Chapter VIII (1)

Ch. 7:53 to 8:11. THE WOMAN TAKEN IN ADULTERY.--ILLUSTRATES: THE TACT OF CHRIST--THE PRECEPT, JUDGE NOT, THAT YE BE NOT JUDGED--THE POWER OF CONSCIENCE--THE CHRISTIAN TREATMENT OF THE FALLEN.

PRELIMINARY NOTE.--Verse 53 of ch. 7 belongs unquestionably with the first eleven verses of ch. 8. Whether the whole passage is really a part of John’s Gospel or no is one of the most difficult and doubtful questions in Biblical criticism. The weight of critical authority is against it; the weight of internal evidence is in its favor. For a complete discussion of the considerations _pro_ and _con_, the student must be referred to the commentaries of Alford, Meyer, Luthardt, and Godet, the last being, of the three, the most comprehensive in its treatment. Here I give briefly (1) the facts, (2) the different opinions, (3) my own conclusion.

I. _The facts._ (1) The passage in question is wanting in many if not most of the best MSS.; pre-eminently the Alexandrian, the Vatican, the Ephraem, and the Sinaitic. Of the great manuscripts, the Cambridge alone contains it. (2) It is transposed in some documents; one places it in John after 7:36; ten at the end of John; four in the Gospel of Luke, at the close of ch. 21. (3) In those MSS. which contain it there are great variations. Griesbach distinguishes three entirely different texts; the ordinary text, that of the Cambridge MS., and that resulting from a collection of other MSS. Alford gives these three in his Greek Testament. Sixty various readings are found in these twelve verses. “No genuine apostolic text has ever undergone such alterations.”--(_Godet._) (4) The style and character of the narrative is strikingly unlike John. These differences are partly verbal, and are apparent only to the Greek scholar. Ten expressions are given by Meyer as non-Johannean. They are partly structural, and as easily recognized by the English reader as by the Greek scholar. Such are the propounding of a question concerning the law to tempt Christ, and the departure of Christ at night from the temple, both of which agree rather with the Synoptics’ account of the last sojourn in Jerusalem than with John’s account of this period of Christ’s ministry. If the account is omitted altogether, the discourse in ch. 7 and that in ch. 8 appear to be in close connection; the interruption of this incident is not very clearly cognate to either discourse; and it is not John’s habit to narrate incidents that are not connected with and do not lead to some discourse of the Lord. (5) Among the fathers Origen, Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Tertullian are altogether silent about the passage; Jerome, Ambrose, and Augustine recognize it as authentic; among critical scholars Lucke, Tholuck, Olshausen, De Wette, Luthardt, Hengstenberg, Schenkel, Godet, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, and Schaff apparently agree in regarding it as an addition by some other hand to John’s Gospel; Bengel and Hilgenfeld are the only scholars of widely recognized reputation who defend its Johannean authorship. (6) But though the narrative is unlike John, the act is very like Jesus. The whole scene possesses an air of historic reality: the arrest of the woman, the demand on Jesus, the Pharisaic contempt for public morality in obtruding the crime and the criminal on public attention in the temple courts; the attempt to entrap Jesus; the skill of his reply; the subtle recognition of the woman’s shame and despair, and the gentle avoidance of adding to it, in turning the public gaze from her to himself by writing on the ground; the final confusion of the Pharisees and release of the woman. It is impossible to believe that any monkish mind conceived of this and added it to the narrative. The deed is the deed of Christ, whether or no the record is the record of John.

II. _Opinions._ These are three: (1) That the narrative belongs here; was written by John, and was expunged from the Gospel at an early date because it was feared that an immoral use would be made of it. This was Augustine’s opinion. But this hypothesis does not account for the variety of readings, nor for peculiarities in character and diction which make it unlike John’s Gospel. (2) That it is an interpolation of a later age, for a purpose, by some early copyist. But the copyist who could have conceived this incident must have possessed the moral genius of Christ himself. “It is eminently Christlike, and full of comfort to penitent outcasts. It breathes the Saviour’s spirit of holy mercy, which condemns the sin and saves the sinner. It is parallel to the parable of the prodigal, the story of Mary Magdalene, and that of the Samaritan woman, and agrees with many express declarations of Christ that he came not to condemn, but to save the lost (John 3:17; 12:47; Luke 9:56; 19:10; comp. John 5:14; Luke 7:37, etc.). His refusal to act as judge in this case has a parallel in a similar case related in Luke 12:13-15.”--(_Schaff._) (3) That it is a tradition of the apostolic age, and was incorporated in the present evangelical narratives, probably in the second or third century, but in different forms and in different places. It may have been originally part of one of the lost Gospels. Eusebius relates that the work of Papias contained “the history of a woman accused before the Lord of numerous sins, a history contained also in the Gospel of the Hebrews.” This opinion, which is substantially that of Godet, Meyer, Luthardt, and Alford, accounts for the existence of the narrative, the apparent truthfulness of it, the variations of form, and the non-Johannean characteristics of style. It seems to me inherently the most probable. On internal grounds it seems to me clear that the narrative is historical; on critical grounds that it is not John’s; who was its author and how it became incorporated in John’s Gospel is a matter only of conjecture.

