John 8:52

νῦν ἐγνώκαμεν. ‘It was somewhat of a conjecture before (John 8:48), but now we have come to know it:’ comp. John 8:55; John 5:42; John 6:69. First they thought it; then they said it; then they knew it.

ἀπέθανεν. Died. As in John 6:49, the point is that he perished then, not that he is dead now: keeping God’s word did not save him.

γεύσηται. They misunderstand and therefore exaggerate His language, all the more naturally as ‘taste of death’ was a more familiar metaphor than ‘contemplate death.’ The believer does taste of death, though he does not have a complete experience of it; to him it is but a passing phase. The metaphor ‘taste of death’ is not taken from a death-cup, but from the general idea of bitterness; Matthew 16:28; Hebrews 2:9; comp. John 18:11; Revelation 14:10.