Commentary on John 8:31-36

Jesus has this conversation with “the Jews who had believed in him” (John 8:31), meaning those who were once his followers and disciples but have abandoned such commitment. John’s use of “the Jews” (Ioudaioi) has to be interpreted with care because it often refers to those who opposed Jesus, who were mainly leaders like the Pharisees and scribes, so “Jews” became a symbol for those who were against Jesus. It is also important to note that, often, “the Jews” refers to an ethnicity, as in “Salvation is for the Jews” in John 4:22.

The Greek word Ioudaioi can also be translated as “the Judeans,” the people of the southern part of the divided kingdom, who have a more complex relationship with Jesus as per the Gospel stories. Jesus’ primary ministry was in Galilee and often ended up in conflict with the religious and political authority in Judea.

John’s Gospel shows that Jesus’ place of origin, Galilee, was often looked down upon. In John 7:32–53, the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest Jesus. The officers returned, not having arrested Jesus because “no one ever spoke like this man” (7:46). They had heard Jesus speak, and some said he was the prophet, while others called him the Christ, the Messiah.

The Pharisees and chief priests responded that the crowd was accursed because they did not know the law. Nicodemus replied that their law does not judge a person before giving them a hearing. The leaders then said, “Are you also from Galilee?” and asserted that no prophet ever came from Galilee. Galilee was often set in contrast with Judea; Galilee was presented in a more negative light than Judea. The wording “the Jews who had believed in Jesus” (John 8:31) points to the fact that John does not portray “the Jews” monolithically as unbelievers.¹

Even those who believed in Jesus were divided over his identity (7:40–43). The conversation takes a puzzling turn as Jesus, after a brief interchange, asserts that his conversational partners are trying to kill him because his word finds no place in their hearts. In other words, their unbelief leads them to violence toward Jesus. Those who had once believed in him have not persevered in their belief and, hence, have turned against him.

As Marianne Thompson puts it, “The strongest negative rhetoric in the Gospel characterizes not those who had never believed, but rather those who had once believed” but have now abandoned commitments to him.² This makes the theme of remaining or abiding in Jesus a major one in this text.

The text contrasts “believing” and “abiding.” Believers must abide in Jesus’ word so that they will genuinely (alethos) be his disciples. While the Greek word meaning “to abide” can mean simply to stay or reside in a location (1:38; 2:12; 4:40; 7:9; 10:40), in John, it also connotes permanence, endurance, and faithfulness, particularly in following Jesus (1:32, 33; 5:38; 6:27, 56; 14:10; 15:4). Initial belief is essential, but continuing or abiding is equally important. Those who continue or endure in their faith are Jesus’ true disciples. Such disciples know the truth, and the truth will set them free.

The conversation about freedom comes in as the audience does not get it right. Jesus means freedom from sin and death, yet the audience hears it as freedom from slavery. Sin is not merely some form of conduct that needs forgiving; “freedom from sin” requires “a new beginning and a new life,” says Thompson, referring to the philosopher Epictetus (55–135 CE), who in his Diatribe mused on the character of “slavery” and “freedom.”³ If the free person “lives as he wishes,” then no one is truly free because people’s desires, such as sorrow, fear, envy, and pity, enslave them. Besides, even people’s moral and rational errors enslave them.⁴

In the course of misunderstanding what freedom and slavery are—thinking physical slavery—Jesus’ opponents are apparently saying they have never been enslaved or descended from those in slavery. Yet as descendants of Abraham, one might understand that they were enslaved people in Egypt, and later on by many other empires. The feast of Tabernacles celebrates the time in the wilderness after God brought the Israelites from slavery in Egypt (Leviticus 23:39–43).

One might find the audience’s response ironic or simply false. If it is false, then falsity characterizes the decision to abandon their past or their unbelief. Unbelief often leads to rejecting the truth. Slavery here is slavery to sin (8:34). Still, doubt leads the opponents to deny even a reality that is evident from their history, even when the speaker did not intend it. Jesus then explains to his would-be disciples how to obtain freedom from sin and death (verses 34–35).

The argument is very compressed. Jesus asserts that an enslaved person does not “abide” forever in the house, but a son does. A child enjoys permanence in the parents’ house. In the following statement, Jesus himself is the son. He can be permanently in his Parent’s house and make the house accessible to others. He confers freedom on those who are receptive to his word and remain in him. The text invites believers to “remain” in Jesus, and to those who will come to believe, it is a way to receive freedom from sin; they must “continue” to believe in him and abide—a call to perseverance.

John 8:31–32 beautifully summarizes four aspects of true discipleship:⁵

• First, it begins with belief.
• Second, it requires constant remaining in the word of Jesus—listening to the words of Jesus, learning from Jesus, constantly penetrating the truth that the words of Jesus bear, and obeying the words of Jesus.
• Third, discipleship ushers in knowledge of the truth. To learn from Jesus is to learn the truth. What is that truth? The fundamental truth that Jesus brings shows us the actual values of life and makes each one ask: To what should I give my life?
• Fourth, discipleship results in freedom: freedom from fear because we are not walking alone, freedom from self because our own self is often the most significant handicap, and freedom from other people since we often fear what other people will say.

Notes

1. Marianne Meye Thompson, John: A Commentary, The New Testament Library (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2015), 189.
2. Thompson, John: A Commentary, 190.
3. Thompson, John: A Commentary, 190.
4. Thompson, John: A Commentary, 190.
5. William Barclay, The Gospel of John 2, rev. ed. (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1975), 20–22.