1 Jesus went unto the mount of Olives.

2 And early in the morning he came again into the temple,
and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and
taught them.

=Ch. 7:53 to 8:1, 2. Every man went unto his own house; Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives.= The force of the contrast is impaired by the unfortunate and unnatural break between the two clauses of what should be printed as a single sentence. The auditors had homes; Jesus had no where to lay his head; and if, as is probable, this incident belongs to the Passion week, it was not safe for him to spend a night within the city walls. He either spent it on the mount or went beyond it to Bethany, the home of his friends Martha and Mary.--=He sat down and taught them.= One of the indications that this passage is not from John; for “it is not in John’s manner to relate that Jesus taught them, without relating what he taught” (_Alford_).

3 And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman
taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,

4 They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in
adultery, in the very act.

5 Now[305] Moses in the law commanded us that such should
be stoned: but what sayest thou?

[305] Lev. 20:10.

=3-5. Brought unto him a woman.= There was no reason why they should have brought her to him, except for the purpose of involving him in difficulty.--=When they had set her in the midst.= This public exposure to shame was itself a terrible punishment, and aroused the pity, the shame, and the indignation of Jesus. It was not done in the interest of public morals. They were flagrantly disregarded in this obtrusion of a public scandal into the midst of the temple worship, by accusers who cared not for her, nor for the general public, if they could but involve in perplexity and bring into disrepute the Rabbi whom they so bitterly hated.--=In the very act.= The man was equally amenable under the Mosaic law to the death penalty (Lev. 20:10; Deut. 22:22). But the man they had let go; for then, as now, society punished the guilty woman, but not the guilty man.--=That such should be stoned.= Stoning was only commanded by Moses for unfaithfulness in a betrothed virgin (Deut. 22:23, 24). But infidelity in a wife is made by the preceding verse punishable with death, and perhaps, by implication, the same form of death.

“_He that is without sin among you let him first cast a stone at her._”]

6 This they said, tempting him, that they might have to
accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with _his_ finger
wrote on the ground, _as though he heard them not_.

=6. This they said tempting him.= The commentators have been needlessly puzzled to explain how Christ’s answer to this question could have furnished matter for accusation. The Pharisees would have accused him to the people, not to the Roman government. The law of Moses was a dead letter. There is no authentic instance in post-Mosaic history of an execution under it. Divorce was easy, and the injured husband generally avoided public disgrace by simply separating from his unfaithful wife. Could Christ refuse to adjudge the case? He had claimed to be King of Israel, in the Sermon on the Mount, had put his own precepts above those of Moses, and had proclaimed a far more stringent law of purity than Moses ever enacted (Matt. 5:27-32). Could he acquit her, and so set aside the Mosaic law? He had declared that not one jot or tittle of it should pass away till all was fulfilled, and that whoever relaxed the least of its precepts should be least in his kingdom. Could he condemn her? He would thus revive an obsolete statute, and enforce it against a hapless and defenceless woman--he who had come to seek and to save the lost, who had received the publican and harlot among his disciples, and had accepted the homage of a notorious woman of the town (Luke 7:36-39). It often happens that people are unwilling to have a teacher set aside in theory a law which they are equally unwilling to see enforced in practice. Only a small minority is willing in our own day to abolish capital punishment; but only rarely is a jury willing to inflict it. There are comparatively few persons who are willing to live according to the Sabbath law which they wish their minister to preach.--=But Jesus stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground.= The words _as though he heard them not_ are an addition of the translators, though at least one manuscript contains the idea. What was the meaning of this action? Various opinions have been suggested, _e. g._, a usual act signifying preoccupation of mind (_Alford_); to hide his own confusion, the shock to his own moral sensibility by the grossness of the Pharisees’ public abuse of the woman (_Geikie_); as a judge, for a judicial sentence is not only pronounced, but written (_Godet_); as a refusal to interfere, a sign that he paid no attention to their question (_Meyer_, _Luthardt_). His object in this writing seems to me to be interpreted by its result. It turned all eyes from the wretched woman, in an anguish of shame and terror, to himself. She stood alone and forgotten; all eyes were then and have ever since been fixed on the figure of Christ, wondering what and why he wrote in the dust. It is not fanciful to note the contrast between this writing and that prescribed in case of the trial of a suspected adulteress by the Mosaic law (Numb. 5:23). The priest was to write certain curses in a book, then wash them with bitter water, which the accused was required to drink, that the curses might enter into her if she were guilty. Christ, on the contrary, writes his sentence on the sand, where, in a moment, it will be effaced by the pardon, “Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more.” What he wrote has been made a matter of ingenious rather than profitable conjecture. The most probable conjecture is that he wrote the sentence, “He that is without sin amongst you,” etc., thus enabling the Pharisees, if they had not been too passionately intent on their design, to avoid his public rebuke.

7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself,
and said unto them, He that is without sin among you,[306]
let him first cast a stone at her.

[306] Deut. 17:7; Rom. 2:1, 22.

8 And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.

9 And they which heard _it_, being convicted by _their own_
conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest,
_even_ unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the
woman standing in the midst.

