Gospel of John 8:12–59 Catholic Bible study Lesson 11

The Gospel According to John:
An Encounter with Grace & Truth

Lesson 11 I Am the Light of the World
the Gospel According to John 8:12–59

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)*
New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE)*
Catechism of the Catholic Church
ex libris (in our library)
glossary for the Gospel According to John
cross references in the Gospel According to John
next lesson: A Man Blind from His Birth

This material coordinates with Lesson 11 on pages 59–63 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.”—the Gospel According to John 20:30–31

welcome to our in-depth study of the Gospel According to John
We invite interested groups and individuals to check out the sample first lesson from this 25-lesson Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study. These online study pages link to our free lesson videos, as well as to a glossary and cross references in the biblical text. Other study aids include maps, additional commentary, and prayers based on the primary Scripture in each lesson. The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth has been granted an imprimatur and can be purchased from our website shop. If you have a Bible-related question or comment, click on one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons on any online study page.

open with prayer
It’s always wise to begin any Bible study with prayer, whether reading the Scriptures alone or meeting with others in a discussion study group. You can pray using your own words or use one of the opening prayers on our website. We especially like the following:

Lord Jesus, you promised to send your Holy Spirit
to teach us all things.
As we read and study your word today,
allow it to touch our hearts and change our lives. Amen.

let’s review—the Gospel According to John 8:1–11
In Lesson 10 This Woman Has Been Caught in Adultery , the same Jewish religious leaders who’d been seeking to have Jesus killed for breaking sabbath law bring a woman caught in adultery to Jesus, asking him to weigh in on what they believe to be a legal question that has no satisfactory answer. Jesus’ unexpected response to this trap puts the scribes and Pharisees on the spot, requiring them to choose between upholding the law of Moses or upholding Rome’s right to overrule the law upon which Judaism is based—and they leave the scene without responding. Jesus makes a point of not condemning the woman who was brought to him, and he cautions her not to sin again.

map notes—we need a three-dimensional map
In this section of the Gospel According to John, the Evangelist continues to ignore Jesus’ earthly lineage in favor of establishing Jesus’ spiritual lineage, and in the Gospel According to John 8:14, Jesus continues to teach that he’s been sent from above. The Jewish religious leaders can only think in geographical terms, trying to place Jesus’ origin in Galilee or Samaria. In the Gospel According to John 8:21–22, Jesus’ repetition that his listeners cannot follow where he’s going unleashes speculation about whether he’s planning suicide. All along Jesus has been insistent that he intends to return to his Father, who’s above. Heaven, of course, isn’t on the map that accompanies this study. Click on the image (right) to enlarge the map, which appears on page 61 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth, will enlarge the image.

Jesus operates outside of the law (57:20)
In the video for this lesson, Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps discusses the Evangelist John’s point that although Jesus is able to operate outside of the law, he definitely isn’t opposed to it. This was an important concept to establish in early Christianity, a religion that originally began as a branch of Judaism. Judaism developed from Hebrew worship practices and was based on the belief that the only way of pleasing God was by following the law of Moses. The Evangelist establishes Jesus’ relationship to the law by firmly aligning Jesus with light and truth. For more information about the significance of this, read “Light That Enables People to See” on page 62 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

The Scripture ranges for the videos that accompany this Catholic Bible study match the Scripture ranges for the sets of questions in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth. You can follow along with the video overview as Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps discusses Lesson 11, “I Am the Light of the World,” on pages 59–63 in the study book.

existential questions
At the heart of the Gospel According to John are the Jews’ major misunderstandings about who Jesus is, where he’s come from, and where he’s going. These are things all humans question about their own existence. Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? Christianity provides us with answers, and those answers are based on Jesus’ knowledge of who he is, where he came from, and where he was going. Each of us must choose whether to accept the Christian answers. It’s not terribly different for the Pharisees, most of whom are reluctant to accept Jesus’ identity. If they’re truthful with themselves, they’d have to admit that they have the same existential questions about their own identity and destiny. Accepting Jesus for who he is would require that they revise their thinking about who they are as well.

location, location, location
In the Gospel According to John 8:20, Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees in the treasury of the Temple, and he’s not arrested because his hour hasn’t yet come. Once again, the Evangelist is going out of his way to emphasize time and space in regard to worship. Readers might be getting somewhat used to noticing the temporal references to Jesus’ hour, but what might be going on with Jesus speaking to the Pharisees in the Temple treasury?

Let’s look at the context. What else is going on immediately before the Evangelist calls our attention to where Jesus is? In the Gospel According to John 8:19, we learn that the Pharisees have just asked Jesus: “Where is your Father?” Jesus doesn’t answer that question, although he does respond in a way that indicates his Father is God. The Pharisees seem intent on focusing their attention on determining the location of Jesus’ human father. We can’t really blame them. Christians are familiar with the concept of the Incarnation—yet it remains a mystery. In the Pharisees’ history, no human since Adam and Even ever showed up without both a human mother and a human father. It’s perfectly logical that the Pharisees would be skeptical of the idea that Jesus has come directly from God.

what’s the most valuable thing in the Temple?
The Temple is God’s earthly dwelling. Jesus’ point in his response to the Pharisees seems to be that if they actually knew what was going on they also would know where to look for Jesus’ Father. The irony is that Jesus and his Father are one. While the Holy of Holies is the most sacred area of the Temple from a spiritual point of view, the treasury would be the area where the most valuable material possessions related to worship practice would have been kept.

