Giovanni 8:48 Commento

In this chapter we have, I. Christ's evading the snare which the Jews laid for him, in bringing to him a woman taken in adultery (Joh 8:1-11). II. Divers discourses or conferences of his with the Jews that cavilled at him, and sought occasion against him, and made every thing he said a matter of controversy. 1. Concerning his being the light of the world (Joh 8:12-20). 2. Concerning the ruin of the unbelieving Jews (Joh 8:21-30). 3. Concerning liberty and bondage (Joh 8:31-37). 4. Concerning his Father and their father (Joh 8:38-47). 5. Here is his discourse in answer to their blasphemous reproaches (Joh 8:48-50). 6. Concerning the immortality of believers (Joh 8:51-59). And in all this he endured the contradiction of sinners against himself.

Here is, I. The malice of hell breaking out in the base language which the unbelieving Jews gave to our Lord Jesus. Hitherto they had cavilled at his doctrine, and had made invidious remarks upon it; but, having shown themselves uneasy when he complained (Joh 8:43, Joh 8:47) that they would not hear him, now at length they fall to downright railing, Joh 8:48. They were not the common people, but, as it should seem, the scribes and Pharisees, the men of consequence, who, when they saw themselves convicted of an obstinate infidelity, scornfully turned off the conviction with this: Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? See here, see it and wonder, see it and tremble, 1. What was the blasphemous character commonly given of our Lord Jesus among the wicked Jews, to which they refer. (1.) That he was a Samaritan, that is, that he was an enemy to their church and nation, one that they hated and could not endure. Thus they exposed him to the ill will of the people, with whom you could not put a man into a worse name than to call him a Samaritan. If he had been a Samaritan, he had been punishable, by the beating of the rebels (as they called it), for coming into the temple. They had often enough called him a Galilean - a mean man; but as if that were not enough, though it contradicted the other, they will have him a Samaritan - a bad man. The Jews to this day call the Christians, in reproach, Cuthaei-Samaritans. Note, Great endeavours have in all ages been used to make good people odious by putting them under black characters, and it is easy to run that down with a crowd and a cry which is once put into an ill name. Perhaps because Christ justly inveighed against the pride and tyranny of the priests and elders, they hereby suggest that he aimed at the ruin of their church, in aiming at its reformation, and was falling away to the Samaritans. (2.) That he had a devil. Either, [1.] That he was in league with the devil. Having reproached his doctrine as tending to Samaritanism, here they reflect upon his miracles as done in combination with Beelzebub. Or, rather [2.] That he was possessed with a devil, that he was a melancholy man, whose brain was clouded, or a mad man, whose brain was heated, and that which he said was no more to be believed than the extravagant rambles of a distracted man, or one in a delirium. Thus the divine revelation of those things which are above the discovery of reason have been often branded with the charge of enthusiasm, and the prophet was called a mad fellow, Kg2 9:11; Hos 9:7. The inspiration of the Pagan oracles and prophets was indeed a frenzy, and those that had it were for the time beside themselves; but that which was truly divine was not so. Wisdom is justified of her children, as wisdom indeed. 2. How they undertook to justify this character, and applied it to the present occasion: Say we not well that thou art so? One would think that his excellent discourses should have altered their opinion of him, and have made them recant; but, instead of this, their hearts were more hardened and their prejudices confirmed. They value themselves on their enmity to Christ, as if they had never spoken better than when they spoke the worst they could of Jesus Christ. Those have arrived at the highest pitch of wickedness who avow their impiety, repeat what they should retract, and justify themselves in that for which they ought to condemn themselves. It is bad to say and do ill, but it is worse to stand to it; I do well to be angry. When Christ spoke with so much boldness against the sins of the great men, and thereby incensed them against him, those who were sensible of no interest but what is secular and sensual concluded him beside himself, for they thought none but a madman would lose his preferment, and hazard his life, for his religion and conscience. II. The meekness and mercifulness of Heaven shining in Christ's reply to this vile calumny, Joh 8:49, Joh 8:50. 