothing looks like.
32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." The last part of this verse is one of the most quoted parts of the Bible by people who have no idea it is scripture. As such, it is constantly taken out of context. So we should be careful to take it in context. This is the result of being a true disciple of Jesus, which is those who believe in Jesus and live in His word. The result of that is they will know the truth and the truth will set them free. The truth they will know is what He was telling them in the verses before this. That truth is that Jesus is the Son of God, the Christ which is Greek for the Messiah. He was crucified defeating sin, and resurrected defeating death. This is the Christ event that sets us free from the slavery of sin and death. That is the context of this verse and the truth it specifically is referring to.
To be sure, that truth leads to all kinds of other truths and freedom. For example, we are not powerless and we can resist temptation, as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:13. God's creation is proof of God's existence and declares the glory of God as David wrote in Psalm 19. This is the reason why the advancement of science and knowledge is more due to Christianity than anything else.
Secular culture is a religion with false tenants, one of which is that science and knowledge about the universe was held back by Christianity. In truth, atheism as much as pagan religion is what held back science and knowledge. Under those, one would see something, think of a cause, and that would be the end of it. There was no investigation or experimentation. Greek philosophers observed that if you put rags and cheese in a dark corner you would get mice. They didn't control for the fact that it attracted the mice. They observed that if you left meat out maggots would come out, and concluded that meat was the source of maggots without noticing that flies were laying their eggs in it. It was the desire to know God by learning about his creation that spawned the scientific method. All of the Ivy League colleges but one were founded as Christian institutions as learning truth is a Christian value. I cannot find a university founded before 1800 in Europe or North America that was not founded by Christians. Seeking true knowledge in any field is and has been a way to learn about God's creation, and thus true Christians promote it. Even today, Atheists and pagans are trying to use the government and media to shut down any knowledge they do not approve of regardless of whether it is the truth or not.
33 They answered Him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, 'You will become free'?" These were triggered by being told that they were slaves. The truth was they were slaves even though they didn't know it. In response they made an argument from status, that they were descendants of Abraham. Since education in the scriptures began between the ages of five to seven, there is no way they didn't know the story of Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers, let alone that all Israel were slaves in Egypt before the exodus. While all arguments from status are meaningless, this one was also a stupid argument. Being a descendant of Abraham was not a guarantee of anything. The second argument could also be refuted in the natural. A Roman soldier could command anyone in the Roman Empire that wasn't a citizen to carry their pack for one mile without compensation, and that included the Jews. That law is what Jesus was referring to in Matthew 5:41. Forced labor without compensation is the definition of slavery. But that wasn't what Jesus meant here, as He explains in the next verse.
They were triggered out of their arrogance and ignorance, which causes stupidity. This is why humility is a requirement for gaining knowledge. Getting a PhD does not requires someone to be intelligent. Getting it is hard work and there are a lot of requirements that have to be met. But intelligence is not one of them. Yet most people with a PhD are arrogant in their accomplishment, and thus incapable of real learning. This is why so much wrong headed and even evil stuff comes out of academia. Arrogance is the opposite of wisdom.
34 Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. Again Jesus begins with amen, amen, Greek for truly, truly in His unique way. People say amen after someone speaks to affirm that what they heard was true. Jesus begins with it from the authority of being God.
Doing sin brings the guilt and punishment that sinners deserve. We have no idea how bad our sin really is. We make excuses for it. We deny it. But the reality is our sin, all of it, deserves punishment including death. Letting sinners into heaven would turn it into hell. As we have all sinned we have no hope on our own. Thus, we are figuratively slaves to sin when we sin, and need Jesus to save us from it. Paul expands on this point in Romans 6:16-18.
Sinning is also a literal slavery to sin. Committing a sin increases the temptation many times greater than before doing it the first time. It lowers our resistance to that sin, and we are tempted to add another sin to that sin by denying it is even a sin at all. The line between a habit and an addiction is very blurry. When it comes to sexual sin, the line is non-existent. It is much easier if we don't commit the sin in the first place.
35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. 36 So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. Slaves have no right to remain in the household. The son is the heir who inherits everything, and therefore remains out of his right to inherit. Thus the son has the right and ability to set a slave free. Jesus was sent to set us free from our bondage to sin and set us free. Even more, we are made co-heirs with Him by Him, and gain the right to remain just like He already had.
