John chapter 8

vs 51

Now of course, everyone who kept Jesus' words died. But he is talking about a much more important death - an eternal spiritual death. It's little wonder that early Christians called death "sleep" (including Jesus), because when you are going to live forever, the period in between being alive now and being alive forever is just a little nap.

vs 52-53

But of course, the Pharisees don't get it, and so they have another little hissy fit. To them, demon-possessed now means mentally ill - because they are saying that his words don't make any sense. They do leave a couple of people out, though. Like Enoch and Elijah.

So they want to know now if Jesus thinks he is greater than those who did die. Do they really want to know, or do they just want to make him look bad?

vs 54

Jesus in fact doesn't claim any greatness. Instead, he is at pains to point out that it is God who makes him great. If anyone thinks he is great for any reason, then it is because of his Father.

vs 55

Jesus can't lie about it. He does know God. And he has to speak out and say so, because these guys who say they do know God don't really know him at all. They've shoved God out and replaced him with legalistic ideals.

vs 56

Jesus now acknowledges at least that they say their father is Abraham (which was their first response) and says that when Abraham looked forward to the time of the coming Messiah, he was glad. But now his sons are not glad, they are belligerent and abusive of the Christ.

vs 57

Why did they choose fifty I wonder? In any case, Jesus isn't even forty, but they chose fifty. Yes, of course he hadn't actually seen Abraham, and neither had they. But there was obviously something about how Jesus said it which made it seem like he knew Abraham. If this is a condensed version of Jesus' words, then we can assume it just wasn't included in depth.

vs 58

Now it's only fair that the Pharisees get upset at this point. It's hard to tell from Jesus' words if you haven't read the OT, but he is using the term for God (you know, Yhwh).

vs 59

Since it is understood that even using that word was considered blasphemy, calling yourself God would almost certainly appear blasphemous. So they want to stone him, but he disappears, not in a ninja-like puff of smoke, just into the crowd.

And it would be fair enough, too, at least to get angry at someone making such a claim, if he hadn't already backed it up with miracles, and if it wasn't actually true. Pity for the Pharisees.