They answered him
Not the believing Jews, whom he peculiarly addressed, but the
unbelieving Jews, who were present, and heard these things:
we be Abraham's seed;
this the Jews always valued themselves upon, and reckoned
themselves, on this account, upon a level with the nobles and the
princes of the earth.
``Says R. Akiba F3, even the poor of Israel are to be considered as if they were (Nyrwx ynb) , "noblemen", that are fallen from their substance, because they are the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob;''and were never in bondage to any man;
how sayest thou, ye shall be made free?
when they thought themselves, and would fain have been thought by
others, to have been free already, and so to stand in no need of
being made free.