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JOHN 
where I am going. But you do not know where I come from or where I am going.g 15You judge by appearances,* but I do not judge anyone.h 16And even if I should judge, my judgment is valid, because I am not alone, but it is I and the Father who sent me.i 17Even in your law* it is written that the testimony of two men can be veri ed.j 18I testify on my behalf and so does the Father who sent me.”k 19So they said to him, “Where is your father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”l 20He spoke these words while teaching in the treasury in the temple area. But no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.m
Jesus, the Father’s Ambassador.* 21He said to them again, “I am going away and you will look for me, but you will die in your sin.* Where I am going you cannot come.”n 22* So the Jews said, “He is not going to kill himself, is he, because he said, ‘Where I am going you cannot come’?” 23He said to them, “You belong to what is below, I belong to what is above. You belong to this world, but I do not belong to this world.o 24That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I AM,* you will die in your sins.”p 25* So they said to him, “Who are you?”q Jesus said to them, “What I told you from the beginning. 26I have much to say about you in condemnation. But the one who sent me is true, and what I heard from him I tell the world.”r 27They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father. 28So Jesus said [to them], “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me.s 29The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him.” 30Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.
Jesus and Abraham.* 31Jesus then said to those Jews who believed in him,* “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, 32and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”t 33They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone.* How can you say, ‘You will become free’?”u 34Jesus answered them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.v 35A slave does not remain in a household forever, but a son* always remains.w 36So if a son frees you, then you will truly
8:12
Jesus, “the light of the world,”
reveals to those who follow him both where they are and where they are going. Through the “I AM” statements scattered through the Gospel of John, Jesus emphasizes both his oneness with the Father and the breadth of his care for all of creation. Jesus is bread, light, gate, shepherd, vine, way, truth, life: Jesus is everything.
8:32
“The truth will set you free.” Jesus promises freedom, but people object that they are already free. Jesus is speaking about a deeper freedom, freedom from the burden and slavery of sin, the freedom of children in the presence of a loving father. The way to this freedom is through the truth—the word of Jesus. “My word has no room among you,” Jesus tells his questioners. Does Jesus’ word have room among us?
g. [8:14] 5:31.
h. [8:15] 12:47; 1 Sm 16:7.
i. [8:16] 5:30.
j. [8:17] Dt 17:6; 19:15; Nm 35:30.
k. [8:18] 5:23, 37.
l. [8:19] 7:28; 14:7; 15:21.
m. [8:20] 7:30.
n. [8:21] 7:34; 13:33.
o. [8:23] 3:31; 17:14; 18:36.
p. [8:24] Ex 3:14; Dt 32:39; Is 43:10. q. [8:25] 10:24.
r. [8:26] 12:44–50.
s. [8:28] 3:14; 12:32, 34. t. [8:32] Is 42:7; Gal 4:31. u. [8:33] Mt 3:9.
v. [8:34] Rom 6:16–17.
w. [8:35] Gn 21:10; Gal 4:30; Heb 3:5–6.
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* [8:15] By appearances: literally, “according to the esh.” I do not judge anyone: super cial contradiction of Jn 5:22, 27, 30; here the emphasis is that the judgment is not by material standards.
* [8:17] Your law: a re ection of later controversy between church and synagogue.
* [8:21–30] He whose ambassador I am is with me. Jesus’ origin is from God; he can reveal God. * [8:21] You will die in your sin: i.e., of disbelief; cf. Jn 8:24. Where I am going you cannot
come: except through faith in Jesus’ passion-resurrection.
* [8:22] The Jews suspect that he is referring to his death. Johannine irony is apparent here;
Jesus’ death will not be self-in icted but destined by God.
* [8:24, 28] I AM: an expression that late Jewish tradition understood as Yahweh’s own self-
designation (Is 43:10); see note on Jn 4:26. Jesus is here placed on a par with Yahweh.
* [8:25] What I told you from the beginning: this verse seems textually corrupt, with several other possible translations: “(I am) what I say to you”; “Why do I speak to you at all?” The earliest attested reading (Bodmer Papyrus P66) has (in a second hand), “I told you at the beginning what I am also telling you (now).”The answer here (cf. Prv 8:22) seems to hinge
on a misunderstanding of Jn 8:24 “that I AM” as “what I am.”
* [8:31–59] Jesus’ origin (“before Abraham”) and destiny are developed; the truth will free
them from sin (Jn 8:34) and death (Jn 8:51).
* [8:31] Those Jews who believed in him: a rough editorial suture, since in Jn 8:37 they are
described as trying to kill Jesus.
* [8:33] Have never been enslaved to anyone: since, historically, the Jews were enslaved
almost continuously, this verse is probably Johannine irony, about slavery to sin.
* [8:35] A slave. . .a son: an allusion to Ishmael and Isaac (Gn 16; 21), or to the release of a
slave after six years (Ex 21:2; Dt 15:12).