Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 8:33
They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
33. They answered him ] Or, unto Him, according to the best MSS. ‘They’ must mean ‘the Jews who had believed Him’ ( Joh 8:31): it is quite arbitrary to suppose any one else. The severe words which follow ( Joh 8:44) are addressed to them, for turning back, after their momentary belief, as well as to those who had never believed at all.
Abraham’s seed ] Comp. ‘kings of peoples shall be of her’ (Sarah), and ‘thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies’ (Gen 17:16; Gen 22:17). On texts like these they build the proud belief that Jews have never yet been in bondage to any man. But passion once more blinds them to historical facts (see on Joh 7:52). The bondage in Egypt, the oppressions in the times of the Judges, the captivity in Babylon, and the Roman yoke, are all forgotten. Some, who think such forgetfulness incredible, interpret ‘we have never been lawfully in bondage.’ ‘The Truth’ would not free them from enforced slavery. It might free them from voluntary slavery, by teaching them that it was unlawful for them to be slaves. ‘But we know that already.’ This, however, is somewhat subtle, and the more literal interpretation is not incredible. The power which the human mind possesses of keeping inconvenient facts out of sight is very considerable. In either case we have another instance of gross inability to perceive the spiritual meaning of Christ’s words. Comp. Joh 3:4, Joh 4:15, Joh 6:34.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
They answered him – Not those who believed on him, but some who stood by and heard him.
We be Abrahams seed – We are the children or descendants of Abraham. Abraham was not a slave, and they pretended that they were his real descendants, inheriting his freedom as well as his spirit. They meant that they were the direct descendants of Abraham by Isaac, his heir. Ishmael, also Abrahams son, was the son of a bondwoman Gal 4:21-23, but they were descended in a direct line from the acknowledged heir of Abraham.
Were never in bondage to any, man – This is a most remarkable declaration, and one evidently false. Their fathers had been slaves in Egypt; their nation had been enslaved in Babylon; it had repeatedly been subject to the Assyrians; it was enslaved by Herod the Great; and was, at the very time they spoke, groaning under the grievous and insupportable bondage of the Romans. But we see here:
- That Jesus was right when he said Joh 8:44, Ye are of your father the devil; he is a liar, and the father of it.
- People will say anything, however false or ridiculous, to avoid and oppose the truth.
- People groaning under the most oppressive bondage are often unwilling to acknowledge it in any manner, and are indignant at being charged with it. This is the case with all sinners.
- Sin, and the bondage to sin, produces passion, irritation, and a troubled soul; and a person under the influence of passion regards little what he says, and is often a liar.
- There is need of the gospel. That only can make people free, calm, collected, meek, and lovers of truth; and since every person is by nature the servant of sin, he should without delay seek an interest in that gospel which can alone make him free.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 33. They answered] That is, the other Jews who had not believed-the carping, cavilling Pharisees already mentioned; for the words cannot be spoken of the simple people who had already believed. See Joh 8:30.
Were never in bondage to any man] This assertion was not only false, but it was ridiculous in the extreme; seeing their whole history, sacred and profane, is full of recitals of their servitude in Egypt, in Chaldea, under the Persians, under the Macedonians, and under the Romans. But those who are not under the influence of the truth of God will speak and act according to the influence of the spirit of falsehood and error. If the words are to be restrained to themselves alone, they may be understood thus: We are Abraham’s seed: and we were never in bondage. Both these propositions had a faint shadow of truth.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
How carnally doth a carnal heart understand spiritual mysteries! Thus Nicodemus, hearing of being born again, grossly dreamed of entering into his mothers womb, and being born again. The woman of Samaria, hearing of living water, dreamed of water that should so satisfy her thirst, as that she should never come again to the well to draw. The Jews here hearing of being made free, dream of a freedom from human bondage and slavery. To what our Saviour had said, that if they knew the truth, the truth should make them free; they reply,
We are Abrahams seed, and were never in bondage to any. Admitting that they were Abrahams seed, that is, Jews, were not the Jews in bondage, first to Pharaoh, king of Egypt; then to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon? They were now in bondage to the Romans. They must either understand it of their own persons, though they were tributaries they were no slaves; or else concerning their right, they had a right to liberty though they were under an extrinsic servitude to their conquerors. This made them angry, that Christ should speak of their being
made free; for those that are free are not in a capacity to be made free. The Jews were a people very tenacious of their liberty, and gloried much in the right they had to it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
33. They answered him, We beAbraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man, c.Whosaid this? Not surely the very class just spoken of as won over byHis divine words, and exhorted to continue in them. Most interpretersseem to think so but it is hard to ascribe such a petulant speech tothe newly gained disciples, even in the lowest sense, much lesspersons so gained as they were. It came, probably, frompersons mixed up with them in the same part of the crowd, but of avery different spirit. The pride of the Jewish nation, evennow after centuries of humiliation, is the most striking feature oftheir character. “Talk of freedom to us? Pray when or towhom were we ever in bondage?” This bluster sounds almostludicrous from such a nation. Had they forgotten their long andbitter bondage in Egypt? their dreary captivity in Babylon? theirpresent bondage to the Roman yoke, and their restless eagerness tothrow it off? But probably they saw that our Lord pointed tosomething elsefreedom, perhaps, from the leaders of sects orpartiesand were not willing to allow their subjection even tothese. Our Lord, therefore, though He knew what slaves they were inthis sense, drives the ploughshare somewhat deeper than this, to abondage they little dreamt of.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
They answered him,…. Not the believing Jews, whom he peculiarly addressed, but the unbelieving Jews, who were present, and heard these things:
we be Abraham’s seed; this the Jews always valued themselves upon, and reckoned themselves, on this account, upon a level with the nobles and the princes of the earth.
“Says R. Akiba c, even the poor of Israel are to be considered as if they were , “noblemen”, that are fallen from their substance, because they are the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob;”
and were never in bondage to any man; which is a very great falsehood, for it was declared to Abraham himself, that his seed should serve in a land not theirs, and be afflicted four hundred years, as they were; and as the preface to the law which the Jews gloried in shows, which says, that the Lord their God brought them out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; and they were frequently overcome by their neighbours, the Moabites, Ammonites, and Philistines, and reduced to servitude under them, until delivered by one judge, or another: and not to take notice of their seventy years’ captivity in Babylon, they were at this very time under the Roman yoke, and paid tribute to Caesar; and yet such was the pride of their hearts, they would not be thought to be in bondage; and therefore, with an haughty air, add,
how sayest thou, ye shall be made free? when they thought themselves, and would fain have been thought by others, to have been free already, and so to stand in no need of being made free.
c Misn. Bava Kama, c. 8. sect. 6. & T. Bab. Bava Kama, fol. 86. 1. & 91. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
We be Abraham’s seed ( ). “We are Abraham’s seed,” the proudest boast of the Jews, of Sarah the freewoman and not of Hagar the bondwoman (Ga 4:22f.). Yes, but the Jews came to rely solely on mere physical descent (Mt 3:9) and so God made Gentiles the spiritual children of Abraham by faith (Matt 3:7; Matt 9:6).
