John 8:48–58

Footnotes

1. 121 Grk “the Jews.” See the note on this term in v. . Here the phrase refers to the Jewish people in Jerusalem (“Judeans”; cf. Ἰουδαῖος 2.e) who had been listening to Jesus’ teaching in the temple courts (8:20) and had initially believed his claim to be the Messiah (cf. 8:31). They had become increasingly hostile as Jesus continued to teach. Now they were ready to say that Jesus was demon-possessed.
2. 122 Grk “answered and said to him.”
3. 123 Grk “Do we not say rightly.”
4. 124 Grk “and have a demon.” It is not clear what is meant by the charge της εἶ σὺ καὶ δαιμόνιον ἔχεις (Samaritēs ei su kai daimonion echeis). The meaning could be “you are a heretic and are possessed by a demon.” Note that the dual charge gets one reply (John 8:49). Perhaps the phrases were interchangeable: Simon Magus (Acts 8:14–24) and in later traditions Dositheus, the two Samaritans who claimed to be sons of God, were regarded as mad, that is, possessed by demons.
5. 125 Grk “I do not have a demon.”
6. 126 “Yet” is supplied to show the contrastive element present in the context.
7. 127 Grk “I am not seeking.”
8. 128 Grk “my glory.”
9. 129 Grk “who seeks.”
10. 130 Or “will be the judge.”
11. 131 Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”
12. 132 Grk “If anyone keeps.”
13. 133 Grk “my word.”
14. 134 Grk “he will never see death forever.” The Greek negative here is emphatic. Those who keep Jesus’ words will not see death because they have already passed from death to life (cf. 5:24). In Johannine theology eternal life begins in the present rather than in the world to come.
15. 135 Important and early witnesses (𝔓66 א B C W Θ 579 it) lack the conjunction here, while other witnesses read οὖν (oun, “therefore”; 𝔓75 D L Ψ 070 f1, 13 33 𝔐 lat). This conjunction occurs in John some 200 times, far more than in any other NT book. Even though the most important Johannine papyrus (𝔓75) has the conjunction, the combination of 𝔓66 א B for the omission is even stronger. Further, the reading seems to be a predictable scribal emendation. In particular, οὖν is frequently used with the plural of εἶπον (eipon, “they said”) in John (in this chapter alone, note vv. 13, 39, 48, 57, and possibly 41). On balance, it is probably best to consider the shorter reading as authentic, even though “Then” is virtually required in translation for English stylistic reasons. has the conjunction in brackets, indicating some doubt as to its authenticity.
16. 136 Grk “the Jews.” See the note on this term in v. . Here, as in vv. 31 and 48, the phrase refers to the Jewish people in Jerusalem (“Judeans”; cf. Ἰουδαῖος 2.e) who had been listening to Jesus’ teaching in the temple courts (8:20) and had initially believed his claim to be the Messiah (cf. 8:31).
17. 137 Grk “said to him.”
18. 138 Grk “you have a demon.”
19. 139 “Yet” has been supplied to show the contrastive element present in the context.
20. 140 Grk “If anyone keeps.”
21. 141 Grk “my word.”
22. 142 Grk “will never taste.” Here the Greek verb does not mean “sample a small amount” (as a typical English reader might infer from the word “taste”), but “experience something cognitively or emotionally; come to know something” (cf. γεύομαι 2).
23. 143 Grk “he will never taste of death forever.” The Greek negative here is emphatic.
24. 144 Questions prefaced with μή (mē) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end in English (here the tag is “are you?”).
25. 145 Grk “Jesus answered.”
26. 146 Grk “is nothing.”
27. 147 The word “people” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied in English to clarify the plural Greek pronoun and verb.
28. 148 Here καί (kai) has been translated as “Yet” to indicate the contrast present in the context.
29. 149 Grk “If I say, ‘I do not know him.’ ”
30. 150 Grk “I keep.”
31. 151 Grk “his word.”
32. 152 Or “rejoiced greatly.”
33. 153 What is the meaning of Jesus’ statement that the patriarch Abraham “saw” his day and rejoiced? The use of past tenses would seem to refer to something that occurred during the patriarch’s lifetime. Genesis Rabbah 44:25ff, (cf. 59:6) states that Rabbi Akiba, in a debate with Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai, held that Abraham had been shown not this world only but the world to come (this would include the days of the Messiah). More realistically, it is likely that Gen 22:13–15 lies behind Jesus’ words. This passage, known to rabbis as the Akedah (“Binding”), tells of Abraham finding the ram which will replace his son Isaac on the altar of sacrifice—an occasion of certain rejoicing.
34. 154 Grk “Then the Jews.” See the note on this term in v. . Here, as in vv. 31, 48, and 52, the phrase refers to the Jewish people in Jerusalem (“Judeans”; cf. Ἰουδαῖος 2.e) who had been listening to Jesus’ teaching in the temple courts (8:20) and had initially believed his claim to be the Messiah (cf. 8:31). They have now become completely hostile, as John 8:59 clearly shows.
35. 155 Grk “said to him.”
36. 156 Grk ‘You do not yet have fifty years” (an idiom).
37. 157 Grk “And have.”
38. 158 Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”
39. 159 Grk “before Abraham was.”
40. 160 I am! is an explicit claim to deity. Although each occurrence of the phrase “I am” in the Fourth Gospel needs to be examined individually in context to see if an association with Exod 3:14 is present, it seems clear that this is the case here (as the response of the Jewish authorities in the following verse shows).