In Judaism, chattel slavery was illegal. That is, you could not own a person, only their labor. This type of slave worked without pay and had no say in what they did, when they did it, nor where they would go. But they did have rights. Chattel slavery, total ownership of a human being, was the norm for most of the world throughout history until the last century. (It is still openly practiced in some African countries today as well as in some Islamic countries.) Chattel slavery was something that was forced on people by slavers who were usually of the same race, by conquest, or by a court. Israel is a remarkable difference from all the other nations. In Israel the owner was responsible for providing for the needs of their slaves. Thus a person who was unable to provide for themselves could sell themselves into slavery to pay debts they could not discharge. But in Israel this had a term limit. If the slave decided they were not capable of making it on their own or that life was better under their master they could choose to become a bond-slave and stay past the expiration of their slavery. This system was their equivalent of a welfare program and the only safety net that existed at this time in history. A dismissed slave could not just be turned out with nothing, but had to have provisions given to them.
37 I know that you are Abraham's descendants; yet you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. Put simply, Jesus affirmed that they are indeed descendants of Abraham, but that is meaningless because they were seeking to do an evil thing, murder. And there is no sacrifice to atone for murder under the Mosaic law. Thus, they were placing themselves outside the law they claimed to follow. Worse, they would not accept the word of God incarnate right before them. So there was no hope for them at all.
38 I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father." In short, Jesus was accusing them of being apostate Jews. Jesus was speaking the truth He saw in the presence of the Father. Since the Son and the Father are God, these things are the truth. While these Jewish leaders, especially the Pharisees, were doing the things of "their father" that contradict scripture itself. Jesus does not identify who "their father" is yet. So they probably took this to mean their ancestors.
Seeking to have someone killed was definitely against the law. Under the law of Moses a person who falsely accuses another is given the punishment they were trying to wrongly inflict on an innocent person, even if it was the death penalty. Thus these Jewish leaders were condemning themselves to death, a penalty they already had earned as unrepentant sinners.
39 They answered and said to Him, "Abraham is our father." Jesus *said to them, "If you are Abraham's children, do the deeds of Abraham. Again they repeat that they are descendants of Abraham, as if that was justification for murder. They did not deny the accusation Jesus made in verse 37. But Jesus replies that they should then do the deeds of Abraham. These deeds were to follow God with all of his heart, no matter the circumstance. These could not even follow the law of Moses, let alone follow God with all their heart.
40 But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do. In other words, their actions are the opposite of the behavior of Abraham. Abraham respected the truth and those who spoke it. He did not do what they were trying to do, kill the one speaking the truth, even if it is something they don't like. Jesus has said before that what He spoke is from His Father, and here he identifies His Father as God. However, the Jewish leaders took this in the sense that all Israel were the children of God and not literally. But both of these were true for Jesus.
41 You are doing the deeds of your father." They said to Him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God." They were doing the deeds of their father, not the deeds of Abraham. They were following what was false. Thus they were invalidating their inheritance.
Judaism was not legalistic, it was nomistic. Like the Galatians, this is not something we really understand as we have no experience nor even a frame of reference for it. Obedience to the law was simply what was due God. Salvation was by grace given to the people of Israel. Failing to follow the law was made up for by sacrifice to atone for the transgression. (There was no sacrifice for murder.) However, rejecting the law was to reject being part of Israel which put one outside God's grace. These Jewish leaders were rejecting the law in favor of their own wrong reasoning and false teaching of their sect.
The Jewish leaders understood that Jesus was accusing them of not being true descendants of Abraham, even if they didn't yet understand who Jesus meant by "their father". Their response is that they were the true descendants of Abraham, coming from his wife Sarah who gave birth to Isaac, and not from the illegitimate child of Hagar who gave birth to Ishmael. It is likely they were deliberately misunderstanding Jesus' point and trying to turn the argument to one of justification by ancestry. Whereas Jesus point was that both in reality and under the law they were placing themselves outside Israel and what was good and right. They claimed to have God the Father as their father, but this was false.
42 Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me. Jesus response was to refute their assertion that God was their Father. As evidence He presents that He is from and sent by God, and that it is by God's will that He has come. By God Jesus meant God the Father, although he doesn't explicitly state that. They only heard that He was claiming to be from God. And since they do not love the one God sent but hated Him, then God cannot be their father.