And have never yet been in bondage to any man ( ). Perfect active indicative of , to be slaves. This was a palpable untruth uttered in the heat of controversy. At that very moment the Jews wore the Roman yoke as they had worn that of Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Alexander, the Ptolemies, the Syrian (Seleucid) kings. They had liberty for a while under the Maccabees. “These poor believers soon come to the end of their faith” (Stier). But even so they had completely missed the point in the words of Jesus about freedom by truth.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Were never in bondage [ ] . Rev., better, have never yet been in bondage; thus giving the force of the perfect tense, never up to this time, and of the pw, yet. In the light of the promises given to Abraham, Gen 17:16; Gen 22:17, 18, the Jews claimed not only freedom, but dominion over the nations. In their reply to Jesus they ignore alike the Egyptian, Babylonian, and Syrian bondage, through which the nation had successively passed, as well as their present subjection to Rome, treating these merely as bondage which, though a fact, was not bondage by right, or bondage to which they had ever willingly submitted, and, therefore, not bondage in any real sense. Beside the fact that their words were the utterance of strong passion, it is to be remembered that the Romans, from motives of policy, had left them the semblance of political independence. As in so many other cases, they overlook the higher significance of Jesus ‘ words, and base their reply on a technicality. These are the very Jews who believed Him (ver. 31). Stier remarks : “These poor believers soon come to the end of their faith.” The hint of the possible inconstancy of their faith, conveyed in the Lord ‘s words if ye abide in my word, is thus justified.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Then answered him,” (apekrithesan pros auton) “They replied to him,” the yet unbelieving Jews who had sneaked in to carp and criticize at His teaching, the obstinate and unpersuaded of the Pharisees especially, Joh 8:13.
2) “We be Abraham’s seed,” (sperma Abraam esmen) “We are (exist as) a seed of Abraham,” of kingly lineage, of national grandeur, of racial pride, a thing they doted on before John the Baptist who called them to repentance, from their hell-bent self -righteousness, Mat 3:7-12.
3) “And were never in bondage to any man: (kai oudeni dedouleukamen popote) “And to no one have we been enslaved, no, never;- Were they ignorant of their Egyptian bondage years, or their repeated captivity years to the Philistines under the judges, or their subjection for six centuries to the Babylonians, the Medo-Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans, or were they just so intoxicated with their racial pride that they just outright lied, like their father, the Devil, Joh 8:44. The latter seems to be the truth.
4) “How sayest thou, ye shall be mad free?” (pos au legeis hoti eleutheroi genesesthe) “How do you say that you all will become free or liberated?” Upon what premise do you promise what we already have, they asked or challenged Him, They considered themselves the very depository of truth, having the law. Yet they did not keep it! Joh 7:19; Rom 3:19; Paul called the law a “Yoke of bondage,” from which Christ had made men free, Gal 5:1; Act 15:7-10.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
33. We are Abraham’s seed. It is uncertain if the Evangelist here introduces the same persons who formerly spoke, (235) or others. My opinion is, that they replied to Christ in a confused manner, as usually happens in a promiscuous crowd; and that this reply was made rather by despisers than by those who believed. It is a mode of expression very customary in Scripture, whenever the body of a people is mentioned, to ascribe generally to all what belongs only to a part.
Those who object that they are Abraham ’ s seed, and have always been free, easily inferred from the words of Christ that freedom was promised to them as to people who were slaves But they cannot endure to have it said that they, who are a holy and elect people, are reduced to slavery For of what avail was the adoption and the covenant, (Rom 9:4,) by which they were separated from other nations, but because they were accounted the children of God? They think, therefore, that they are insulted, when freedom is exhibited to them as a blessing which they do not yet possess. But it might be thought strange that they should maintain that they never were enslaved, since they had been so frequently oppressed by various tyrants, and at that time were subjected to the Roman yoke, and groaned under the heaviest burden of slavery; and hence it may be easily seen how foolish was their boasting.
Yet they had this plausible excuse, that the unjust sway of their enemies did not hinder them from continuing to be free by right. But they erred, first, in this respect, that they did not consider that the right of adoption was founded on the Mediator alone; for how comes it that Abraham’s seed is free, but because, by the extraordinary grace of the Redeemer, it is exempted from the general bondage of the human race? But there was another error less tolerable than the former, that, though they were altogether degenerate, yet they wished to be reckoned among the children of Abraham, and did not consider that it is nothing else than the regeneration of the Spirit that makes them lawful children of Abraham And indeed, it has been too common a vice in almost all ages, to refer to the origin of the flesh the extraordinary gifts of God, and to ascribe to nature those remedies which Christ bestows for correcting nature. Meanwhile, we see how all who, swelled with false confidence, flatter themselves on their condition drive away from them the grace of Christ. And yet this pride is spread over the whole world, so that there is scarcely one person in a hundred who feels that he needs the grace of God.
(235) “ Ceux-la mesmes parlans, qui parloyent auparavant.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(33) They answered himi.e., the Jews who had believed in Him (Joh. 8:31). There is no indication that this answer was made by others standing near, nor would this supposition have been made but for the difficulty of applying some of the words which follow (Joh. 8:40; Joh. 8:44) to those who had ever professedly been believers; but the explanation is to be found in our Lords own warning words in Joh. 8:31. He has tested their faith, and they fail in the first steps of discipleship.
We be Abrahams seed, and were never in bondage to any man.Their pride misinterprets His words, and expresses itself in a boast which passes the limits of historical truth. It had been promised to Abraham, I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies (Gen. 22:17). This seed they were. This promise they interpret of national prosperity. Abrahams seed in bondage! the thought is impossible. As in other cases (comp. Joh. 7:52), they forget part of the facts of history, for they have never learned their lessons. The Egyptian slavery and Babylonian captivity are passed over. That very generation witnessed around them the insignia of Rome, paid taxes to Rome, used the coin of Rome, but it was the policy of the empire to leave to the subject provinces a nominal freedom; and it may be that stress is laid on the words been in bondage, which occur nowhere else in the Gospels. Those then living may have said with truth that they had never been in actual bondage, and the current expectation of the Messiah at that time may have led them to interpret the promise to Abraham specially of themselves.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
33. They answered Many commentators refer this they, not to the many who believed, but to the Jews; the they and them in 14-28. The little episode of 30-32 is thus held as a pleasant parenthesis, and the believers are allowed to be genuine and, perhaps, permanent. But if the they refer to the many, they were already disgusted with his freedom by
truth. Never in bondage The Jewish nation was then in bondage to the Roman power. The freedom of which they speak must have been an ideal freedom, ignoring all acknowledgment of the iron fact of Roman domination. Otherwise, they must mean that they have never been slaves or personal serfs to any slaveholder.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘They answered him, “We are Abraham’s seed and have never been slaves to any man. How do you say that we will be made free?” ’
As Jesus knew that they would His hearers bridled at His words. They prided themselves on the fact that because they were the sons of Abraham, and because they had the Law of God, they above all men were free, because their thoughts were free.
The question here is as to who are the ‘they’ mentioned here. The answer is clearly that it was the Pharisaic group as a whole and not just the believing Judaisers, with Joh 8:31-32 being a parenthesis. The situation here is that with Jesus having addressed a word to the believing Judaisers the remainder come in and attack what He has said. What follows is thus not to be seen as meaning that the believing Judaisers were not genuine in their faith.
