Discovery BoxJohn 8:57-59
Context8:57 Then the Judeans 1 replied, 2 “You are not yet fifty years old! 3 Have 4 you seen Abraham?” 8:58 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the solemn truth, 5 before Abraham came into existence, 6 I am!” 7 8:59 Then they picked up 8 stones to throw at him, 9 but Jesus hid himself and went out from the temple area. 10
[8:57] 1 tn Grk “Then the Jews.” See the note on this term in v. 31. Here, as in vv. 31, 48, and 52, the phrase refers to the Jewish people in Jerusalem (“Judeans”; cf. BDAG 479 s.v. ᾿Ιουδαῖος 2.e) who had been listening to Jesus’ teaching in the temple courts (8:20) and had initially believed his claim to be the Messiah (cf. 8:31). They have now become completely hostile, as John 8:59 clearly shows.
[8:57] 2 tn Grk “said to him.”
[8:57] 3 tn Grk ‘You do not yet have fifty years” (an idiom).
[8:58] 5 tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”
[8:58] 6 tn Grk “before Abraham was.”
[8:58] 7 sn I am! is an explicit claim to deity. Although each occurrence of the phrase “I am” in the Fourth Gospel needs to be examined individually in context to see if an association with Exod 3:14 is present, it seems clear that this is the case here (as the response of the Jewish authorities in the following verse shows).
[8:59] 8 tn Grk “they took up.”
[8:59] 9 sn Jesus’ Jewish listeners understood his claim to deity, rejected it, and picked up stones to throw at him for what they considered blasphemy.
[8:59] 10 tc Most later witnesses (A Θc Ë1,13 Ï) have at the end of the verse “passing through their midst, he went away in this manner” (διελθὼν διὰ μέσου καὶ παρῆγεν οὕτως, dielqwn dia mesou kai parhgen {outw"), while many others have similar permutations (so א1,2 C L N Ψ 070 33 579 892 1241 al). The wording is similar to two other texts: Luke 4:30 (διελθὼν διὰ μέσου; in several
