ACC ~ John 8 v33

HISTORY OF BEING IN BONDAGE TO MAN AND SIN

AUGUSTINE: But the Lord did not say, “You shall be free,” but “The truth shall make you free.” However, that word [free]—because, as I have said, it is clearly so in the Greek—they understood as pointing only to freedom. They puffed themselves up as Abraham’s seed and said, “We are Abraham’s seed and were never in bondage to anyone: how is it that you say, ‘You shall be free’?” O inflated skin! This is not magnanimity; it is hot air! For even if you want to talk about freedom in this life, how were you truthful when you said, “We were never in bondage to anyone”? Wasn’t Joseph sold? [1] Weren’t the holy prophets led into captivity? [2] And again, didn’t that very nation, when making bricks in Egypt, also serve hard rulers, not only in gold and silver but also in clay? [3] If you were never in bondage to anyone, ungrateful people, why is it that God is continually reminding you that he delivered you from the house of bondage? [4] Or do you perhaps mean that your ancestors were in bondage, but you who speak were never in bondage to anyone? How then were you now paying tribute to the Romans, out of which also you formed a trap for the truth himself, as if to ensnare him? [5] TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 41.2. [6]

[1] See Gen 37:28.

[2] See 2 Kings 24.

[3] See Ex 1:14.

[4] Ex 13:3; Deut 5:6.

[5] Mt 22:17.

[6] NPNF 1 7:230*.

THEY LIE ABOUT THEIR FREEDOM

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: They did not speak the truth. They had been freed from the bondage of the Egyptians, who were their neighbors, and from that of the Babylonians. And now, when they were speaking these words, they were subjects to the Romans. But our Lord did not lower himself to rebuke them about it, even though they were lying. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 3.8.33. [1]

[1] CSCO 4 3:173.