If we were to take the ‘they’ of Joh 8:33 to refer to the group of ‘believing’ Judaisers then clearly the implication would be that the majority of them were not willing to hold to their belief when more deeply challenged. Now in some ways it is true that it was more difficult for them than for the common people to fully respond to the words of Jesus because they were so hidebound by their own teaching and ideas, and because this was something that they had to overcome. But there is good ground for thinking that this ‘they’ in Joh 8:33 looks to the Judaisers as a whole, and not just to the responsive ones, for the context demands it. John’s distinctions are not always as clearly spelled out as they could be, possibly deliberately as he tries to make his readers think (compare his varied use of the term ‘disciples’).
The suggestion of not being free jars the Pharisees. The boast of the Pharisees, and indeed of all Jews, was that they were free men because they were the children of Abraham. Whatever the tyranny they were under, they proudly believed and claimed that they had a freedom that came from the fact that they had God’s Law and were ruled by it and that they were the people of the covenant with freedom to live by that Law. Besides this fact, outside interference and subjection was of secondary importance.
And indeed, under the Romans they did have specific rights to practise their own religion exclusively, and thus had reason to consider themselves as religiously free. And this had generally been true through the ages (sometimes their kings had had to bow to pressure from outside, but this had not necessarily always affected the ordinary people). And when they were persecuted they had been willing to die for what they believed in, in order to demonstrate that they were free. Thus they could say, ‘We are descendants of Abraham and have never been in bondage to any man’. This could only apply to them religiously as they well knew, but it was something of which they were proud. They saw themselves as religiously free spirits, especially free from idolatry. So comes the question ‘How can you say that we must be made free?’
Sadly in their case their pride in their ancestry was part of what kept them from Christ (although the problem arose from their interpretation of it). In the case of others it may be pride in national privilege or tradition, blind trust in rites and ceremonies, or the overstressing of some moral code. But for all it can often be the acceptance of half truths that can keep them from the full truth.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Joh 8:33. We be Abraham’s seed, &c. “Then some of those who had professed to believe in him taking it as a high affront, that he should speak as if he thought them to be slaves, said to him in a vaunting manner, We are the descendants of the celebrated patriarch Abraham, who, being a sovereign prince, and a man in covenant with God, entailed all civil and religious freedom upon us, as our birthright; and we never lost it bybeing enslaved to any foreign power, (which was a most gross falsity,) or governed by any laws but our own. What therefore can you mean by pretending to make us free, who are in right and fact so free already?”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Joh 8:33 . ] No others can be the subject, but the , Joh 8:31 . So correctly, Melancthon (“offensi resiliunt”), Maldonatus, Bengel, Olshausen, Kling, B. Crusius, Hilgenfeld, Lange, Ewald, and several others, after the example of Chrysostom, who aptly observes: . John himself has precluded us from supposing any other to be intended, by expressly referring (Joh 8:31 ) to those Jews among the (Joh 8:30 ) who had believed, and emphatically marking them as the persons who conduct the following conversation. To them the last word of Jesus proved at once a stone of stumbling. Hence we must not suppose that Jews are referred to who had remained unbelieving and hostile (as do Augustine, Calvin, Lampe, Kuinoel, De Wette, Tholuck, Lcke, Maier, Hengstenberg), and different from those who were mentioned in Joh 8:31 ( . they , indef.); nor do the words . in Joh 8:37 necessitate this supposition, inasmuch as those might have at once veered round and returned again to the ranks of the opposition, owing to the offence given to their national pride by the words in Joh 8:32 . Accordingly, there is no warrant for saying with Luthardt that the reply came primarily from opponents , but that some of those who believed also chimed in from want of understanding. The text speaks exclusively of .
. .] to which, as being destined to become a blessing to, and to have dominion over, the world (comp. Gen 22:17 f., Joh 17:16 ), a state of bondage is something completely foreign. As every Hebrew servant was a son of Abraham, this major premiss of their argument shows that they had in view, not their individual or civil (Grotius, Lcke, Godet), but their national liberty. At the same time, in their passion they leave out of consideration the Egyptian and Babylonian history of their nation, and look solely at the present generation, which the Romans had, in accordance with their prudent policy, left in possession of the semblance of political independence (Joseph. Bell . vi. 6. 2). This, according to circumstances, as in the present case, they were able to class at all events in the category of non-bondage . Hence there is no need even for the distinction between dominion de facto and de jure , the latter of which the Jews deny (Lange, Tholuck). Selden had already distinguished between servitus extrinseca and intrinseca ( the latter of which would be denied by the Jews). On the passionate pride taken by the Jews in their freedom, and the ruinous consequences it brought upon them, sea Lightfoot, p. 1045. According to Luthardt, they protest against spiritual dependence, not indeed as regards the disposition (B. Crusius), but as regards their religions position , in virtue of which all other nations are dependent on them, the privileged people of God, for their attainment of redemption. But the coarser misunderstanding of national freedom is more in keeping with other misapprehensions of the more spiritual meaning of Jesus found in John (comp. Nicodemus, the Woman of Samaria, the discourse about the Bread of Life); and what was likely to be more readily suggested to the proud minds of these sons of Abraham than the thought of the (comp. Rom 4:13 ), which in their imaginations excluded every sort of national bondage? Because they were Abraham’s seed, they felt themselves as (Nonnus).
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
33 They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
Ver. 33. Were never in bondage ] When yet they were scarcely ever out of bondage to one enemy or another. At this time they were vassals to the Romans. But brag is a good dog. Pride will bud,Eze 7:10Eze 7:10 . Spaniards are said to be impudent braggers and extremely proud, in the lowest ebb of fortune. There is not a more vain glorious people this day under heaven than the Jews (saith Alsted). Antiquum obtinent, old stubborn men, they are no changelings, they fill up the measure of their fathers’ sins.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
33. ] The answerers are the , not some others among the hearers, as many Commentators (Lampe, Kuinoel, De Wette, Lcke, edn. 3) have maintained; see, as a proof of this, Joh 8:36 , addressed to these same persons. They had not yet become , were not yet distinct from the mass of the unbelieving; and therefore, in speaking to them, He ascribes to them the sins of their race, and addresses them as part of that race.
. . ] See Mat 3:9 . The assertion . . was so contrary to historical truth, that we must suppose some technical meaning to have been attached to , in which it may have been correct. The words cannot be meant of that generation only , for connects with . ., and generalizes the assertion.
As usual (see ch. Joh 3:4 ; Joh 4:11 ; Joh 6:52 ), they take the words of our Lord in their outward literal sense. Perhaps this was not always an unintentional misunderstanding.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 8:33 . But this announcement, instead of seeming to the Jews the culmination of all bliss, provokes even in the (Joh 8:31 ) a blind, carping criticism: ; we are the seed of Abraham, called by God to rule all peoples, and to none have we ever been slaves. “The episodes of Egyptian, Babylonian, Syrian, and Roman conquests were treated as mere transitory accidents, not touching the real life of the people, who had never accepted the dominion of their conquerors of coalesced with them,” Westcott. Sayings such as “All Israel are the children of kings” were current among the people. How then could emancipation be spoken of as yet to be given them?
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
John
‘NEVER IN BONDAGE’
Joh 8:33
‘Never in bondage to any man’? Then what about Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Syria? Was there not a Roman garrison looking down from the castle into the very Temple courts where this boastful falsehood was uttered? It required some hardihood to say, ‘Never in bondage to any man,’ in the face of such a history, and such a present. But was it not just an instance of the strange power which we all have and exercise, of ignoring disagreeable facts, and by ingenious manipulation taking the wrinkles out of the photograph? The Jews were perhaps not misunderstanding Jesus Christ quite so much as these words may suggest. If He had been promising, as they chose to assume, political and external liberty, I fancy they would have risen to the bait a little more eagerly than they did to His words.
