Book of John — Session 8: Before Abraham Was, I Am

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Session 8 of 21Book of John

Before Abraham Was, I Am

Chapter 8. A divine-name claim and a story that may not belong

Where this chapter sits

See the full timeline →

Right now: John the Baptist is beheaded (AD 29)

Setting: Jerusalem (Temple courts)

By Bea Zalel

John 8

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But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
Early in the morning He went back into the temple courts. All the people came to Him, and He sat down to teach them.
The scribes and Pharisees, however, brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before them
and said, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.
In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such a woman. So what do You say?"
They said this to test Him, in order to have a basis for accusing Him. But Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with His finger.
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."
And again He bent down and wrote on the ground.
When they heard this, they began to go away one by one, beginning with the older ones, until only Jesus was left, with the woman standing there.
Then Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?"
"No one, Lord," she answered. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Now go and sin no more."
Once again, Jesus spoke to the people and said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life."
So the Pharisees said to Him, "You are testifying about Yourself; Your testimony is not valid."
Jesus replied, "Even if I testify about Myself, My testimony is valid, because I know where I came from and where I am going. But you do not know where I came from or where I am going.
You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one.
But even if I do judge, My judgment is true, because I am not alone; I am with the Father who sent Me.
Even in your own Law it is written that the testimony of two men is valid.
I am One who testifies about Myself, and the Father, who sent Me, also testifies about Me."
"Where is Your Father?" they asked Him. "You do not know Me or My Father," Jesus answered. "If you knew Me, you would know My Father as well."
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.
Again He said to them, "I am going away, and you will look for Me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come."
So the Jews began to ask, "Will He kill Himself, since He says, 'Where I am going, you cannot come'?"
Then He told them, "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.
That is why I told you that you would die in your sins. For unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins."
"Who are You?" they asked. "Just what I have been telling you from the beginning," Jesus replied.
"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."
They did not understand that He was telling them about the Father.
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 exactly what the Father has taught Me.
He who sent Me is with Me. He has not left Me alone, because I always do what pleases Him."
As Jesus spoke these things, many believed in Him.
So He said to the Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, you are truly My disciples.
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
"We are Abraham's descendants," they answered. "We have never been slaves to anyone. How can You say we will be set free?"
Jesus replied, "Truly, truly, I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
A slave does not remain in the house forever, but a son remains forever.
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
I know you are Abraham's descendants, but you are trying to kill Me because My word has no place within you.
I speak of what I have seen in the presence of the Father, and you do what you have heard from your father."
"Abraham is our father," they replied. "If you were children of Abraham," said Jesus, "you would do the works of Abraham.
But now you are trying to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham never did such a thing.
You are doing the works of your father." "We are not illegitimate children," they declared. "Our only Father is God Himself."
Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on My own, but He sent Me.
Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you are unable to accept My message.
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out his desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, refusing to uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, because he is a liar and the father of lies.
But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me!
Which of you can prove Me guilty of sin? If I speak the truth, why do you not believe Me?
Whoever belongs to God hears the words of God. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God."
The Jews answered Him, "Are we not right to say that You are a Samaritan and You have a demon?"
"I do not have a demon," Jesus replied, "but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me.
I do not seek My own glory. There is One who seeks it, and He is the Judge.
Truly, truly, I tell you, if anyone keeps My word, he will never see death."
"Now we know that You have a demon!" declared the Jews. "Abraham died, and so did the prophets, yet You say that anyone who keeps Your word will never taste death.
Are You greater than our father Abraham? He died, as did the prophets. Who do You claim to be?"
Jesus answered, "If I glorify Myself, My glory means nothing. The One who glorifies Me is My Father, of whom you say, 'He is our God.'
You do not know Him, but I know Him. If I said I did not know Him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know Him, and I keep His word.
Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see My day. He saw it and was glad."
Then the Jews said to Him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and You have seen Abraham?"
"Truly, truly, I tell you," Jesus declared, "before Abraham was born, I am!"
At this, they picked up stones to throw at Him. But Jesus was hidden and went out of the temple area.

Inline text: Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. Compare with the John 8 chapter in your preferred translation via the link above.

