John 8, The Final Claim
For my personal witness, and from my own experience, nothing has been more meaningful than what follows. It is my sincere hope that I can express myself with clarity so you can understand where I’m coming from.
A crowd, led by the Pharisees, is arguing with Jesus:
They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants [or seed] and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are ready to kill me, because you have no room for my word. I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
“Abraham is our father,” they answered.
“If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do the things Abraham did. As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. You are doing the things your own father does.”
“We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.”
John 8:33-41
The passage is long, and it builds up in intensity as it progresses. The Greek, especially, conveys a sense of tension building. Words and phrases become terse. It’s almost like a ping-pong match sort of cadence. (Incidentally, as a matter of curiosity, the reason I added “seed” to “descendants” above is that the word used was σπέρμα, pronounced “sperma”.)
There is a lot of back and forth about who are children of whom. Recall from the previous post that Jesus is telling them that if they do not believe, they will die in their sins — or as we would put it, they will cease to be real (or already are not real) as they pursue the obstruction of goodness.
Here is where it becomes heated. Those who do not believe what He says, which are chiefly the Pharisees and experts in the law, along with people they incite, ramp it up quite a notch. And Jesus enjoins them. It begins with the tone of a classic Greek debate — a philosopher in an open area, debating the people around him. But it quckly escalates. They protest Jesus telling them that they would know the truth, and the truth would set them free, by declaring that, as children of Abraham, they have never been slaves to anyone. (And therefore, did not need to be freed.)
But Jesus isn’t talking about them being owned by another person; He is talking about them being owned by their obstruction of goodness, and by implication, death. They are slaves to what they do: namely, doing all they can to obstruct and hinder the work of God (which is, as we will recall, the facilitation and conveyance of goodness.) A modern expression might say that they are addicted (to sin), rather than slaves. But in any case, Jesus is telling them plainly that anyone who obstructs the flow of goodness among free moral agents cannot claim to be a son of God.
He explains that freedom from sin is a state of belief in Him. He reasons that a slave has no place in the family (a metaphorical reference to the totality of spirit — His Father, Himself, and all believers), but that a son does. And so, if the son sets a slave free, then if he speaks on behalf of the family, the slave is truly free. And Jesus has already said that He speaks the words God gave Him to speak, which is a claim we covered earlier, and a claim that He makes again right here. And so therefore, He can (as in has the capability and authority) to free slaves — or to put it another way, to forgive sin.
The crowd is sensing that He is claiming a spiritual status which they lack. And they cite the fact that they are descended from Abraham, and as such, have a claim to a special relationship with God. But he rebukes them, saying that if they were children of Abraham, they would do as Abraham would do (help to facilitate goodness), but they do not; therefore, they are not children of Abraham (a modus tolens). He tells them they are children of THEIR father (πατήρ, pronounced patēr).
They begin to become almost enraged. How DARE He invalidate their status by declaring that they are not children of Abraham. But as we know, from our epistemological studies, Jesus is referring to a spiritual father, while they are referring to a physical man. They are, in effect, talking past one another. The mind of Jesus is steadfastly on the spirit, while their minds are on earthly relations.
They break. They’ve had enough. They blurt out that the only Father they have is God. The Greek here is helpful in capturing the mood. (At least it was to me). And so here is what is written:
ὑμεῖς ποιεῖτε τὰ ἔργα τοῦ πατρὸς ὑμῶν. εἶπαν [οὖν] αὐτῷ, Ἡμεῖς ἐκ πορνείας οὐ γεγεννήμεθα: ἕνα πατέρα ἔχομεν τὸν θεόν.
John 8:41
It translates as, “Y’all (plural you) do the deeds of your father. Then they said to Him, we be (subjunctive mood) not born of fornication. We have one Father — [even] God.” — θεόν, the root of which is θεός (theos). We get words like “theology” from it.
It is, at the very least, a tactical mistake in the argument. For one thing, it opens the door for Jesus to make His final claim. (Recall from the previous post on John 8 that Jesus needs to make three distinct claims that identify Him as God. He must be eternal, essential, and necessary. Recall further that He has already claimed the last two.) But secondly, it allows for there to be a son (or sons) of God. After all, they cannot otherwise make the claim themselves, as they clearly did, that their Father is God.
Jesus did not waste time capitalizing on the mistake:
Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me.
"Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!
“Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”
John 8:42-47
Wow. He actually tells them that their father is the devil. He reasons flawlessly that if God were their Father, they would love Him, because He came from God and now is right in front of them. Why would they love God but not love His gift?
He then goes further and says that the reason they cannot understand what He is saying, is because they belong to the “devil” (διάβολος “diabolos” is the root.) It may be assumed that whatever else the devil might be, he is principally concerned with obstructing as much goodness as he possibly can. It is, again, a spiritual reference. One cannot help but wonder why people would think a spiritual teacher might not be talking about spiritual things.
He called them sons of the father of lies, and that there is no truth in him. By our definition, He is saying that nothing has been revealed to their father that is of any aesthetic value. (See post 77 of this thread, where truth is defined.) He has basically dressed them down about as low as they can go. Their father lies because he cannot not lie. It is his natural language. It is a modal claim. In other words, there is no possibility whatsoever that their father could ever tell the truth under any circumstance or in any world.