But be that as it may, this strange answer of theirs suggests that power of ignoring what we do not want to see, not only in the way in which I have suggested, but also in another. For if they had any inkling of what Jesus meant by slavery and freedom, they, by such words as these, put away from themselves the thought that they were, in any deep and inward sense, bondsmen, and that a message of liberty had any application to them. Ah, dear friends! there was a great deal of human nature in these men, who thus put up a screen between them and the penetrating words of our Lord. Were they not doing just what many of us-all of us to some extent-do: ignoring the facts of their own necessities, of their own spiritual condition, denying the plain lessons of experience? Like them, are not we too often refusing to look in the face the fact that we all, apart from Him, are really in bondage? Because we do not realise the slavery, are we not indifferent to the offer of freedom? ‘We were never in bondage’; consequently we add, ‘How sayest Thou, Ye shall be made free?’ So then, my text brings us to think of three things: our bondage, our ignorance of our bondage, our consequent indifference to Christ’s offer of liberty. Let me say a word or two about each of these.
First as to-
I. Our bondage.
We all know that, whether we regard it as we ought or no. We all say Amen to that, when it is forced upon our attention. There is something in us that thwarts aspiration towards good, and inclines to evil.
‘What will but felt the fleshly screen?’ And it is not only a screen. It not only prevents us from rising as high as we would, but it sinks us so low as to do deeds that something within us recoils from and brands as evil. Jesus teaches us that he who commits sin is the slave of sin; that is to say, that an alien power has captured and is coercing the wrongdoer. That teaching does not destroy responsibility, but it kindles hope. A foreign foe, who has invaded the land, may be driven out of the land, and all his prisoners set free, if a stronger than he comes against him. Christianity is called gloomy and stern, because it preaches the corruption of man’s heart. Is it not a gospel to draw a distinction between the evil that a man does, and the self that a man may be? Is it not better, more hopeful, more of a true evangel, to say to a man, ‘Sin dwelleth in you,’ than to say, ‘What is called sin is only the necessary action of human nature’? To believe that their present condition is not slavery makes men hopeless of ever gaining freedom, and the true gospel of the emancipation of humanity rests on the Christian doctrine of the bondage of sin.
Let me remind you that freedom consists not in the absence of external constraints, but in the animal in us being governed by the will, for when the flesh is free the man is a slave. And it means that the will should be governed by the conscience; and it means that the conscience should be governed by God. These are the stages. Men are built in three stories, so to speak. Down at the bottom, and to be kept there, are inclinations, passions, lust, desires, all which are but blind aimings after their appropriate satisfaction, without any question as to whether the satisfaction is right or wrong; and above that a dominant will which is meant to control, and above that a conscience. That is the public men are more and more abasing themselves to the degradation of ministering to the supposed wishes instead of cutting dead against the grain of the wishes, if necessary, in order to meet the true wants, of the people. Wherever some one strong man stands up to oppose the wild current of popular desires, he may make up his mind that the charge of being ‘a bad citizen, unpatriotic, a lover of the enemies of the people,’ will be flung at him. You Christian men and women have to face the same calumnies as your Master had. The rotten eggs flung at the objects of popular execration-if I might use a somewhat violent figure-turn to roses in their flight. The praises of good men and the scoffs of loose-living and godless ones are equally valuable certificates of character. The Church which does not earn the same sort of opprobrium which attended its Master has probably failed of its duty. It is good to be called ‘gloomy’ and ‘sour-visaged’ by those whose only notion of pleasure is effervescent immorality; and it is good to be called intolerant by the crowd that desires us to be tolerant of vice. So, my friends, I want you to understand that you, too, have to tread in the Master’s steps. The ‘imitation of Jesus’ does not consist merely in the sanctities and secrecies of communion, and the blessings of a meek and quiet heart, but includes standing where He stood, in avowed and active opposition to widespread evils, and, if need be, in the protesting opposition to popular error. And if you are called nicknames, never mind! Remember what the Master said, ‘They shall bring you before kings and magistrates’-the tribunal of the many-headed is a more formidable judgment-bench than that of any king-’and it shall turn to a testimony for you.’
II. Now, secondly, this name is the witness to what I venture to call, for want of a better term, the originality of Jesus Christ.
That is one of the most marked, outstanding, and important features in the teaching and in the character of Jesus Christ, that it is absolutely independent of, and incapable of being accounted for by, anything that He derived from the circumstances in which He lived. He was a Jew, and yet He was not a Jew. He was not a Samaritan, and yet He was a Samaritan. He was not a Greek, and yet He was one. He was not a Roman, nor an Englishman, nor a Hindoo, nor an Asiatic, nor an African; and yet He had all the characteristics of these races within Himself, and held them all in the ample sweep of His perfect Manhood.
If we turn to His teaching we find that, whilst no doubt to some extent it is influenced in its forms by the necessities of its adaptation to the first listeners, there is a certain element in it far beyond anything that came from Rabbis, or even from prophets and psalmists. Modern Christian scholarship has busied itself very much in these days with studying Jewish literature, so far as it is available, in order to ascertain how far it formed the teaching, or mind, of Jesus the Carpenter of Nazareth. There is a likeness, but the likeness only serves to make the unlikeness more conspicuous. And I, for my part, venture to assert that, whilst the form of our Lord’s teaching may largely be traced to the influences under which He was brought up, and whilst the substance of some parts of it may have been anticipated by earlier Rabbis of His nation, the crowd that listened to Him on the mountain top had laid their fingers upon the more important fact when they ‘wondered at His teaching,’ and found the characteristic difference between it, and that of the men to whom they had listened, in the note of authority with which He spoke. Jesus never argues, He asserts; He claims; and in lieu of all arguments He gives you His own ‘Verily! verily! I say unto you.’
Thus not only in its form, but in its substance, in its lofty morality, in its spiritual religion, in its revelation of the Father and the Fatherhood for all men, Christ’s teaching as teaching stands absolutely alone.
If we turn to His character, the one thing that strikes us is that about it there is nothing of the limitations of time or race which stamp all other men. He is not good after the fashion of His age, or of any other age; He is simply embodied and perfect Goodness. This Tree has shot up high above the fences that enclose the grove in which it grows, and its leaf lasts for ever.
Run over, in your mind, other great names of heroes, saints, thinkers, poets; they all bear the stamp of their age and circumstances, and the type of goodness or the manner of thought which belonged to these. Jesus Christ alone stands before men absolutely free from any of the limitations which are essential in the case of every human excellence and teacher. And so He comes to us with a strange freshness, with a strange closeness; and nineteen centuries have not made Him fit less accurately to our needs than He did to those of the generation amidst which He condescended to live. Thickening mists of oblivion wrap all other great names as they recede into the past; and about the loftiest of them we have to say, ‘This man, having served his generation, fell on sleep, and saw corruption.’ But Jesus Christ lasts, because there is nothing local or temporary about His teaching or His character.
