8:37 Are these Jews who Jesus said seek to kill Him the same Jews who had just come to believe on Him?
8:37 Are these Jews who Jesus said seek to kill Him the same Jews who had just come to believe on Him?
Yes (CP V30, 59). In V37 Jesus addresses the Jews who embraced His teachings in V30, and He continues to address them throughout the rest of this chapter until they try to kill Him in V59 (CP V31-32).
This shows how fragile their faith was. If it were not possible to fall away like they did Jesus would not have had to urge them to continue in His word in order to grow in faith (CP V33). Jesus told those who had come to believe on Him that the truth they would learn by continuing in His word would make them free from the hold sin had over them, but they claimed that as the children of Abraham they were in bondage to no one.
They had no sense of their bondage to sin, and so questioned Jesus as to what they had to be set free from (CP V34-38). Jesus went on to tell them that they could not be a servant of sin and abide in God's house forever, but that whoever abides in God's word is set free by Jesus (CP V39-40).
The Jews persisted in their claim to be the children of Abraham which they were physically, but not spiritually, but Jesus refuted their claim and exposed them as children of the Devil because they did not do the works of Abraham, and intended to kill Him (CP V41-47).
The Jews then sought to shift the focus of attention to the legitimacy of their birth and their relationship to God, in contrast to Jesus' birth, but again Jesus exposed the attitude of their hearts toward Him.
They hated Him, God's Son, yet thought they were children of God themselves. Jesus stressed that the explicit criterion verifying the claim to be a child of God is love for God's Son (CP 1Jn 2:22-25; 3:8-10; 4:6; 5:1).
By now the Jews could see that they could not attack Jesus' personal life and conduct (CP Jn 8:48-50.
The Jews then directed their attack toward His nationality and source of power, accusing Him of being a Samaritan whom the Jews despised, and of having a demon. But their attempt to dishonour Jesus was an attack upon His Father, because in all that He did Jesus sought not His own honour, but God's. Jesus was not concerned how the Jews judged Him. He knew that God would vindicate Him (CP V51-55 with 15:21-25).
Jesus went on to assert that anyone who held to His teachings would never die, meaning of course that they would have everlasting life, which greatly offended the Jews. They said they knew now that Jesus had a demon because if Abraham, the Father of the Jewish nation, and all the Old Testament prophets were dead, how could Jesus say that those who kept His word would never die.
Who did Jesus think He was? Jesus' response was that God honours Him by working miracles through Him, and if He was also their God they would know Jesus too. But they did not know God (CP Jn 8:56-59). Jesus, then declaring His Deity, told them that He was before Abraham; that Abraham rejoiced to see His day. That's when they tried to kill Him in V59.