=7-9. So when they continued asking.= They would not take the rebuke of his quiet contempt. Had they stopped to think, conscience would have answered their inquiry; but they were too eager; they did not hear what it had to say to them; Christ must interpret its voice; and he did so with a poignant rebuke.--=He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.= Christ puts on them the problem with which they had sought to perplex him. In their vindictive haste they had forgotten the provision of the law that the witnesses on whose testimony the accused was condemned should cast the first stone (Deut. 17:5-7). They had also forgotten the provision of the Rabbinical law that, in case of accusation, if the husband was not guiltless, the wife could not be condemned (_Lightfoot_). Christ recalls these two principles, and leaves them to solve their own problem. Go on, he says in effect, and try and condemn the accused according to your own law. Let the sinless cast the first stone. But a deeper meaning is in his words. Unchastity was a universal sin in the first century. Its extent in Palestine is illustrated by the licentious lives of the Herods, father and sons. Nowhere was this vice more flagrant and unrestrained than among the priests, whose licentiousness was no secret to the common people (see Matt. 12:39; James 4:4). It was this revelation of their own guilt, implied in the words and easily understood by the people, which stung them, and drove them, self-condemned, one by one, from the presence of both the accused and the judge.--=And again he stooped down.= To give conscience in them an opportunity to assert itself, with as little resistance as possible from pride. He gave them no opportunity to answer; he did not look to see who was first to withdraw.--=Beginning with the elders.= The word rendered eldest (πρεσβυτέρων) is almost universally rendered _elders_, generally as an official designation, and frequently in connection with the word _ruler_ (_e. g._, Matt. 15:2; 16:21; Mark 8:31; 15:1; Luke 7:3; 22:52). Here it seems to me more probably to designate rank (_Lucke_, _De Wette_) than age (_Luthardt_, _Godet_). The leaders in the accusation were the first to withdraw. The words “even unto the last” are wanting in most MSS.--=Jesus was left alone.= The circle of accusers had all withdrawn. The people and the disciples may have still remained; hence the woman is described as “standing in the midst;” that is, of the auditors who, before this interruption, had been listening to the teaching of Jesus (ver. 2). The woman remains waiting, as if to receive the sentence of Jesus. The people remain waiting to hear the end of this strange episode.

10 When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the
woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine
accusers? hath no man condemned thee?

11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither
do I condemn[307] thee: go, and sin[308] no more.

[307] ch. 3:17.

[308] ch. 5:14.

=10, 11. Hath no man condemned thee?= They had then _all_withdrawn?-- =Neither do I condemn thee.= He contrasts himself with the accusers; they could not, he will not. He does not, however, pronounce her forgiven. There is no evidence of repentance or of faith, as, for example, in the case of the woman that was a sinner in Luke 7:37. His language condemns the sin, and it gives opportunity for repentance to the sinner. “It is a declaration of sufferance, not of justification.”--(_Godet._)--=Go, and sin no more.= Comp. ch. 5:14. The object of divine forgiveness is a divine life in the forgiven.

* * * * *

Ch. 8:12-20. CHRIST’S DISCOURSE CONCERNING HIMSELF.--HE IS LIGHT, LIBERTY, LIFE.--HE GIVES LIGHT TO THOSE THAT FOLLOW HIS EXAMPLE, LIBERTY TO THOSE THAT OBEY HIS WORD, LIFE TO THOSE THAT PUT THEIR FAITH IN HIM.--HE IS ATTESTED BY HIS OWN CHARACTER AND BY HIS FATHER’S WITNESS.--HE IS MADE KNOWN IN AND BY HIS PASSION AND DEATH.--HIS FATHER IS THE SOURCE OF HIS TEACHING, HIS WORKS, AND HIS CHARACTER.--HIS CHARACTERIZATION OF WILFUL OPPUGNERS OF THE TRUTH: CHILDREN OF THE WORLD; CHILDREN OF THE DEVIL.--CHRIST’S SHORT METHOD WITH DEISTS (ver. 46). See note at end of chapter.

The exact chronology of the events from this point to the close of the tenth chapter is very uncertain and quite unimportant. One characteristic feature of the feast of the Tabernacles was the illumination of the temple; the two great candelabra of the Court of the Women were lighted, and it is said in the Rabbinical hooks that the light shone all over Jerusalem. Since Christ was accustomed to take his text from passing events, it is a not improbable surmise that this illumination afforded the suggestion for the discourse on the divine light which follows. The illumination of the temple commemorated the pillar of fire, as the ceremony of drawing water (see ch. 7:37, etc., notes) commemorated the striking of the rock in Horeb and the gift of water from it, and the dwelling in booths recalled the time when Israel dwelt in tents and booths in the wilderness. We may therefore see in Christ an antitype of the fiery cloud that guided Israel in their pilgrimage, and in the Shechinah filling the Tabernacle (Exod. 40:34, 35), an illustration of the light which Christ imparts to those that follow him.

12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I[309] am the
light of the world: he that[310] followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

[309] chaps. 1:4; 9:5.

[310] ch. 12:35, 46.

