The Jews therefore said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old! Have you seen Abraham?”
Parallel Translations
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The Jews therefore said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old! Have you seen Abraham?”
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Then sayde the Iewes vnto him: thou arte not yet.l. yere olde and hast thou sene Abraham?
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Then sayd ye Iewes vnto him, Thou art not yet fiftie yeere olde, and hast thou seene Abraham?
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Explain this verse (15 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 57. Thou art not yet fifty years old. They…
57. Thou art not yet fifty years old. They endeavor to refute Christ’s saying, by showing that he had asserted what was impossible, when he who was not yet fifty years of age makes himself equal to Abraham, who died many centuries before. Though Christ was not yet thirty-four years of age, yet they allow him to be somewhat older, that they may not appear to be too rigid and exact in dealing with him; as if they had said, “Thou certainly wilt not make thyself so old, though thou wert to boast that thou art already fifty years of age.” Consequently, those who conjecture that he looked older than he actually was, or that the years mentioned in this passage are not solar years, in either case labor to no purpose. The notion of Papias, who says that Christ lived more than forty years, cannot at all be admitted.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 57 Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art…
57 Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?
Ver. 57. Thou art not yet fifty] No, nor much past thirty; and yet he had so spent himself in winning souls and weeping over the hardness of men’s hearts, that he seemed to the Jews to be much older than he was, as some conceive. Sure it is that Mr John Fox, the martyrologue, by the infinite pains that he took in compiling that elaborate work (which he finished in eleven years without the help of any other man), grew so lean and withered that his friends knew him not.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Christ was at this time but three and thirty…
Christ was at this time but three and thirty years old, and upward: they dream of Abraham’s seeing him, and his seeing Abraham, with bodily eyes, of which Christ said nothing; that indeed had been a thing impossible, for Abraham was dead many hundred years before Christ appeared in the flesh to the world: neither doth our Saviour say, that he had seen Abraham, or that Abraham had seen him; but that he had seen his day, his coming in the flesh, his death, which Abraham had seen, not with bodily eyes, but with the eye of faith.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain Observe here, 1. What a false and ridiculous construction…
Observe here, 1. What a false and ridiculous construction the Jews make of our Saviour’s words, as if he had affirmed that he had seen Abraham, and Abraham him, with bodily eyes: whereas Christ only asserted, that Abraham had seen his day: that is, he foresaw by faith the day of his incarnation, and coming in the flesh.
Observe, 2. Our Saviour’s positive asserting of his divinity, or that he had a being as God from all eternity: for, says he, Before Abraham was, I am.
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Where note, That Christ does not say, Before Abraham was, I was: but, before Abraham was, I am; which is the proper name of God, thereby is signified the eternal duration and permanency of his being. The adversaries of Christ’s divinity say, that before Abraham was, Christ was: that is, in God’s fore-knowledge or decree; but this may be said of any other person as well as Chirst, that he was in the fore-knowledge of God before Abraham was born. Whereas undoubtedly it was Christ’s design in these words, to give himself some preference and advantage above Abraham, which this interpretation doth not in the least do.
Observe lastly, how the Jews looking upon Christ as a blasphemer, for making himself equal with God, and for asserting his eternal existence, they make a furious attempt upon his life, by taking up stones to cast at him, as the Jews used to deal with blasphemers: but our Saviour delivers himself miraculously from their fury, and escapes untouched.
Hence learn, That when arguments fail, the enemies of truth betake themselves to force and violence: They took up stones to cast at him.
2. That as Christ disappointed his own persecutors, so he can and will deliver his people in their greatest extremity from their persecutor’s rage and fury. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to reserve the unjust to the day of judgment to be punished. 2Pe 2:9
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Thou art not yet fifty years old - At…
Thou art not yet fifty years old - At the most. Perhaps the gravity of our Lord's countenance, together with his afflictions and labours, might make him appear older than he really was. Hast thou seen Abraham - Which they justly supposed must have been, if Abraham had seen him.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 57. Thou art not yet fifty years old]…
Verse 57. Thou art not yet fifty years old] Some MSS. read forty. The age of our blessed Lord has never been properly determined. Some of the primitive fathers believed that he was fifty years old when he was crucified; but their foundation, which is no other than these words of the Jews, is but a very uncertain one. Calmet thinks that our Lord was at this time about thirty-four years and ten months old, and that he was crucified about the middle of his thirty-sixth year; and asserts that the vulgar era is three years too late. On the other hand, some allow him to have been but thirty-one years old, and that his ministry had lasted but one year. Many opinions on this subject, which are scarcely worthy of being copied, may be found in Calmet.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Fifty years old - Jesus is supposed to have…
Fifty years old - Jesus is supposed to have been at this time about the age of 33. It is remarkable that when he was so young they should have mentioned the number 50, but they probably designed to prevent the possibility of a reply. Had they said 40 they might have apprehended a reply, or could not be so certain that they were correct.
Hast thou seen Abraham? - It is remarkable, also, that they perverted his words. His affirmation was not that he had seen Abraham, but that Abraham had seen his day. The design of Jesus was to show that he was greater than Abraham, Joh 8:53. To do this, he says that Abraham, great as he was, earnestly desired to see his time, thus acknowledging his inferiority to the Messiah. The Jews perverted this, and affirmed that it was impossible that he and Abraham should have seen each other.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not…
Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old--"No inference can be drawn from this as to the age of our Lord at the time as man. Fifty years was with the Jews the completion of manhood" [ALFORD].
and hast thou seen Abraham?--He had said Abraham saw Him, as being his peculiar privilege. They give the opposite turn to it--"Hast Thou seen Abraham?" as an honor too great for Him to pretend to.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 57. Fifty years old—Thou hast not seen half a…
57. Fifty years old—Thou hast not seen half a century; much less seventeen centuries. From these words Irenaeus inferred that Jesus was near fifty years old. Others have inferred that he seemed prematurely old, either from the marks of enduring sorrow in his features, or from his apparent precocious maturity of mind. He was not yet thirty-three; and the fifty here named is simply an even sum to measure off the intervening centuries.
