John 8:40

Joh 8:40. Ἀποκτεῖναι, ἄνθρωπον, to kill, a man) Jesus is wont to entitle Himself the Son of Man; but in this passage, He calls Himself a man: for to this passage corresponds the fact, that at Joh 8:44 He calls the devil a man-slayer [ἀνθρωποκτόνος, a murderer of man]. Therefore the word who seems best to be referred to the me, rather than to a man.—τὴν ἀλήθειαν, the truth) which is precious, as well as otherwise unknown to men, and hated by you. Often the truth and the life are joined, as also a lie and death. The former are peculiar to Christ and believers; the latter, to the devil and the ungodly; Joh 8:44, “Ye are of your father the devil,” etc. “He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own.”—οὐκ, not this) but what was altogether different, and worthy of a lover of the Christ. See below, Joh 8:56, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day,” etc.

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

this did not Abraham--In so doing ye act in direct opposition to him.

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

40. But now you seek to kill me. He proves from the effect, that they are not the children of God, as they boasted, because they oppose God. And, indeed, is there any thing in Abraham that is more highly commended than the obedience of faith? This then is the mark of distinction, whenever we are required to distinguish between his children and strangers; for empty titles, whatever estimation they may procure before the world, are of no account with God. Christ therefore concludes again, that they are the children of the devil, because they hate with deadly hatred true and sound doctrine.

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.

(40) But now ye seek to kill me—i.e., As a matter of fact, in opposition to the conduct which would characterise the true children of Abraham, ye are seeking to kill Me. (Comp. Note on Joh_8:37.)

A man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard (better, which I heard) from God.—The term “a man,” expresses His revelation, by means of human form, of the divine truth which He heard in the pre-human state (Joh_8:38). The crime of seeking to kill Him is aggravated by the fact that He was One who came to tell them truth, and that from God. They seek to destroy the human life which for the sake of humanity He has assumed.

This did not Abraham.—It is usual to explain these words by a reference to Abraham’s receptivity of the divine truth and messengers (see Genesis 12; Genesis 14; Genesis 18; Genesis 22); but they probably point to the whole course of the patriarchal life as directly opposed to the spirit of those who claim to be his children.

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

40. ‘On the contrary, ye seek to commit murder, and a murder of the most heinous kind. Ye would kill One who hath spoken unto you the truth, truth which He learnt from God.’

a man that hath told you] This pointed insertion of ‘man’ possibly looks forward to Joh_8:44, where they are called the children of the great man-slayer, lusting like him for blood. The Lord nowhere else uses this term of Himself.

this did not Abraham] A litotes or understatement of the truth. Abraham’s life was utterly unlike the whole tenour of theirs. What could there be in common between ‘the Friend of God’ (Jas_2:23) and the enemies of God’s Son?

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.

Why do ye not understand my speech?.... Language, idiom, dialect, and form of speaking, in a figurative way; for they did not know what he meant by liberty, and bondage, and by having another father than Abraham, or by his own procession and coming forth from God:

even because ye cannot hear my word; as they had no spiritual discerning and understanding of the doctrine of Christ, which showed them to be carnal, and natural men, and not regenerate ones, and the children of God; so they had an aversion to it, and could not bear to hear it.

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

40 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.

Ver. 40. A man that hath told you the truth] Yea, but you tell them not toothless truth, but such as breeds hatred. He that prizeth (preacheth) truth, shall never prosper by the possession or profession thereof, saith Sir Walter Raleigh. And, truth is a good mistress, saith another; but he that followeth her too close at heels, may hap have his teeth struck out. The hearing of truth galls, as they write of some creatures, that they have fel in aure. Praedicare, nihil aliud est, quam derivare in se furorem mundi, said Luther, who had the experience of it.

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.

Ye seek to kill me - See Joh 8:37.

This did not Abraham - Or such things Abraham did not do. There are two things noted here in which they differed from Abraham:

1. In seeking to kill him, or in possessing a murderous and bloody purpose.

2. In rejecting the truth as God revealed it. Abraham was distinguished for love to man as well as God. He liberated the captives Gen 14:14-16; was distinguished for hospitality to strangers Gen 18:1-8; and received the revelations of God to him, however mysterious, or however trying their observance, Gen 12:1-4; Gen 15:4-6; 22. It was for these things that he is so much commended in the New Testament Rom 4:9; Rom 9:9; Gal 3:6; and, as the Jews sought to kill Jesus instead of treating him hospitably and kindly, they showed that they had none of the spirit of Abraham.

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

You declare by your actions that you are very far from the spirit and temper of Abraham: I am one who, being sent of God, whom you own as your Father, have faithfully revealed the will of God to you, and have never told you any thing but the truth; and this is all my crime, for which you seek to murder me: this was none of your father Abraham’s practice; so as though you have something of Abraham’s blood, yet you have nothing of Abraham’s spirit in you.

