#1 from rita le roux on July 12, 2009

hi I am so confused about John 8:31-48
.... the Jews who had believed Him ..... - The Message translates it ‘the jews who had claimed to believe in Him’ -To whom did Jesus speak here?—I think it is people who were not ‘true’ followers and Jesus knew that because He know our hearts ........ is that correct or do I miss something every import. here

#2 from Jeff on July 14, 2009

I think you’re right that the people Jesus was speaking to were not real believers. The interesting part of the verse, however, is that these are people who “believe” in Jesus (the Message is actually not a translation, but a paraphrase of other translations, so it tries to clear up the difficulty by saying that these Jews “claimed” to believe in Jesus. The word “claim” is not in the original text). It is pretty clear that, at least in John’s way of thinking, a person can profess faith in Jesus, but not really be a “believer” if they are not submitting themselves to what Jesus says.

Jeff