Charles Ellicott Commentary John 8:21

"He said therefore again unto them, I go away, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sin: whither I go, ye cannot come." — John 8:21 (ASV)

Then Jesus said to them again.—The best manuscripts omit the word “Jesus,” and read, He said, therefore, again to them. The word “therefore” connects the discourse that follows with something that has come before, probably with the fact that no one laid hands on Him, because His hour had not yet come.

He is still free to address the multitude, and after an interval does so. This interval is marked by the word “again,” but is not necessarily more than a short break in the discourse.

We will find reason for believing (see Note on John 9:14) that the whole of the teaching and work included between John 7:37 and John 10:21 is probably to be placed on the last and great day of the feast. The persons addressed are the people assembled around Him in the Temple. Some of the officials take part in the discussion, for it is “the Jews” who reply in the next verse.

We have to think, perhaps, of men gathered in small groups discussing what He had said before. Some are genuinely inquiring with earnest hearts about Him, while the rulers are trying to suppress the multitude's growing conviction.

Thus, there are two currents of thought and feeling. One is found in the honest hearts of the untutored multitude; they know little of argument and dare not interpret the Scriptures for themselves, but in their rough-and-ready way, they are grasping the truth, and the heart of man is bowing before the presence of its God. The other is found in the priests and rulers; to them—as a holy and learned caste, the representatives of God to man and the interpreters of their Sacred Books—the people are in intellectual and moral bondage. These leaders seek to bind with their fetters hearts that are finding their way to the truth.

Some of these groups, perhaps, have moved on, and others have taken their place. Seeing a new audience near Him, Jesus speaks to them again, for it is not probable that the words of John 8:27 apply wholly to the same persons as those in John 8:19.

I go my way.—The rendering is a little colored by the following thought. The Greek word is the same as in John 8:14, where it is rendered “I go.” There, as here, I go away is better.

It was, let us again remind ourselves, the last day of the feast, and its closing hours had now come. Before the close of another day, that thronging multitude would be leaving Jerusalem, spreading throughout all Palestine and the Dispersion.

He also is going away. Many of them will never see Him again. Before another Feast of Tabernacles, He will, in a deeper sense, be going away. They will seek Him, but it will be too late. In all the discourse, there is the solemn feeling that these are the last words for many who hear Him.

Ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins.—Compare Notes on John 7:34 and John 7:36. But here the result of the seeking and not finding is declared in the sadness of its fatal issue. “In your sins” is not quite exact, and is, perhaps, somewhat misleading. The Greek has the singular, not the plural, and should be rendered “in your sin.” It points out the state of sin, rather than actual transgressions. This latter thought is expressed where the words are repeated in John 8:24.