John 8:22

22 The Jewish leaders said, "He isn't going to kill himself, is he? Is that why he said, ‘Where I'm going, you can't 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 while he was teaching in the temple area known as the treasury. No one arrested him, because his time hadn't yet come.

21 Jesus continued, "I'm going away. You will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I'm going, you can't come."

22 The Jewish leaders said, "He isn't going to kill himself, is he? Is that why he said, ‘Where I'm going, you can't come'?"

23 He said to them, "You are from below; I'm from above. You are from this world; I'm not from this world.

24 This is why I told you that you would die in your sins. If you don't believe that I Am, you will die in your sins."