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40. "Nunc autem quæritis me interficere, hominem qui veritatem vobis locutus sum, quam audivi à DEO: hoc Abraham non fecit.

40. But now you seek to kill me, a man who have spoken the truth to you, which I have heard from God: this 1oAbraham did not.

Our Lord in this passage makes great trial of His new adherents and their companions. He shows them that by being faithful to Him they shall become free.

All at once the pride of race breaks forth, and the disappointment of worldly glory strikes them. They never were slaves; this A'Lapide very aptly terms a nimis splendide mendacium. They were slaves in Egypt, slaves in Babylon, and not much removed from the same condition under the Romans.

He then points out another kind of slavery in which they were bound hard and fast. Their designs upon His life were very different from the sentiments which Abraham bequeathed to them. This trial sifted the multitude, and we shall see the result shortly.

1Many believed in Him.-Some restrict the many to simple countryfolk. The Evangelist leaves us to conclude that even some of His enemies had a temporary faith.

2In My words.-Believing them and following them in practice.

3Make you free.-Free from sin, free from your passions, free from ignorance, and free from eternal death.

4 Seed of Abraham.-How doubly disgraceful to human nature is a degenerate descendant of a noble stock !

The servant of sin.-Those who have spent years in dealing with sinners, and trying to save them from themselves, know how pitiful a slavery is that of sin.

Servant. This may be a slave or a bondservant. Either one or other can be turned away; but a son has his rights. There may be some allusion to Ishmael, and a hint that these degenerate Jews would share his fate. That they understood him so is evident from verse 41.

"Son. The eldest son had power to free a certain number of slaves and attach them to himself as bondsmen.

With your father. He makes them be sons of the devil and sin, because they do his works and intend to continue them.

"Works of Abraham.-He was remarkable for his faith and obedience to the voice of God.

10 Abraham did not.-He did not try to kill one who brought him a message from heaven. He entertained such.

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41. "Vos facitis opera patris. vestri." Dixerunt itaquè ei: "Nos ex fornicatione non sumus nati: unum patrem habemus, DEUM."

42. Dixit ergò eis JESUS: "Si DEUS pater vester esset, dilligeretis utiquè me. Ego enim Ego enim ex DEO processi et veni: neque enim à meipso veni, sed ille me misit.

43. "Quarè loquelam meam non cognoscitis ? Quia non potestis audire sermonem meum. 44. "Vos ex patre diabolo estis, et desideria patris vestri vultis facere: ille homicida erat ab initio, et in veritate non stetit, quia non est veritas in eo: cùm loquitur mendacium, ex propriis loquitur, quia mendax est et pater ejus.

45. "Ego autem si veritatem dico non creditis mihi.

46. "Quis ex vobis arguet me de peccato? Si veritatem

41. You do the deeds of your father. They said then to him: We are not born of fornication: we have 'one Father, God.

42. But Jesus said to them: If God were your Father, verily you would love me. For I proceeded and came from God: for I came not of myself, but he sent me.

43. Why do you not know my speech? Because you cannot Shear my word.

44. You are of your father, the devil; and the 'desires of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he "abode not in the truth: because truth is not in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof.

45. But if I say the truth, you believe me not.

46. Which of you shall 'convince me of sin? If I say the

dico vobis, quarè non creditis mihi?

47. "Qui ex DEO est verba DEI audit: proptereà vos non auditis, quia ex DEO non estis."

48. Responderunt ergò Judæi et dixerunt ei: "Nonne benè dicimùs nos quia Samaritanus es tu et dæmonium habes ? "

49. Respondit JESUS: "Ego dæmonium non habeo, sed honorifico Patrem meum, et vos inhonorâstis me.

50. "Ego autem non quæro gloriam meam: est qui quærat et judicet.

51. "Amen, amen dico vobis, si quis sermonem meum servaverit, mortem non videbit in æternum."

truth to you, why do you not
believe me?