=12. I am the light of the world.= The illumination of the temple lighted Jerusalem; that of the fiery cloud, Israel. Christ is the light, not merely of his disciples, or of the Jewish nation, but of the _world_, a word which here, as always in the N. T., stands for the whole human race. Comp. ch. 1:4, 9, notes. He is the _light_ as well as the life, coming to instruct as well as to revive; a Saviour from ignorance as well as from wilful sin. Therefore no ignorance or doubt need keep the soul that desires light away from Christ. He need not wait for instruction, any more than for reformation, before he comes to Christ.--=He that follows me need not walk in darkness.= The best reading is subjunctive, not indicative. _Following Christ_, not believing something about him, is the way out of darkness into light. Comp. ch. 7:17, and note the fact that in no single instance did Christ call on any one of his disciples to form correct opinions about him before becoming his follower. They followed first and learned afterward. Even he who doubts whether Christ is not a myth can still follow the ideal life.--=But shall have the light of life.= That is, the light which guides and nourishes the true, the spiritual life. Comp. ch. 6:48, “bread of life.” See Ps. 119:105, where the Bible is compared to a lantern carried to light the path on a dark night. He is a light not for the illumination of doubtful questions in science or metaphysics or abstract theology, but for the solution of practical problems in the moral and spiritual life.

13 The Pharisees therefore said unto him, Thou[311] bearest
record of thyself; thy record is not true.

[311] ch. 5:31.

14 Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I bear record
of myself, _yet_ my record is true: for I know whence I
came, and whither I go; but[312] ye cannot tell whence I
come, and whither I go.

[312] chaps. 7:28; 9:29, 30.

=13, 14. Thou bearest record of thyself; thy record is not true.= See ch. 5:31, note; perhaps the Pharisees here refer to Christ’s declaration there.--=Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true; for I know whence I have come= (my origin) =and whither I go= (my destiny). In general no man can bear testimony of himself, however truthful he may be, for no man understands his own mission. He may faithfully do from day to day the work which God gives him to do, and yet not comprehend the relation which that work bears to the great problems of life and destiny which the Eternal Spirit is working out in the race. But Christ could bear record of himself, for he knew himself; he knew the Father; he knew his own origin and his own destiny; and he knew the relation which his life and death sustained to the world’s life.--=Ye know not= (not merely cannot tell) =whence I am coming and whither I am going=. Christ knew whence he _had come_ (ἠλθον, past tense), _i. e._, from the glory he had with the Father from the beginning of the world (chaps. 1:1; 17:5); the Pharisees did not know whence he was ever _coming_ (ἔρχομαι, present tense), _i. e._, they had no spiritual sense to perceive and appreciate that divine grace of which he was ever the recipient, and that constant communion with the Father from which he was ever bringing divine light and life wherewith to bless his followers.

15 Ye judge after the flesh; I[313] judge no man.

[313] chaps. 3:17; 12:47.

16 And yet if I judge, my[314] judgment is true: for[315] I
am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me.

[314] 1 Sam. 16:7; Ps. 45:6, 7; 72:2.

[315] verse 29; ch. 16:32.

=15, 16. Ye judge according to the flesh.= They therefore rejected Jesus Christ as the Messiah, because he did not come with the earthly pomp, or bring the earthly deliverance, which they had expected.--=I judge no one.= Yet his fan is in his hand; and even while he lived he was sifting the wheat from the tares. He judges not; the world is self-judged and self-condemned. Every soul that rejects the light doth thereby write its own condemnation. “Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19).--=Yet if I judge, my judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me.= Comp. ch. 5:30. The Spirit of the Father, given without measure to Christ, makes his spiritual judgments absolutely without error. In the measure in which this spirit is received and followed by the disciple, it similarly makes the disciple’s judgments true. See Matt. 16:19, note; John 20:22, 23.

17 It is also written[316] in your law, that the testimony
of two men is true.

[316] Deut. 17:6; 19:15.

18 I am one that bear witness of myself, and the
Father[317] that sent me beareth witness of me.

[317] ch. 5:37.

19 Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus
answered, Ye[318] neither know me, nor my Father: if[319]
ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also.

[318] verse 55; chaps. 16:3; 17:25.

[319] ch. 14:7, 9.

20 These words spake Jesus in the treasury,[320] as he
taught in the temple: and no man laid hands on him;
for[321], his hour was not yet come.

[320] Mark 12:41.

[321] ch. 7:30.

