Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? — The question is exactly the same, with the substitution of “Abraham” for “Jacob,” as that asked by the Samaritan woman in John 4:12 (see Note). “Surely thou art not greater than our father Abraham, who indeed died?”
Whom makest thou thyself? — “If Abraham, who received God’s covenant, himself died, and if the prophets, who uttered the oracles of God, themselves died, what kind of person dost Thou assert Thyself to be that Thy word shall deliver men from death?” The same phrase occurs again in John 5:18; John 10:33; John 19:7.