John 8:13 Maoni

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.

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.

Ye judge after the flesh,.... According to their carnal affections and prejudices; taking the Messiah to be a temporal prince, and his kingdom to be of this world, they judged that Jesus could not be he; they looked upon him as a mere man, and seeing him in much outward meanness, in his human nature, they judged of him according to this outward appearance: or "ye" that are "after the flesh judge"; to which sense the Persic version agrees, "for ye are carnal"; and so judged as carnal men, who are very improper persons to judge of spiritual things: I judge no man; in the same way, after the flesh, or in a carnal manner, nor according to outward appearances, according to the sight of the eyes, or the hearing of the ears: Christ did not take upon him to judge and determine in civil affairs, or in things pertaining to a court of judicature among men; this was not his province; an instance of this there is in the context, in not condemning the woman brought to him; nor did he judge the persons and states of men, or proceed to pass any sentence of condemnation on them; he came not to condemn, but save the world; this was not his business now; otherwise, all judgment is committed to him, and which he will exercise another day.

"Though I bear record of Myself, My record is true, for I know whence I come." What is this? "I am of God, am God, the Son of God, and God Himself is a faithful witness unto Himself, but ye know Him not; ye willingly err, knowing ye pretend not to know, but say all that ye say according to mere human imagination, choosing to understand nothing beyond what is seen."

(Tract. xxxv. 6) The witness of light is true, whether the light show itself, or other things. The Prophet spake the truth, but whence had he it, but by drawing from the fount of truth? Jesus then is a competent witness to Himself. (s. 5). For I know whence I come, and whither I go: this has reference to the Father; for the Son gave glory to the Father who sent Him. How greatly then should man glorify the Creator, who made Him. He did not separate from His Father, however, when He came, or desert us when He returned: unlike that sun which in going to the west, leaves the east. And as that sun throws its light on the faces both of him who sees, and him who sees not; only the one sees with the light, the other sees not: so the Wisdom of God, the Word, is every where present, even to the minds of unbelievers; but they have not the eyes of the understanding, wherewith to see. To distinguish then between believers and enemies among the Jews, as between light and darkness, He adds, But ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go. (Tract. xxxvi. 3). These Jews saw the man, and did not believe in the God, and therefore our Lord says, Ye judge after the flesh, i. e. in saying, Thou bearest record of Thyself, Thy record is not true. (Tract. xxxvi. 3. in Joan.) Understanding Me not as God, and seeing Me as man, ye think Me arrogant in bearing witness of Myself. For any man who bears high testimony to himself, is thought proud and arrogant. But men are frail, and may either speak the truth, or lie: the Light cannot lie.

