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THE TRAGIC INCOMPREHENSION

John 8:21–30 (contd)

THERE is no verse in all the New Testament more difficult to translate than John 8:25. No one can really be sure what the Greek means. It could mean: ‘Even what I have told you from the beginning’, which is the meaning the Revised Standard Version takes. Other suggested translations are: ‘Primarily, essentially, I am what I am telling you.’ ‘I declare to you that I am the beginning.’ ‘How is it that I even speak to you at all?’ which is the translation of James Moffatt. It is suggested in our translation that it may mean: ‘Everything I am saying to you now is only a beginning.’ If we take it like that, the passage goes on to say that the real meaning of Christ will be seen in three ways.

(1) It will be seen in the cross. It is when Christ is lifted up that we really see what he is. It is there we see the love that will never let us go and which loves us to the end.

(2) It will be seen in the Judgment. He has many judgments still to pass. At the moment, he might look like the outlawed carpenter of Nazareth; but the day will come when he will be seen as judge, and what he is will be known.

(3) When that happens, the embodied will of God will be seen in him. ‘I always do the things that are pleasing to him,’ Jesus said. Other people, however good, are spasmodic in their obedience. The obedience of Jesus is continuous, perfect and complete. The day must come when it becomes plain to all that in him is the very mind of God.