Now this peculiar originality, as I venture to call it, of Christ’s character is a very strong argument for the truthful accuracy of the picture drawn of Him in these four Gospels. Where did these four men get their Christ? Was it from imagination? Was it from myth? Was it from the accidental confluence of a multitude of traditions? There is an old story about a painter who, in despair of producing a certain effect of storm upon the sea, at last flung his wet sponge at the canvas, and to his astonishment found that it had done the very thing he wanted. But wet sponges cannot draw likenesses; and to allege that these four men drew such a picture, in such compass, without anybody sitting for it, seems to me about the most desperate hypothesis that ever was invented. If there were no Christ, or if the Christ that was, was not like what the Gospels paint Him as being, then the authors of these little booklets are consummate geniuses, and their works stand at the very top of the imaginative literature of the world. It is more difficult to account for the Gospels, if they are not histories, than it is to account for the Christ whom they tell us of if they are.
And then, further, there is only one key to the mystery of this originality. Christ is perfect man, high above limitations, and owing nothing to environment, because He is the Son of God. I would as soon believe that grass roots, which for years, in some meadow, had brought forth, season after season, nothing but humble green blades, shot up suddenly into a palm tree, as I would believe that simple natural descent brought all at once into the middle of the dull succession of commonplace and sinful men this radiant and unique Figure. Account for Christ, all you unbelievers! The question of to-day, round which all the battle is being fought, is the person of Jesus Christ. If He be what the Gospels tell us that He is, there is nothing left for the unbeliever worth a struggle. ‘What think ye of Christ? Whose Son is He?’ The Jews said, ‘Thou art a Samaritan!’ We say, ‘Thou art the Christ; the Son of the living God!’
III. Lastly, the name bears witness to Christ’s universality.
That universality largely arises from the absence of the limitations of which I have already spoken sufficiently. Because He belongs to no one period as regards His character, He is available for all periods as regards His efficacy. Because His teaching is not dyed in the hues of any school or of any age or of any cast of thought, it suits for all mankind. This water comes clear from the eternal rock, and has no taint of any soil through which it has flowed. Therefore the thirsty lips of a world may be glued to it, and drink and be satisfied. His one sacrifice avails for the whole world.
But let me remind you that universality means also individuality, and that Jesus Christ is the Christ for all men because He is each man’s Christ. The tree of life stands in the middle of the garden that all may have equal access to it. Is this universal Christ yours; thine? That is the question. Make Him so by putting out your hand and claiming your share in Him, by casting your soul upon Him, by trusting your all to Him, by listening to His word, by obeying His commands, by drinking in the fulness of His blessing. You can do so if you will. If you do not, the universal Christ is nothing to you. Make Him thine, and be sure that the sweep of His love and the efficacy of His sacrifice embrace and include thee. He is the universal Christ; therefore He is the only Christ; ‘neither is there salvation in any other.’ Through Him all men, each man, thou, must be saved. Without Him all men, every man, thou, can not be saved. Take Him for yours, and you will find that each who possesses Him, possesses Him altogether, and none hinders the other in his full enjoyment of ‘the bread of God which came down from heaven.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
were never. any man, &c. Have been in bondage to no one (App-105) at any time. Thus ignoring all historical facts. These were “the Jews” who believed in Joh 8:31, and thus proved themselves not “believers indeed”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
33.] The answerers are the , not some others among the hearers, as many Commentators (Lampe, Kuinoel, De Wette, Lcke, edn. 3) have maintained;-see, as a proof of this, Joh 8:36, addressed to these same persons. They had not yet become , were not yet distinct from the mass of the unbelieving; and therefore, in speaking to them, He ascribes to them the sins of their race, and addresses them as part of that race.
. .] See Mat 3:9. The assertion . . was so contrary to historical truth, that we must suppose some technical meaning to have been attached to , in which it may have been correct. The words cannot be meant of that generation only, for connects with . ., and generalizes the assertion.
As usual (see ch. Joh 3:4; Joh 4:11; Joh 6:52), they take the words of our Lord in their outward literal sense. Perhaps this was not always an unintentional misunderstanding.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 8:33. , of Abraham) They appeal to Him afresh at Joh 8:52, Abraham is dead and the prophets; and Thou sayest, etc.- , we were in bondage to no man) They speak of their own age and generation; for their forefathers had been in bondage to the kings of Egypt, and of Babylon.-, free) They lay hold of this one expression: they make no objection as to the truth making free. So also at Joh 8:22, they mutilated the preceding words of Jesus [taking no notice of the rest of His words, Ye shall seek Me, and shall die in your sins; they fastened only on, Whither I go, ye cannot come. It was a mixed crowd. Some of them were of a mind inclined towards Jesus; others were of an inimical feeling. Some of them, moved by His preceding words concerning faith, had begun to aspire after faith, but at this turning point drew back.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 8:33
Joh 8:33
They answered unto him,-[Probably not the believing, but the unbelieving Jews.]
We are Abrahams seed, and have never yet been in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?-They did not understand to what the freedom applied, and insisted that since they were the seed of Abraham they were never in bondage to any man so did not need to be made free. It is just as important that we continue as Abraham did to walk in his service as it is that we enter his service; it is just as important that we follow on in faithful obedience to the will of God as it is that we believe in him. Importance is given to faith because faith leads to a continued walk in the words of God. A faith that does not lead to this is a dead faith that brings no good to man. It brings evil because it involves a degree of knowledge of God and his will. He that knows his Masters will and does it not shall be beaten with added stripes because of this knowledge. One who thinks he is helped by faith, when that faith does not lead to a continued life walk in the words of Jesus Christ, is deceived. The purpose and end of that walk is the training and schooling of the spirit of man into a oneness with the Spirit of God.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
They answered him, We be Abrahams seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. I know that ye are Abrahams seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abrahams children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode 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.
This portion of Johns gospel both suggests and answers the question, Is there a personal devil? Our Lord was still in controversy with the ritualistic and legalistic element of the Jewish people who were opposing His teaching in the courts of the temple, where He was ministering at this time. He had brought truth after truth to bear upon them, but on every occasion they had sought to argue Him down instead of opening their hearts to receive the message. And now in answer to what He had previously said, Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (v. 32). They replied, We be Abrahams seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? (v. 33).
It is a striking instance of how men will bolster themselves up, even though their entire history proves far different conclusions. Imagine these men in Jewry saying, We were never in bondage to any man! Even as they spoke, the Romans had them in subjection, and ever since the captivity of Babylon they had been in bondage to one power after another. They may have meant, While we have been subject to Gentile governments, yet our spirits are free. Therefore, we have never been in bondage or been subject religiously to any system of mans devising.
But the Lord Jesus sought to show them that this is not enough. There must be the impartation of divine life, and works accompanying it. And He knew, and they knew, that they were actually slaves to sin. So He answered and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin (v. 34). Whosoever is given to the practice of sin is the slave of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed (vv. 35-36). That is, He told them that it was not enough that they were literally descended from Abraham, but that they must know that deliverance from the power of sin that Abraham knew if they were to be recognized as the children of God.
In contrast to their own condition, He dares to present Himself as the One who never came under the bondage of sin. He says, The Son abideth ever. He was, in very truth, that promised Seed of Abraham through whom all nations were to be blessed. And though the nation as a whole had broken down, and in many cases the name of God was blasphemed among the Gentiles because of their sins and failures, yet He remained the one promised Deliverer of Abrahams lineage who was to bring salvation near. He offers freedom to us today: If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
Let me turn aside for the moment from the exposition of the passage to apply this to the many slaves of sin that are all about us-men and women struggling against evil habits, passions, and desires that hold them in absolute bondage. Again and again they have cried out,
Oh, for a man to arise in me,
That the man that I am might cease to be!