=17-20. Also in your own law.= Not in _our_ law; Christ never classes himself with the Jews, nor counts himself as under their law. He obeys it, not because it is binding, but by a voluntary subjection, for example’s sake (Matt. 3:15; 17:27). The reference here is to Deut. 17:6; 19:15.--=I am one that bear witness concerning myself.= Not merely nor mainly by words; for Christ said comparatively little in public concerning his character; but by his life and works. See John 14:11.--=And the Father that sent me beareth witness of me.= By direct declarations to his divine character and mission (Matt. 3:17; John 12:28); by the testimony of prophets and apostles, especially of John the Baptist (Luke 2:28-32, 38; John 1:32-34, 36); by the voice of angels (Luke 2:9-14); by the miracles wrought (John 11:42); but still more by that manifestation of the divine presence which made itself felt in many ways in Christ’s person, as in his attraction of publicans and sinners to himself, his expulsion of the traders from the temple, his passing through the mob at Nazareth, etc. Godet tells a story in illustration of the power of this witness of the Spirit. About 1660, Hedinger, chaplain to the Duke of Wurtemberg, took the liberty of censuring his sovereign, at first in private, but afterward in public, for a serious fault. The latter, much enraged, sent for him, resolved to punish him. Hedinger, after seeking strength by prayer, repaired to the prince, the expression of his countenance betokening the peace and the presence of God. The prince, after looking at him for a moment, asked, in agitation, “Why did you not come alone?” and dismissed him unharmed. The vital communion of this servant of God with his God was a sensible fact, even to one whom anger had exasperated. Comp. Acts 4:13; 6:15.--=Who is your Father?= Asked, not in perplexity, for Christ’s reference to God as his Father had been so frequent at Jerusalem that they could not have misunderstood his meaning, but in scorn. Christ’s reply is adapted to the spirit of their inquiry.--=Ye neither know me nor my Father.= They gloried in being the peculiar people of God; but they as little apprehended him as they did Christ his Son.--=If ye had known me ye would have known my Father also.= For the Son is the way to the Father. The converse of this proposition is also true, He that knows the Father will know the Son. Both are known by the spiritual sense; and the same faculty which appreciates the divine qualities resplendent in the Son will answer to and be ready to receive and be impressed by the divine qualities in the invisible Spirit, the Father whom no one hath seen or can see.--=In the treasury.= See Luke 21:1, note. The thirteen trunks or chests placed for the reception of the gifts of the worshippers, and properly called the treasury, were in the Court of the Women. Each bore an inscription, indicating the use to which the money placed therein was devoted. Probably either that part of the Women’s Court where these chests stood, or, more probably, an adjoining apartment used in connection with them, perhaps where the money was kept, was also designated the treasury, and it is this apartment that is indicated by the word here.--=For his hour was not yet come.= See ch. 7:30, note.

21 Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and
ye[322] shall seek me, and[323] shall die in your sins:
whither I go, ye[324] cannot come.

[322] ch. 7:34.

[323] Job 20:11; Ps. 73:18-20; Prov. 14:32; Isa.
65:20; Ephes. 2:1.

[324] Luke 16:28.

=21. I go away.= Not _my way_, a translation for which there is no authority whatever in the original.--=And ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins.= _In your sins_ means not, _by reason of your sins_, but, _while continuing in a state of sin_. This verse is not to be taken as an evidence that a sincere and contrite seeking of Christ as a pardoning and redeeming Saviour will ever be in vain. It is interpreted by many a so-called death-bed repentance, in which deliverance from a future penalty is sought, without any real contrition of heart for past sins. But, coupled with the next clause, it seems to me strongly opposed to the doctrine of a universal restitution.--=Whither I go ye cannot come.= Compare ch. 7:34, “Ye shall seek me and shall not find me; and where I am, thither ye cannot come,” and contrast ch. 14:3, “I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.” See also ch. 17:24.

22 Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? because he
saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come.

23 And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from
above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world.

24 I said[325] therefore unto you, that ye shall die in
your sins: for[326] if ye believe not that I am _he_, ye
shall die in your sins.

[325] verse 21.

[326] Mark 16:16.

=22-24. Will he kill himself?= This they said to each other, partly in perplexity, partly in scorn. Contrast their different interpretation but similar spirit in ch. 7:35. Christ, in his reply, repels the idea that he had referred to his death; they cannot come where he is going, because he is going to that heaven from which he first came, and they are of the earth earthy. Comp. 1 Cor. 15:50, “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.”--=Ye are from beneath, I am from above.= This statement is interpreted by the clause which follows.--=Ye are of= (_from_, ἐκ) =this world, I am not of= (_from_, ἐκ) =this world=. Man is born of the flesh, and therefore is flesh, needing to be born anew and from above in order to enter into the kingdom of heaven (ch. 3:5, 6). Christ was born, even in his earthly nature, of the Spirit (Luke 1:35), was from his birth the Son of God, and therefore did not need to experience the new birth. Though John does not describe his supernatural birth, he recognizes it. Christ’s language here would be incomprehensible but for the interpretation afforded by the narratives of his advent in Matthew and Luke. The declaration “Ye are from beneath” here is not equivalent to the declaration of ver. 44, “Ye are of your father the devil.” Here he speaks only of the earthly nature inherited; there of the wilful sin superadded.--=If ye believe not that I am, ye shall die in your sins.= In the phrase “I am” there is a reference to Exod. 3:14, and the language implies the divinity of Christ, and would be so understood by his Jewish auditors, and was so understood by them. See ver. 38 and note. But it is not equivalent to a general statement that belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ is essential to salvation. It was addressed to men who had abundant reason to believe that Christ was the divine Messiah of prophecy, and who were wilfully ignorant of the truth. We must not give the words any wider application than our Lord gave to them himself. To reject Christ is fatal; to be ignorant of him is not.

25 Then said they unto him, Who art thou? And Jesus saith
unto them, Even _the same_ that I said unto you from the
beginning.

