John 8

Verse 1, and so forth [1] The last verse of the foregoing chapter, and the eleven verses that follow in this, are not found in the greater part of our present Greek copies, yet they are in some MSS. and so are retained in the Prot. translation. We read nothing of them in the commentaries of Saint John Chrysostom or S. Cyril; but S. Jerom (l. ii. con. Pelag. tom. 4, part 2, p. 521. Ed. Ben.) says, they were found in many both Lat. and Greek copies. Saint Ambrose (Ep. 52.) says this passage, of the woman taken in adultery, was always famous in the Church. Saint Augustine expounds them, tract. in Joan, and so forth Witham.

Verse 6. Wrote with his finger, as one that was musing about something else. Worthington.

Verse 7. We cannot with any propriety reprehend or condemn faults in others, if we ourselves be guilty of the same, or other great faults, S. Cyril, in Joan.—See annotations on Matthew 7, verse 1.

Verse 9. Went out one by one, [2] confounded, and as it is in the ordinary Greek copies, convicted by their own conscience. Witham.

Verse 11. Hence we may see how impious is the doctrine of those who say that God is the author of sin. Christ did not say to the woman: I do not condemn thy sin; or, go and live now as thou pleasest, I will free thee from all punishment due to any sin thou shalt commit: but he only said, Go, and from henceforth sin no more: thus preserving his amiable virtue of clemency, and still not encouraging vice. Saint Augustine

NU includes John 7:53–John 8:11, but puts brackets around it to indicate that the textual critics had less confidence that this was original.

Verse 14. Although I give testimony (or witness) of myself, my testimony is true. He gives them the reason, verse 16; because he is not alone, but the Father (who also beareth witness) is also with him. Witham.

Verse 15. You judge, and also bear testimony concerning other men, according to the flesh, and according to outward shew and appearances only. I judge no one in this manner. And whatever judgment I pass, or if I give testimony, my testimony is true, as coming also from the Father, with whom I am one in nature, though a distinct person: and two, according to the law, are enough to give evidence. Witham.—You judge according to the flesh, and so forth Because you do not understand the ways of God, and think you only see in me the person of man; therefore I seem to you to be arrogant, bearing witness of myself. Man indeed, who wishes alone to bear testimony of himself, is arrogant, and not to be believed, because all men are frail and liable to be deceived; but light and truth itself can neither deceive nor be deceived. Saint Augustine

Verse 16. I am not alone. Christ does not here say that he is the Father and he is the Son, he only says that he is not alone, but that the Father is with him, plainly distinguishing the two Persons. The Father is truly the Father, and the Son truly the Son, not one elder or greater than the other, but both entirely equal in all perfections. One in substance, co-eternal, and of one perfect equality. Saint Augustine

Verse 19. Where is thy Father? They knew well enough by other discourses, that he had called and declared God to be his Father; but they had a mind to make him own it again, that they might accuse him as guilty of blasphemy.—Neither me do you know, nor my Father: you will not own me to have been always his Son, nor him to have been always my Father, but did you know me to be his Son, always proceeding from him, you would know my Father also, and know him as my Father from all eternity. Witham.—As in common conversation we often say, “when you have seen one, you have seen the other;” when two persons or things seem perfectly alike as to outward appearances, so here Christ says, If you did know me, you would know my Father also: not that the Father is the Son, or the Son the Father, but because the Father is like the Son. Saint Augustine—Here might the Arians, and all who maintain that Christ is a mere creature, blush; for if he were a creature, how can any one who knows him likewise know God? Therefore is Christ consubstantial with the Father, for he who knows the Son, knows the Father also. Theophyl.

Verse 21. I go my way, and you shall seek me, and so forth See the foregoing chapter, verse 34. Witham.

Verse 23. I am not of this world: he speaks of his divine person, as the words evidently shew. Witham.

or, I AM

Verse 25. Who art thou? Jesus said to them: The beginning, [3] who also speak to you. This text and the construction of it is obscure, both in the Latin and in the Greek. Saint Augustine and some of the Latin Fathers, expound it in this manner: I am the beginning of all things, who now being made man, speak to you. But this does not seem the construction, if we consult the Greek text; (where the beginning is not in the nominative, but in the accusative case) and therefore Saint Augustine having considered more attentively the Greek, thinks that something must be understood, as believe me to be the beginning: he looks upon this to be the sense and the construction, as being connected with what was said two verses before; to wit, if you believe not that I am he, the true Messias, you shall die in your sins. “That they might,” says Saint Augustine (tract. 38, num. 11, p. 560) “know what they were to believe,” he made them this answer, as if he had said: believe me to be the beginning, the cause, the author of all things, who am now become man, and speak to you. Other later interpreters are of opinion that the beginning is here a Grecism, and signifies that same as at first, or from the beginning. The sense therefore and construction may be, I am, what I said and told you at first, and from the beginning; that is, I am your Messias, the true Son of God, sent into the world, and so forth Witham.—The Pharisees, indignant at the liberty with which Jesus spoke to them, demand of him in a rage, Who art thou, to speak to us in this imperious manner, to say that we shall die in our sins? Jesus answered them, that he was the Beginning, Author, Creator, and Ruler of all things. This is the more orthodox and more becoming interpretation. Or, I am, in the first place, what I have already told you; that is (verse 12.) I am the light of the world; he that followeth me, walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Or, it may mean, I am what I have always from the beginning told you. I am the Son of God, the Messias, and so forth Calmet.

