Then said the Jews unto him, thou art not yet fifty years
old
One copy reads forty, but he was not that; no, not much more than thirty; not above two or three and thirty years old: the reason of their fixing on this age of fifty might be, because Christ might look like such an one, being a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs, as well as of great gravity; or they might be free in allowing him as many years, as could be thought he should be of, and gain their point; for what were fifty years, when Abraham had been dead above two thousand? and therefore he could never see Abraham, nor Abraham see him; moreover, this age of fifty, is often spoken of by the Jews, and much observed; at the age of fifty, a man is fit to give counsel, they say F1; hence the Levites were dismissed from service at that age, it being more proper for them then to give advice, than to bear burdens; a Methurgeman, or an interpreter in a congregation, was not chosen under fifty years of age F2; and if a man died before he was fifty, this was called the death of cutting off F3; a violent death, a death inflicted by God, as a punishment; Christ lived not to that age, he was now many years short of it:
and hast thou seen Abraham?
if he had not, Abraham had seen him, in the sense before given, and in which Christ asserted it, and it is to be understood.