Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                              Verses 57-59

These Jews then railed at Jesus that He could not possibly have ever seen Abraham because to their minds Abraham was dead. Jesus replied by making His greatest claim to be God up to this time. Jesus told them that He had seen Abraham because He was and is the great I AM who had given His name to Moses. Exodus 3:13-14. The great name of God I AM can only mean that He has always existed and can never not exist.

These Jews then became enraged at Jesus because they clearly understood that Jesus had claimed to be God Himself. They took up stones to stone Him for blasphemy.

Then a very strange thing happened. The Bible (KJB) records that Jesus hid Himself, but it also relates that Jesus walked out of the Temple through the crowd. Since Jesus walked out, then He must have been seen, and yet, He was also somehow hidden. How was this possible? The only possible answer had to be that Jesus was hidden in the sense that God, knowing that Jesus' time of sacrifice had not come, simply paralyzed the minds and the wills of those Jews so that they were unable to throw any stones at Him.