secundum Marcum 8:33

Jerome's Latin Vulgate

Responderunt ei: Semen Abrahæ sumus, et nemini servivimus umquam: quomodo tu dicis: Liberi eritis?

Parallel Translations

Clementine Latin Vulgate (1592)
Exierunt ergo d�monia ab homine, et intraverunt in porcos : et impetu abiit grex per pr�ceps in stagnum, et suffocatus est.

Nova Vulgata (1979)
Responderunt ei: "Semen Abrahae sumus et nemini servivimus umquam! Quomodo tu dicis: "Liberi fietis"?".

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

We be: John 8:39, Leviticus 25:42, Matthew 3:9, Luke 16:24-26

and were: John 19:25, Genesis 15:13, Exodus 1:13, Exodus 1:14, Judges 2:18, Judges 3:8, Judges 4:3, Ezra 9:9, Nehemiah 5:4-8, Nehemiah 9:27, Nehemiah 9:28, Nehemiah 9:36, Nehemiah 9:37

Reciprocal: Isaiah 41:8 - the seed Ezekiel 33:24 - but we Luke 3:8 - We John 1:13 - not John 8:37 - know Romans 2:17 - thou art Romans 4:1 - Abraham Romans 4:11 - father 2 Corinthians 11:22 - the seed

Gill's Notes on the Bible

They answered him,.... Not the believing Jews, whom he peculiarly addressed, but the unbelieving Jews, who were present, and heard these things:

we be Abraham's seed; this the Jews always valued themselves upon, and reckoned themselves, on this account, upon a level with the nobles and the princes of the earth.

"Says R. Akiba c, even the poor of Israel are to be considered as if they were בני חורין, "noblemen", that are fallen from their substance, because they are the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob;''

and were never in bondage to any man; which is a very great falsehood, for it was declared to Abraham himself, that his seed should serve in a land not theirs, and be afflicted four hundred years, as they were; and as the preface to the law which the Jews gloried in shows, which says, that the Lord their God brought them out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; and they were frequently overcome by their neighbours, the Moabites, Ammonites, and Philistines, and reduced to servitude under them, until delivered by one judge, or another: and not to take notice of their seventy years' captivity in Babylon, they were at this very time under the Roman yoke, and paid tribute to Caesar; and yet such was the pride of their hearts, they would not be thought to be in bondage; and therefore, with an haughty air, add,

how sayest thou, ye shall be made free? when they thought themselves, and would fain have been thought by others, to have been free already, and so to stand in no need of being made free.

c Misn. Bava Kama, c. 8. sect. 6. & T. Bab. Bava Kama, fol. 86. 1. & 91. 1.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

They answered him - Not those who believed on him, but some who stood by and heard him.

We be Abraham’s seed - We are the children or descendants of Abraham. Abraham was not a slave, and they pretended that they were his real descendants, inheriting his freedom as well as his spirit. They meant that they were the direct descendants of Abraham by Isaac, his heir. Ishmael, also Abraham’s son, was the son of a bondwoman Galatians 4:21-23, but they were descended in a direct line from the acknowledged heir of Abraham.

Were never in bondage to any, man - This is a most remarkable declaration, and one evidently false. Their fathers had been slaves in Egypt; their nation had been enslaved in Babylon; it had repeatedly been subject to the Assyrians; it was enslaved by Herod the Great; and was, at the very time they spoke, groaning under the grievous and insupportable bondage of the Romans. But we see here:

1. That Jesus was right when he said John 8:44, “Ye are of your father the devil; he is a liar, and the father of it.”
2. People will say anything, however false or ridiculous, to avoid and oppose the truth.
3. People groaning under the most oppressive bondage are often unwilling to acknowledge it in any manner, and are indignant at being charged with it. This is the case with all sinners.
4. Sin, and the bondage to sin, produces passion, irritation, and a troubled soul; and a person under the influence of passion regards little what he says, and is often a liar.
5. There is need of the gospel. That only can make people free, calm, collected, meek, and lovers of truth; and since every person is by nature the servant of sin, he should without delay seek an interest in that gospel which can alone make him free.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 33. They answered — That is, the other Jews who had not believed-the carping, cavilling Pharisees already mentioned; for the words cannot be spoken of the simple people who had already believed. See John 8:30.

Were never in bondage to any man — This assertion was not only false, but it was ridiculous in the extreme; seeing their whole history, sacred and profane, is full of recitals of their servitude in Egypt, in Chaldea, under the Persians, under the Macedonians, and under the Romans. But those who are not under the influence of the truth of God will speak and act according to the influence of the spirit of falsehood and error. If the words are to be restrained to themselves alone, they may be understood thus: We are Abraham's seed: and we were never in bondage. Both these propositions had a faint shadow of truth.