=25. Who art thou?= A question asked possibly partly in perplexity and partly in scorn, but more for the purpose of evoking an answer which would give them a point for an attack upon Christ.--=Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning.= The grammatical difficulties in the correct rendition of this passage are almost insuperable, and no two scholars give exactly the same shade of meaning to it, while none of the interpretations afforded are altogether satisfactory, even to the interpreter. The principal interpretations are: (1) _What I from the beginning am teaching you? do you ask that?_ An interrogative expression of surprise. According to this view Christ does not answer the question at all. (2) _Why indeed do I still speak to you at all?_ A language of reproach. (3) _Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning_, the rendering of our English version. (4) _Essentially that which also I discourse to you_; _i. e._, You are to ascertain my nature by a study of my discourses. Neither one of these interpretations, it will be seen, affords a direct answer to the question.

26 I have many things to say and to judge of you: but[327]
he that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those
things which I have heard of him.

[327] ch. 7:28.

27 They understood not that he spake to them of the Father.

=26, 27. Many things I have which I might say, and many sentences which I might pronounce concerning you.= The meaning and the connection is obscure, and the translation which I have given is not so literal as that of the English version. But Christ elsewhere declares that he has not come to judge the world (ver. 15; chaps. 3:17; 12:47), and to understand him here to assert the contrary makes his utterances contradictory. Moreover, if we interpret his declaration as the English version does, it is difficult to see any connection with the preceding or the subsequent clause. I understand therefore that he means that he _has_ many things to say, and many judgments formed in his own mind, which he might pronounce, but that he will only speak those things which he has been commissioned by the Father to speak; and his commission at this time is not to judge, but to save the world.--=They understood not that he spake to them of the Father.= Strange! Less strange, perhaps, than it now seems to us, for we read this discourse in the light of eighteen centuries of Christianity. So far, too, Christ had not designated by any title the One who had sent him. He had veiled his meaning, as he did in the parables, that he might not be fully understood at once; for he could hope to get lodgment for the truth only by gradually unfolding it. “There is no accounting for the _ignorance of unbelief_ as any minister of Christ knows by painful experience.”--(_Alford._)

28 Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up[328]
the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am _he_, and
_that_ I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught
me, I speak these things.

[328] chaps. 3:14; 12:32.

29 And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left
me alone; for I do always those things that please him.

30 As he spake these words, many[329] believed on him.

[329] ch. 10:42.

=28-30. When ye have lifted up the Son of man.= The phrase Son of man was used by the rabbis, who borrowed it from David, for the Messiah (see Matt. 10:23, note). The Greek verb here rendered _lifted up_ (ὑψόω) is used by John only with reference to the crucifixion (chaps. 3:14; 8:28; 12:32, 34), but everywhere else in the N. T. is used in the sense of _exalted_, and is so translated except in James 4:10. See Matt. 11:23; Luke 1:52; Acts 2:33; 5:31, etc. This fact is of itself an indication that John’s Gospel was written after the cross had been seen to be the means by which Christ was himself exalted, his glory, not his shame. It is the cross which has led to his recognition among men as the Son of God (Mark 15:39; 1 Cor. 1:23, 24); to his exaltation by the Father (Phil. 2:8-10); to his adoration in heaven (Rev. 5:12).--=Ye shall know that I am.= See on ver. 24. The passion and death of Christ is the attestation of his divinity (Mark 15:39).--=I do nothing of myself; but as the Father hath taught me I speak these things.= In Christ’s time the things _done_, _i. e._, the miracles, were recognized as signs of divine presence and power; more and more the _words spoken_ are recognized as still greater signs of the divine presence and power. The word is more than the external work, the truth is greater than the miracle.--=He that sent me is with me.= The Son is a manifestation of the Father, because the Father is ever in and working and speaking through the Son. He is not merely an ambassador sent by, he is a tabernacle in which dwells, the Eternal King. So Christ, who sends forth his disciples (ch. 17:18), is ever with them (ch. 14:17, 23; Matt. 28:20).--=The Father hath not left me alone; for I do those things that please him always.= _Always_ is emphatic. In this uniformity of obedience to the Father’s will is the secret of the abiding of his presence; it is true for us, as for Christ, that doing the Father’s pleasure secures the divine fellowship (chaps. 14:21; 15:10).--=Many believed on him.= Comp. ch. 12:42. Faith, like knowledge, is of different degrees, and the quality of this faith is not indicated. It may have been like the seed received on stony places (Matt. 13:20, 21). But beware of understanding here, or anywhere, by this phrase a mere intellectual belief in Christ as either Rabbi, Prophet, or Messiah. To _believe on_ always signifies an emotion or heart action. “Our Lord’s words did not appeal to the understanding; they were not argumentative; we cannot account for their influence by any processes of logic. So far as we can judge from a very simple statement, they went straight to the heart; the faith which they called forth was a faith of the heart.”--(_Maurice._)

31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If
ye continue[330] in my word, _then_ are ye my disciples
indeed;

[330] Rom. 2:7; Col. 1:23; Heb. 10:38, 39.

32 And ye shall know[331] the truth, and the truth shall
make you free.[332]

[331] Hos. 6:3.

[332] ch. 17:17; Ps. 119:45; Rom. 6:14, 18, 22; James
1:25; 2:12.

33 They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never
in[333] bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be
made free?

[333] Lev. 25:42.

