Yohanes 8:21-36

Where Jesus Came From and Where He is Going

8:21 Then Jesus ¹  said to them again, ²  “I am going away, and you will look for me ³  but will die in your sin. ⁴  Where I am going you cannot come.” 8:22 So the Jewish leaders ⁵  began to say, ⁶  “Perhaps he is going to kill himself, because he says, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’” 8:23 Jesus replied, ⁷  “You people ⁸  are from below; I am from above. You people are from this world; I am not from this world. 8:24 Thus I told you ⁹  that you will die in your sins. For unless you believe that I am he, ¹⁰  you will die in your sins.”

8:25 So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus replied, ¹¹  “What I have told you from the beginning. 8:26 I have many things to say and to judge ¹²  about you, but the Father ¹³  who sent me is truthful, ¹⁴  and the things I have heard from him I speak to the world.” ¹⁵  8:27 (They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father.) ¹⁶ 

8:28 Then Jesus said, ¹⁷  “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, ¹⁸  and I do nothing on my own initiative, ¹⁹  but I speak just what the Father taught me. ²⁰  8:29 And the one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, ²¹  because I always do those things that please him.” 8:30 While he was saying these things, many people ²²  believed in him.

Abraham’s Children and the Devil’s Children

8:31 Then Jesus said to those Judeans ²³  who had believed him, “If you continue to follow my teaching, ²⁴  you are really ²⁵  my disciples 8:32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” ²⁶  8:33 “We are descendants ²⁷  of Abraham,” they replied, ²⁸  “and have never been anyone’s slaves! How can you say, ²⁹  ‘You will become free’?” 8:34 Jesus answered them, “I tell you the solemn truth, ³⁰  everyone who practices ³¹  sin is a slave ³²  of sin. 8:35 The slave does not remain in the family ³³  forever, but the son remains forever. ³⁴  8:36 So if the son ³⁵  sets you free, you will be really free.

[8:21]  ¹ tn Grk “He”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:21]  ² tn The expression οὖν πάλιν (oun palin) indicates some sort of break in the sequence of events, but it is not clear how long. The author does not mention the interval between 8:12-20 and this next recorded dialogue. The feast of Tabernacles is past, and the next reference to time is 10:22, where the feast of the Dedication is mentioned. The interval is two months, and these discussions could have taken place at any time within that interval, as long as one assumes something of a loose chronological framework. However, if the material in the Fourth Gospel is arranged theologically or thematically, such an assumption would not apply.

[8:21]  ³ tn Grk “you will seek me.”

[8:21]  ⁴ tn The expression ἐν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ ὑμῶν ἀποθανεῖσθε (en th Jamartia Jumwn apoqaneisqe) is similar to an expression found in the LXX at Ezek 3:18, 20 and Prov 24:9. Note the singular of ἁμαρτία (the plural occurs later in v. 24). To die with one’s sin unrepented and unatoned would be the ultimate disaster to befall a person. Jesus’ warning is stern but to the point.

[8:22]  ⁵ tn Or “the Jewish authorities”; Grk “the Jews.” In NT usage the term ᾿Ιουδαῖοι (Ioudaioi) may refer to the entire Jewish people, the residents of Jerusalem and surrounding territory, the authorities in Jerusalem, or merely those who were hostile to Jesus. (For further information see R. G. Bratcher, “‘The Jews’ in the Gospel of John,” BT 26 [1975]: 401-9.) Here the phrase refers to the Jewish authorities or leaders in Jerusalem. It was the Pharisees who had begun this line of questioning in John 8:13, and there has been no clear change since then in the identity of Jesus’ opponents.

[8:22]  ⁶ tn The imperfect verb has been translated with ingressive force (“began to say”) because the comments that follow were occasioned by Jesus’ remarks in the preceding verse about his upcoming departure.

[8:23]  ⁷ tn Grk “And he said to them.”

[8:23]  ⁸ tn The word “people” is supplied in English to clarify the plural Greek pronoun and verb.

[8:24]  ⁹ tn Grk “thus I said to you.”

[8:24]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “unless you believe that I am.” In this context there is an implied predicate nominative (“he”) following the “I am” phrase. What Jesus’ hearers had to acknowledge is that he was who he claimed to be, i.e., the Messiah (cf. 20:31). This view is also reflected in English translations like NIV (“if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be”), NLT (“unless you believe that I am who I say I am”), and CEV (“if you don’t have faith in me for who I am”). For a different view that takes this “I am” and the one in 8:28 as nonpredicated (i.e., absolute), see R. E. Brown, John (AB), 1:533-38. Such a view refers sees the nonpredicated “I am” as a reference to the divine Name revealed in Exod 3:14, and is reflected in English translations like NAB (“if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins”) and TEV (“you will die in your sins if you do not believe that ‘I Am Who I Am’”).