Jesus then closes with a final line of reasoning. He challenges any of them to find in Him any sin. And since they cannot, they should know that He is telling the truth. And if they should know that He is telling the truth, then why don’t they believe Him? He says that people who belong to God (as they had claimed they did) hear God’s voice (through Jesus). But since they do not hear God’s voice (through Him), they do not belong to God.
And now they are exasperated. They feel insulted and angry. Although He merely told them the simple truth, they bristled, and blasted him with accusations that they mistakenly felt were in kind (or like His):
The Jews [specifically the Pharisees and their cohorts] answered him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?”
“I am not possessed by a demon,” said Jesus, “but I honor my Father and you dishonor me. I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge. I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”
At this the [Pharisees] exclaimed, “Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that if anyone keeps your word, he will never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?”
John 8:48-53
Well. Here we go. What can a person who has just been called a child of the father of lies say in return that has just as much punch? Why, that He is possessed by demons, of course. Now, there was a class system in the culture, and at the top were the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Pharisees were the de facto top rung of the ladder as interpreters of the Talmud, and the Sadducees were elitist (in the classical sense) and fancied themselves to be the keepers of the law, obsessed mainly with Temple rituals. They died out around 70 AD. At the very bottom rung were people who were lepers and demon possessed. And of course, the Samaritans. The lowest of the low. This is the level they assigned to Him.
The great irony of this whole encounter is that the very people who are supposed to be spiritual leaders completely miss the message of Jesus because they take it as a personal insult, rather than as a simple fact. It is hard for us to imagine the level of their anger, but consider that they held the highest positions in the Temple, and it was unlawful even to question them. And now here is a man Who tells them basically that they come from the bowels of hell.
Jesus knows that they are in reality religion politicians. (See definition just above.)
Naturally, He denies being demon possessed. He says that He honors God, but that they dishonor Him (the gift of God). He says that He is not seeking glory for Himself, but that His Father, who has perfect aesthetical judgment, seeks glory for His son. He then goes on to tell them (yet again, but in different terms and context) that those who believe in Him will never die.
One can almost hear them laughing out loud as they balk at this declaration. The great prophets have all died. Moses. Abraham. And all the others, and yet this man claims that whoever believes in Him (as we have defined belief) will live forever. They asked Him whether He thought He was greater than their father, Abraham. (Apparently, they cannot decide whether their father is Abraham or God. See the Greek passage above and its translation.)
Who the hell does He think He is! And boy, He was ready to tell them. Almost.
Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”
John 8:54-56
He lays it out quite plainly. His Father is the one Whom they call their God, and it is He who glorifies Jesus. He says that they do not know Him (God), but that He (Jesus) does know God. And perhaps with a dry wit, but certainly speaking truthfully, He tells them that if He denied knowing God, He would be a liar like them. But He does indeed know God and keeps His word.
That alone was enough to infuriate these Temple snobs, these religion politicians. But He went further. He said something that left them almost tongue-tied. Certainly, it fulfilled their daily balking quota. He told them that Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing His day, and — here’s the part that put them over the edge — Abraham DID see His day and was glad about it.
By now they were beyond anger, and were dismissive of Him:
“You are not yet fifty years old,” the [Pharisees] said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”
John 8:57
The setup is complete. It is time for Jesus to make his third claim. Recall from our previous study of John 8 that He had already made two claims: essence and necessity. His essence is spiritual (from heaven); and His necessity is borne out by the fact that without Him we would all be dead already. But He must now claim timelessness (or eternity) in order to be real, or in order to be life. (Recall that life and reality are synonyms).
Some of you may know that the next verse was the key to my conversion. It was upon seeing it that everything came together for me. I wouldn’t expect the same reaction necessarily from anyone else because we all have our subjective moral journeys.
And this is it:
“I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”
John 8:58
He has now declared His eternity. His present existence precedes Abraham’s prior existence. He is timeless. Eternal. Always present. And the implication even beyond that, as surprising and spectacular as it is in and of itself, is that He is declaring that the God Abraham worshiped was Him. Jesus. It is quite much to contemplate.
And it was just too much for the High Holy religion politicians. The final verse of John 8 (verse 59) tells us that the Pharisees picked up stones to throw at Him, but that He slipped away and disappeared into the crowd.
I think John 8:58 should be examined in the Greek as well:
εἶπεν αὐτοῖς Ἰησοῦς, Ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, πρὶν Ἀβραὰμ γενέσθαι ἐγὼ εἰμί.
John 8:58
It translates simply as “Jesus said to them, ‘In all truth I say to you, before Abraham was, I am’.” That construction of the verse helps to convey the parallel that we already discussed in the Metaphysics and Ontology thread (Part III), wherein God tells Moses that when the people asked who sent him, for him to tell them “I am sent you. I am that I am.” And now Jesus claims the same I-am-ness. The same eternity. The same status as God Himself.
And so there we have it: He has claimed to be essential, necessary, and eternal. It is a remarkable set of claims, and for me personally, came together in an epiphany. I knew then that Jesus is God.
This concludes our study of John 8. The rest will go much faster (except for John 14, which will require some extensive examination, but not this much.) Thanks to all for your great patience, and for your interest in how my faith was formulated and nurtured.