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

But now, as things are, ye are seeking plotting, contriving, in subtle ways and by false chargesto kill me. The entire discourse is made more obvious by our Lord"s discovery of the plot of the last few days, and by his allowing his friends and opponents to know that he had penetrated the thin, subtle disguise under which this murderous plan was veiled. The excitement produced by this bold charge among his own true disciples, and those who now for the first time heard of it, by our Lord"s then and there lifting the veil from many a specious question; the look of guilt on the countenances of some, of truculent admission of the charge in the gesture of others; the loud murmurs and confused cries of the crowd, must all be realized to apprehend the tremendous crisis which had now arrived. He aggravated the charge by describing himself as a man who hath declared to you the truth which I heard from God. This is the only place where the Lord speaks of himself as a man". (cf. 1Ti_2:5) He here describes himself as One who is subject and liable to their murderous passiona man, seeing that his eternal Personality has been presented to his antagonists in the form of man. His manhood was the link of relation between the God who sent him, taught him, surrounded and enveloped him, and the consciousness of his hearers. This is the highest representation of the very conception of a Divine commission and a Divine message. They were seeking to stamp out a Divine fire, to drown a heavenly voice, to refuse and trample upon a sacred Messenger. This did not Abraham. The father of the faithful was susceptible to the heavenly voice, he heard and obeyed the voice of Jehovah with childlike docility. (Ge 12 Ge 14 Ge 18 Ge 22) The visions, the commands, the messengers, the manifestations, of God to Abraham were so readily accepted that his faith is a proverb, and his greatest name is "friend of God." The wilful, hurried, malicious treatment of both the Divine Messenger and the sacred message, both of which Jesus declared to have come directly from God, proves the lack of relation with the Life of Abraham. They might be Abraham"s "seed" (sperma) but not his (tekna) children, and he in this sense could not be their "father."

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

40. ‘But, as it is, ye seek to commit murder of the most heinous kind. Ye would kill One who is your fellow-man, and that for telling you the truth, truth which He heard from God.’ The insertion of ἄνθρωπον, which the Lord nowhere else uses of Himself, involves His claim to their sympathy, and perhaps anticipates Joh 8:44, where they are called the children of the great ἀνθρωποκτόνος, lusting like him for blood.

τοῦτο Ἀβ. οὐκ ἐποί. Litotes, or understatement: comp. Joh 3:19, Joh 6:37. Abraham’s life was utterly unlike theirs. What had ‘the Friend of God’ (Jas 2:23) in common with the foes of God’s Son?

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.

40.] There is a distinction between σπέρμα and τέκνα. The former our Lord grants that they were (ver. 37), but the latter (by implication—see below on the construction) He denies them. See Rom 9:7, οὐ γὰρ πάντες οἱ ἐξ Ἰσραήλ, οὗτοι Ἱσραήλ· οὐδʼ ὅτι εἰσὶν σπέρμα Ἁβραάμ, πάντες τέκνα. The latter betokens likeness, true genuine descent in character and habits.

The reading in the text is remarkable as connecting together the present ἔστε and the imperfect ἐποιεῖτε. In such a case there must be a suppressed change of meaning between the protasis and the apodosis. The εἰ ἔστε concedes, in a certain sense: the ἐποιεῖτε denies, by making an assumption at variance with present fact. The sentence is in fact a combination of a protasis of one form with an apodosis of another. It might have been, (a) εἰ ἔστε …, ποιεῖτε; or, (b) εἰ ἦτε …, ἐποιεῖτε. But as it stands, protasis (a) is joined with apodosis (b): and thereby the τέκνα τοῦ Ἀβραὰμ εἶναι in any worthy sense is denied, while in the mere formal sense it is conceded.

τοῦτο, this; not, ‘tale quid:’ and ἐποίησεν, fecit, not ‘fecisset:’ for the statement is one of a fact:—this did not Abraham, as E. V.: see Gen_18.

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

40. νῦν δέ, “but as things are,” ζητεῖτέ με ἀποκτεῖναι: cf. v. 37 and 7:1, 25.

ἄνθρωπον. A difficulty has been found in the use of this word as applied (here only) to Himself by Jesus. Nowhere else in the N.T. is He described as “a man,” for Rom. v. 15 and 1Ti 2:5 both imply that He was ἄνθρωπος in a unique sense. Cf. Act 2:22, Act 17:31, where He is spoken of as ἀνήρ. But it is hypercritical to find offence in this manner of expression. It would be out of place in the writings of a second-century theologian, who had reached the point of seeing the difficulties in the formulation of the doctrine of the Incarnation; but for a first-century writer, who was combating with special care the idea that Christ had not come “in the flesh,” it is quite natural.1 The expression is used sine preiudicio deitatis, and that Jesus should have described Himself as “a person who has spoken the truth to you” in discussion with Jews who did not accept Him as divine is not surprising.

ἥν ἤκουσα παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ. This is the perpetual teaching of Jesus in the Fourth Gospel, sc. that His words reveal the mind of the Father, who taught them to Him; cf. v. 26 and the references given in the note at that place.

τοῦτο Ἀβραὰμ οὐκ ἐποίησεν. Abraham welcomed the heavenly messengers (Gen 18:3); he did not seek to kill them.

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

A man [ανθρωπον] . Used only here by the Lord of Himself. To this corresponds His calling the Devil a manslayer at ver. 44. Perhaps, too, as Westcott remarks, it may suggest the idea of the human sympathy which, as a man, He was entitled to claim from them.

This did not Abraham. In the oriental traditions Abraham is spoken of as "full of loving - kindness."

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