John 8 - NIV First Century Study Bible

8:1–11 A woman caught in adultery. This passage was likely not in John’s original Gospel. However, it does reflect some interesting details about ancient Judaism that lend credibility to the story’s antiquity. It’s important to understand that the Pharisees, those questioning Jesus, probably did not support capital punishment, even though the Torah commands death for adultery (for both people involved). This appears to have been a test as to how Jesus, a teacher of mercy, interpreted the harshest commandments in the Bible (see notes on Lev 20:9–16; Nu 5:27).

8:6 Started to write on the ground. It’s possible this was a physical allusion to Jer 17:13: “Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water.”

8:12 I am the light of the world. This line is probably still connected to the Festival of Tabernacles (Hebrew sukkot) (see note on Jn 7:37). Isaiah also used light as a symbol for the salvation of the Gentiles (see Isa 49:6).

8:33 Never been slaves of anyone. This was echoed in the words of the Zealot leader Eleazar ben Yair in the final days of resistance against the Romans at the fortress of Masada: “Long ago we determined to be slaves to neither the Romans nor anyone else, save God.” (Josephus, Wars, 7.8.6.)

8:39 Do what Abraham did. The Mishnah says, “A good eye and a humble spirit and a lowly soul—[they in whom are these] are the disciples of Abraham our father . . . The disciples of Abraham our father enjoy this world and inherit the world to come.” (Mishnah Avot 5:19.) Instead of being disciples of Abraham, Jesus’ opponents were looking for a way to kill him. Jesus compared them with the devil (see v. 44) and was probably alluding to Cain’s murder of his own brother.

8:58 Before Abraham was born, I am! There are several key “I am” metaphors in John’s Gospel, including but not limited to: the bread of life, the light of the world, the gate, the Good Shepherd, the resurrection and the life, the way and the truth and the life, and the true vine (see also, for example, 4:26; 6:20). (See Jn 6:35; 8:12; 10:7; 10:11; 11:25; 14:6; 15:1.) His most mysterious use of “I am” is here. Jesus was not saying “I was” but was likely referencing the divine name: “I am who I am” (Ex 3:14; see the article “What Is God’s Name?” here). Because Jesus preached in Aramaic (or possibly Hebrew) and the Gospel of John was written in Greek, what Jesus said exactly remains elusive. The Greek phrase used here (ego eimi), may have been a divine name for God in its own right, as evidenced in the Septuagint translation (the pre-Christian Greek translation of the Old Testament) of Isa 43:25. (See Brown, John I–XII, 29:536.) Whatever Jesus uttered, the context suggests that his audience understood his words as blasphemous and deserving death, probably a violation of misusing God’s name (see Lev 24:16) or implying some kind of equality with God. The church fathers understood Jesus as claiming preexistent “being” on par with God. John Chrysostom wrote, “As the Father uses this expression, I Am, so does Christ; for it signifies continuous Being, irrespective of all time.” (Chrysostom, Homily 55, quoted in Schaff and Wace, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: First Series, 14:198.)