47. He that is of God heareth
the words of God. Therefore
you hear them not, because you
are not of God.

48. The Jews, therefore, answered and said to him: Do we not say well that thou art 9a Samaritan, and hast a devil?

49. Jesus answered: I 1ohave not a devil: but I honour my Father, and you have dishonoured me.

50. But I seek not "my own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth.

51. Amen, amen I say to you, if any man keep my word, he shall not 12see death for ever.

The conflict waxes hotter. The Jews repudiate what they imagine Our Lord insinuates, that they were bastards or given to idolatry-fornication has both these meanings in Hebrew-and He brings them to the great truth which He had often enunciated, and John so carefully recorded.

The children of His kingdom are not of the will of the flesh, etc., but of God. We are children of Him whose teaching we follow, and whose interests we serve. If we follow the law of God and abide in the words and practices of Jesus Christ, we are children of God. If we live in sin and do the works which Christ condemns, then are we children of the devil, and our noble extraction or our high position, will not save us from the slavery of damnation.

1One Father God.-Abraham was their father according to the flesh, and as they were not idolaters they claim one God as their Father spiritually.

2Love Me.-Our Lord makes a series of syllogisms in the remaining verses. If they were children of God they would love the Son-atqui they do not-therefore they are not.

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Hear My word.-They were making a disturbance now, and preparing to assault Him.

Desires of your father.-An argument to prove from their works that they were children of the devil. Not to be idolaters is a good thing, but not enough to make you children of God.

"Abode not in truth.-From this it appears that the devils were created in innocence and holiness, but did not continue therein.

The father thereof.-This is a terrible charge for the Jews and their nimis splendidum mendacium. Lying was one of their predominant failings at that time.

"Convince Me of sin.-Convict would be a better word. Our Lord is brave and fearless in His conscious Innocence.

Heareth. This is another syllogism.

A Samaritan.-This was a bad name. It meant a heretic; and the opinion is that the Jews used it as Spaniards call a scurvy fellow a Judio, even to the present day.

1oI have not a devil.—He passes by the ribaldry and rebuts the charge. "My own glory.—He would not be made King.

12 See death for ever.-Shall have eternal life.

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tuus est? Et prophetæ mortui sunt. Quem teipsum facis ?"

54. Respondit JESUS: "Si ego glorifico meipsum, gloria mea nihil est: est Pater meus qui glorificat me, quem vos dicitis quia DEUS vester est,

55. "Et non cognovistis eum: ego autem novi eum; et si dixero quia non scio eum, ero similis vobis, mendax. Sed scio eum, et sermonen ejus servo.

56. "Abraham pater vester exultavit ut videret diem meum: vidit, et gavisus est."

57. Dixerunt ergò Judæi ad eum "Quinquaginta annos nondùm habes, et Abraham vidisti ?"

58. Dixit eis JESUS: "Amen, amen dico vobis, antequàm Abraham fieret, ego sum."

59. Tulerunt ergò lapides ut jacerent in eum; JESUS autem abscondit se, et exivit de templo.

and the prophets are dead. "Whom dost thou make thyself?

54. Jesus answered: If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing: it is my Father that glorifieth me, of whom you say that he is your God.

55. And you have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say that I know him not, I should be like to you, a liar. But I know him, and keep his word.

56. Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see my day he saw it, and was glad.

57. The Jews then said to him: Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham ?

58. Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say to you, before Abraham was made, 'I am.

59. Then they took up stones to cast at him: but Jesus 10hid himself, and went out of the temple.

Before Abraham was I AM. This grand dictum was the climax of His instruction. He brought them up to it by close reasoning, by similitudes, by answering their objections, by bearing with their insolence. He asserts that He is the Son of God, He defies them to find in His life the slightest deviation from His standard of sonship.

He brings, by one of those master strokes, the rejoicing of Abraham in limbo before them, and when they cannot understand it or will not. Thinking they have Him as in a vice, being such a young man and boasting to have seen Abraham, who was dead 1700 years, they start a question which brings out the assertion of His divinity.

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