1. He denies their charge against him: I have not a devil; as Paul (Act 26:25), I am not mad. The imputation is unjust; "I am neither actuated by a devil, nor in compact with one;" and this he evidenced by what he did against the devil's kingdom. He takes no notice of their calling him a Samaritan, because it was a calumny that disproved itself, it was a personal reflection, and not worth taking notice of: but saying he had a devil reflected on his commission, and therefore he answered that. St. Augustine gives this gloss upon his not saying any thing to their calling him a Samaritan - that he was indeed that good Samaritan spoken of in the parable, Luk 10:33. 2. He asserts the sincerity of his own intentions: But I honour my Father. They suggested that he took undue honours to himself, and derogated from the honour due to God only, both which he denies here, in saying that he made it his business to honour his Father, and him only. It also proves that he had not a devil; for, if he had, he would not honour God. Note, Those who can truly way that they make it their constant care to honour God are sufficiently armed against the censures and reproaches of men. 3. He complains of the wrong they did him by their calumnies: You do dishonour me. By this it appears that, as man, he had a tender sense of the disgrace and indignity done him; reproach was a sword in his bones, and yet he underwent it for our salvation. It is the will of God that all men should honour the Son, yet there are many that dishonour him; such a contradiction is there in the carnal mind to the will of God. Christ honoured his Father so as never man did, and yet was himself dishonoured so as never man was; for, though God has promised that those who honour him he will honour, he never promised that men should honour them. 4. He clears himself from the imputation of vain glory, in saying this concerning himself, Joh 8:50. See here, (1.) His contempt of worldly honour: I seek not mine own glory. He did not aim at this in what he had said of himself or against his persecutors; he did not court the applause of men, nor covet preferment in the world, but industriously declined both. He did not seek his own glory distinct from his Father's, nor had any separate interest of his own. For men to search their own glory is not glory indeed (Pro 25:27), but rather their shame to be so much out in their aim. This comes in here as a reason why Christ made so light of their reproaches: "You do dishonour me, but cannot disturb me, shall not disquiet me, for I seek not my own glory." Note, Those who are dead to men's praise can safely bear their contempt. (2.) His comfort under worldly dishonour: There is one that seeketh and judgeth. In two things Christ made it appear that he sought not his own glory; and here he tells us what satisfied him as to both. [1.] He did not court men's respect, but was indifferent to it, and in reference to this he saith, "There is one that seeketh, that will secure and advance, my interest in the esteem and affections of the people, while I am in no care about it." Note, God will seek their honour that do not seek their own; for before honour is humility. [2.] He did not revenge men's affronts, but was unconcerned at them, and in reference to this he saith, "There is one that judgeth, that will vindicate my honour, and severely reckon with those that trample upon it." Probably he refers here to the judgments that were coming upon the nation of the Jews for the indignities they did to the Lord Jesus. See Psa 37:13-15. I heard not, for thou wilt hear. If we undertake to judge for ourselves, whatever damage we sustain, our recompence is in our own hands; but if we be, as we ought to be, humble appellants and patient expectants, we shall find, to our comfort, there is one that judgeth.

Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives. Which lay eastward of Jerusalem, about a mile from it; hither Christ went on the evening of the last day of the feast of tabernacles; partly to decline the danger, and avoid the snares the Jews might lay for him in the night season; having been disappointed and confounded in the daytime; and it may be for the sake of recreation and diversion, to sup with his dear friends Lazarus, Martha, and Mary, who lived at Bethany, not far from this mount; and chiefly for private prayer to God, on account of himself as man, and for his disciples, and for the spread of his Gospel, and for the enlargement of his interest; this being his common and usual method, Luk 21:37. . John 8:2 joh 8:2 joh 8:2 joh 8:2And early in the morning he came again into the temple,.... Which shows his diligence, constancy, and assiduity, in his ministerial work, as well as his courage and intrepidity; being fearless of his enemies, though careful to give them no advantage against him, before his time: and all the people came unto him; which also commends the industry and diligence of his hearers, who were forward to hear him, and were early at the temple for that purpose, and that in great numbers: and he sat down and taught them; he sat, as his manner was; See Gill on Mat 5:1; and taught them as one having authority, and such doctrine, and in such a manner, as never man did; with all plainness, boldness, and freedom.

Verily, verily, I say unto you,.... This is truth, and may be depended upon, as coming from the "Amen", and faithful witness: if a man keep my saying; or doctrine, receives the Gospel in the love of it, obeys it from his heart, and cordially embraces and firmly believes it; and retains and holds it fast, having a spiritual and comfortable experience of the doctrines of Christ, and yielding a cheerful and ready obedience to his commands and ordinances, in faith and love: he shall never see death; the second death, eternal death, which is an everlasting separation of a man, body and soul, from God: this death shall have no power on such a person, he shall never be hurt by it; and though he dies a corporeal death, that shall not be a curse, a penal evil to him; nor shall he always lie under the power of it, but shall rise again, and live in soul and body, for ever with the Lord: seeing and tasting death, as in Joh 8:52, are Hebraisms expressive of dying.

The parable in the Gospel of Luke is about a man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves. The priest and the Levite passed by him, but the Samaritan came on him on his journey, saw him, had compassion, approached him and bound up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. Now, if someone is able to prove that what is said about the Samaritan who healed this man who was half-dead and who had fallen among thieves refers to one other than the Savior, he will also show why the Savior did not deny that he was a Samaritan.

He is called a Samaritan and a demoniac, but he saves him that came down from Jerusalem and fell among thieves. The demons acknowledge him, and yet he drives them out and runs legions of foul spirits into the sea and sees the prince of the demons falling like lightning.

A Shameless and a forward thing is wickedness, and when it ought to hide itself, then is it the fiercer. As was the case with the Jews. For when they ought to have been pricked by what was said, admiring the boldness and conclusiveness of the words, they even insult Him, calling Him a Samaritan, and saying that He had a devil, and they ask, "Said we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?" Because when He uttereth anything sublime, this is thought among the very senseless to be madness. Yet nowhere before did the Evangelist say that they called Him "a Samaritan"; but from this expression it is probable that this had been often asserted by them.

"Thou hast a devil," saith some one. Who is it that hath a devil? He that honoreth God, or he that insulteth Him that honoreth Him? What then saith Christ, who is very meekness and gentleness? "I have not a devil, but I honor Him that sent me." Where there was need to instruct them, to pull down their excessive insolence, to teach them not to be proud because of Abraham, He was vehement; but when it was needful that He being insulted should bear it, He used much gentleness. When they said, "We have God and Abraham for our Father," He touched them sharply; but when they called Him a demoniac, He spake submissively, thus teaching us to avenge insults offered to God, but to overlook such as are offered to ourselves.

In this Samaritan the Lord Jesus Christ wanted us to understand himself. "Samaritan," you see, means "guardian." … He could have answered, "I am not a Samaritan, and I do not have a devil." What he did answer was, "It is not I who have a devil." What he answered, he refuted; what he kept quiet about, he confirmed. He denied he had a devil, knowing himself to be the expeller of devils; he did not deny that he was the guardian of the weak.

When the Jews had said, "Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?" of these two charges cast at Him, He denied the one, but not the other. For He answered and said, "I have not a devil." He did not say, I am not a Samaritan; and yet the two charges had been made. Although He returned not cursing with cursing, although He met not slander with slander, yet was it proper for Him to deny the one charge and not to deny the other. And not without a purpose, brethren. For Samaritan means keeper. He knew that He was our keeper. For "He that keepeth Israel neither slumbereth nor sleepeth;" and, "Except the Lord keep the city, they wake in vain who keep it." He then is our Keeper who is our Creator. Finally, that you may know more fully the hidden reason why He ought not to have denied that He was a Samaritan, call to mind that well-known parable, where a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who wounded him severely, and left him half dead on the road. A priest came along and took no notice of him. A Levite came up, and he also passed on his way. A certain Samaritan came up - He who is our Keeper. He went up to the wounded man. He exercised mercy, and did a neighbor's part to one whom He did not account an alien.