[8:24]  sn See the note on Christ in 1:20.

[8:25]  ¹¹ tn Grk “Jesus said to them.”

[8:26]  ¹² tn Or “I have many things to pronounce in judgment about you.” The two Greek infinitives could be understood as a hendiadys, resulting in one phrase.

[8:26]  ¹³ tn Grk “the one”; the referent (the Father) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:26]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “true” (in the sense of one who always tells the truth).

[8:26]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “and what things I have heard from him, these things I speak to the world.”

[8:27]  ¹⁶ sn They did not understand…about his Father is a parenthetical note by the author. This type of comment, intended for the benefit of the reader, is typical of the “omniscient author” convention adopted by the author, who is writing from a postresurrection point of view. He writes with the benefit of later knowledge that those who originally heard Jesus’ words would not have had.

[8:28]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “Then Jesus said to them” (the words “to them” are not found in all mss).

[8:28]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “that I am.” See the note on this phrase in v. 24.

[8:28]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “I do nothing from myself.”

[8:28]  ²⁰ tn Grk “but just as the Father taught me, these things I speak.”

[8:29]  ²¹ tn That is, “he has not abandoned me.”

[8:30]  ²² tn The word “people” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied for clarity and smoothness in the translation.

[8:31]  ²³ tn Grk “to the Jews.” In NT usage the term ᾿Ιουδαῖοι (Ioudaioi) may refer to the entire Jewish people, the residents of Jerusalem and surrounding territory (i.e., “Judeans”), the authorities in Jerusalem, or merely those who were hostile to Jesus. (For further information see R. G. Bratcher, “‘The Jews’ in the Gospel of John,” BT 26 [1975]: 401-9; also BDAG 479 s.v. ᾿Ιουδαῖος 2.e.) Here the phrase refers to the Jewish people in Jerusalem who had been listening to Jesus’ teaching in the temple and had believed his claim to be the Messiah, hence, “those Judeans who had believed him.” The term “Judeans” is preferred here to the more general “people” because the debate concerns descent from Abraham (v. 33).

[8:31]  ²⁴ tn Grk “If you continue in my word.”

[8:31]  ²⁵ tn Or “truly.”

[8:32]  ²⁶ tn Or “the truth will release you.” The translation “set you free” or “release you” (unlike the more traditional “make you free”) conveys more the idea that the hearers were currently in a state of slavery from which they needed to be freed. The following context supports precisely this idea.

[8:32]  sn The statement the truth will set you free is often taken as referring to truth in the philosophical (or absolute) sense, or in the intellectual sense, or even (as the Jews apparently took it) in the political sense. In the context of John’s Gospel (particularly in light of the prologue) this must refer to truth about the person and work of Jesus. It is saving truth. As L. Morris says, “it is the truth which saves men from the darkness of sin, not that which saves them from the darkness of error (though there is a sense in which men in Christ are delivered from gross error)” (John [NICNT], 457).

[8:33]  ²⁷ tn Grk “We are the seed” (an idiom).

[8:33]  ²⁸ tn Grk “They answered to him.”

[8:33]  ²⁹ tn Or “How is it that you say.”

[8:34]  ³⁰ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[8:34]  ³¹ tn Or “who commits.” This could simply be translated, “everyone who sins,” but the Greek is more emphatic, using the participle ποιῶν (poiwn) in a construction with πᾶς (pas), a typical Johannine construction. Here repeated, continuous action is in view. The one whose lifestyle is characterized by repeated, continuous sin is a slave to sin. That one is not free; sin has enslaved him. To break free from this bondage requires outside (divine) intervention. Although the statement is true at the general level (the person who continually practices a lifestyle of sin is enslaved to sin) the particular sin of the Jewish authorities, repeatedly emphasized in the Fourth Gospel, is the sin of unbelief. The present tense in this instance looks at the continuing refusal on the part of the Jewish leaders to acknowledge who Jesus is, in spite of mounting evidence.

[8:34]  ³² tn See the note on the word “slaves” in 4:51.

[8:35]  ³³ tn Or “household.” The Greek work οἰκία (oikia) can denote the family as consisting of relatives by both descent and marriage, as well as slaves and servants, living in the same house (more the concept of an “extended family”).

[8:35]  ³⁴ sn Jesus’ point is that while a slave may be part of a family or household, the slave is not guaranteed a permanent place there, while a son, as a descendant or blood relative, will always be guaranteed a place in the family (remains forever).

[8:36]  ³⁵ tn Or “Son.” The question is whether “son” is to be understood as a direct reference to Jesus himself, or as an indirect reference (a continuation of the generic illustration begun in the previous verse).