Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

So Jesus asked the Twelve, “Do you want to leave too?”

“Will ye also go away?--Affecting appeal! Evidently Christ felt the desertion of Him even by those miserable men who could not abide His statements; and seeing a disturbance even of the wheat by the violence of the wind which blew away the chaff (not yet…”

We believe and know that You are the Holy One of God.”

“At such seasons, a clear perception that to abandon the faith of Christ is to face black desolation, ruin and death; and on recoiling from this, to be able to fall back, not merely on first principles and immovable foundations, but on personal experience of…”

Jesus answered them, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!”

“Have not I chosen . . . and one of you is a devil:--"Well said, Simon Bar-jonas, but that 'we' embraces not so wide a circle as in the simplicity of thine heart thou thinkest; for though I have chosen you but twelve, one even…”

So Jesus’ brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go to Judea, so that Your disciples there may see the works You are doing.

“His brethren said--(See on Mt 13:54-56). Depart . . . into Judea, &c.--In Joh 7:5 this speech is ascribed to their unbelief.”

The Jews were amazed and asked, “How did this man attain such learning without having studied?”

“These rulers knew well enough that He had not studied under any human teacher--an important admission against ancient and modern attempts to trace our Lord's wisdom to human sources [MEYER].”

If anyone desires to do His will, he will know whether My teaching is from God or whether I speak on My own.

“A principle of immense importance, showing, on the one hand, that singleness of desire to please God is the grand inlet to light on all questions vitally affecting one's eternal interests, and on the other, that the want of this, whether perceived or not, is…”

But because Moses gave you circumcision, you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath (not that it is from Moses, but from the patriarchs.)

“Moses . . . gave unto you circumcision, &c.--Though servile work was forbidden on the sabbath, the circumcision of males on that day (which certainly was a servile work) was counted no infringement of the Law.”

Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “You know Me, and you know where I am from.

“28, 29. cried Jesus--in a louder tone, and more solemn, witnessing style than usual. Ye both, &c.--that is, "Yes, ye know both Myself and My local parentage, and (yet) I am not come of Myself."”

Many in the crowd, however, believed in Him and said, “When the Christ comes, will He perform more signs than this man?”

“When Christ cometh, will he, &c.--that is, If this be not the Christ, what can the Christ do, when He does come, which has not been anticipated and eclipsed by this man?”

Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said: ‘Streams of living water will flow from within him.’”

“Eze 47:1-12; in most of which the idea is that of waters issuing from beneath the temple, to which our Lord compares Himself and those who believe in Him. out of his belly--that is, his inner man, his soul, as in Pr 20:27.”

He was speaking about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive.

“In Joh 16:7 the Holy Ghost is represented not only as the gift of Christ, but a gift the communication of which was dependent upon His own departure to the Father.”

But this crowd that does not know the law, they are under a curse.”

“But this people--literally, "multitude," meaning the ignorant rabble. (Pity these important distinctions, so marked in the original of this Gospel, should not be also in our version.) knoweth not the law--that is, by school learning, which only subverted it by human traditions.”

“Aren’t you also from Galilee?” they replied. “Look into it, and you will see that no prophet comes out of Galilee.”

“But rage is blind, and deep prejudice distorts all facts. Yet it looks as if they were afraid of losing Nicodemus, when they take the trouble to reason the point at all.”

When they continued to question Him, He straightened up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to cast a stone at her.”

“He that is without sin--not meaning sinless altogether; nor yet, guiltless of a literal breach of the Seventh Commandment; but probably, he whose conscience acquits him of any such sin. cast a stone--"the stone," meaning the first one (De 17:7).”

Once again, Jesus spoke to the people and said, “I am the light of the world.

“In "the treasury" where it was spoken (see on Joh 8:20) stood two colossal golden lamp-stands, on which hung a multitude of lamps, lighted after the evening sacrifice (probably every evening during the feast of tabernacles), diffusing their brilliancy, it is said, over all the…”

He spoke these words while teaching in the temple courts, near the treasury. Yet no one seized Him, because His hour had not yet come.

“These words spake Jesus in the treasury--a division, so called, of the fore court of the temple, part of the court of the women [JOSEPHUS, Antiquities, 19.6.2, &c.], which may confirm the genuineness of Joh 8:2-11, as the place where the woman was brought.”

“I have much to say about you and much to judge. But the One who sent Me is truthful, and what I have heard from Him, I tell the world.”

“I have many things to say and to judge of you; but he that sent me is true, &c.--that is, I could, and at the fitting time, will say and judge many things of you (referring perhaps to the work of the Spirit which is…”

So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing on My own, but speak…

“When ye have lifted up the Son of man--The plainest intimation He had yet given in public of the manner and the authors of His death.”

Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.

“Whosoever committeth sin--that is, liveth in the commission of it--(Compare 1Jo 3:8; Mt 7:23). is the servant of sin--that is, the bond-servant, or slave of it; for the question is not about free service, but who are in bondage.”

“Abraham is our father,” they replied. “If you were children of Abraham,” said Jesus, “you would do the works of Abraham.

“If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham--He had just said He "knew they were Abraham's children," that is, according to the flesh; but the children of his faith and holiness they were not, but the reverse.”

You are doing the works of your father.” “We are not illegitimate children,” they declared. “Our only Father is God Himself.”

“If God were your Father, ye would love me--"If ye had anything of His moral image, as children have their father's likeness, ye would love Me, for I am immediately of Him and directly from Him."”

You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out his desires.

“The death of the human race, in its widest sense, is ascribed to the murderous seducer of our race.”

The Jews answered Him, “Are we not right to say that You are a Samaritan and You have a demon?”

“Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?--What intense and virulent scorn! The "say we not well" refers to Joh 7:20.”

“I do not have a demon,” Jesus replied, “but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me.

“But the interior of His soul at such moments is only to be seen in such prophetic utterances as these, "For thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face; I am become a stranger unto my brethren, an alien unto my mother's…”

Truly, truly, I tell you, if anyone keeps My word, he will never see death.”

“The word "keep" is in harmony with Joh 8:31, "If ye continue in My word," expressing the permanency, as a living and paramount principle, of that faith to which He referred: "never see death," though virtually uttered before (Joh 5:24; 6:40, 47, 51), is the…”