=51. Verily, verily.= With Calvin and Godet, I regard Christ’s discourse to his opponents as ended with the preceding verse. Recognizing the fact that some of his auditors have been inclined toward him, though with but a feeble faith, he addresses them in the words that follow, that he may strengthen their faith. The connection which Alford and Meyer endeavor to trace between this and the preceding verse I cannot perceive: _e. g._, “Ye are now the children of the devil; but if ye keep my word ye shall be rescued from that murderer.”--(_Alford._) The very words with which Christ begins the sentence, “Verily, verily” (ἀμὴν, ἀμὴν) indicate a new topic.--=If any one.= Emphasis is put on the pronoun. The promise is universal; it embraces Jew and Gentile.--=Keep my word.= _Keep_, as a guard his prisoner, with watchfulness (Matt. 19:17, note), against all seductions and assaults; _Christ’s word_, that which he had taught, and therefore pre-eminently that faith in him as a divine Saviour which had been the pre-eminent theme of his teaching. We are to keep not merely the _sayings_ in _memory_, or the _teaching_ in the _heart_, but, with sentiments of reverence and affection, the _truth_ in our _life_, both in the inward experience and in the outward conduct.--=Shall not see death for ever.= Not, _Shall not see eternal death_, but, _Shall never see death_. “The death of the body is not reckoned as death, any more than the life of the body is life, in our Lord’s discourses. See ch. 11:25, 26.”--(_Alford._) Christ puts himself in contrast with the devil, whose slaves, by evil-doing, the Jews have become (ver. 34). The devil is a murderer, a life-taker (ver. 44); Christ is a life-giver, even to those that are dead in trespasses and sins (Ephes. 2:1). 52 Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead,[352] and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. [352] Zech. 1:5. 53 Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself?