The Meaning of John 8:33 Explained

John 8:33

KJV: They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?

YLT: They answered him, 'Seed of Abraham we are; and to no one have we been servants at any time; how dost thou say -- Ye shall become free?'

Darby: They answered him, We are Abraham's seed, and have never been under bondage to any one; how sayest thou, Ye shall become free?

ASV: They answered unto him, We are Abraham's seed, and have never yet been in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?

KJV Reverse Interlinear

They answered  him,  We be  Abraham's  seed,  and  were  never  in bondage  to any man:  how  sayest  thou,  Ye shall be made  free? 

What does John 8:33 Mean?

Verse Meaning

Jesus assumed that His hearers were slaves, but they emphatically denied being such. They could not have meant that they had never been physical slaves since the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Syrians, and most recently the Romans had all enslaved them. Probably they meant that they had never been spiritual slaves. They viewed themselves as spiritually right with God because of their descent from Abraham with whom God had made a special covenant (cf. Matthew 8:12; Mark 2:17; John 9:40). They denied that they had any significant spiritual need for liberation. Here were superficial believers in Jesus, believers in His messiahship only perhaps, who were resisting His teaching. They were not abiding in His word and being true disciples of His ( John 8:31).

Context Summary

John 8:31-38 - The Source Of True Liberty
Sin is not a necessary part of our being. The servant abideth not in the house for ever. Your child is an integral part of the household; he has become one with it. However far he travels, he can never break the link of indissoluble connection. But it is different with a servant, especially under the provisions of the Levitical law. In like manner, a man may have served sin, but, though tightly held, it has no necessary rights over him. The trumpet of Jubilee may sound, and he may go free. It is not freedom to do as we like. Jesus sets us free from the trap and the bird-lime, that is, from the unnatural conditions fastening and confining us from being what God meant us to be. The swallow would not thank you to be freed to live on carrion, but only to mount again into the sunny air.
Jesus frees us by the truth. The slave-girl will no longer serve in the house of her cruel oppressor, when she learns that the act of emancipation has passed and he has no longer any claim upon her. When we understand that we are accepted and triumphant because of our union with Christ, we begin to exercise our privilege and to draw upon the grace which he has made available. Thus we become free. [source]

Chapter Summary: John 8

1  Jesus delivers the woman taken in adultery
12  He declares himself the light of the world, and justifies his doctrine;
31  promises freedom to those who believe;
33  answers the Jews who boasted of Abraham;
48  answers their reviling, by showing his authority and dignity;
59  and slips away from those who would stone him

Greek Commentary for John 8:33

We be Abraham‘s seed [Σπερμα Αβρααμ εσμεν]
“We are Abraham‘s seed,” the proudest boast of the Jews, of Sarah the freewoman and not of Hagar the bondwoman (Galatians 4:22.). Yes, but the Jews came to rely solely on mere physical descent (Matthew 3:9) and so God made Gentiles the spiritual children of Abraham by faith (Matthew 3:7; Romans 9:6.). And have never yet been in bondage to any man Perfect active indicative of δουλευω — douleuō to be slaves. This was a palpable untruth uttered in the heat of controversy. At that very moment the Jews wore the Roman yoke as they had worn that of Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Alexander, the Ptolemies, the Syrian (Seleucid) kings. They had liberty for a while under the Maccabees. “These poor believers soon come to the end of their faith” (Stier). But even so they had completely missed the point in the words of Jesus about freedom by truth. [source]
Were never in bondage [δεδουλεύκαμεν πώποτε]
Rev., better, have never yet been in bondage; thus giving the force of the perfect tense, never up to this time, and of the πώ , yet. In the light of the promises given to Abraham, Genesis 17:16; Genesis 22:17, Genesis 22:18, the Jews claimed not only freedom, but dominion over the nations. In their reply to Jesus they ignore alike the Egyptian, Babylonian, and Syrian bondage, through which the nation had successively passed, as well as their present subjection to Rome, treating these merely as bondage which, though a fact, was not bondage by right, or bondage to which they had ever willingly submitted, and, therefore, not bondage in any real sense. Beside the fact that their words were the utterance of strong passion, it is to be remembered that the Romans, from motives of policy, had left them the semblance of political independence. As in so many other cases, they overlook the higher significance of Jesus' words, and base their reply on a technicality. These are the very Jews who believed Him (John 8:31). Stier remarks: “These poor believers soon come to the end of their faith.” The hint of the possible inconstancy of their faith, conveyed in the Lord's words if ye abide in my word, is thus justified. [source]

