They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Who said this? Not surely the very class just spoken of as won over by His divine words, and exhorted to continue in them. Most interpreters seem to think so; but it is hard to ascribe such a petulant speech to newly gained disciples, even in the lowest sense, much less persons so gained as they were. It came, probably, from persons mixed up with them in the same part of the crowd but of a very different spirit. The pride of the Jewish nation, even now, after centuries of humiliation, is the most striking feature of their character. 'Talk of freedom to us? Pray when or to whom were we ever in bondage?' This bluster sounds almost ludicrous from such a nation. Had they forgotten their long and bitter bondage in Egypt? their dreary captivity in Babylon? their present bondage to the Roman yoke, and their restless eagerness to throw it off? But probably they saw that our Lord pointed to something else-freedom, perhaps, from the leaders of sects or parties-and were not willing to allow their subjection even to these. Our Lord, therefore, though He knew what slaves they were even in this sense, drives the plowshare somewhat deeper than this, to a bondage they little dreamt of.