John 8:22

22 Then the Jews began to say, "Perhaps he will kill himself, because he is saying, 'Where I am going you cannot come.'"

John 8:22 Meaning and Commentary

John 8:22

Then said the Jews, will he kill himself?
&c.] Which was not only a wicked, but a foolish consequence, drawn from his words: for it by no means followed, because he was going away, and whither they could not come, that therefore he must destroy himself; this seems to be what they would have been glad he would have done, and suggested the thought that he might do it, in which they imitated Satan, ( Matthew 4:6 ) , under whose influence they now apparently were, and hoped that he would, which would at once extricate them out of their difficulties on his account:

because he sayeth, whither I go ye cannot come:
this is no reason at all; for had Christ's meaning been, as they blasphemously intimate, they might have destroyed themselves too, and have gone after him.

John 8:22 In-Context

20 He spoke these words by the treasury [while] teaching in the temple [courts], and no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come.

21 So he said to them again, "I am going away, and you will seek me and will die in your sin. Where I am going you cannot come!"

22 Then the Jews began to say, "Perhaps he will kill himself, because he is saying, 'Where I am going you cannot come.'"

23 And he said to them, "You are from below; I am from above. You are from this world; I am not from this world.

24 Thus I said to you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am [he], you will die in your sins."

Footnotes

• [a]. *The imperfect tense has been translated as ingressive here ("began to say")