John 8:22

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, οτι εγω ειμι, 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 Lord’s 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 Lord’s 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.”

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 8:22. Μήτι ἀποκτενεῖ ἑαυτόν, 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.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh_8:22. It did not escape the notice of the Jews that in using ὑπάγω 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 ἀποκτενεῖ, as the mode in which they scornfully conceive the ὑπάγειν to take place.

Gehenna being the ὅπου 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.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 8:22 . As before, so now, the Jews fail to understand Him, and ask: Μήτι … ἐλθεῖν ; “Will He kill Himself, etc.?” They gathered from the ὑπάγω 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.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself?--seeing something more in His words than before (Joh 7:35), but their question more malignant and scornful.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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, 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.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(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 Abraham’s 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.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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!’

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I said therefore unto you,.... Because they were from beneath, and of the world, and discovered an earthly, worldly, carnal, yea, devilish disposition, in their conduct towards him:

that ye shall die in your sins; this he had said in Joh 8:21, and now repeats it, and confirms it by the following reason:

for if believe not that I am he; the everlasting and unchangeable I am, the true God, God over all, blessed for ever; the eternal Son of God, God manifest in the flesh, really made flesh, and become incarnate; the true Messiah, the only Saviour of sinners; the one and only Mediator between God and man; the Head of the church, prophet, priest, and King, and the Judge of quick and dead; as also the light of the world he had declared himself to be: these are things that are necessary to be believed concerning Christ; indeed, carnal and unregenerate men may believe all these things; the devils themselves do, and tremble at them; but then they, and so unconverted men, have no faith in them, with an application of them to themselves: true faith in Christ deals not with him in a general way, but in a special regard to a man's self; it is a seeing of Christ for a man's self; it is not an implicit faith, or a believing him to be what he is, merely upon report, but upon sight; it is a going out of the soul to Christ, a renouncing its own righteousness, and a trusting in him alone for life and salvation; it is with the heart, and from it, and is unfeigned; it works by love to Christ, and his people, and is attended with the fruits of righteousness, and a cheerful obedience to the commands and ordinances of Christ. Though perhaps no more than a general faith is here intended, for want of which, and their rejection of Jesus, as the Messiah, the Jews suffered temporal ruin; and had they but believed that Jesus was the Son of God, and true Messiah, they had been saved from that temporal destruction which came upon their nation, city, and temple; but not believing this in a general and notional, way, they perished, as is here threatened:

ye shall die in your sins; in which they were, being defiled with them, guilty before God for them, under the power of them, and liable to punishment for them; and so they remained, and did remain, and were yet in their sins, even until death, when they died in them, and for them, not only a corporeal, but an eternal death: for dying in their sins, these would be found upon them, and they would be charged with them, and must be answerable for them, and consequently endure the punishment of them, which is the second death. Dying in sin, and dying in Christ, are two widely different things. They that die in faith, die in Christ: they that die in unbelief, die in sin; and this is a dreadful dying; see Jos 22:20, where the Targum paraphrases it, "and he, one man", (or alone,) , "did not die in his sins".

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Jews therefore said (were saying one to the other), Will he kill himself, that (because) he saith, Whither I go, thither ye cannot come? This query was one of harsh mockery, and can hardly be exaggerated in malign intent. The suicide was supposed to have his place in Gehenna, According to Josephus, ("Bell. Jud:," 3:8:5) "the darkest regions of Hades would receive the souls of such." The Jews then scoff at his departure as a spontaneous resort to a fate towards which they did rot care or mean to follow him. Edersheim declares this passage of Josephus not to be sustained by rabbinical authority, and he doubts this aspect of their scorn. He limits it to the Jewish guess that Jesus must be contemplating self. murder, and as putting deliberately such a distance between them and him that they could not traverse it. The very fact that they had it in their hearts to destroy him makes it probable that they were looking beyond the act of suicide, either to the hell of popular belief or the hatred of contemporaries. They obviously thought that none but a suicide can determine the time of his departure. Christ proceeded to show them that the reason why his death would separate them from him was a fundamental difference of nature.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

22. Will he kill himself? They understood that he referred to his death, but parried the thought that he would die at their hands. Their words were partly mockery.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

22. μήτι ἀποκτενεῖ ἑαυτόν. 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!’

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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:—ὅσοις δὲ καθʼ ἑαυτῶν ἐμάνησαν αἱ χεῖρες, τούτων μὲν ᾅδης δέχεται τὰς ψυχὰς σκοτιώτερος:—and with the bitterest malice taunt Him with thus being about to go where they, the children of Abraham, could never come. ὁ Ἡρακλέων … φησὶν ὅτι πονηρῶς διαλογιζόμενοι οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι ταῦτα ἔλεγον, καὶ μείζονας ἑαυτοὺς ἀποφαινόμενοι τοῦ Σωτῆρος καὶ ὑπολαμβάνοντες ὅτι αὐτοὶ μὲν ἀπελεύσονται πρὸς τὸν θεὸν εἰς ἀνάπανσιν αἰώνιον, ὁ δέ Σωτὴρ εἰς φθορὰν καὶ εἰς θάνατον ἑαυτὸν διαχειρισάμενος ὅπου ἑαυτοὺς οὐκ ἐλογίζοντο ἀπελθεῖν. 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.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

22. ἔλεγον οὖν οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι, sc. the Jewish objectors.

μήτι ἀποκτενεῖ ἑαυτόν κτλ., “Is He going to kill Himself, that He says, ‘Whither I am going you cannot come’?” This is a quite different rejoinder from that of 7:35, made in reply to the same warning, the occasion and the interlocutors both being different. It has often been suggested that the rejoinder carries a scornful allusion to the belief that the depths of hell were reserved for suicides (cf. Josephus, B.J. III. viii. 5, ᾅδης σκοτιώτερος); but this is not certain. In any case, the Jews speak ironically: “If we cannot follow you, it must be because you will be no longer alive.” The saying of mystery, “Whither I go you cannot come,” which was uttered more than once (7:34, 13:33), naturally provoked different comments from different persons.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Will He kill Himself [μητι αποκτενει εαυτον] ? 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.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.