John 8:22Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Indeed, He also says of the disciples that they are not of the world, and yet they had flesh. Thus, when Paul says, “You are not in the flesh” (Rom 8:9), he does not call the Romans bodiless. So also when the Lord says of the disciples that they are not of the world, He testifies to nothing other than their love of wisdom.

In both cases Jesus Christ expresses one and the same thought. Here, however, the threat is stated more strongly: His enemies will perish. “I am going away, and you will seek Me,” that is, the Messiah in general, asking Him to come to help in the calamities that will overtake you after My departure to the Father.

“But you will die in the sin of unbelief in Me, and therefore you cannot be where I am going.” The words “you will die in your sin” could not have been unclear to anyone. Through them, the words expressing the opposite in relation to Jesus Christ, “where I am going,” should also have been understood.

It was evident to everyone, at least, that here a contrast is being made between Sheol and Abraham’s bosom. This threat greatly offended the Jews. In their mocking interpretation of Jesus’ words, they send Him to Sheol, while claiming Abraham’s bosom as inalienably their own.

“If He was speaking of the latter, then of course we not only can go there, but will go. But if He is thinking of passing to the other world as a suicide, then of course we cannot be where He will be, as a suicide.”

Jesus Christ meets this mockery with a calm unfolding and explanation of what He had said. By their origin, “you are from below,” and by their moral life, “you are of this world.” They are people of this world, people of sin, who therefore cannot know Him who has heavenly origin and being. But since salvation is possible only through Christ, if they do not believe in Him, they will die in their sins.

“You will seek Me.” Earlier His love had pointed to the sorrowful future of the Jews, who did not wish to acknowledge the Messiah in Jesus (Jn 7:33). Now again it points to the same future, in order to bring these poor people to awareness of themselves. Now a new and fearful feature is indicated in this future: “You will die in your sin.” “In sin” does not mean the same as “for sin.” Rather, sin will become such a master that death will find them under its power. This is the same as the condition of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (Jn 16:9). Under long submission to sin, freedom grows weaker and weaker, and at last turns into willing service to sin. They will seek the Messiah, but not the Messiah of the prophets. They will seek a false Messiah. With a thirst for earthly happiness and a thirst for gold, without the Savior of the soul, they will pass into a sorrowful eternity. The lot of the hardened Jew is the lot of every hardened sinner (Ezek 3:19; 18:26; 33:9, 18). “Then the Jews said, ‘Will He kill Himself, since He says, Where I go, you cannot come?’” Earlier, at the same words of Jesus, they had said, “Does He intend to go to the dispersion among the Greeks?” (Jn 7:35). Now, with the mockery of proud malice, they speak almost abusively. Suicide was considered by the Jews a grave crime, which brings the guilty one down into the depths of Hades. Josephus says of suicides, de bello iud. 1, 3. 8. 5, “their souls are received by the darkest Hades.” Thus the Jews, instead of gratefully valuing His careful love for them, say, “If He wishes to kill Himself and descend into Gehenna, then of course we shall not follow Him.” “He said to them, ‘You are from below (εκ τ. κατω), I am from above (εκ τ. ανω); you are of this world, I am not of this world.’” The lower realm and lower limits are the earth (Jn 3:31), or otherwise the vain and passing world. The higher realm is heaven, both by contrast with the lower and by usage (Jn 3:13, 31; Col 3:1, 2; Phil 3:14; Gal 4:26). The thoughts and life of the Jews belong to the earth. They live for it. Here is their heart, and here is all their love. They judge everything by the calculations of earthly life, turning even spiritual things into the circle of an earthly marketplace. This is precisely what is now so praised: the utilitarian system. Does the Lord praise it? “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins,” He says. Here is the consequence of a life ordered according to the utilitarian system: “You will die in your sins.” It cannot be otherwise. Man was created for God, not for himself. He was created for heaven, not for earth, for eternal blessedness, not for temporal and deceptive blessedness. Christ the Lord came from heaven to earth in order to restore in man his normal life, damaged by sin: life for God and eternity. If all this is cast aside with proud contempt by utilitarian people, there is no hope of salvation. Those who live for the earth neither understand nor receive heavenly teaching. The Jews misunderstood the words of Christ Jesus because their soul and mind had long received a distorted direction toward the earth alone. “If you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” Whom does the Savior wish them to see in Him when He says, “I am He”? This is clear from the content of His discourse. According to all that He said to the Jews, He is the One who saves from sin and sinful death, the promised Messiah, the Son of God. Jesus impresses upon the Jews the very thought that the Apostle later preached: “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

But while the Lord was with them, Jerusalem did not know the time of its visitation (Lk 19:44). As is evident from their every word, the Jews became more and more confirmed in their intention to kill the Lord. They wished to kill Him publicly, with the pronouncement of a judicial sentence, so that by executing Him as a criminal they might, as they thought, destroy the influence of His sacred words.

In their words in verse 22, one hears fear that the Lord Jesus might escape their sacrilegious hands by suicide. In all likelihood they had already begun secret negotiations with Judas Iscariot, whom the Lord had already earlier indicated as the betrayer (Jn 6:70-71). In their madness they dared to suppose that the Lord Jesus would escape their hands by suicide, which would not have satisfied their malice.

Perhaps in their words, and in their understanding of the Lord’s words, there is still another hint connected with the madness of their self-confident pride. Josephus indicates in De Bello Iud. 3, cap. XXV, that suicide was considered among the Jews the greatest crime. From Jewish tradition it is known that they believed suicides were cast into Gehenna.

Therefore it is quite possible that, in their naive and mad pride, the Jews heard the Lord’s words, “Where I am going, you cannot come,” and reasoned that He was hinting at suicide. For they, highly virtuous men, of course could not end up in Gehenna.

Topheth, or the valley of the sons of Hinnom, was known as the place of bloody sacrifices to Molech (4 Kgs 23:10; Is 30:33; Jer 19:2, 6). See especially the last prophecy concerning the fate of Jerusalem. But the name Topheth and the name Gehenna, from Hinnom, later became names for Hades, or the place of sufferings after death.