With the Incarnation, when the Word became flesh, the spiritual and physical became united in the person of Jesus. The Pharisees are standing in the treasury looking at the most valuable thing in the Temple—but they’re unaware that God is physically present among them. “Where is your Father?” they ask Jesus. Since Jesus is right there with them, so is God.

WHAT DO YOU THINK about Jesus’ upcoming death?
The Evangelist provides plenty of hints about Jesus’ upcoming death, so there’s little chance that his audience is going to be bowled over when Jesus’ Passion and death actually occur. These hints cause us to react with alarm when Jesus engages in behavior that appears reckless. Although we know that Jesus is a good practicing Jew, we instinctively think it would be better if Jesus stayed away from Jerusalem and the Temple—especially on feast days.

? Consider why Jesus engages in behavior that men and women consider imprudent?
? What does Jesus’ behavior suggest about how he views his earthly mission?

blasphemy—you could look it up in our archives
The idea of blasphemy underlies this section in the Gospel According to John. A reader has asked for some discussion about the unforgivable sin Jesus describes in the Gospel According to Luke 12:10. To learn about the etymology of the word “blasphemy,” read Lost in Translation, an online column in which Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps helps readers connect with ideas expressed in the original languages of the Scriptures. New Lost in Translation entries are posted on Mondays, and past entries are archived on our website. Contact us if you’d like to receive Lost in Translation by email every week.

read the Catechism—paternity test
In the Gospel According to John 8:12–59, the Evangelist returns to one of the themes he introduced in his prologue—divine lineage. Jesus deals with the Pharisees’ doubts by addressing their corresponding claim to be children of Abraham. Paragraph 146 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that because Abraham had strong faith, he became the “father of all who believe.” The Pharisees’ lack of faith, apparent in their inability to accept Jesus’ teaching (and to trust God), proves that they aren’t true descendants of the patriarch.

146 Abraham thus fulfills the definition of faith in [the Letter to the] Hebrews 11:1: “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”: “Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” Because he was “strong in his faith,” Abraham became the “father of all who believe.”

Jesus points out that the Pharisees’ unwillingness to accept the truth indicates that they’re related to the devil, the “father of lies.” It then comes as no surprise when the Pharisees respond by doing what they do best—lying. Their lie takes the form of accusing Jesus of two of the worst things that they can imagine: being a Samaritan and having a demon. Jesus refuses to acknowledge that he’s from Samaria, thereby rejecting the suggestion that any earthly location could be the place of his origin, and he denies being possessed by a demon.

Abraham rejoiced
When reading the Gospel According to John 8:56–59, it’s difficult not to sympathize with the Jews who are having trouble understanding how Abraham and Jesus can be intimately acquainted and how Jesus can predate that Old Testament patriarch. The answer is one that’s always hard for humans to grasp—God operates outside the earthly constructs of time and space. You can learn more about the life of the patriarch Abraham beginning with Lesson 8 The Call of Abram in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study In the Beginning: The Book of Genesis.

for additional reflection
The Evangelist uses this section in the Fourth Gospel to establish that Jesus is greater than Abraham. It already has been firmly established that Jesus is greater than John (the witness), greater than Jacob, and greater than Moses. In addition, Jesus has demonstrated familiarity with the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament), including the law and the prophets, and Jesus has cited the Psalms. The following questions are designed to help readers begin to form their own thoughts and ideas related to the Gospel According to John 8:12–59. For more reflection questions, refer to the introduction to Lesson 11 on page 59 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

? What point about Jesus might the Evangelist be trying to emphasize by bringing up Abraham?
? For what is Abraham most well known?
? How does Jesus surpass Abraham?
? When Jesus suggests that true descendants of Abraham would do what Abraham did, what is that?
? Consider whether it’s possible for present-day Christians to do what Abraham did.

the best Catholic commentary about Scripture
To find out more about how Church teaching is supported by Scripture passages in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth, check out the Index of Citations in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Links to the primary Scripture passages in the lesson (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition [RSVCE*]) and relevant paragraphs in the Catechism are provided here. Not every passage in the biblical text for this study is referenced in a Catechism paragraph, however.

