Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 8:22
Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come.
22. Will he kill himself? ] They see that He speaks of a voluntary departure, and perhaps they suspect that He alludes to His death. So with sarcasm still more bitter than the sneer in Joh 7:35 they exclaim ‘Surely He does not mean to commit suicide? We certainly shall not be able to follow Him if He takes refuge in that!’
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Will he kill himself? – It is difficult to know whether this question was asked from ignorance or malice. Self-murder was esteemed then, as it is now, as one of the greatest crimes; and it is not improbable that they asked this question with mingled hatred and contempt. He is a deceiver; he has broken the law of Moses; he is mad, and it is probable he will go on and kill himself. If this was their meaning, we see the wonderful patience of Jesus in enduring the contradiction of sinners; and as he bore contempt without rendering railing for railing, so should we.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 22. Will he kill himself?] They now understood that he spoke concerning his death; but before, Joh 7:35, they thought he spoke of going to some of the Grecian provinces, to preach to the dispersed Jews.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Before they guessed that he would go to the dispersed amongst the Gentiles, Joh 7:35. Now they fancy that he would kill himself; or else speak this in mockery.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
22. Then said the Jews, Will he killhimself?seeing something more in His words than before (Joh7:35), but their question more malignant and scornful.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then said the Jews, will he kill himself?…. Which was not only a wicked, but a foolish consequence, drawn from his words: for it by no means followed, because he was going away, and whither they could not come, that therefore he must destroy himself; this seems to be what they would have been glad he would have done, and suggested the thought that he might do it, in which they imitated Satan, Mt 4:6, under whose influence they now apparently were, and hoped that he would, which would at once extricate them out of their difficulties on his account:
because he sayeth, whither I go ye cannot come: this is no reason at all; for had Christ’s meaning been, as they blasphemously intimate, they might have destroyed themselves too, and have gone after him.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Will he kill himself? ( ;). Negative answer formally expected, but there is a manifest sneer in the query. “The mockery in these words is alike subtle and bitter” (Vincent). It was a different group of Jews in 7:31 who cynically suggested that he was going to work among the Greeks in the Dispersion. Here they infer that Jesus refers to the next world. They suggest the depths of Gehenna for him as the abode of suicides (Josephus, War III. viii. 5). Of course the rabbis could not join Jesus there! Edersheim argues against this view.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Will He kill Himself [ ] ? The mockery in these words is alike subtle and bitter. The interrogative particle, mhti, signifies surely He will not by any chance kill Himself; and the sense of the whole clause is, He will not surely go where we cannot reach Him, unless perchance He should kill Himself; and as that would insure His going to Gehenna, of course we could not go to Him there. The remark displays alike the scorn and the self – righteousness of the speakers.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) ”Then said the Jews, will he kill himself?” (elegon oun hoi loudaioi) “Then the Jews said,” pondering among themselves, just what He had said. (meti apoktenei heauton) “He will not kill himself (commit suicide) will he?”
2) “Because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come.” (hoti legei hopou ego hupago humeis ou dunasthe elthein) “Because he says, where I go you all are not able to come, doesn’t he?” He seemed to say that He was going beyond their reach, to a place they could not slay Him. Though the Jews condemned Him to death and the Roman’s soldiers drove the nails in His hands and feet, He yet, in a true sense gave up His life of His own accord for sin, and that He might return to the Father, Joh 10:18; Luk 23:46; 2Co 5:21
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
22. Will he kill himself? The scribes persevere not only in fearless scorn, but likewise in effrontery; for they ridicule what he had said, that they cannot follow whither he shall go; as if they had said, “If he kill himself, we acknowledge that we cannot accompany him, because we do not choose to do so.” They regarded Christ’s absence as a matter of no moment, and thought that in all respects they would gain a victory over him; and so they bid him begone wherever he pleases. Shocking stupidity! But thus does Satan infatuate the reprobate, that, intoxicated with more than brutal indifference, (222) they may throw themselves into the midst of the flame of the wrath of God. Do we not in the present day behold the same rage in many who, having stupified their consciences, insolently play off their jests and buffoonery on every thing that they hear about the dreadful judgment of God? Yet it is certain that this is an affected or sardonic smile, for they are pierced inwardly with unseen wounds; but all on a sudden, like men bereft of their senses, they burst out into furious laughter.