=31-33. If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.= A promise and a condition. The thing promised is discipleship. “They should be--what? Saints? divines? doctors? No; but what is much better than any of the three--what all the three should wish to be raised into--_disciples_. They will then be learners, learners sitting continually at the feet of the true Teacher.”--(_Maurice._) The theology of Christ is a progressive theology; the promise to his followers is not that they shall be learned, acquiring the truth once for all, but learners, ever acquiring it more and more. This promise is conditioned on--what? Receiving his word? defending his word? No; but abiding in his word, _i. e._, living, moving, and having their being in it. The word of Christ cannot be accepted once for all; the soul, to be nourished on it, must abide in it, as the body abides in and is nourished by the atmosphere (comp. chaps. 5:38; 6:56; 15:4-10; 1 John 2:6, 10, 14, etc.; 3:6). To be Christ’s disciples indeed, we must _continue_ (Matt. 13:20, 21; John 6:66; Col. 1:23; Heb. 10:38; Rev. 2:7-11, 17) _in_ (John 15:1-7; Rom. 8:9; Gal. 2:20; Col. 1:27) _the word of Christ_ (Matt. 11:29, 30; 1 Cor. 3:11; Gal. 1:8).--=And ye shall know the truth.= Living according to the word of Christ is the condition precedent to a true apprehension of the truth. Christ teaches that life precedes creed; the church has too often reversed this, making the creed precede life. But a creed that does not grow out of spiritual experience is dead. There is no virtue in the doctrine of native depravity except as an outgrowth of personal humility; nor in belief in a personal God, except as it is rooted in a living experience of faith in him.--=And the truth shall make you free.= This, too, the church has often reversed, bringing men into bondage unto a creed, instead of using the creed as an instrument to enlarge their intellectual independence.--=We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any one.= This is the language of pride, and it is not more true than the language of pride is ordinarily. Politically the nation had been in bondage to Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome. Spiritually it had been in bondage to idolatries in past times, _e. g._, the reign of Manasseh, and was now in bondage to the rabbis, literalists in interpretation, and without spirituality or sympathy (Matt. 23:4). Christ, however, rarely enters into argument; he makes no attempt to refute their statement, pays no heed to their interruption, but goes on with his discourse.

34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Whosoever[334] committeth sin is the servant of sin.

[334] Rom. 6:16, 20; 2 Pet. 2:19.

35 And the servant[335] abideth not in the house for ever:
_but_ the Son abideth ever.

[335] Gal. 4:30.

36 If[336] the Son therefore shall make you free, ye[337]
shall be free indeed.

[336] Isa. 61:1.

[337] Rom. 8:2; Gal. 5:1.

=34-36. Whosoever committeth sin= (lives in the commission of sin) =is the slave= (not servant) =of sin=. He is in bondage to sin. For action forms habit, and habit becomes second nature. Thus every sinful act tends to bring the soul into bondage to the law of evil habit. Striking illustrations of this law of human nature are afforded by self-indulgence in appetite; but the same principle is involved in all evil-doing--it tends to fasten evil habits on the soul. See Rom. 6:16-18; 7:9-24. And this law belongs to human nature; it is equally operative in Jew and Gentile, in church-member and in man of the world. Every sin helps to weld a chain.--=The slave abideth not in the house forever, but the Son abideth ever.= The language is parabolic; the meaning seems to me to be this: The world is in bondage; it _seems_ to be under Satan; his promise to Christ, “All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me,” appears not like a vain promise. But this bondage is short-lived. The kingdoms of the world are _in truth_ the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ. He shall reign forever and forever (Rev. 11:15). He, therefore, who yields to the yoke of bondage by conforming to the world gets only a brief advantage, for the period of bondage to sin and Satan will soon be over. He that accepts Christ as his Lord, and acknowledges allegiance to him, will have an eternal freedom in the house which God has built, and over which Christ is to have eternal rule (Heb. 3:2-6). The world is God’s house, not Satan’s.--=If the Son therefore shall make you free.= From past penalty, by himself bearing it for us; from the bondage of sin, by giving us power to become the sons of God; from the law, by imparting to us a new spiritual life. See Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, especially chaps. 4 and 5, which may be regarded as his sermon on this text.--=Ye shall be free indeed.= Made free by the _truth_ (ver. 32) as it is in Christ Jesus. For freedom is not independence of all law--that never is and never can be; God himself is not thus free; it is the comprehension and the right use of law. We are free when we perfectly comprehend the laws of nature, _i. e._, of God, perfectly and cheerfully comply with them, and so know how to get the advantage and profit of them. All progress in material civilization has been attained by increasing knowledge of the divine laws, and consequently an increased use of them. We have yet to learn the gain that there is in a similar comprehension of and obedience to the intellectual and the spiritual laws of the universe. Thus it is that the _truth_ makes _free_ (ver. 32).

37 I know that ye are Abraham’s seed: but ye seek to kill
me, because my word hath no place in you.

38 I[338] speak that which I have seen with my Father: and
ye do that which ye have seen with your father.

[338] ch. 14:10, 24.