Verse 26. And the things I have heard from him, and so forth For Christ, to hear from his Father, to see, and so forth is the same as to proceed from him, to be of the same nature and substance. See chapter 5, verse 19. Witham.

Verse 27. Now they, and so forth Some of the more ignorant among the Jews understood not Christ when he clearly enough signified that he was equal to God, and of one and the same nature; but at other times they that heard him, perceived it very well; and so, in this place, they were for stoning him to death. Witham.

Verse 28. When you shall have lifted up, and so forth That is, have put me to the death of the cross; (see John 3:14 and 12:32) you, that is, many of you, shall know, and believe in me, as your Messias. Witham.

Verse 31. If you persevere in the true faith, and in the observance of my words, you shall be my disciples indeed. It is not sufficient to believe; you must likewise do what my words command you to do: nor will it be sufficient to have the true faith for a time; you must persevere in that faith to the end. Saint Augustine Ven. Bede. Saint John Chrysostom Theophy. Euthym. and so forth—Faith alone without perseverance, or abiding in God’s commandments, will not suffice. B.

Verse 32. And the truth shall make you free. They were affronted at these words, as if he hinted they were slaves, and not a free people. They tell him, therefore, that they were never slaves to any one. They can only pretend this of themselves: for, their forefathers were slaves to the Egyptians, to the Babylonians, and so forth and besides they were now the subjects, if not slaves, to the Romans. But Christ speaks of the worst of slaveries, and tells them the such as live in sin, are slaves to sin. Witham.

Verse 35. Now the servant abideth not in the house for ever, nor has a right to live in that manner as a son and a child of the family has to live in his father’s house. A slave or servant, though he live ever so long in his master’s house, his condition is quite different from that of a son of the family: and thus Christ puts them in mind that though they be of the race of Abraham, and in that sense can pretend to be his children, yet having made themselves slaves to sin, and remaining in that sin, by which they refuse to believe in him, their Messias, they are not the spiritual children of Abraham, nor can they inherit the promises made to Abraham, till, by the grace of Christ, they believe in him, and become his adoptive children. Witham.

Verse 36. Man never was without free-will; but, having the grace of Christ, his will is truly made free from the servitude of sin. Saint Augustine, tract. 41. in Joan.

Verse 37. You. That is, many of you, seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you; that is, is not rightly understood, nor received by you: you reject my doctrine, and are displeased with it. Witham.

Verse 38. The things that you have seen with your father. That is, you follow the suggestions of the devil, whom, (verse 44) in plain terms, he calls their father. Witham.

Verse 39. Not only faith but good works make men children of Abraham. See James, chapter 2.

Verse 41. We are not born of fornication; we have one Father, God. These Jews perceived that Christ had hinted that they were not the true and faithful sons of Abraham; and therefore they replied in this manner. But Christ answered, if God was your Father, if you were his dutiful children, you would also believe in me, and love me; for I have proceeded from him, and am come from him, his true Son: and now sent into the world by him. But you cannot hear my word, because you will not, by your own wilful obstinate blindness. Witham.

Verse 44. You are of your father, the devil, and have made yourselves his slaves.—He was a murderer from the beginning of the world, having brought both a corporal and a spiritual death by sin, upon all mankind.—He abode not in the truth, in the ways of truth and obedience to God.—He is a liar, and the father thereof: that is, the father of lies. I speak truth, being truth itself. Witham.—Saint Augustine compares heretics, who drive Christians out of the Church, to the devil, who was the cause of our first parents’ banishment from paradise. Cont. lit. Petil. l. ii. chapter 13.

Verse 51. He shall not see death, he shall not die, for ever. That is, he shall not incur an eternal death, as they who die in sin: but they understood his words of the death of the body. Witham.—You accuse me of being possessed with a devil, because I preach to you a doctrine far different from what you are accustomed to hear; but I speak nothing but the truth; I give honour to my Father, I execute his orders; and the words I now speak to you, are the words of eternal life. Whoever observes them shall not die. Moses promised a long life to those who observed what was commanded in the old law, and offered them as their reward goods and temporal prosperity. But I now offer you an eternal life. Believe my words, keep them, and observe my ordinances, and you shall not feel the death of the soul, the second, eternal, and most miserable of deaths. Calmet.

Verse 56. Abraham, your father, rejoiced that he might see my day, my entrance into this world, my incarnation, my birth, my manifestation in Israel, my death and passion. S. Irenæus, Origen, S. Cyril, and so forth—He waited with impatience for the deliverance of the whole world. He saw it, and was glad. He saw it in spirit, for God revealed it to him. He saw it approaching in the birth of his son Isaac, and in the miraculous deliverance of his dear son, when he was commanded to offer him in sacrifice to the Lord. The vivacity of his faith made him, as it were, present at the time of my birth, though then so far off. Saint John Chrysostom Leont. Theophyl. Euth.—It is not unlikely that this patriarch, and the others who were with him, detained in limbo, were apprised of the incarnation and coming of the Messias, which would fill them with an effusion of inexpressible joy. Saint John Chrysostom—Christ here teaches us two things. 1. That he was before Abraham. 2. That the Jews were not true sons of Abraham, now treating so rudely him, who, even before his coming, had given the patriarch so much joy. Calmet.

Verse 58. Before Abraham was made, I am. [4] Christ here speaks of his eternal existence as God. Saint Augustine shews this by these very words, I am. He does not say, before Abraham was made, I was made: because, as the Son of God, he never was made: but I am, which shews his eternal divine nature. Witham.