Reverse Greek Commentary Search for John 8:33

John 8:37 Hath no place [οὐ χωρεῖ]
Rev., hath not free course, or maketh no way. This rendering is in harmony with John 8:30, John 8:31, concerning those who believed, but did not believe on Him, and who showed by their angry answer, in John 8:33, that the word of Jesus had made no advance in them. The rendering of the A.V. is not supported by usage, though Field (“Otium Norvicense”) cites an undoubted instance of that sense from the Epistles of Alciphron, a post-Christian writer, who relates the story of a parasite returning gorged from a banquet and applying to a physician, who administered an emetic. The parasite, describing the effect of the medicine, says that the doctor wondered where such a mess had place ( ἐχώρησε ). For the rendering of the Rev., compare Aristophanes: πῶς οὖν οὐ χωρεῖ τοὔργον ; “How is it that the work makes no progress? ” (“Peace,” 472). Plutarch, ἐχώρει διὰ τῆς πόλεως ὁ λόγος , “the word: (or report) spread (or advanced) through the city (“Caesar,” 712). [source]
John 8:39 Our father is Abraham [ο πατηρ ημων Αβρααμ εστιν]
They saw the implication and tried to counter it by repeating their claim in John 8:33 which was true so far as physical descent went as Jesus had admitted (John 8:37). If ye were Strictly, “if ye are” as ye claim, a condition of the first class assumed to be true. Ye would do Read by C L N and a corrector of Aleph while W omits αν — an This makes a mixed condition (protasis of the first class, apodosis of the second. See Robertson, Grammar, p. 1022). But B reads ποιειτε — poieite like the Sin. Syriac which has to be treated as imperative (so Westcott and Hort). [source]
2 Corinthians 11:22 Seed of Abraham []
Compare Matthew 3:9; John 8:33; Romans 9:7; Romans 11:1; Galatians 3:16; Hebrews 2:16. The three names are arranged climactically, Hebrews pointing to the nationality; Israelites to the special relation to God's covenant; seed of Abraham to the messianic privilege. Compare with the whole, Philemon 3:4, Philemon 3:5. [source]
1 John 2:1 My little children [τεκνία μου]
Τεκνίον , little child, diminutive of τέκνον childoccurs in John 8:33; 1 John 2:12, 1 John 2:28; 1 John 3:7, 1 John 3:18; 1 John 4:4; 1 John 5:21. This particular phrase is found only here (best texts omit my in 1 John 3:18). Used as a term of affection, or possibly with reference to the writer's advanced age. Compare Christ's word, παιδία children(John 21:5) which John also uses (1 John 2:13, 1 John 2:18). In the familiar story of John and the young convert who became a robber, it is related that the aged apostle repaired to the robber's haunt, and that the young man, on seeing him, took to flight. John, forgetful of his age, ran after him, crying: “O my son why dost thou fly from me thy father? Thou, an armed man, - I, an old, defenseless one! Have pity upon me! My son, do not fear! There is still hope of life for thee. I wish myself to take the burden of all before Christ. If it is necessary, I will die for thee, as Christ died for us. Stop! Believe! It is Christ who sends me.” [source]
1 John 3:10 In this [εν τουτωι]
As already shown. A life of sin is proof that one is a child of the devil and not of God. This is the line of cleavage that is obvious to all. See John 8:33-39 for the claim of the Pharisees to be the children of Abraham, whereas their conduct showed them to be children of the devil. This is not a popular note with an age that wishes to remove all distinctions between Christians and the world. [source]

What do the individual words in John 8:33 mean?

They answered unto Him Seed of Abraham we are and to no one have we been under bondage ever How You say - Free you will become
Ἀπεκρίθησαν πρὸς αὐτόν Σπέρμα Ἀβραάμ ἐσμεν καὶ οὐδενὶ δεδουλεύκαμεν πώποτε πῶς σὺ λέγεις ὅτι Ἐλεύθεροι γενήσεσθε

Ἀπεκρίθησαν  They  answered 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Indicative Passive, 3rd Person Plural
Root: ἀποκρίνομαι  
Sense: to give an answer to a question proposed, to answer.
πρὸς  unto 
Parse: Preposition
Root: πρός  
Sense: to the advantage of.
Σπέρμα  Seed 
Parse: Noun, Nominative Neuter Singular
Root: σπέρμα  
Sense: from which a plant germinates.
Ἀβραάμ  of  Abraham 
Parse: Noun, Genitive Masculine Singular
Root: Ἀβραάμ  
Sense: the son of Terah and the founder of the Jewish nation.
ἐσμεν  we  are 
Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Active, 1st Person Plural
Root: εἰμί  
Sense: to be, to exist, to happen, to be present.
οὐδενὶ  to  no  one 
Parse: Adjective, Dative Masculine Singular
Root: οὐδείς 
Sense: no one, nothing.
δεδουλεύκαμεν  have  we  been  under  bondage 
Parse: Verb, Perfect Indicative Active, 1st Person Plural
Root: δουλεύω  
Sense: to be a slave, serve, do service.
πώποτε  ever 
Parse: Adverb
Root: πώποτε  
Sense: ever, at any time.
πῶς  How 
Parse: Adverb
Root: πῶς  
Sense: how, in what way.
λέγεις  say 
Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Active, 2nd Person Singular
Root: λέγω 
Sense: to say, to speak.
ὅτι  - 
Parse: Conjunction
Root: ὅτι  
Sense: that, because, since.
Ἐλεύθεροι  Free 
Parse: Adjective, Nominative Masculine Plural
Root: ἐλεύθερος  
Sense: freeborn.
γενήσεσθε  you  will  become 
Parse: Verb, Future Indicative Middle, 2nd Person Plural
Root: γίνομαι  
Sense: to become, i.