John 8:23 (YLT)

Passage

and he said to them, `Ye are from beneath, I am from above; ye are of this world, I am not of this world;

Nearby Context

John 8:21 therefore said Jesus again to them, `I go away, and ye will seek me, and in your sin ye shall die; whither I go away, ye are not able to come.'

John 8:22 The Jews, therefore, said, `Will he kill himself, because he saith, Whither I go away, ye are not able to come?'

John 8:23 and he said to them, `Ye are from beneath, I am from above; ye are of this world, I am not of this world;

John 8:24 I said, therefore, to you, that ye shall die in your sins, for if ye may not believe that I am <FI>he<Fi> , ye shall die in your sins.'

John 8:25 They said, therefore, to him, `Thou--who art thou?' and Jesus said to them, `Even what I did speak of to you at the beginning;

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "world", "said", "beneath", and "above". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "world" and "said", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 22's "The Jews therefore said Will he kill..." into verse 24's "I said therefore to you that ye...", so "world" and "said" belong inside that flow. In John context, the local focus is the identity of Jesus, new birth, eternal life, and belief and unbelief.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "world" and "said" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.