John 8:13 Commentary and Bible Study

What follows is a dispute between Christ and the Jewish leaders, and their spokesmen, and because they keep ducking and weaving, avoiding the points he is making, and bringing up things which may not seem altogether relevant in the line of the dispute; for that reason, the chapter may appear a little disorganised. By now the scribes seem to be out of the picture, having been put to shame by Christ during the encounter over the adulterous woman. So the Pharisees said, ‘Thou bearest witness of thyself; thy witness is not true.’ You lie. They could not stand his statement that he was divine, that he was sent from the Father. Some people think they were quoting chapter 5, verse 31, the very words of the Lord, in an earlier stage. He said, ‘If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true’ - well it’s possible.