Meet is it again to bewail the madness of the Jews and the exceedingness of their folly. For they are taken by their own voice, like wild beasts when they spring upon the hand of them who are slaying them, themselves against themselves lending impetus to the steel. For when reproved of lying as their habit and custom which had grown up with them, they immediately show that it is true, and they are cut at hearing from the Saviour that they are not of God, yet immediately without an interval do they show in themselves most exact image of the devil's wickedness. For a Samaritan and possessed do they dare to say that He is Who is sprung God of God, themselves rather having in themselves the bitter and God-opposing devil: for no man saith Anathema Jesus, save in Beelzebub, as Paul saith. Liars therefore and insulters and railers are they hereby too found, and used to fight against God, they shall pay fit penalty to the Judge That can do all. We must enquire again here too the reason why they call the Lord both a Samaritan and possessed. For the prefacing, Do not WE well say, indicates that for some reason they vilify Him both as a Samaritan, and the other thing too which their utterance dared. They call Him therefore a Samaritan as being indifferent to the commands of the Law and recking nought of the breach of the Sabbath. For among the Samaritans there is no exact Judaism but their worship is mixed with foreign and Greek habits. Or in another way do they say that He is a Samaritan, seeing it was the habit of the Samaritans to falsely testify purity of themselves and to condemn the rest as defiled. On this pretext I suppose, the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans, as it is written, and refuse also to mingle with some others, loathing after a sort the defilement thence arising, since thus to prate seems to them right. And the Lord condemning the ill-disposition of the Jews, used to call them devil's children, and to Himself He testifies entire blamelessness in regard to sin and utter purity saying, Who of you is convicting Me of sin? for this was the language of one who was plainly ascribing to Himself the uttermost purity, by reason that He could not fall into sin, and by calling the Jews Satan's children was condemning them as defiled and having their mind filled with all uncleanness, as is also true. On these accounts therefore do they call Him a Samaritan, they say again that He is possessed, because it is the wont of devils to transfer to themselves the honour due to God and recklessly to seize on God's glory. And this very thing they suppose that Christ does, when being man He puts Himself as it were into the place of God saying, He that is of God heareth God's words: for He is intimating (they say) of His own words that they are such. Of their railing, their blasphemy rather, against Him such is the Jews' plea and occasion for saying those things which pledged unto them the eternal fire. And it comes to me to wonder at this also. They angered because they were often called devil's children and liars, show in act that the charge belongs to them, which they ought rather by inclining themselves to virtue to have rubbed off. For their love of railing and saying that things belong to any which do not belong to them, are most fit not for those who have been enrolled among God's children but among the devil's children. And the wretched ones not only rail, lying against their own head, not to say against Christ, but they also affirm that they are doing so well, not so much as condemning their wickedness: and this is the proof of the completest blindness.

(ut sup.) Let him then, who would understand God's words, ask himself whether he hears them with the ears of his heart. For there are some who do not deign to hear God's commands even with their bodily ears; and there are others who do this, but do not embrace them with their heart's desire; and there are others again who receive God's words readily, yea and are touched, even to tears: but who afterwards go back to their sins again; and therefore cannot be said to hear the word of God, because they neglect to practise it.

But what the Truth says about the reprobate, the reprobate themselves show about themselves by their own works. For it follows: "The Jews therefore answered and said to him: Do we not say rightly that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?"

The Samaritans were hated by the Jews; they lived in the land that formerly belonged to the ten tribes, who had been carried away.

Or they called Him a Samaritan, because He transgressed the Hebrew ordinances, as that of the sabbath: the Samaritans not being correct observers of the law. And they suspected Him of having a devil, because He could disclose what was in their thoughts. When it was that they called Him a Samaritan, the Evangelist no where says: a proof that the Evangelists left out many things.

So meekly does the Lord speak to them, yet they permit themselves insolence. They say: "Do we not speak rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon in You?" They called Him a Samaritan as a violator of Jewish customs, for example, the Sabbath rest, since the Samaritans did not strictly observe the Jewish law. And they call Him demon-possessed, perhaps in the same way as they said that "He casts out demons by the prince of demons" (Luke 11:15). For all who slandered Him by saying that He cast out demons by the power of Beelzebub were saying that He had in Himself the demon of Beelzebub, by which He also performed miracles. And since He revealed their thoughts and desires, they perhaps considered Him demon-possessed also because they thought that the secrets of their hearts were disclosed to Him by demons. When did they call Him a Samaritan? The Evangelist nowhere mentioned this. From this it is evident that the Evangelists did not write down everything, but omitted much, as we ourselves have noted about this very thing in another place.