Seen Abraham—Jesus had not said that he had seen Abraham, or that Abraham had seen him, but simply that Abraham had seen his day. They, however, in trying to exaggerate his words into absurdity, really elevate them into a higher truth. Jesus, as he will soon declare, had seen Abraham.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 57. Then said the Jews] Better. Therefore said the…
57. Then said the Jews] Better. Therefore said the Jews.
Thou art not yet fifty years old] The reading, ‘forty years,’ which Chrysostom and a few authorities give, is no doubt incorrect. It has arisen from a wish to make the number less wide of the mark; for our Lord was probably not yet thirty-five, although Irenaeus preserves a tradition that He taught at a much later age. He says (ii. xxii. 5), a quadrigesimo autem et quinquagesimo anno declinat jam in aetatem seniorem, quam habens Dominus noster docebat, sicut evangelium et omnes seniores testantur qui in Asia apud Joannem discipulum Domini convenerunt. By ‘evangelium’ he probably means this passage. But ‘fifty years’ is a round number, the Jewish traditional age of full manhood (Num_4:3; Num_4:39; Num_8:24-25). There is no reason to suppose that Jesus was nearly fifty, or looked nearly fifty. In comparing His age with the 2000 years since Abraham the Jews would not care to be precise so long as they were within the mark.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (57) Thou art not yet fifty years old.—There is…
(57) Thou art not yet fifty years old.—There is no reason to doubt that we have the correct reading here, though some, from Chrysostom downward, have sought to avoid what seemed to them a difficulty, by substituting “forty” for “fifty.” Others, and among them were the “Elders who in Asia conferred with John, the Lord’s disciple,” have held that our Lord was between forty and fifty years of age at the time of his public ministry. We know this from the testimony of Irenaeus, who appears to have this very passage in his mind, for he says, “As the gospel and all the Elders witness” (Lib. 2 chap. 22 § 5; Oxford Translation, p. 160). But “fifty years” was the period of full manhood (Num_4:3; Num_4:39; Num_8:24). This is expressed in round numbers, and there is no care to be more exact in comparison with the two thousand years which had passed since the close of Abraham’s earthly life. The thought is, “Thou art still a young man, and hast thou seen Abraham who died twenty centuries ago?”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The Jews, therefore, said unto him once more misinterpreting…
The Jews, therefore, said unto him once more misinterpreting his words, and giving a materialistic tone to his Divine hintThou hast not yet fifty years art not fifty years oldand hast thou seen Abraham? Christ did not say that be had seen Abraham, but that Abraham had seen and rejoiced in his day. The Jews chose to regard the language of Jesus as adding another immense improbability, if not falsehood, to his previous claims, viz. that he had actually lived to twice the age of Methuselah already. The "fifty years old" may have been simply used in round numbers for the age of man"s prime and completed. (Num_4:3, 39 8:24) There may have been, even if our Lord was only thirty-three years of age at the time of his Passion, that which apparently added to his years. A tradition is mentioned (Irenaeus, 100, 2, 22. 5) of the more advanced age of Jesus which the Ephesian presbyters preserved, and which Irenaeus regards as between the forty-fifth and fiftieth years. Ernest de Bunsen vainly finds a reference to Christ"s age (Joh_2:20) in the forty-six years of the temple; but it is strange that, with the exception of the statement in Luk_3:23, there is nothing in the extraneous chronological data, e.g. the death of Herod and recall of Pontius Pilate, which need positively compress our Lord"s life within fifty years (Westcott). And Keim has made the suggestion that our Lord did carry on his ministry for a much longer period than is commonly supposed. It is far more probable, however, that the Jews were using an expression for the term of a completed life, and were supplying no chronological data whatever.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 57. Thou art not yet fifty years old, and…
57. Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? It had been about 2,000 years since the time of Abraham. Jesus did not say he had seen Abraham, but they pervert his words.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
This is the end of the part of the story about Jesus speaking with the Jews in the temple, which began in John 8:12.
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The Jews said to him
Here the "Jews" is a synecdoche for the "Jewish leaders" who opposed Jesus. AT: "The Jewish leaders said to him" (See: Synecdoche)
You are not yet fifty years old, and you have seen Abraham?
The Jewish leaders use this question to express their shock that Jesus claims to have seen Abraham. AT: "You are less than fifty years old. You could not have seen Abraham!" (See: Rhetorical Question)
Truly, truly
See how you translated this in John 1:51.
before Abraham was, I AM
As God the Son, Jesus knows God the Father unlike anyone else. Possible meanings are 1) Jesus was identifying himself as Yahweh by saying, "I am God" or 2) Jesus was saying, "before Abraham existed, I existed."
Then they picked up stones to throw at him
The Jewish leaders are outraged at what Jesus has said. Here it is implied that they wanted to kill him because he had made himself equal to God. AT: "Then they picked up stones to kill him because he claimed to be equal with God" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
translationWords
Jew
temple
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 8:57 You aren’t even fifty years old: The Jewish…
8:57 You aren’t even fifty years old: The Jewish leaders misunderstood Jesus: He was talking about his divine pre-existence, not his physical age.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.