8:57 Then the Judeans 1 replied, 2 “You are not yet fifty years old! 3 Have 4 you seen Abraham?”
1 tn Grk “Then the Jews.” See the note on this term in v. 31. Here, as in vv. 31, 48, and 52, the phrase refers to the Jewish people in Jerusalem (“Judeans”; cf. BDAG 479 s.v. ᾿Ιουδαῖος 2.e) who had been listening to Jesus’ teaching in the temple courts (8:20) and had initially believed his claim to be the Messiah (cf. 8:31). They have now become completely hostile, as John 8:59 clearly shows.
2 tn Grk “said to him.”
3 tn Grk ‘You do not yet have fifty years” (an idiom).
4 tn Grk “And have.”