John 8:22

22 The Jews began to ask one another, "Is he going to kill himself, do you think, that he says, `Where I am going, it is impossible for you to 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 These sayings He uttered in the Treasury, while teaching in the Temple; yet no one arrested Him, because His time had not yet come.

21 Again He said to them, "I am going away. Then you will try to find me, but you will die in your sins. Where I am going, it is impossible for you to come."

22 The Jews began to ask one another, "Is he going to kill himself, do you think, that he says, `Where I am going, it is impossible for you to come'?"

23 "You," He continued, "are from below, I am from above: you are of this present world, I am not of this present world.

24 That is why I told you that you will die in your sins; for, unless you believe that I am He, that is what will happen."