(222) “ Enyvrez d’une stupidite plus que brutale.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(22) Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself?They see the deeper meaning of His words, and yet cannot see how that meaning is to be fulfilled. He is going away, and He clearly refers to His death. But the issues of life are in the darkness of the future. Who can know the hour of His own departure? There is only one class of persons who can speak with certainty of thus going away, and these are persons who by their own act fix the limit of their own lives.
Because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come.Comp. Note on Joh. 7:35. Then they had asked in scorn if He would go to the Dispersion and teach the heathen? If so, they certainly could not follow Him. Here there is the same scorn. If He intends to go to Hades, He will indeed be beyond their reach. They expect to go to Abrahams bosom: between Him and them there will be the great gulf which no one can pass. (Comp. Notes on Luk. 16:22-26.) Many expositors have seen here a reference to the deeper darkness which, in current Jewish belief, fell on the souls of those who had by their own act passed to the other world. This is supported by the speech of Josephus at Jotapata (Wars, iii. 8, 5). Their words may imply, If He is going to that depth, well may He say Whither I go, ye cannot come. But if this meaning were expressed in their words, we should have expected some reference to it in the answer of our Lord; and if it be expressed at all it is in their words. It has no sanction in thought or word from Him.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
22. Will he kill himself? On a former occasion they had interpreted such an intimation by Jesus as expressing an intention to depart to the Gentiles, (see Joh 7:35😉 now they put a still more malignant construction upon his words. He intends to be a suicide! Of such the Jews, unlike the Greeks and Romans, entertained a supreme horror.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘The Judaisers therefore said, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ‘where I am going you cannot come’?”
Jesus’ statement ‘where I am going you cannot come’ then made them ask themselves whether it was His intention to kill Himself. This is pointed irony. Even while they were seeking His death they were avoiding the issue even among themselves, and pretending that they had no such aims. They still seemed to think that He was not aware of what their true aims were. When men have reached such depths of folly and blindness there is little hope from them. And yet one among their number would one day become the Apostle to the Gentiles.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Joh 8:22-23. Will he kill himself, &c. Our Lord’s answer to this question is, Ye are from beneath: “Such a vile insinuation evidently shews what sort of persons you are, and whence you have derived your original: being from the earth, you are the slaves of earth and heirs of hell, obnoxious to all the evil passions wherewith human nature is infested; and from what you feel in yourselves, you fancy that I am capable of murdering myself; but your thought is foolish, as is evident from hence, that, being actuated by no evil passion, I cannot have the least temptation to commit so gross an act of wickedness. My extraction is heavenly, and my mind pure; and therefore I cannot be guilty of self-murder, or of any other sin.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Joh 8:22 . It did not escape the notice of the Jews that in using He meant a voluntary departure. But that they should not be able to come whither He goeth away, excites in them, not fear and concern on His account (Ewald), but impious mockery; and they ask: Surely he will not kill himself, in that he saith, etc.? In this case, indeed, we shall not be able to reach him! The emphasis rests on , as the mode in which they scornfully conceive the to take place.
Gehenna being the which would follow on such a departure (Joseph. Bell. iii. 8. 5, and see Wetstein and Ewald, Alterth . p. 232). The scorn (which Hengstenberg also groundlessly denies) is similar to that in Joh 7:35 , only much more malicious.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
22 Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come.
Ver. 22. Will be kill himself ] q.d. Then indeed we cannot, because we will not bear him company in so vile an act. A scurrilous jeer; so little did the heart piercing sermons of our Saviour work upon them.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
22. ] It is at least probable that they allude to the idea mentioned by Josephus, himself a Pharisee, in his speech at Jotapata, B. J. iii. 8. 5: , : and with the bitterest malice taunt Him with thus being about to go where they, the children of Abraham, could never come. , , . Orig [124] tom. ixx. c. 4, vol. iv. p. 302. De Wette thinks this too refined, and that such a meaning would, if intended, have been marked in our Lord’s answer.
[124] Origen, b. 185, d. 254
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 8:22 . As before, so now, the Jews fail to understand Him, and ask: ; “Will He kill Himself, etc.?” They gathered from the that the departure He spoke of was His own action, and thought that perhaps He meant to put Himself by death beyond their reach. Many interpreters, even Westcott and Holtzmann, suppose that the hell of suicides is meant by the place where they could not come. This is refuted by Edersheim (ii. 170, note); and, besides, the meaning obviously is, that as they had no intention of dying, His supposed death would put Him beyond their reach.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Jews. See note on Joh 1:19,
‘Will He kill Himself? = Surely He will not (Greek. met) kill Himself?