=37, 38. I know that ye are Abraham’s seed.= Not equivalent to _I know that ye regard yourselves as Abraham’s seed_. The reference is to the covenant with Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3; 17:4-8), which involved a promise of divine protection and blessing to the nation. The Pharisees adhere to the idea of political freedom. Christ assents to their declaration that they are the seed referred to in that covenant, but returns to the spiritual idea which underlies his discourse, and emphasizes the extent to which, in character, they have wandered from the pattern set by Abraham.--=Nevertheless= (ἀλλὰ, notwithstanding you are Abraham’s seed) =ye seek to kill me= (chaps. 7:1, 19, 32; 8:59; 10:31, 39). To whom were these words spoken?--to the believing Judeans mentioned in ver. 30, or to enemies? The true answer is that believers and unbelievers were intermixed in the crowd, and that it is as little possible for the reader now as it would have been for the observer then to distinguish between them.--=Because my word makes no progress in you.= They heard it--nay, crowded round him to hear it, were willing and interested listeners. But the truth did not get entrance into their hearts, nor permeate their character. It was not like the leaven hid in three measures of meal. They were thus a type of many modern hearers who listen to the truth, but in whom the truth does not work. The words rendered _hath no place_ (οὐ χωρεῖ) signify, literally, does not _work, spread, go forward_.--=I do that which I have seen with my Father, and ye do that which ye have heard with your father= (ἠκούσατε, _heard_, not ἑωράκατε, _seen_, is the better reading). Christ approaches a truth whose depths, in our ignorance of the spirit world, we cannot sound. This is that every soul draws its inspiration from an invisible world--either belongs to the kingdom of light and is taught of God, or belongs to the kingdom of darkness and is taught of evil spirits. The unseen companions of the soul are the most influential. Demoniacal possession is only an exceptional fruitage of a universal demoniacal inspiration. See below, on ver. 44.

39 They answered and said unto him, Abraham[339] is our
father. Jesus saith unto them, If[340] ye were Abraham’s
children, ye would do the works of Abraham.

[339] Matt. 3:9.

[340] Rom. 2:28, 29; 9:7; Gal. 3:7, 29.

40 But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the
truth, which I have heard of God: this[341] did not Abraham.

[341] Rom. 4:12.

=39, 40. Abraham is our father.= They recognize, as we all recognize, that there is a source from which are drawn the ideas and the influences which mould our character. This fountain is, according to their conception, Abrahamic. It is true that character is moulded by national influences; but these are not the profoundest nor the most potent.--=If ye were Abraham’s children ye would do the works of Abraham.= Seed they are, children they are not. Descendants? yes! disciples? no! They do not do that which they have heard from Abraham. We are the children of a noble ancestry, the Reformers, the Puritans, and the like, only as we show their spirit in dealing with the men and the problems of our own time.--=This did not Abraham.= Called of God to leave his country, and his kindred, and his father’s house, he did not resist, but left all to go out, not knowing whither he went. Abraham obeyed the divine message; the seed of Abraham would kill the divine messenger.

41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him,
We be not born of fornication; we[342] have one Father,
_even_ God.

[342] Isa. 63:16; 64:8.

42 Jesus said unto them, If[343] God were your Father, ye
would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God;
neither came I of myself, but[344] he sent me.

[343] Mal. 1:6; 1 John 5:1.

[344] ch. 17:8, 25.

=41, 42. Ye do the deeds of your father.= A generic truth; the spiritual paternity of any soul may be known by its deeds; the source of its life is witnessed by the life itself.--=We be not born of fornication.= It is a Jewish legend to this day that Jesus was born of adultery. This is the Jewish explanation of his premarital birth. I believe that this legend had been invented in Christ’s own time to account for his supernatural birth, and that the expression here is a scornful allusion to this dishonoring report. This, at least, though I do not find it suggested by any of the commentaries, seems to me the most natural explanation of the language of the Pharisees, which has given the scholars no little difficulty. Other explanations suggested--_e. g._, that Sarah was not an adulteress, and therefore the Jews were certainly children of Abraham (_Meyer_), or that, unlike the Samaritans, there was no taint of heathen blood in their veins (_Alford_, _Godet_)--seem to me unnatural and far-fetched, and are apparently not very satisfactory even to those who suggest them.--=We have one Father, even God.= They abandon their claim to have derived their life from Abraham, and substitute a claim to derive it from the God of Abraham. Or we may suppose that, the first interlocutors being silenced, others make this assertion.--=If God were your Father ye would love me.= The practical and present application is that every soul whose life is truly rooted in God will be drawn toward Christ by spiritual sympathy.--=For I came forth and am here from God.= The first verb (ἐξῆλθον) indicates Christ’s _coming forth_ from the glory which Christ had with the Father from the beginning of the world (John 17:5); the second verb (ἥκω, present formed from a perfect) indicates the _perpetual presence_ of the Father with Christ, and Christ’s continuous manifestation of the Father to the world.--=Neither came I of myself.= Therefore that phase of theology which represents the Son as interceding to make a just God merciful, and thus induce him to forgive the sinful, is thoroughly false. The mercy of Christ originated with the Father; the mission of Christ was wrought out by the Father. Christ came not of his own will, but of the Father’s. See chaps. 3:16, note; 6:38, note.

43 Why do ye not understand my speech? _even_ because ye
cannot hear my[345] word.

[345] Isa. 6:9.

44 Ye[346] are of _your_ father the devil, and the lusts
of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the
beginning, and abode[347] not in the truth, because there
is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of
his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

[346] Matt. 13:38; 1 John 3:8.

[347] Jude 6.