Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.
Ver. 51. Verily I say unto you] This he speaketh for the comfort of the better sort among those refractory Jews whom he had so sharply handled. So Zuinglius, when in his sermons he had thundered out God's judgments against the wicked, he would commonly conclude with these words, Probe vir, hoc nihil ad te: this is not spoken to thee, thou good soul.
He shall never see death] That is, shall never taste of death, as the Jews interpret it, John 8:52. Chrysostom distinguisheth between seeing and tasting death. Sed hallucinatur; eodem enim recidunt, saith Drusius. But Chrysostom is out here, for they are the same. And our Saviour meaneth that such a one shall die not eternally; he shall mori vitaliter, as one saith, live though he die. (See Mr Dugard's Death and the Grave.)