Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
For except ye believe (ean gar mh pisteushte). Negative condition of third class with ean mh and ingressive aorist active subjunctive of pisteuw, "For unless ye come to believe."
That I am he (oti egw eimi). Indirect discourse, but with no word in the predicate after the copula eimi. Jesus can mean either "that I am from above" (verse John 8:23), "that I am the one sent from the Father or the Messiah" (John 7:18, John 7:28), "that I am the Light of the World" (John 8:12), "that I am the Deliverer from the bondage of sin" (John 8:28, John 8:31 f., John 8:36), "that I am" without supplying a predicate in the absolute sense as the Jews (Deuteronomy 32:39) used the language of Jehovah (cf. Isaiah 43:10 where the very words occur ina pisteushte—oti egw eimi). The phrase egw eimi occurs three times here (John 8:24, John 8:28, John 8:58) and also in John 13:19. Jesus seems to claim absolute divine being as in John 8:58.
Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing John 8:24:
John 8:21
John 8:24
John 8:28
John 8:58
John 13:19
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