Jesus said to them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
They took up therefore stones that they might cast [them] at him; but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple, [going through the midst of them, and thus passed on.]
A long argument in the temple courts ends here. It ends not with a reply, but with rocks in hands. Two questions follow. What did Jesus say that made stoning seem the right answer? And what does His quiet exit show about who He is?
The stones answer the sentence Jesus had just spoken. He set two verbs side by side: Abraham came into being; Jesus is.
William Kelly"Before Abraham was, I am." Abraham came into being. Jesus is God, and God simply is. "I am" is the way to speak of eternal existence, of Deity. He could just as truly have said, Before Adam was, I am. But the question was about Abraham. With the calm dignity that never says more than the truth needs, He states it, and no more.
The stones are evidence. Whatever else the crowd got wrong that day, they did not mistake His meaning — and the way He walked out was itself an answer to them.
Hamilton SmithThey understand the Lord's words fully and rightly as a claim to Deity. They reject that claim and take up stones to stone Him. In the calm dignity of His way, He "went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by". That is itself proof that His claim was true, for Who but a divine Person could act like that?
The place matters. The temple they stood in was His own.
J T MawsonHe had said, "Before Abraham was, I am." He did not say, "I was before Abraham," as though He had begun to exist just as Abraham did, only earlier. No, He declared Himself to be "I am" — the God who always exists and depends on nothing: before angels, men and worlds, the source and Creator of them all. The stones in the hands of those Jews, inside His own temple, were to be thrown at their God.
They had run out of replies. A statement that cannot be shown false can still be shouted down — and that is what stones are.
J. N. DarbyThe great truth had been declared. No lie could stand against it. The Saviour must exist, and beside that necessity everything else is nothing. Such a truth could be met with violence, but it could not be proved false. For a man to say this was, in their eyes, blasphemy. So in their zeal for God, while rejecting Him as He stood revealed before them, they took up stones to stone Him. But the time of their sin had not yet come, and Jesus was hidden. His time had not come, and He went out of the temple.
This was not a one-off. It was a pattern, and always in the same city.
C E StuartWe say repeated, because four times they wanted to seize Him (John 7:30, 32, 44; 10:39). Twice they took up stones to throw at Him (John 8:59; 10:31). And earlier still they had tried to kill Him (5:18). Every one of these tries happened at Jerusalem... In the headquarters of Jewish religion, the place that boasted of being the centre of religious light, He was treated as neither the Galileans nor the Samaritans of Sychar treated Him.
He did not sprint for a side gate. The wording points to something done to Him rather than by ordinary means.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThey understood what He meant. They took up stones to stone Him because they knew He claimed absolute Deity. A miracle followed. The Greek says "He was hidden." Something must have held their eyes as He went out of the temple and passed by.
Many readers know this verse with an extra line: "going through the midst of them, and so passed by." Commentators differ over whether it belongs here. Some quote it as part of the verse. Another writer weighs the manuscripts and comes to a different view:
William KellyThe remaining words, after "went out of the temple," were most likely brought in from Luke 4:30, though many manuscripts do include them.
Either way, the ending is the same, and it is heavy. He stood in His own house, and no one there bowed to Him.
Numerical Bible NotesThis is Immanuel, God with us; but no knee bends to Him, no loving homage is offered. They take up stones to stone Him. He hides Himself for the moment from their unholy violence, and passes out of the temple.
- Claim. The stones answered two words. Jesus did not say "I was before Abraham." He said "I am" — the language of One who has no beginning.
- Recognition. No one in that temple misheard Him. They reached for stones because they knew He was claiming Deity.
- Violence. No one could prove Him false. They could only silence Him, so they picked up rocks.
- Restraint. He hid Himself and walked out untouched. Their hour had not come, and neither had His.
- Loss. They raised stones against God inside God's own house, and the One no knee bowed to walked out of it.