ways our glossary might prove helpful
In addition to providing extra information about geographical locations, our glossary also points out persons and places mentioned in the biblical text under multiple names or spellings. If you can remember a name but aren’t sure in which lesson it shows up, you can find it in the glossary, which lists every proper noun that appears in the primary biblical text for The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

to learn more, read more Scripture
If you’re having difficulty with a passage of Scripture, it can be helpful to read the relevant cross references—but looking these up can take time. To make that easier, we’ve compiled the cross references from the Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE)—the translation that we reprint in our study books. That list can be found at the top of every online study page accompanying this study, and it includes links to each of the cross references in the primary biblical text for The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

don’t forget about our indexes & extra online material
If you’re trying to locate information about a specific Scripture passage, you can look it up in the index at the back of the study book or sample lesson. If you want to find a particular commentary, you can look up its title in the topics index. To learn more about another book of the Bible for which there’s a Turning to God’s Word study, visit the online study directories to read the commentaries and watch any accompanying videos. Finally, if you have a question or would like to make a comment about any of our studies, you can use one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons to email our authors.

ex libris—Church documents & books about religious topics
You can find links to magisterial documents referred to in Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible studies at ex libris—magisterial documents. This page includes a listing of significant recent encyclicals as well as a number of historical Church documents. Recommended books related to Scripture study can be found at ex libris—main bookshelf.

wondering how to pronounce some of these words?
The following link is to a reading from the New International Version (NIV) Bible. To listen, click on the audio icon above the printed text. Although not taken from the translations used in our study materials, the NIV reading provides an audio guide to pronunciation of words in this lesson’s primary biblical text. An close online version of the translation of the Bible used in Catholic liturgy in the United States as well as an audio guide for daily Mass readings for the current month can be found on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

the Gospel According to John 8:12–59 (NIV)

close with Bible-based prayer related to this lesson
Many of our Catholic study groups like to conclude their discussions with a prayer based on the scriptural focus of their lesson, and some participants include Scripture-specific prayer in their individual study. If you’re uncomfortable composing your own Bible-based prayers, you can follow our four easy steps, or you can use the following prayer based on this lesson’s text from the Gospel According to John.

God our Father, you bear witness to Jesus
as the light of the world.
Teach us to love the truth in order
that we might continue to draw nearer to you and your Son.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Lesson 12 A Man Blind from His Birth—the Gospel According to John 9:1–41
Lesson 10 This Woman Has Been Caught in Adultery—the Gospel According to John 8:1–11

you also may like our study of the book of Revelation
The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness, a 23-lesson Catholic Bible study with an imprimatur, examines ways in which our traditional Christian view of heaven is built on Hebrew apocalyptic visions recorded in the Old Testament. This recently revised study includes maps and additional commentary and takes a close look at the role of the prophets in present-day Christianity. Illustrations by Tami Palladino depict the often-misunderstood images in the book of Revelation. Click on the book’s cover to view a sample lesson.

start a Turning to God’s Word Bible study
Thank you for your interest in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth. Information about beginning a Turning to God’s Word Bible study can be found at start a Bible study. Tami, Matthew, and I are available to answer questions and offer support. Contact us if you’d like to start one of our studies or have your schedule listed with other TtGW study groups on our website. —Jennifer

*There are seven deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament—the Books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and First and Second Maccabees, as well as some passages in the Books of Esther and Daniel. Protestants usually refer to these works as “apocryphal,” a word that means “outside the (Protestant) canon” because they’re excluded from most Protestant Bibles. The word “deuterocanonical” means “second canon”; Catholics use that word to refer to any section of the Catholic Old Testament for which there are no extant, or existing, Hebrew manuscripts. All of the deuterocanonical books appear in the Septuagint, the earliest remaining versions of which date to the 1st century B.C. This Greek translation of the Old Testament was in common use by Jews at the time of Jesus. Learn more by reading How Do Catholic & Protestant Bibles Differ?

Turning to God’s Word printed Bible studies use the 2006 Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE) translation for all Scripture references except those to the Psalms, which are taken from The Abbey Psalms and Canticles, prepared by the Benedictine monks of Conception Abbey and published in 2020 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). All Scripture links for the online study pages for The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth are to the 1966 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE) translation. The New International Version (NIV) audio recordings follow the same chapter and verse numbering as the RSV Catholic translations, but the NIV translation doesn’t include the deuterocanonical books and passages.

The 1966 RSVCE uses archaic pronouns and verb forms such as “thee,” “thou,” “didst” in the Psalms and in direct quotations attributed to God. The 2006 RSV2CE replaces these with more accessible English. The few significant translation changes in the RSV2CE include rendering almah as “virgin” in the Book of Isaiah 7:14 and restoring the term “begotten” in the Gospel According to John 3:16.

Numbering varies for some passages in this Bible study. Turning to God’s Word studies (print and digital) follow the numbering in the Revised Standard Version Catholic translations (RSV2CE and RSVCE). Discrepancies in the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE) are noted in the Index of Scripture Citations in the study book and the online sample.

You can learn more about the Psalms by viewing a sample lesson from the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume I: Lauds & Vespers. The second part of that study, Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume II: Vigils, Day Prayer & Compline, is scheduled for publication in 2025. Some verse numbers may vary in different translations of the Psalms.