You who were present yesterday, bear in mind that we were a long while discoursing of the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, where He says, "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life;" and if we wished to go on discoursing of that light, we might still speak a long time; for it would be impossible for us to expound the matter in brief. Therefore, my brethren, let us follow Christ, the light of the world, that we may not be walking in darkness. We must fear the darkness,-not the darkness of the eyes, but that of the moral character; and even if it be the darkness of the eyes, it is not of the outer, but of the inner eyes, of those by which we discern, not between white and black, but between right and wrong. When our Lord Jesus Christ had spoken these things, the Jews answered, "Thou bearest record of thyself; thy record is not true." Before our Lord Jesus Christ came, He lighted and sent many prophetic lamps before Him. Of these was also John Baptist, to whom the great Light itself, which is the Lord Christ, gave a testimony such as was given to no other man; for He said, "Among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist." Yet this man, than whom none was greater among those born of women, said of the Lord Jesus Christ, "I indeed baptize you in water; but He that is coming is mightier than I, whose shoe I am not worthy to loose." See how the lamp submits itself to the Day. The Lord Himself bears witness that the same John was indeed a lamp: "He was," saith He, "a burning and a shining lamp; and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light." But when the Jews said to the Lord, "Tell us by what authority thou doest these things," He, knowing that they regarded John the Baptist as a great one, and that the same whom they regarded as a great one had borne witness to them concerning the Lord, answered them, "I also will ask you one thing; tell me, the baptism of John, whence is it from heaven, or from men?" Thrown into confusion, they considered among themselves that, if they said, "From men," they might be stoned by the people, who believed John to be a prophet; if they said, "From heaven," He might answer them, "He whom ye confess to have been a prophet from heaven bore testimony to me, and ye have heard from him by what authority I do these things." They saw, then, that whichever of these two answers they made, they would fall into the snare, and they said, "We do not know." And the Lord answered them, "Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things." "I tell you not what I know, because you will not confess what you know." Most justly, certainly, were they repulsed, and they departed in confusion; and that was fulfilled which God the Father says by the prophet in the psalm, "I have prepared a lamp for my Christ" (the lamp was John); "His enemies I will clothe with confusion." The Lord Jesus Christ, then, had the witness of prophets sent before Him, of the heralds that preceded the judge: He had witness from John; but He was Himself the greater witness which He bore to Himself. But those men with their feeble eyes sought lamps, because they were not able to bear the day; for that same Apostle John, whose Gospel we have in our hands, says in the beginning of his Gospel, concerning John the Baptist: "There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came for a witness, to bear witness of the light, that all men might believe through him. He was not the light, but was sent to bear witness of the light. That was the true light, that lighteth every man coming into the world." If "every man," therefore also lighteth John. Whence also the same John says, "We all have received out of His fullness." Wherefore discern ye these things, that your minds may profit in the faith of Christ, that ye be not always babes seeking the breasts and shrinking from solid food. You ought to be nourished and to be weaned by our holy mother the Church of Christ, and to come to more solid food by the mind, not by the belly. This discern ye then, that the light which enlighteneth is one thing, another that which is enlightened. For also our eyes are called lights; and every man thus swears, touching his eyes, by these lights of his: "So may my lights live." This is a customary oath. Let these lights, if lights they are, be opened, and shine for thee in thy closed chamber, when the light is not there; they certainly cannot. Therefore, as these which we have in our face, and call lights, when they are both healthy and open, need the help of light from without,-which being removed or not brought in, though they are sound and are open, yet they do not see,-so our mind, which is the eye of the soul, unless it be irradiated by the light of truth, and wondrously shone upon by Him who enlightens and is not enlightened, will not be able to come to wisdom nor to righteousness. For to live righteously is for us the way itself. But how can he on whom the light does not shine but stumble in the way? And hence, in such a way, we have need of seeing, in such a way it is a great thing to see. Now Tobias had the eyes in his face closed, and the son gave his hand to the father; and yet the father, by his instruction, pointed out the way to the son.

Dull and slow is the Pharisee, and most hardly led unto the power of seeing the Godhead of the Lord: he errs again by reason of the flesh, and imagines nought beyond what he sees. For while seeing that He uses utterances beyond man and hearing words most God-befitting, he yet conceives of bare man, not looking to the illustriousness of the Godhead nor opening the eye of his understanding to look at Emmanuel. For to whom will it belong to say, I am the light of the world, save to One and Alone God That is by Nature? who of the holy Prophets dared to say such a word? what angel ever burst forth such a word? let them traverse the whole God-inspired Scripture and search into the sacred and Divine Word, and show us this. But they making no account of what necessarily follows, deem that they ought to contradict, and advance hotly to what alone they know accurately, accusal out of love of fault-finding, For they depreciate Him as not being the Light of the world, accusing the things spoken by Him, affirming that not true is His record. For they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge, and suppose that they can overturn and that by chicanery His record, attempting to invalidate it from just merely our own customary ways, not by the commands of the Law. For where does the Law (let them tell us) say that a man's testimony of himself is invalid? For wearisome I suppose and unendurable at times is a person's witnessing excellences to himself: and verily the most wise compiler of Proverbs saith, Let thy neighbour praise thee and not thine own mouth, a stranger and not thine own lips. Yet not altogether false is that which is said by any of himself. For let any of the Pharisees come forward, and let him tell us what we shall do when the blessed Samuel testifies most excellent things to his own self. For he is somewhere found to be making his defence to those of Israel and saying, The Lord is witness against you and His anointed is witness this day that ye have not found ought in my hands. But if the Law forbad any one to witness to himself, how (tell me) came Samuel to set it at nought, albeit the Divine Scripture saith of him, Holy was Moses and Aaron among His priests, and Samuel among them that call upon His name, they called upon the Lord and He answered them, in the pillar of the cloud did He speak unto them, they kept His testimonies and the ordinances that He gave them. Seest thou how he was conjoined with Moses as having virtue commensurate with him, and is witnessed to by the Spirit as an accurate keeper of the Law? How then did he trangress the Law by witnessing to himself, will one say? But he did not trangress it; for he is witnessed to as keeping it, and he hath witnessed to himself. The Law then forbids to none to witness to himself. And moreover what shall we say, when we see the blessed David saying, O Lord my God, if I did this, if I recompensed those that recompensed me evil? yea moreover the blessed Jeremy saith, O Lord God of hosts, I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, but was circumspect because of Thy Hand: and the most wise Paul again, though taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, as himself too testified, openly cries out, For I am conscious of nought of myself. Let the Pharisee therefore say again of each of these, Thou bearest record of thyself, thy record is not true, even though to those who refuse not to chide the very Lord of all, the behaving most ill to the rest is a matter of course. But this we say, resuming again what we were saying, that the contradiction of the Pharisees is no necessary one taken out of the ordinances of the Law, but made only out of what prevails in common custom, and from the habit not seeming to be one befitting good people. And their contradiction out of the Law is rather railing, to steal away those who are already marvelling at Him and are persuaded that they ought to believe. For they revile Him as not true, and damaging the credit of what He just now said, the wretched ones draw forth the destruction of blasphemy upon their own heads.

