Joseph Knabenbauer's Commentary on John 8:51-59
Jesus' Divinity and the Attempt to Stone Him
Jn 8:51: The Promise of Life
"Amen, amen, I say to you: If any man keep my word, he shall not see death forever." (v. 51)
See on Jn5:24 and Jn 4:13-14 and Jn3:16. Nevertheless, others construct the connection (Nexum) differently: as the perversity of the wicked increases, not only ought preaching not to be broken off, but even increased (Thomas, Rupert). Thus Christ shows that, when assailed, He does not desist from preaching, seeking not His own glory but those things which are for the salvation of the human race (Cajetan). The Jews calumniate His sermon as insane, proceeding from a demon; the Lord, on the contrary, proclaims how salutary it is (Jansenius). Nor was He cast down from His resolve on account of their contumely; indeed, He wills to assert His doctrine even more and demonstrate its fruit, whence he begins also with great asseveration (Maldonatus). But the more the light manifests itself to them, the more they wrap themselves in darkness.
Jn 8:52: The Jews' Objection
"The Jews therefore said to Him: 'Now we know that You have a demon. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and You say, "If any man keep my word, he shall not taste death forever."'" (v. 52)
"Now we know": We see in fact what before we announced by opinion.
"That You have a demon": Abraham is dead, and the prophets—men distinguished by God's greatest gifts, of exceptional holiness—were obliged to undergo death; they are exempted by no means from the common lot of all. "And You say…": Behold, Abraham and the prophets kept the word of God most of all, yet they were not able to ward off death from themselves.
Through the malice of the Jews, the words of Jesus are thus twisted toward corporal death, so that it becomes manifest that He says absurd and blasphemous things to the plebs. And as is the habit of those who are indignant and insulting, they multiply words, repeating the same things.
Jn 8:53: The Accusation of Pride
"'Are You greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? And the prophets are dead. Who do You make Yourself?'" (v. 53)
Christ responds, beginning from the last point, where they accused Him of intolerable boasting and pride, and He replies with the greatest meekness, premising by way of concession what is apt for conciliating minds or inviting them to a peaceful consideration of the matter.
Jn 8:54: True Glory Comes from God
"Jesus answered: 'If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing.'" (v. 54)
He speaks as in Jn 5:31 (Chrysostom). Therefore, that He may warn them that the matter is to be weighed seriously, He says: If nothing else were proposed to you than my bare word as a man, which you think it to be, indeed you might be excused. But how great and how many signs do you see, by which God most openly demonstrates my glory before you?
"It is my Father who glorifies me, whom you say is your God."
Therefore, by your own assertion, you ought to have received with reverence at least the testimony of your God, whom you profess as such, of whom you glory. By the word "you say" He implies they do not truly know Him, because they do not receive His testimony, nor do they render obedience to Him, nor do they allow themselves to be ruled by His spirit and guidance. He upbraids them for speaking of their God unworthily.
Jn 8:55: Knowing God Through Obedience
"And you have not known Him; but I know Him. And if I shall say that I do not know Him, I shall be like to you, a liar." (v. 55)
"And you have not known Him": Therefore He is not your God, since you are alien from Him in mind and morals (Maldonatus); you are not borne toward Him in affection and will (Toletus).
"But I know Him": Therefore I can testify concerning Him and His testimony concerning me according to the truth of the matter.
"And if I shall say that I do not know Him…": See on Jn 8:44-45. In that sense He calls them liars, which diabolic disposition they immediately showed forth in Jn 8:48. Moreover, he who says he knows Him and keeps not His commandments is a liar (1 John 2:4).
By this sentence, Jesus asserts with the greatest weight what He had said: "I know Him," and He affirms it a third time: "But I know Him, and I keep His word." He simultaneously explains how the notion and knowledge of God necessarily manifests itself in life, provided true knowledge of Him inheres in the mind (cf. Jn 8:46). By that question, He demonstrates with the suffrage of all and in a manner suited to their capacity that He keeps the sermon of God, the precepts of God, and the will.
