ile they spoke in ignorance. They thought,
talked, and judged after the ways of men and the frailties of the flesh;
He was not sitting in judgment, but should He choose to judge, then His
judgment would be just, for He was guided by the Father who sent Him.
Their law required the testimony of two witnesses for the legal
determination of any question of fact;[860] and Jesus cited Himself and
His Father as witnesses in support of His affirmation. His opponents
then asked with contemptuous or sarcastic intent, "Where is thy Father?"
The reply was in lofty tone; "Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye
had known me, ye should have known my Father also." Enraged at their own
discomfiture, the Pharisees would have seized Him, but found themselves
impotent. "No man laid hands on him; for his hour was not yet come."

THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE.[861]

Again addressing the mixed assemblage, which probably comprized
Pharisees, scribes, rabbis, priests, Levites, and lay people, Jesus
repeated His former assertion that soon He would leave them, and that
whither He went they could not follow; and added the fateful assurance
that they would seek Him in vain and would die in their sins. His solemn
portent was treated with light concern if not contempt. Some of them
asked querulously, "Will he kill himself?" the implication being that in
such case they surely would not follow Him; for according to their
dogma, Gehenna was the place of suicides, and they, being of the chosen
people, were bound for heaven not hell. The Lord's dignified rejoinder
was: "Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am
not of this world. I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your
sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins."

This reiteration of His distinctive supremacy brought forth the
challenging question, "Who art thou?" Jesus replied, "Even the same that
I said unto you from the beginning." The many matters on which He might
have judged them He refrained from mentioning, but testified anew of the
Father, saying: "He that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those
things which I have heard of him." Explicit as His earlier explanations
had been, the Jews in their gross prejudice "understood not that he
spake to them of the Father." To His Father Jesus ascribed all honor and
glory, and repeatedly declared Himself as sent to do the Father's will.
"Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted u