So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning.
25. From the beginning. They who translate the words τὴν ἀρχὴν, as if they had been in the nominative case, I am the beginning, Ceux qui traduisent, “Je suis le commencement.” and as if Christ were here asserting his eternal Divinity, are greatly mistaken. There is no ambiguity of this sort in the Greek, but still the Greek commentators also differ as to the meaning.
Christ here gives fair warning to the careless unbelieving Jews to consider what would be the consequence of their infidelity, that they might prevent it before it was too late; for he spoke words of terror as well as words of grace. Observe here, I. The wrath threatened (Joh 8:21): Jesus said again unto them that which might be likely to do them good.
Commenting on John 8:21-30
They understood not that he spake to them of the Father. That sent him, and who was true and faithful to all he had said, whether in a way of promise, or threatening; such was their stupidity, that they did not know that he meant God the Father by him that sent him, so deriving his mission and doctrine from him; their hearts were made...