Jn 8:56: Abraham's Joy
"Then he answered: 'Abraham your father…'" (v. 56)
"Abraham your father": Whom calling thus you ought to imitate, lest this appellation and glorying be vain and false.
"…rejoiced that he might see my day."
Therefore, if you are children of Abraham, do his works (Jn 8:37). He exulted with that joy. The day of Christ is the day on which He appears on earth and the Word is made flesh. Through prophecies made to him, Abraham knew this mystery; he knew the Messiah would arise from his posterity, whence he exulted with sum joy.
"ἵνα ἴδῃ" (that he might see): His exultation was directed to this as to an end and term, that he might see this day of the Messiah's advent, or as others add, the time of the Messiah (cf. Maldonatus, Patrizi, Fillion), as Cyril also says: "the time of the sojourn, whenever the light shone upon us," that he might see it sometime.
How far alien they are from the disposition of the father whom they boast is now manifest: not only do they not rejoice concerning the day of the Messiah, but they persecute Him, have Him in supreme hatred, and burn to kill Him.
But what did Abraham see? That which he had desired with sum desire happened to him: he saw my advent. He saw where He is now—in limbo. He saw the time of my advent in limbo where He is, and he rejoiced with new joy and new exultation. The former exultation was of hope; this is of the thing itself (Baronius), and similarly Jansenius. He obtained what he desired; for he saw my day with spiritual eyes because he now acknowledged me to have come into the world. On this account he rejoiced because he knows through me that he and the human race are to be redeemed and carried up to heaven. And in the same way Salmeron: he saw from the limbo of the fathers. Similarly Maldonatus, Lapide.
Thirdly and genuinely: Menochius, Tirinus, Patrizi, Cornelius a Lapide, Schegg, Schanz, Weiss mention this opinion also; Sa, Estius, Calmet. The Jews therefore are far distant from Abraham, who while he was among the living most desired the advent of the Messiah, and who, dead in body but alive in soul, when he knew and saw the advent of the Messiah, was perfused with new joy.
Chrysostom explains the day of the Messiah concerning the day of the cross; others concerning the day of eternity (Augustine). Thomas thinks Abraham, constituted among the living, saw the day of the Incarnation through faith and revelation, not only exulted that he might see. The constant opinion of the ancients is that he saw it. But when he saw it, others think differently.
Cyril thinks he saw it then when he received three men with hospitality and received the promise from God that he would be the father of many nations (Genesis 18:1 seq.), to which opinion Bede and Rupert also concede.
Bonaventure refers it to Genesis 15.
Augustine to Genesis 24:2.
Thomas proves he saw the day of the Incarnation from Genesis 18 and 24 and from the offering of the ram and Isaac, by which the passion of Christ was prefigured.
Cajetan understands Abraham saw with a vision of certain knowledge the clarity of Christ's divinity, and he says this follows because the Jews say "and you saw Abraham," whence he concludes the words which Christ used signify His presence to Abraham, and Christ responds concerning His divinity.
But from this it does not follow that "my day" is the day of eternity, nor is this effected from the Jews' question, which Cajetan wishes. Baronius. If you wish, see more interpretations of others on this place.
The Jews, for their malice, wish to demonstrate the words of Jesus as most absurd (Jansenius). For Christ did not say that Abraham was seen by Him as a man, but that Abraham saw His day. But many things can be known with certain notion before they are done, and the Jews know well that prophets saw future events and prophesied concerning men also who were afterward to be brought forth into light, therefore saw their day (cf. Joshua 6:26; 1 Kings 14:14; Isaiah 42:1; 45:1; etc.; Jeremiah 23:5; Ezekiel 34:23; etc.). But for calumniating, as they thought, it was more accommodated to propose the matter thus, as if Christ were saying He was beheld by Abraham as a man (cf. Toletus).
Jn 8:57: The Age of Christ
"The Jews therefore said to Him: 'You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?'" (v. 57)
Why they say He is not yet fifty years old, when indeed Jesus at that time was only thirty-three years old: The reason is sought by most from the fact that from the fiftieth year the age of man seemed to decline from virile to senile, whence the sense can be: "You are not yet beginning to grow old, and already you have seen Abraham?" or "You are still in the age in which duties are to be performed" (cf. Numbers 4:3, 35, 39, 43, 47; 8:24). They place therefore a round number to signify that even if He had an age much greater than He acted, nevertheless He could not have beheld Abraham (Toletus).
Jansenius thinks they looked to the custom of their age, that is, the Jubilee: "You have not yet completed a century, and do you dare to speak of the Jubilee?" Also Severus has many things in the Catena. From this place was born the error of Irenaeus concerning the age of Christ (cf. Patrizi, De Evang. Dissert. 19, n. 40).
Euthymius thinks Jesus, on account of gravity and maturity of judgment, doctrine and experience, was held to be more than forty years old. Chrysostom reads forty years, but certainly the Jews did not wish to praise Him. To others it pleases that Christ was so affected in body on account of labors and molestations that He merito seemed greater than a forty-year-old.
But that which they said calumniating and wishing to draw the matter to laughter, Christ uses for this: that He may edit a most splendid testimony and document of His divinity and convince them; they spoke truly indeed, but unknowingly, after the manner of Balaam's ass.
Jn 8:58: The Divine "I Am"
"Jesus said to them: 'Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am.'" (v. 58)
By the voice "I am" (Ego Sum), His being perpetual, free from all time, is signified, just as His Father used that voice "I Am" (Exodus 3:14); so also He (Chrysostom). And Euthymius well says: "τὸ μὲν γενέσθαι κτιστοῦ, τὸ δὲ εἰμὶ ἀκτίστου" ("to be made" belongs to a creature, but "I am" to the Uncreated). His being is eternal, subject to no mutation or destruction. He asserts with a solemn formula, as if in place of an oath, for the confirmation of things said (cf. Cyril).
Therefore, He teaches most clearly that, although as man He had a certain and defined age, nevertheless He was besides God who existed before all time (Maldonatus). And similarly all, even Weiss, who acts against those Protestants who wish to explain it concerning ideal being, concerning that which existed in God's counsel, by which sense all and everything would be from eternity because God with His eternal science comprehends all things as if present.
But again, the more the divine light dazzles their eyes, the more they study to commit themselves to denser darkness. They attempt to stone Jesus as a blasphemer (cf. Leviticus 24:16).
Jn 8:59: The Attempt to Stone Jesus
"They took up therefore stones to cast at Him. But Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple." (v. 59)
"He hid Himself" (ἐκρύβη): Which is to be explained most probably with Cyril: Christ hides Himself, not by passing under walls, nor by opposing anything else to His proper body, but by the force of divinity rendering Himself minimally conspicuous to those seeking. So also Theophylact, Heraclitus in Catena Cordis, and Cr. Theophylact, Euthymius, Thomas, Cajetan, Toletus, Jansenius, Maldonatus, Lapide, Calmet, Natalis, Schanz.
To others, however, this seems less probable, but more congruous that Jesus withdrew Himself, mixing Himself with the crowds, or entering into some house of the temple, or turning aside into some hidden place. So they seem to have understood: Chrysostom, Augustine—"as a man He fled from the stones" (so Baronius, Cornelius a Lapide, Schegg, Fillion, Weiss, Edersheim). This indeed in the building of the temple, which was distinguished by very many chambers and porticoes, could easily be done, especially if, as Edersheim wishes, the Jews rushed forth into the court of the Gentiles to take up stones (cf. 2 Paralipomenon 24:21: "they cast stones by the king's command in the court of the house of the Lord"; and Matthew 23:35: "whom you killed between the temple and the altar"; and that the Jews executed stoning in the temple itself, see in Josephus, Antiq. 17.9.3; Schanz).
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