Note 22 at Jn. 8:57: Just as with Jesus' statement about death in John 8:51 (see note 20 at that verse, above), the Jews had no perception of the spiritual significance of this statement. They thought that Jesus was speaking of Abraham having seen Jesus during his lifetime, which was over a thousand years before this. It's possible that Abraham could have seen Christ or some semblance of Him in some of his supernatural encounters with the Lord (Gen. 14:18; 15:17; 17:1; 18:2,22; 22:11,15). However, Jesus was specifically referring to Abraham having seen the day when men would be justified by faith in God's grace as Jesus was now proclaiming (see note 21 at Jn. 8:56, above).