John 8:57 · World English Bible
John 8:57 Meaning The Jews Therefore Said to Him
The Jews therefore said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old! Have you seen Abraham?”
What does John 8:57 mean?
The counting mind measures a man by his outer span, the fullest reckoning it knows, and Abraham stands far behind that count as the struggling self that once labored its way up toward God. But the light within was never born into that arithmetic.
From the Esoteric reading below.
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ESOTERIC
Esoteric
The counting mind measures a man by his outer span, the fullest reckoning it knows, and Abraham stands far behind that count as the struggling self that once labored its way up toward God. But the light within was never born into that arithmetic. The I AM speaks from before any tally of years, the awareness that watched every stage of the ascent and was already present when the striving began.
What the objectors cannot grasp is that the eternal in a person does not age forward from a starting point. It simply is, underneath the numbers the sense-bound self lives by, older than the oldest measure the outer mind can hold.
Abraham: the struggling self as it rises out of the flesh and reaches toward God The number 50: the fullest outer measure the sense-bound mind counts by, still too small to hold what is timeless
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Live John 8:57 today
- Sometime today, when you are alone, set aside your age, your resume and your years of experience, and sit for a moment as just the awareness that is here.
- When someone sizes you up today by your age, your title or your track record, let it pass without correcting them and stay quietly in what they did not measure.
- In a meeting where credentials and years are being weighed, speak from what is actually true in front of you rather than from how long you have been around.
What part of me has no age at all?
The same truth in other traditions
Tao Te Ching 25
There is something that was already there before heaven and earth. It cannot be dated, and no count of years touches it.
Hinduism · Katha Upanishad
The self within was never born and will not die. Birthdays belong to the body, not to the one who is aware of it.
Zen
The question is not what you have done or how long you have been at it. The question is what your face looked like before you were ever born.
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