My dear friends, it is possible to be saved from sin, not only from the guilt of sin, but it is possible to be saved from the power of sin through regeneration and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This is what Jesus meant when He said, If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. The truth of which He spoke is the blessed program of regeneration given us in His holy Word. When men believe this message, they are set at liberty because of the new birth. As they go on in fellowship with God, walking in the power of the Holy Spirit, they are not dominated by the lust of the flesh, but they walk in the freedom of the children of God.
The ritualists and the self-righteous never understand this, but are always looking within for deliverance. But deliverance comes from without.
Now the Lord continues to speak to these controversialists. He says, I know that ye are Abrahams seed (v. 37a). Naturally, they came from that particular line. But ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you (v. 37b). And yet He was the One for whom Abraham looked, and all down through the centuries the people of Israel had been waiting for the promised Seed. And in thy seed shall all the nations be blessed (Gen 22:18; Gen 26:4). He was present, and they knew Him not.
He had proven that He was indeed the promised One by the mighty works that He had wrought. Yet here were these self-righteous hypocrites, and they did not recognize Him and so refused to put their trust in Him, the One who had come according to the promise. But ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father (vv. 37-38). He came down here to earth as the Son of the Father, and day by day the Father opened up His Word to Him to do and say the things which He willed. The words that I speak are not Mine, but His that sent Me. I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. Ah, that was rather stinging, that was sharp indeed! He was driving the truth home now-your father: My Father. He puts the two in contrast.
Men speak very glibly today of the universal Fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man. This Book does not speak that way. Some people perhaps will take exception to that, but read the Book and see if you can find such expressions in it. Here are two families indicated: Jesus says, I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. His Father was God; their father was-He will tell them in a moment- not God, but the great enemy of God and man. Here were two families then. His own redeemed ones constitute one family, and those who refuse His grace constitute another family, so we do not have either universal Fatherhood or universal brotherhood. It is perfectly true that one God is the Creator of all men, and God has made all of one blood. But, alas, sin has come in and alienated man from God, and that is why men need to be born again in order that we may be brought into the family of God, that we may look up into His face and say, Our Father which art in heaven (Mat 6:9; Luk 11:2). Do you know the blessedness of this? Do you know what it is to be born of God?
Ye are of your father the devil (Joh 8:44), He said, and oh, how that stirred their indignation! He knew it would, but it was the truth. Sometimes it is necessary to say the thing that will stir the indignation of men and women. Some say we should be very careful never to hurt peoples feelings about their sins. For instance, we should be careful about mentioning divorce, for perhaps some of our listeners have been remarried a half-dozen times, and so their feelings are very easily stirred! We should be very careful not to refer to any differences in doctrine or anything of that kind! There would not be much to mention if one took note of all the prejudices people have.
You have heard of the evangelist who went to a town in Nevada to have some meetings. The minister said to him, Now, my good man, there are certain sins about which you will have to be very careful here. For instance, it would never do to talk about divorce or anything of that kind, for you know this is the great divorce center. You wont dare mention the liquor question, for some of our best paying members are in the liquor business. A great many of our people earn their living by furnishing worldly amusements, so be careful about that. The poor evangelist looked at him and said, Well, of whose sins may I speak? Go for the Piute Indians and their sins, was the reply. They never go to church anyway. It would not do much good, would it, turning loose on people who never hear you? The Lord realized that the people had to be spoken to faithfully about their sins. Some of the greatest Christians I have ever known were first terribly stirred by the messages they heard from the platform, but they came back and heard more until God spoke to them and brought them to Himself.
Jesus said to these objectors, Ye do that which ye have seen with your father. They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abrahams children, ye would do the works of Abraham (vv. 38-39). That is, morally and spiritually, they would do the works of Abraham. Abraham was justified by faith before God and by works before men. They claimed to be the children of Abraham, but were not characterized by righteous living. Now, ye seek to kill me Ye do the deeds of your father (vv. 40-41). That gave them their opportunity. A second time He had spoken in this way. They said to Him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God (v. 41). What did they mean by that? They meant to imply that He was the illegitimate son of Mary of Nazareth. It was their way of throwing back at Him their vile insinuation because they had heard of the virgin birth, and they used it to taunt Him, Gods holy Son.
People say to me that the doctrine of the virgin birth is not touched on in John. Well, you have it there. They were practically throwing it into His face: We were not born of fornication. But the Lord Jesus said to them, If God were your Father, ye would love me (v. 42a). There is a wonderful test: if men love God, they love His Son, or vice versa. If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word (vv. 42-43). That is, you cannot hear, in the sense that you will not hear. You are allowing sin to come in, and so you cannot hear.
Then He comes right out and speaks of that which He had previously indicated, Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode 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 (v. 44).
Now notice how much our Lord has put into one verse in regard to the great doctrine of Satanology. Is there a personal devil, or is the Devil simply the personification of evil? We are often told nowadays that the belief in a personal devil is a relic of the dark ages, and that it is absurd to believe there is such a being. But here is the testimony of Holy Scripture-please carefully consider these verses. He says, I come forth from God. He declares Himself to be the Son of God. Ye are of your father the devil. But might He not have meant, Ye are overcome of evil? Ah, but He goes further. He uses the personal pronoun and says, He was a murderer. He is speaking of a person, and of a person who was not always what he is now. In other words, Jesus is telling us that in this universe there is a foul, malevolent spirit who actuates and moves upon those who do not acknowledge the authority of God. And this evil, malevolent spirit was not always such. He was not always what he is now. He abode not in the truth.
People often ask, If there is a devil, why would a good God create him? A good God did not create a devil. The being that God created was a pure and innocent angel. In Isa 14:12 we read how this angel fell. Who is the one spoken of here? He is called Lucifer, son of the morning. Lucifer means the day star, a glorious being who dwelt in the presence of God. We read of only one archangel, that is, Michael. Lucifer seems to have had a similar place before he fell. How did he fall? Through self-will. Five times he said, I will. I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds: I will be like the most High (vv. 13-14). This created angel dared to aspire to a place of equality with God, if not to crowd God Himself from His throne. And in answer to that fivefold I will, the answer comes ringing down from the skies, Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit (v. 15). So a glorious angel was changed into the Devil. It all began when he abode not in the truth.
In the book of Ezekiel we have another remarkable Scripture. In chapter 28 God is speaking of the prince of Tyre, but back of the prince of Tyre is one whom He calls the king of Tyre, one who dominated the heart of this earthly prince but who himself was more than man. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created (v. 13). Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God. This was something that never could be said of any earthly ruler. These precious stones were used to represent the various aspects of his character. Here was the leader of the heavenly choir. This glorious being piped in the presence of God until sin came in. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee (vv. 14-15). And what that iniquity is, is told us in verse 17, Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.
