John 8:51–52

8:51 I tell you the solemn truth,131 if anyone obeys132 my teaching,133 he will never see death.”134

8:52 Then135 the Judeans136 responded,137 “Now we know you’re possessed by a demon!138 Both Abraham and the prophets died, and yet139 you say, ‘If anyone obeys140 my teaching,141 he will never experience142 death.’143

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131	tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”
132	tn Grk “If anyone keeps.”
133	tn Grk “my word.”
134	tn Grk “he will never see death forever.” The Greek negative here is emphatic. sn 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.
135	tc ‡ 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. NA 27 has the conjunction in brackets, indicating some doubt as to its authenticity.
136	tn Grk “the Jews.” See the note on this term in v. 31. Here, as in vv. 31 and 48, the phrase refers to the Jewish people in Jerusalem (“Judeans”; cf. BDAG 479 s.v. 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).
137	tn Grk “said to him.”
138	tn Grk “you have a demon.”
139	tn “Yet” has been supplied to show the contrastive element present in the context.
140	tn Grk “If anyone keeps.”
141	tn Grk “my word.”
142	tn 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. BDAG 195 s.v. γεύομαι 2).
143	tn Grk “he will never taste of death forever.” The Greek negative here is emphatic.

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