Charles Ellicott Commentary John 8:35

"And the bondservant abideth not in the house for ever: the son abideth for ever." — John 8:35 (ASV)

And the servant abideth not.—A better rendering is, Now the bondman abideth not..., as in the preceding verse.

The Son abideth ever.—A better rendering is, for ever, as in the earlier clause. The Greek words are precisely the same.

This contrast is between the position of the slave and that of the son. The slave is a chattel who may be bought, bartered, or sold; he has no affinity with the members of the house and no permanent right in it. In contrast, the son, in whose veins is the master’s blood, is heir of all things. This distinction is obvious and general, but here again, the present meaning is special.

They claim to be the seed of Abraham. Did they remember the history of Isaac and Ishmael? The son of the freewoman abides in the house; the son of the female slave is cast out. Here, once again, we also see the pupil of Gamaliel taking up and expanding this thought, showing that it was within the range of current exposition. Read carefully Galatians 4:19-31, remembering that the Epistle belongs to the middle of the half-century that separates the utterance of these words by Christ from their record by Saint John.

The Greek word for “abideth” is the word that is rendered “continue” in John 8:31, and the Authorized Version further obscures the connection by placing a paragraph division between these verses. If we read John 8:31-32 again, noting the close connection between abiding, truth, and freedom, and the next verses, John 8:35–36, noting the connection between abiding, the Son, and freedom, we shall, it is believed, have a simpler clue to the meaning than any of the usual explanations.

Our version misleads by the use of the capital letter. The word “Son” in this verse should be read “son.” This clause expresses a legal maxim that applies to all servants and all sons, but here it is specifically applied to sonship in Abraham’s household.

Not until the next verse is there a transfer of thought to the Son in the household of the Divine Father. In this current verse, the thought is that if they were truly the children of Abraham, they would share Abraham’s spiritual nature, abiding in his home and inheriting the promises made to him.

They had not continued in the spiritual freedom of sons but had departed from the house and had, spiritually, become slaves.