Theme

Before anything else in this chapter, an honest textual disclosure. John 7:53-8:11, the story of the woman caught in adultery (sometimes called the "pericope adulterae"), is missing from the earliest and best Greek manuscripts of John. It is absent from papyrus 66 and papyrus 75 and absent from Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus. Where it does appear in later manuscripts it floats around: some put it here, some after John 21:25 and some inside Luke around 21:38. Bruce Metzger's textual commentary on the New Testament summarizes the situation and most modern critical study Bibles flag it with brackets or a note. The widely held scholarly judgment is that the story is a genuinely ancient tradition, very likely an authentic memory of Jesus, that was preserved by the church but was not originally part of John's gospel. This series treats the passage as canonical scripture (the church has received it as such for centuries) while disclosing the textual situation openly. Honesty about the manuscripts is part of taking the text seriously rather than less.

The stoning scene is a legal trap and the law it tests cuts deeper than English translations let through. Deuteronomy 22:22-24 prescribes death for adultery but it specifies that both parties must die. Bringing only the woman is already a violation of the accusers' own legal case (their case under the Pharisees' rules for keeping Torah). A Jewish reader catches that procedural irregularity at once. A Gentile reader, with no rabbinic legal training, has to be told the trap was rigged before the woman was dragged into the courtyard. Worse for the accusers, under Roman occupation the Jewish authorities did not have legal capital authority. John 18:31 makes this explicit when Pilate tells the Sanhedrin, "by your own law you have no right to execute anyone." So the trap closes from both sides. If Jesus says "stone her," he is inciting an execution Rome has not authorized and the temple authorities can hand him to the prefect on a sedition charge. If he says "do not," he has set aside Moses and they can hand him to the crowd on a blasphemy charge. His writing in the dust and his single sentence in verse 7 evade both prongs without naming the trap. The accusers walk away because their own case had collapsed.

Sukkot included a giant menorah-lighting in the temple's Court of Women that the Mishnah Sukkah 5:2-4 describes in dazzling terms. There were four enormous golden lampstands, each with four bowls, lit by young priests on tall ladders. The light was bright enough that, the Mishnah says, "there was not a courtyard in Jerusalem that was not lit by the light of the place of the water-drawing." The Mishnah adds, in the same passage that earlier praised the water ritual, "anyone who has not seen this has never seen joy." The lamps stayed lit through the night. By John 8:12 the festival has wound down. The lampstands have just been extinguished. Standing in that newly dark courtyard, Jesus says, "I am the light of the world." A Jewish reader hears him taking the second great Sukkot symbol onto himself, the way he took the water symbol in chapter 7. A Gentile reader hears a Stoic-sounding saying about the divine principle as the light of the world, the kind of phrase that floated through mystery religions and philosophical schools but pinned now to a particular Galilean named Jesus.

Verse 58 is the chapter's detonator: "before Abraham was, I am." The Greek "ego eimi" ("I am") used without a following description is exactly how the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, renders YHWH's self-designation in Exodus 3:14 ("ego eimi ho on") and in Isaiah 43:10 ("hina pisteusete ... hoti ego eimi"). It is the divine name, in the Greek a Diaspora Jew read in synagogue every Sabbath. The crowd's response in verse 59 confirms they heard it. They pick up stones and stoning is the prescribed penalty for blasphemy under Leviticus 24:16. Wright observes that this is not metaphorical claim followed by metaphorical response. The audience reaches for rocks because their ears have just registered the divine name in a human mouth. Brown adds that John has been building toward this moment since the prologue. The chapter that opens with a textually disputed scene of mercy ends with the most absolute self-disclosure in the gospel so far. The gap between those two endings tells you how strange this gospel is going to keep being.

Supporting cross-references

Deuteronomy 22:22-24 →Exodus 3:14 →Isaiah 43:10 →Leviticus 24:16 →

Discussion questions

How does it sit with you that the passage many Christians most love in John 8, the woman caught in adultery, may not have originally belonged to John's gospel? What is the difference between treating scripture as canonical and treating it as if it dropped from the sky without a history?
Sit with the legal trap of the stoning scene: every prong was lethal for someone. Where in your life have you been handed a question shaped to harm whichever answer you gave and what did Jesus's refusal to answer the question on its own terms teach you about the alternatives you may not be seeing?
The lampstands have just been put out and in the newly dark courtyard Jesus calls himself the light of the world. What does it mean that his claim arrives precisely when the festival's light has been withdrawn rather than at the height of the illumination?
The crowd reaches for stones because they have heard the divine name in his mouth. Their response is not confusion; it is recognition followed by judgment. How would you respond if you genuinely heard what they heard and what does your imagined response tell you about what you believe about Jesus?

Before Abraham Was, I Am

John 8

Theme

Discussion questions

Further reading