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
22.] It is at least probable that they allude to the idea mentioned by Josephus, himself a Pharisee, in his speech at Jotapata, B. J. iii. 8. 5:- , :-and with the bitterest malice taunt Him with thus being about to go where they, the children of Abraham, could never come. , , . Orig[124] tom. ixx. c. 4, vol. iv. p. 302. De Wette thinks this too refined, and that such a meaning would, if intended, have been marked in our Lords answer.
[124] Origen, b. 185, d. 254
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 8:22. , whether will He kill Himself?) A most wicked thought: nay, rather, the Jews were about to kill Him. What they mean to say is, that they can find Him anywhere.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 8:22
Joh 8:22
The Jews therefore said, Will he kill himself, that he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come?-They had previously asked: Will he go to the dispersed among the Gentiles to teach? Now they ask: Will he kill himself? [The Jews were slow to comprehend the purpose of Jesus, but surely not so dull as their question implies. Probably the question is asked in scorn. Since he had told them that he was going where they could not come, they probably meant that he was going to Gehenna, where all suicides go, rather than to heaven, where all Pharisees expect to go. They held that the darkest regions of the underworld were reserved for those who were guilty of suicide.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Will: Joh 8:48, Joh 8:52, Joh 7:20, Joh 10:20, Psa 22:6, Psa 31:18, Psa 123:4, Heb 12:3, Heb 13:13
Reciprocal: Luk 13:35 – Ye shall not
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2
Will he kill himself? This was not said in seriousness, for had Jesus meant that, he would not have said they could not follow him; any man can commit suicide. They took this method of “changing the subject,” for they knew Jesus had predicted his own death at the hands of the Jews, but they were unwilling to recognize their connection with the sad deed.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joh 8:22. The Jews therefore said, Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go ye cannot come. Before (chap. Joh 7:35) their answer had been, Will He go to Gentiles? The change here shows how much farther the conflict has advanced. Will He go to the realms of the dead, they ask,to that darkest and most dreadful region reserved for those who take their own life, a region where true Israelites cannot come? Their ignorance of themselves is as profound as their ignorance of Jesus. Jesus had made His meaning plain (chap. Joh 7:33), but they wilfully blind themselves. Hence only one answer is possible now.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Joh 8:22-24. Then said the Jews Showing at once the great perverseness of their disposition, and their contempt of his declaration; will he kill himself? &c. Thus they made a jest of his threatening, and instead of trembling at his word, turned it into ridicule. He said, Ye are from beneath The slaves of earth, and the heirs of hell; I am from above I am from heaven, and shall quickly return thither; ye are of this world And your treasure and hearts are here; I am not of this world My thoughts and affections are set upon that celestial state and place from whence I came, and I incessantly labour to conduct men thither. But, as to you, I labour in vain. I said, therefore, that ye shall die in your sins
And it is really a great and awful truth, and deserves another kind of regard than you give it; for if ye believe not that I am he Greek, , that I am, that is, the person whom I have represented myself to be, namely, the bread of life, the heavenly manna, the light of the world, the Messiah. For there is evidently an ellipsis in the words, to be supplied by comparing them with Joh 8:12. See Joh 13:19; Mar 13:6; Act 13:25, where exactly the same phrase occurs. Ye shall die in your sins And therefore will be, in effect, the murderers of your own souls. What follows shows this to have been our Lords meaning; though he did not express himself fully, having handled these matters before at great length, in this and other discourses. It is justly observed by Dr. Doddridge here, that the repetition of the threatening from Joh 8:21 is a very awful rebuke to the folly of their answer, Joh 8:22 : as if our Lord had said, It very ill becomes you to trifle and amuse yourselves with such silly and spiteful turns, when your life, even the life of your souls, is at stake; and to talk of my killing myself, when, by your unbelief and impenitency, you are plunging yourselves into eternal death! Thus do those passages in our Lords discourses, which to a careless reader might seem flat tautologies, appear, on an attentive review, to be animated with the most penetrating spirit, and to be full of divine dignity.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jesus’ hearers wondered if He was speaking about taking His own life. In Joh 7:34-35 they wondered if He was talking about going on a mission to the Gentile world. In both cases they did not grasp that Jesus was speaking of spiritual rather than physical spheres of reality. However these people again spoke better than they realized. Jesus’ departure would involve His death, not as a suicide but as a sacrifice for sin. Consequently their words here are an ironic prophecy of Jesus’ death (cf. Joh 11:49-50). [Note: Hoskyns, p. 334.]