John 8:33Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

They would rather be called slaves a thousand times in the former respect than once in the latter. Such too were the Jews. They knew no other slavery, and therefore they say: You called slaves men descended from Abraham's race.

You called slaves noble men, who for this very reason ought not to be called slaves. We, they say, have never been slaves. See what the Jews vaunt! We are "Abraham's seed," we are Israelites. They never mention their own deeds.

Therefore John cried out to them, saying: "Do not think to say within yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father,'" Mt 3:9.

But why did Christ not expose them? For they had often been in slavery, to the Egyptians, to the Babylonians, and to many others. Because He did not speak in order to contend with them, but for their salvation and benefit.

This is what He cared about. He could certainly have spoken of four hundred years of slavery. He could have spoken of seventy years. He could have spoken of slavery in the time of the judges, sometimes for twenty years, sometimes for two, sometimes for seven.

He could have said that they had never ceased being slaves.

For every time they were taken captive, they were in bondage: to the Egyptians, the Babylonians, and many other nations. The Lord does not expose them in the lie.

His aim is not to prove that they are slaves of men, but that they are slaves of sin. This slavery is the heaviest, and only God can deliver from it.

From this you may see with all clarity the cause of the glory present in him. Since he was called the friend of Almighty God, he therefore became great and glorious. Faith was reckoned to him as righteousness.

Righteousness from faith became for him the cause of freedom according to God. Therefore, when through faith he received justification, that is, when he renounced the ignobility of sin, then he appeared noble, well-born, and free.

The Jews act foolishly. They despise the grace that freed even the first ancestor of their race. They fix their thoughts only on him who was freed by it, Abraham.

They do not attend to the source from which his glory comes and the goal toward which it directs. They dishonor the Giver of the qualities present in him. They neglect the Source of all nobility and think extravagantly about the one granted participation in Him.

They also prove empty boasters when they declare that they had never served anyone as slaves. By these words they are exposed as liars.

They were in slavery to the Egyptians for four hundred and thirty years. Only by grace from above were they led out of the house of bondage and the iron furnace, as it is written, Deut 4:20. That is, from the cruel dominion of the Egyptians.

They were also in slavery to the Babylonians and Assyrians. These laid waste the whole land of Judea and Jerusalem itself, and deported all Israel into their own country.

Therefore the speech of the Jews is utterly unsound. Besides ignorance of true slavery, by which I mean slavery in sins, they also entirely deny another ignoble slavery, political slavery. Their mind had grown used to being haughty over trifles.

If you have never been in bondage to anyone, O ungrateful ones, why does God constantly remind you that He freed you from the house of bondage? Or perhaps your fathers were in bondage, but you, who speak, were never in bondage to anyone? How, then, were you paying tribute to the Romans, for which very reason you yourselves set a trap of captivity for the Truth?

So the Jews understood Him in this way and answered Him. Not those who had believed, but those among the people who were still unbelieving, answered Him: "We are the seed of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. How do You say, 'You will become free'?" Yet the Lord had not said, "You will become free," but, "The truth will free, liberabit, you." Augustine continues to speak about shades of meaning in the verb liberare. Which should be understood not only as "to free," but also as "to deliver," "to save," and "to heal." Thus he shows here that the Lord was not saying simply, "You will become free," but, "The truth will heal and save you."

Yet in this verb, since, as I have said, such a meaning is evident in Greek, they heard nothing except liberation. They began to affirm that they were Abraham's seed and said, "We are Abraham's seed and have never been slaves to anyone. How do You say, 'You will become free'?" O inflated wineskins! This is not greatness, but puffed-up pride.

For how is what you said true even with regard to freedom in this life: "We have never been slaves to anyone"? Was Joseph not sold into slavery? See Gen 37:28. Were the holy prophets not led away into slavery? See 4 Kgs 24. Finally, was this not the people that made bricks in Egypt and served harsh kings, laboring not with gold and silver, but with clay? See Ex 1:14.

If you have never been slaves to anyone, O ungrateful ones, why does God constantly charge you with having been freed by Him from the house of bondage? See Ex 13:3; Deut 5:6; 13:6. Or perhaps your fathers were slaves, but you who speak were never slaves to anyone? How, then, did you pay taxes to the Romans?