Lucifer fell through pride. Self-will was the first expression of that pride, and so an angel became the Devil. He is called the Devil, and he is called Satan. Devil means the slanderer and Satan means the adversary, and he combines both in himself. He accuses man to God and God to man. But he is the adversary particularly of God Himself and His blessed Son, and then in a more general way of everything that is of God here on earth. He is not simply here to tempt men. There is that within their own hearts which leads them to sin, but the great work in which he is engaged is in throwing evil reflections upon that which is of God. He is called the accuser of [the] brethren (Rev 12:10). Let us be sure that we are not found in his company. When I hear people making unkind reflections on the people of God, I say to myself, They are doing the Devils work. That is the work he has been engaged in all down through the centuries. Let us seek to take a definite stand against all such evil behavior.
The Devil then is an apostate. He abode not in the truth. He turned away from it. And he is a murderer from the beginning. The word translated murderer here really is manslayer. It is not that his malice is directed against men as such, but he knows that God is a lover of men, and it hurts God to see men turned away from Himself.
There is no truth in him, we are told. When he speaks of a lie, he speaks of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. In the first epistle of Peter we hear the apostle saying, Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world (5:8-9). If we walk in the truth, we need not fear the power of Satan. If we put on the whole armor of God, we can resist him successfully.
But let us not underestimate the power of the enemy. There is a personal devil, he is the prince of this world, and men and women in their unsaved state are subject to his control. Christians are warned not to listen to his suggestions or to walk in his way. To be delivered from his power means to stand against him, faithfully battling for the truth that God has committed to us. When men and women are awakened about their sins, they realize the power of Satan, but, thank God, our Lord Jesus Christ died that He might destroy him that had the power of death and might deliver those who put their trust in Him from the fear of death. Satan tempted man to sin, and by sin came death. Now Satan uses death to terrify and frighten the victims of his own wiles, who, in their folly, have turned away from the path of obedience to God. But the Lord Jesus Christ has abolished death by going through it and coming up in triumph. Now He delivers those who will trust Him from the fear of death. Does the thought of death strike terror to your heart? Do you say, Oh, if I only did not have to face that last great ordeal! Listen to me: if you will put your faith in the One who died and rose again, you will know that death is just the door to life. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me (Joh 14:6). He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life (8:12).
A mighty fortress is our God!
A bulwark never-failing:
Our helper He, amid the flood
Of mortal ills prevailing.
For still our ancient foe
Doth seek to work us woe:
His craft and power are great,
And armed with cruel hate;
On earth is not his equal.
-Martin Luther
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
We be: Joh 8:39, Lev 25:42, Mat 3:9, Luk 16:24-26
and were: Joh 19:25, Gen 15:13, Exo 1:13, Exo 1:14, Jdg 2:18, Jdg 3:8, Jdg 4:3, Ezr 9:9, Neh 5:4-8, Neh 9:27, Neh 9:28, Neh 9:36, Neh 9:37
Reciprocal: Isa 41:8 – the seed Eze 33:24 – but we Luk 3:8 – We Joh 1:13 – not Joh 8:37 – know Rom 2:17 – thou art Rom 4:1 – Abraham Rom 4:11 – father 2Co 11:22 – the seed
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
3
They answered him. This means the ones who had not become believers. They interpreted the statement of Jesus to mean the bondage enforced upon people by man, in the social and political realm. But even from that standpoint, their claim was not correct if they were speaking of Abraham’s descendants as a whole. They had spent four centuries in bondage in Egypt, and 70 years in captivity in Babylon.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
[We be Abraham’s seed, etc.] they were wont to glory of being Abraham’s seed beyond all measure. Take one instance of a thousand:
“It is storied of R. Jochanan Ben Matthias, that he said to his son, ‘Go out and hire us some labourers.’ He went out and hired them for their victuals. When he came home to his father, his father said to him, ‘My son, though thou shouldst make feasts for them, as gaudy as the feasts of Solomon, thou wouldst not do enough for them, because they are the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ ” And yet they confess “the merits of our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, ceased from the days of Hosea the prophet, as saith Rabh; or as Samuel, from the days of Hazael.”
But how came they to join this, “We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man?” Is it impossible that one of Abraham’s seed should be in bondage? The sense of these two clauses must be distinguished: “We are of the seed of Abraham, who are very fond and tenacious of our liberty; and as far as concerns ourselves, we never were in bondage to any man.” The whole nation was infinitely averse to all servitude, neither was it by any means lawful for an Israelite to sell himself into bondage, unless upon the extremest necessity.
“It is not lawful for an Israelite to sell himself for that end merely, that he might treasure up the money, or might trade with it, or buy vessels, or pay a creditor; but barely if he want food and sustenance. Nor may he sell himself, unless when nothing in the world is left, not so much as his clothes, then let him sell himself. And he whom the Sanhedrim sells, or sells himself, must not be sold openly, nor in the public way; as other slaves are sold, but privately.”
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Joh 8:33. They answered him, We be Abrahams seed, and have never yet been slaves to any one: how sayest thou, Ye shall become free? The promise shall make you free cannot but imply that now they have no freedom, but are slaves. This thought they indignantly repel, for they are Abrahams seed! What is the true meaning of the next words is a question much disputed. It is hardly possible that they refer directly to national freedom, for the first words of the Decalogue speak of their deliverance from the house of bondage, and this history had often been repeated. Nor can we think that the Jews are simply appealing to the law which made it impossible for an Israelite to be kept in (continued) bondage. The former supposition involves too bold a falsehood; the latter, too prosaic and strained an interpretation in a context which contains no hint of civil rights. And yet there is truth in both. To be of Abrahams seed and to be a slave were discordant ideas. To Abraham was given the promise that he should be heir of the world (Rom 4:13): the Divine nobility of his descendants was only brought out more clearly by their frequent adverse fortune. Theirs was a religious pre-eminence above all nations of the world,a freedom which no external circumstances could affect National independence was natural (though not always enjoyed), because of this Divinely-given honour: in the same gift of God lay the principle of the Israelites civil freedom. Least of all (they thought) could they, whose boast was that the truth was theirs, be held in a slavery from which the truth should free them.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Observe here, How these carnal Jews understand all that our Saviour said, to be spoken in and after a carnal manner; when he spoke to them before, of eating his flesh and drinking his blood, they understood it grossly of his natural body.
When he speaks to them here of a spiritual freedom from sin, they understand it of a civil freedom from servile bondage and subjection: alledging, They were Abraham’s seed, and never in bondage to any man: which was a manifest untruth, having been in bondage, in their ancestors, to the Egyptians and Babylonians: and in their own persons to the Romans.
But this was not the bondage that Christ meant: but a spiritual slavery and thraldom under the dominion of sin, and power of Satan; for he that committed sin, is the servant of sin: that is, whosoever doth habitually, willfully, deliberately, and constantly, allow and tolerate himself in a sinful course, he is under the servitude and thraldom of sin. Every sinner is a bond-slave; and to live in sin is to live in slavery. And this every man doth till the Son makes him free; then, and not till then, is he freed indeed.
Learn hence, That interest in Christ, and continuance in his doctrine, sets the souls at liberty from all that bondage whereunto it was subject in its natural and sinful state.
