John 8:59, commentary and pictures

After declaring Before Abraham was, I am and thereby taking to Himself God's name given to Moses, Jesus was charged with blasphemy and stones were taken up to cast at Him. He was attacked as one who made Himself God by claiming to be one with God and the Son of God, and because His words exposed sin, reproved hypocrisy, and rebuked hollow piety until hatred thirsted for revenge. He then hid Himself and went out of the temple through their midst unharmed, His opponents losing sight of Him while heavenly angels bore Him to safety. This closes the morning teaching in the temple court begun with I am the light of the world in connection with the Feast of Tabernacles, when kindled lamp-stands and sunrise over the temple illustrated Him as the source of spiritual light. The attempt shows refusal of that light that hardened hearts under evil influences, yet the unseen escape shows the Light shining in darkness unapprehended, for God preserved His life until His work was finished.

Setting, Claim, and Escape

This moment closes a morning teaching in the court of the temple that began with “I am the light of the world,” given in special connection with the services of the Feast of Tabernacles, when after the evening sacrifice two lofty standards supporting great lamp-stands were kindled to shed light over Jerusalem in commemoration of the pillar of light that guided Israel in the desert and in hope of the Messiah’s coming to shed His light upon Israel, and when Jesus pointed to the sun just risen above the Mount of Olives with dazzling brightness upon the marble palaces and the gold of the temple walls as the truer representation of His mission as the source of spiritual light illumining the darkness of the world. It is the close of the Light of Life teaching begun in John 8:12 and stands joined to the story in John 9. The stoning was triggered when Jesus declared “Before Abraham was, I am,” thereby taking to Himself God’s great name given to Moses and expressing eternal presence, which His hearers took as blasphemy. He was attacked because He claimed to be one with God and avowed Himself the Son of God, which was counted as a man making Himself God, with priests and rabbis crying out against Him as a blasphemer and many of the people siding with them, bent on destroying Him as they had before sought His life and would again seek to stone Him.

He was attacked because His words exposed sin, reproved hypocritical pretensions, tore aside the cloak of rigorous rites under which moral deformity was hidden, condemned hollow professions of piety by the pure religion He taught, and pointedly rebuked His hearers and applied truth to their conduct, so that in hatred they thirsted to be revenged upon Him. When He told them they were of their father the devil for seeking to kill Him for the truth He had heard from God, they proved His words by taking up stones to cast at Him, thereby exposing themselves as children of darkness who reject the truth and do the deeds and lusts of their father Satan the murderer and liar and accuser, and not as children of light who obey the truth, nor as children of Abraham, nor as children of God the Father, though in bigotry and self-righteousness they claimed Abraham and God as their Father while hating the Word of truth with intense hatred.

Jesus hid Himself and passed through their midst out of the temple unharmed, while their eyes were blinded by the I AM so they could not see Him. Heavenly angels guarded His human life and bore Him away from the angry multitude to a place of safety. He quietly withdrew unseen so His opponents lost sight of Him.

Rejection and Deliverance

The seizing of stones was refusal of the light He had just given, and that rejection hardened hearts and left the rejecters under evil influences. The rage and unbelief and hate and scorn driving the attack came from Satan and his angels, who inspired and urged the people on to take the life of the Son of God. His passing out unseen therefore shows the Light shining in darkness while the darkness did not apprehend it.

That escape belonged with repeated deliverances from seizure or stoning when His teaching enraged His hearers. Having watched Jesus protected by divine power and released unharmed on those past occasions, Judas assumed He would again prevent arrest and save Himself from death. The repeated attempts failed because heavenly angels guarded His human life, for God preserved Him until His work was finished and the time for the Jewish nation's decision had come. After the Pharisees took up stones for the truth He spoke He left Jerusalem, yet He steadfastly set His face to return, knowing persecution and rejection and condemnation and death awaited Him on the path marked out by His Father and refusing to turn aside to save Himself. As He went out from the temple He saw a man blind from birth and healed him.