43 Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. This rebuke seems to mean that Jesus was saying they were deliberately misunderstanding. They were mishearing his words and twisting them to fit their personal and sectarian doctrines. This is something we do today. Sometimes it takes someone else to point out our error before we can see it. However, history and experience show even then we usually reject the truth in favor of the falsehoods we hold as doctrine. It takes humility to accept when we are wrong, or to even hear the correction in scripture or a brother.
Proverbs 11:2 When pride comes, then comes dishonor, but with the humble is wisdom.
44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Here Jesus defines what He meant in verses 38 and 41 when he said that they were doing the deeds of their father and not God. Their father is the devil, diabolos in Greek. As evidence Jesus presents that they want to do the devil's will in trying to murder Him. The law does not allow murder, and does not even have a sacrifice to atone for it. The only option is the death penalty for the murderer. By their actions and motives they prove who their father is.
Implied is that since they are doing the will of their father, the devil, then they are doing these other deeds of the devil. There is no truth in the devil, he lies out of his nature, and he is the father of lies. Therefore, the Jewish leaders who are seeking to murder Jesus also have no truth in them, also lie out of their lying and sinful nature, and are the father of lies in Israel.
Jacob who was renamed Israel was under the covenant of his father Isaac and grandfather Abraham, and was part of the fulfillment of that covenant, Jesus was the final fulfillment of that covenant. In a similar way, the murderous Jewish leaders were under an evil covenant and fulfillment of the desires of the devil.
45 But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me. This was a verbal body-slam continuing the evidence that their father is the devil. They do not believe the truth because lies are their nature, just as it for their father the devil.
46 Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? Continuing the evidence against them Jesus asks two rhetorical questions. The first question has a two layers to it. The first layer is that Jesus is innocent of any sin. Therefore they cannot convict Him of anything whatsoever in truth. The second layer refers to the beginning of this chapter where they could not even convict a woman who was caught in the act of adultery. It is likely that they couldn't convict her because their hypocrisy was exposed by Jesus. Since they couldn't convict a guilty woman they had no chance of convicting an innocent man. The second rhetorical question again calls them liars with a lying nature that cannot believe the truth.
47 He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God." This next part of the indictment begins with a truism. It is obviously true that those who are of God hear the words of God. Thus the logical conclusion when someone does not hear the words of God they cannot be of God themselves.
48 The Jews answered and said to Him, "Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?" Lacking a real response the Jewish leaders resort to name-calling trying to discredit Jesus while completely sidestepping the accusations. When people stoop to using this tactic they know they are in the wrong, know they are losing the argument, or both. You can see this in videos on college campuses when ignorant college students full of emotion and fake knowledge can't defend their wrong positions because they are indefensible. So they just throw out insults. When someone resorts to insults they are admitting they have lost.
The names thrown at Jesus were poorly chosen. In John 7:20, the crowd stated that Jesus had a demon. But that was hyperbole, an exclamation like saying "you're crazy" because of His claim that they wanted to kill Him. However, that was out of their ignorance of who was speaking to them. It quickly became apparent that this was the one the Jewish leaders were seeking to kill because of the healing on the Sabbath, showing them that Jesus' statement was factual and not crazy. Even sillier, no one had called Jesus a Samaritan. It was well known that the Samaritans held heretical beliefs. So by falsely claiming He had been called a Samaritan and falsely claiming that was justified was to imply that Jesus' words were also heretical. This was all desperate name calling to try to discredit what Jesus was saying since they were incapable of disputing it.
49 Jesus answered, "I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. Jesus bluntly denies have a demon, and uses His rebuttal to continue to indict the Jewish leaders. That they are dishonoring Jesus is to say that they are lying about Him. And by invoking the Father, Jesus was saying that since they dishonor Him with their lies they were also dishonoring and lying about the Father.
50 But I do not seek My glory; there is One who seeks and judges. Adding to the statement in verse 49 that He honors His Father, Jesus again states that He doesn't seek His own glory. That the focus is on the Father was a repeated theme in Jesus' teaching, such as in 7:18. The One seeking and judging is clearly referring to the Father. The focus of this seeking and judging is not specified. But from the context is seems the Father is the judge of who is right between Jesus and the Jewish leaders.