Next he rejects the rejoinder made by the Jews. First, the Evangelist mentions this rejoinder; and secondly, our Lord's rejection of it (v 49). In their response the Jews charge Christ with two things: first, that he is a Samaritan, when they say, Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan? Secondly, that he has a demon, when they add, and have a demon? In saying, Are we not right? we can infer that they often reproached Christ this way. In fact, concerning the second, that he has a demon, we read in Matthew, "It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that he casts out demons" (12:24). But this is the only place where it is recorded that they called him a Samaritan, although they probably said it often: for many of the things that were said and done about Christ and by Christ were not written in the Gospels, as it says below (21:25). Two reasons can be given why the Jews said this about Christ. First, because the Samaritans were hateful to the people of Israel, for when the ten tribes were led into captivity, they took their land: "For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans" (4:9). Thus, because Christ reproved the Jews, they believed that he did it out of hatred, so that they regarded him as a Samaritan, an adversary, as it were. Another reason was that the Samaritans observed the Jewish rites in some things and not in others. Therefore, the Jews, seeing that Christ observed the law in some matters and broke it in others, for example, the law of the Sabbath, called him a Samaritan. Again, there are two reasons why they said he had a demon. First, because they did not attribute the miracles he worked, and the thoughts he revealed, to a divine power in Christ; rather, they suspected that he did these things by some demonic art. Thus they said: "It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that he casts out demons" (Mt 12:24). The other reason was based on the fact that his words exceeded human understanding, such as his statements that God was his Father, and that he had come down from heaven. And when uneducated people hear such things they usually regard them as diabolical. Accordingly, they believed that Christ spoke as one possessed by a demon: "Many of them said, 'he has a demon, and he is mad; why listen to him?'" (10:20). Furthermore, they said these things in an attempt to accuse him of sin, to dispute what he had said: "Which of you convicts me of sin?"

The story of the woman taken in adultery, Joh 8:1-11. Jesus declares himself the light of the world, Joh 8:12. The Pharisees cavil, Joh 8:13. Jesus answers, and shows his authority, Joh 8:14-20. He delivers a second discourse, in which he convicts them of sin, and foretells their dying in it, because of their unbelief, Joh 8:21-24. They question him; he answers, and foretells his own death, Joh 8:25-29. Many believe on him, in consequence of this last discourse, Joh 8:30. To whom he gives suitable advice, Joh 8:31, Joh 8:32. The Jews again cavil, and plead the nobility and advantages of their birth, Joh 8:33. Jesus shows the vanity of their pretensions, and the wickedness of their hearts, Joh 8:34-47. They blaspheme, and Christ convicts and reproves them, and asserts his Divine nature, Joh 8:48-58. They attempt to stone him, Joh 8:59.

Thou art a Samaritan - This was the same, among them, as heretic, or schismatic, among us. This is the only time in which the Jews gave our Lord this title of reproach; and they probably grounded it on his having preached among them, and lodged in their villages. See the account in Joh 4:39, Joh 4:40; but Samaritan, among them, meant a person unworthy of any credit. Hast a devil? - Art possessed by an evil spirit; and art, in consequence, deranged.

THE WOMAN TAKEN IN ADULTERY. (Joh 8:1-11) Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives--This should have formed the last verse of the foregoing chapter. "The return of the people to the inert quiet and security of their dwellings (Joh 7:53), at the close of the feast, is designedly contrasted with our Lord's homeless way, so to speak, of spending the short night, who is early in the morning on the scene again. One cannot well see why what is recorded in Luk 21:37-38 may not even thus early have taken place; it might have been the Lord's ordinary custom from the beginning to leave the brilliant misery of the city every night, that so He might compose His sorrowful and interceding heart, and collect His energies for new labors of love; preferring for His resting-place Bethany, and the Mount of Olives, the scene thus consecrated by many preparatory prayers for His final humiliation and exaltation" [STIER].

Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?--What intense and virulent scorn! (See Heb 12:3). The "say we not well" refers to Joh 7:20. "A Samaritan" means more than "no Israelite at all"; it means one who pretended, but had no manner of claim to the title--retorting perhaps, this denial of their true descent from Abraham.