Who can rightly say, “I am the light of the world,” except one who is truly God by nature? Let the Pharisees go through the entire divinely inspired Scripture and search into the sacred and divine Word and show us who of the holy prophets ever dared to say such a thing or when an angel ever made such a claim.… The crowd of Pharisees thought that he spoke falsely. In their exceeding foolishness, they had no idea that there are those who set forth their own nature and tell what is essentially inherent in them, not out of boasting or because they are bent on making a name for themselves. Rather, they are simply declaring what they really are.… And so, even when our Savior Christ says that he is the light, he is speaking the truth and will not be found boasting.… But they attack him as though he is one of us. Without hesitation they say “Your record is not true” of the one who cannot lie. And yet, he decided to lead by the hand those who had gone astray … telling them what they had missed about him when they committed sacrilege by ascribing love of lying to him who is from above and begotten of God the Father.

As if our Lord Himself were the only (one that bore) witness to Himself; whereas the truth was that He had, before His incarnation, sent many witnesses to prophesy of His Sacraments.

When He said "I am the light of the world," they accuse Him of bearing witness about Himself. O madness! He constantly brings forth testimonies about Himself from Scripture, yet they accuse Him of bearing witness about Himself.

The Evangelist mentions three things that Jesus says about himself. First, I am the light of the world; secondly, I am going away (v 21); and thirdly, if any one keeps my word, he will not see death forever (v 51). The first thing he said was, I am the light of the world; and this troubled the Jews. So first, he shows their opposition; secondly, how Jesus proved that they were wrong by showing what he said was true (v 14). With respect to the first, it is obvious that what Jesus said in the temple, he said in the presence of the people. But now he is speaking before the Pharisees, and so they said to him: You are bearing witness to yourself; your testimony is not true. They were saying in effect: Because you are bearing witness to yourself, your testimony is not true. Now in human affairs it is neither acceptable nor fitting that a person praise himself: "Let another praise you, and not your own mouth" (Prv 27:2), because self-praise does not make a person commendable, but being commended by God does: "It is not he who commends himself who is approved, but he whom God commends" (2 Cor 10:18), because only God perfectly knows a person. But no one can really sufficiently commend God except God himself; and so it is fitting that he bear witness to himself, and also to men: "My witness is in heaven" (Jb 16:20). Thus the opinion of the Jews was mistaken.

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 bearest record - As if they had said, Dost thou imagine that we shall believe thee, in a matter so important, on thy bare assertion? Had these people attended to the teaching and miracles of Christ, they would have seen that his pretensions to the Messiahship were supported by the most irrefragable testimony.

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].

bearest record of thyself; thy record is not true--How does He meet this specious cavil? Not by disputing the wholesome human maxim that "self-praise is no praise," but by affirming that He was an exception to the rule, or rather, that it had no application to Him.