51 Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death." Once again Jesus begins with amen, amen. Then He states that the condition for obtaining eternal life is keeping His word, although he puts it in the language of not seeing death. Seeing death means to experience death. This makes it sound like He is referring to physical death. In a way, it could be this was like a mini-parable to hide the truth from those who don't want the truth. However, this could just as likely be a choice of emphasis. While we fear and dread the physical death in this life, the second death is so much worse it's not worth even noticing the physical death by comparison.
52 The Jews said to Him, "Now we know that You have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets also; and You say, 'If anyone keeps My word, he will never taste of death.' The Jewish leaders take Jesus literally to mean the physical death. Seeing and tasting death are synonymous in this context, so the difference in their quotation of Jesus' words is not really a difference. Whether it was deliberate on their part or came from a genuine misunderstanding of Jesus' meaning, they did not follow that Jesus was talking about eternal life verse the second death. Thus their arguments citing Abraham and the prophets were aimed at refuting a surface-level analysis of Jesus' statement and not its actual meaning.
53 Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets died too; whom do You make Yourself out to be?" We have all heard someone make a fool of themselves when they loudly and wrongly declare, "I know that this is not greater than that." While everyone else around knows they are so wrong it's sad. This statement by the Jewish leaders is the greatest case of someone putting their foot in their mouth in the history of humanity. They were absolutely sure they were right in asserting that Jesus couldn't possibly be greater than Abraham or even the prophets they state it with confidence thinking they were smacking down this Jesus person. But in reality God incarnate was standing in front of them, the greatest human who ever lived, the creator of the universe. So in reality they were showing themselves to be fools in a manner greater than any human ever.
Then they made it worse by asking Jesus who do you think you are? I'm sure they said it with all the condescension in their voice they could muster. But if they had been humbly seeking the truth instead of reveling in their own arrogance they would have known who He was by now and not made themselves to be the biggest fools ever.
54 Jesus answered, "If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, 'He is our God'; Jesus repeats himself on not honoring Himself, but His Father does it. And again he identifies God as His Father. But the Jewish leaders take this in the sense that God is the Father of all of Israel because they are all His children.
55 and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word. Jesus repeats that the Jewish leaders don't know God, but He does. And here he explicitly calls them liars. And Jesus states that He knows God and keeps His word, strongly implying that they do not.
56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad." This refers to the prophetic promises God made to Abraham regarding his seed which Paul identifies as the Christ in Galatians 3:16. It was through Abraham's seed that the whole world would be reached, not just his direct descendants. Abraham saw the day when Jesus would become man, walk the earth and save everyone through the Christ event. This most likely refers to a prophetic vision given to Abraham.
57 So the Jews said to Him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?" Again the Jewish leaders mistook what Jesus was saying, focusing only on the superficial details. Whether this was a real lack of understanding, which is likely, or a debate tactic of misusing the words of an opponent is not stated in the text. Regardless, their own arguments continue to make them look foolish in light of the truth. But in their arrogant assumptions they were sure they were being brilliant
58 Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am." Beginning with amen, amen, Jesus counters their foolish argument that He was too young to know anything about Abraham directly telling them that He existed before Abraham. However, Jesus' choice of words was profound. Jesus used ego eimi, Greek for "I am" which is Yahweh, the name of God, and this time He was explicitly claiming to be God. There was no room for an alternate understanding of what Jesus was saying.
59 Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple. Jesus' claim was shocking. From their point of view Jesus had just uttered the worst blasphemy imaginable. They were so outraged they were ready to stone Him to death without the due process of law under Jewish law and also in defiance of Roman law regardless of the consequences. They had gone to great effort many times to try to trump up charges that could lead to His execution without consequences for themselves, (or so they thought not understanding the eternal judgement that awaited them.) Now they were willing to act rashly.
That Jesus hid Himself is literally that He was hidden. It is implied that this was by supernatural intervention. This is likely as in the natural it would have been very unlikely that someone who had been the center of attention for so long and the focus of a murderous mob could escape notice. This makes it clear that when Jesus was finally arrested and brought for trial before the Sanhedrin it was as a willing sacrifice.

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB © The Lockman Foundation.

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