O happy exchange, from being the devil’s slaves, to become Christ’s freemen! and also freed from the rigorous exactions and terrible maledictions of the law.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Joh 8:33-36. They answered him Namely, the other Jews that were present, not those that believed, as appears by the whole tenor of the conversation; We be Abrahams seed A person always free, and a peculiar favourite of Heaven; and were never in bondage to any man A bold, notorious untruth. At that very time they were in bondage to the Romans, and their ancestors had been slaves, first in Egypt, and afterward in Assyria and Babylon. How sayest thou, Ye shall be made free Upon becoming thy disciples? Jesus answered, Whosoever committeth sin Greek, , worketh, or acteth known sin; is the servant , the slave; of sin Namely, as far as he knowingly commits it. And the servant Or slave; abideth not in the house for ever That is, as a person who is only a slave in a family, does not abide always in the house of his master, but is liable to be dismissed at his lords pleasure, or transferred to another; much less can you, who are the servants, not of God, but of sin, promise yourselves, that ye shall still, on account of your descent from Abraham, continue in the possession of those privileges, which, by undeserved mercy, you hitherto enjoy; but the Son abideth ever The eldest son and heir of the family continually abides in his Fathers house: and his power and influence there are always increasing. The casting out of Ishmael, though a son of Abraham by the bond-woman, beautifully illustrates this exposition of the passage, and the connection. Dr. Macknight paraphrases the verse thus: As a slave cannot be so assured of his masters favour as to depend upon it, that he shall never be turned out of the family, since it is always his masters right, and in his power, to sell or keep him, as he shall think fit, so my Father can, when he pleases, turn you, who are habitual sinners, out of his family, and deprive you of the outward economy of religion, in which you glory, because through sin you have made yourselves bondmen to his justice. Whereas, if you will become Gods children, you shall be sure of remaining in his family for ever. And the only way to arrive at the blessed relation, is to submit to the authority of his Son, in which case the Son will adopt you as co-heirs with himself. If, therefore, I, who am the only-begotten Son of God, and the heir of all things, and who have power of receiving whom I will into the family, shall make you free You, claiming in virtue of my right and authority, will be free indeed Free from the slavery of sin, the tyranny of Satan, and the bondage of corruption; free to do good, free in respect of your right to the inheritance, and free in your possession of present privileges, remaining in the house of God without danger of being ever thrust out. Archbishop Tillotson is of opinion, that this alludes to a custom in some of the cities of Greece, and elsewhere, whereby the son and heir had the liberty to adopt brethren, and give them the privileges of the family. But I rather imagine, says Dr. Macknight, that the allusion is to something more generally known. For, as in all countries the sons succeed their fathers in the possession of their estates, such slaves as gained the good-will of the son by their obliging behaviour during his minority, were sure to be well treated by him when he came to his estate; perhaps might in time obtain their freedom, and even some small share of the inheritance itself.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Vv. 33, 34. They answered him, We are Abraham’s seed, and have never been slaves of any one; how sayest thou: you shall become free? 34. Jesus answered them, Verily, verily I say to you that whosoever commits sin is a slave [ of sin ].
According to some modern interpreters, those who thus answer Jesus cannot be the believing Jews of Joh 8:30, the more since Jesus charges them in Joh 8:37 with seeking to put Him to death, and, subsequently, calls them children of the devil. Lucke therefore regards Joh 8:30-32 as a parenthesis, and connects Joh 8:33 with the preceding conversation (Joh 8:29). Luthardt thinks that in the midst of the group of well-disposed persons who surrounded Jesus, there were also adversaries, and that it was these latter who at this moment began to speak. Others give to the verb an indefinite subject: They answered Him. But, on all these views, the narrative of John would be singularly incorrect. In reading Joh 8:33, we can only think of the believers of Joh 8:30-32. We shall see that the last words of Joh 8:37, also, do not allow any other application. It was not for no purpose that the evangelist had formed so marvelous a union of words in our Gospel as that of believing Jews. In these persons there were two men: the nascent believerit was to him that Jesus addressed the promise Joh 8:31-32and the old Jew still living: it is the latter who feels himself offended, and who answers with pride (Joh 8:33).
There was in fact a humiliating side in this word: will make you free. It was to say to them: you are not so. Making this step backward, they fell back into solidarity with their nation from which they had only superficially and temporarily separated themselves. The key of this entire passage is found already in these words, Joh 2:23-24 : And many in Jerusalem believed on His name…; but Jesus did not intrust Himself to them. Under their faith He discerned the old Jewish foundation not yet shattered and transformed. In order that the promise of Joh 8:31-32 should have been able to make a chord vibrate in their heart, they must have known experiences like those which St. Paul describes in Romans 7 : the distress of an earnest, but impotent, struggle with sin. Jesus discerned this clearly, and for this reason He spoke to them, in Joh 8:31, of abiding, that is to say, of persevering in submission to His word. There is no confusion in John’s narrative; we must rather admire its sacred delicacy.
The slavery which the hearers of Jesus deny cannot be of a political nature. Had not their fathers been slaves in the land of Egypt, in bondage, in the times of the Judges, to all kinds of nations, then subjected to the dominion of the Chaldeans and Persians? Were they not themselves under the yoke of the Romans? It is impossible to suppose them so far blinded by national pride as to forget facts which were so patent, as de Wette, Meyer, Reuss, etc., suppose; the last writer says: They place themselves at the point of view, not of material facts, but of theory…There was submission to the Roman dominion…., but under protest. But the words: we were never, do not allow this explanation. Hengstenberg, Luthardt, Keil, give to this expression a purely spiritual import; they apply it to thereligious preponderance which the Jews claimed for themselves in comparison with all other nations. This is still more forced. The hearers of Jesus cannot express themselves in this way except from the view-point of the civil individual liberty, which they enjoyed as Jews. Hence the connection between the two assertions: We are Abraham’s seed; we were never in bondage. With a single exception, which was specially foreseen, the law forbade the condition of bondage for all the members of the Israelitish community (Leviticus 25). The dignity of a free man shone on the brow of every one who bore the name of child of Abraham, a fact which assuredly did not prevent the possibil ity that Jewish prisoners should be sold into slavery among the Gentiles (in answer to Keil). The question here is of inhabitants of Palestine such as those who were in conversation with Jesus. These Jews, when hearing that it was the truth taught by Jesus which should put an end to their bondage, could not have supposed that this declaration applied to emancipation from the Roman power. Now as, along with this national dependence, they knew no other servitude than civil or personal slavery, they protested, alleging that, while promising them liberty, Jesus made them slaves. They changed the most magnificent promise into an insult; and, as Stier says, thus they are already at the end of their faith. We can see whether Jesus was wrong in not trusting to this faith.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Verse 33
Seed; descendants.–Were never in bondage. Their pride and self-conceit blinded them to their political as well as to their moral condition; for their whole nation had long been under the iron yoke of the Romans. The very test and distinction of a Pharisee was an absurd and boundless self-complacency, which nothing could disturb.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
8:33 {h} They answered him, We be {i} Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
(h) Some of the multitude, not they that believed: for this is not the speech of men that agree with him, but of men that are against him.
(i) Born and begotten of Abraham.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Jesus assumed that His hearers were slaves, but they emphatically denied being such. They could not have meant that they had never been physical slaves since the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Syrians, and most recently the Romans had all enslaved them. Probably they meant that they had never been spiritual slaves. They viewed themselves as spiritually right with God because of their descent from Abraham with whom God had made a special covenant (cf. Mat 8:12; Mar 2:17; Joh 9:40). They denied that they had any significant spiritual need for liberation. Here were superficial believers in Jesus, believers in His messiahship only perhaps, who were resisting His teaching. They were not abiding in His word and being true disciples of His (Joh 8:31).