For this very reason you yourselves set a trap for the Truth, wishing to catch Him by asking, "Is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar?" (Mt 22:17). If He had said that it was lawful, you would seize Him as one who despised freedom for Abraham's seed. If He had said that it was not lawful, you would slander Him before the kings of the earth, saying that He refused to pay tribute to kings.

Rightly, when He showed you the coin, you were overthrown and forced to answer your own wickedness. For it was then said to you: "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's" (Mt 22:21), after you yourselves had answered that the coin bore Caesar's image. For as Caesar seeks his image on the coin, so God seeks His own image in man.

This, then, is the answer He gave to the Jews. Truly, brethren, the vain pride of men irritates me, for they lied even about their freedom understood in a fleshly way, saying, "We have never been slaves to anyone."

It is the cry of a reopened wound. In this passionate and painful cry they seem to forget the slavery in Egypt and Babylon, other less significant times of slavery, and the present Roman slavery.

The latter, however, as though to satisfy their pride, left them the semblance of political freedom.

The Forerunner also instructed these people: "Do not imagine this of yourselves, saying, 'We have Abraham as our father,'" Mt 3:9. The Savior again had to speak against this destructive delusion.

He passes over the crying falsehood in the words of the wild dreamers. He does not say that they had been slaves of Egypt, in the time of the judges, and in the Babylonian captivity, and that they were now under Rome's iron power.

This is truth known to them, and evidently not so important that the heavenly Teacher should speak of it. The Savior shows a truth more important and more necessary for all.

They could not rise to love for God and for their neighbors, nor understand with the soul this great mystery of the Kingdom of God: that God is love; 1 Jn 3:8, 23; 4:21. The Lord wishes to lead them onto His own path, "I am the way" (Jn 14:6), saying to them: "If you abide in My word, you will truly be My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."

But the Jews did not wish to understand these deep and sacred words. They could not and would not understand that only by forever renouncing their arrogant reason and receiving the divine fire in their heart could they become the Lord's disciples. Only then could they walk on the path indicated by Him. That path would lead them to moral freedom, to the freedom that detaches man from the material bonds of the earth and from the environment in which he lives. It detaches him from all petty and vain influences, raising him above them and making him truly free from this brief life. For in truth, "we are strangers and pilgrims on the earth, and we seek an eternal homeland" (Heb 11:13-14).

Only by abiding in the Lord's words could the Jews understand the truth, the absolute truth, which could free them from the chains of their madness. Truth here is understood not merely as an abstract concept, but as the embodiment of God the Word Himself, the eternal Truth. For "God is truth, and His judgments are righteous"; Ps 18:9; 88:34; 110:7; Is 65:16. "Heaven and earth will pass away, but the Lord's words will not pass away" (Mt 24:35).

Therefore the Lord had said earlier, in verse 25: "I am the beginning, as I also speak to you." To understand the truth is to believe that the Lord Jesus is the Christ. At the same time it is to understand the will of God, and thereby to be freed from slavery to flesh, sin, and earth. For "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (2 Cor 3:17).

Such is the teaching the Lord gave to the Jews. Such is the teaching of love, by which He drew even these blasphemers and embittered men to Himself. Yet not only was their heart deeply corrupted. Their very mind had been clouded by the decaying education of the Jewish schools.

Accustomed to the letter, the Jews did not understand the spirit of the Lord's words. They began to dispute about words, giving them the narrowest interpretation. By this they showed themselves utterly incapable of rising to the height where the Lord wished to lead them.

Before them hovered phantoms of the greatness of their people. Soon afterward the marketplaces of the East were flooded with this people as slaves; Josephus, Jewish War, book 6, ch. 44; book 7, chs. 25, 27. They pointed to Abraham and to the promises given him, forgetting that their sins and unbelief had already been the cause of their slavery in the hands of many nations. Above all, they did not understand that only "those who believe are blessed with faithful Abraham" (Gal 3:9, 16; cf. Gen 12:7).

Speaking of slavery, the Jews did not suspect that there is a spiritual slavery in which they themselves stood. Earthly slavery ends with the fleeting life of earth. No tyrant can hold a slave whose soul has been freed from earthly bonds. But spiritual slavery, slavery to sin, malice, and unbelief, fetters the immortal soul even beyond the grave.