John 8:48-53 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Then answered the Jews, Say we not well Have we not just cause to say; Thou art a Samaritan An enemy to our church and nation; and hast a devil? Art possessed by a proud and lying spirit? The Jews and Samaritans bearing a mortal hatred to one another on account of religion, it happened, that in common language, Couthi, or Samaritan, was used to signify, not merely a Samaritan by country, but one by principle and disposition; and so denoted oft-times an inveterate enemy to the Jewish nation and religion, and a man of wicked morals. Thus, in our own language, a Turk signifies one of a barbarous disposition; and a Jew, one who is covetous and rich. Jesus to this insolent charge answered with great meekness, I have not a devil As the whole series of my discourses and actions shows; nor can any of you produce any thing, in all that I have said or done, which looks like lunacy or impiety: but, the truth is, I honour my Father By bearing a steady and consistent testimony to the doctrine he hath sent me to reveal to the world: and because this doctrine is contrary to your corrupt prejudices and passions, you dishonour me By these and such like opprobrious reflections, in hope of discrediting my message. But as to what personally relates to me, I am little affected with it; for I seek not my own glory: there is one, however, that seeketh And will secure it; and who now judgeth Of all that passes, and will at length evidently show the exact notice he has taken of it, to my honour and to your confusion. For God will not only finally glorify me, but will confer the highest honours and rewards on all my faithful servants: and therefore, Verily, I say unto you I assert it as an indisputable truth; If a man Εαν τις, if any one; keep my saying Firmly believe, and steadily obey my word; he shall never see death He shall never see spiritual and eternal death; and temporal death, the dissolution of his mortal nature, shall, with respect to him, hardly deserve the name of death; his soul, the real and true man, not dying at all, but passing into the paradise of God, and his body only falling asleep for a short season. Hereby our Lord proves that he was not a Samaritan, for the Samaritans, in general, were Sadducees. Then the Jews Understanding him as asserting that his disciples should be exempted from the common lot of mortality; said, Now we know that thou hast a devil Now we have full proof that thou art possessed by a demon, which hurries thee on to this madness and pride, otherwise thou couldest never talk at this extravagant rate. Abraham, the great friend of God, and the founder of our nation, is dead, and the prophets, holy and divinely inspired as they were, whom God raised up in succeeding ages, were so far from being able to bestow immortality on their followers, that even they themselves are long since dead; and thou sayest In great presumption and pride; If a man, if any one, keep my saying, (see on John 8:51,) he shall never taste of death Not only he shall not die eternally, (in which sense the Jews did not understand our Lord's words,) but he shall not die at all. See on John 6:50. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, &c. Art thou more in favour with God than Abraham and the prophets were? who, though strict observers of all the divine precepts, were not able to procure an immunity from death for themselves, far less for their followers.