American theologian J. Louis Martyn suggested that John's Gospel could be read on two levels, portraying events and contesting controversies in the early church through a narrative portraying the life and teaching of Jesus. Such a reading suggests a controversy regarding Jewish partial-believers in Jesus as the Messiah who, according to the evangelist, did not accept the whole "truth" of orthodox Christian teaching and maintained that their covenantal relationship with God was rooted in the Abrahamic tradition rather than the salvation (freedom) offered by Jesus. For this group of Jews, the fundamental credal proposition was that "Abraham is our father" (John 8:39a). The evangelist's response is to acknowledge that they are indeed the descendants of Abraham (John 8:37 and 8:39b), but to explore the behavior which should follow: "If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham". Instead, "you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God" (John 8:40). The Pulpit Commentary notes this phrase as "the only place the gospels where the Lord speaks of himself as 'a man, although the threat to kill "a man" can also be read as indicating that the Jews threatened to kill those proclaiming the message which the evangelist identifies as the true gospel (John 8:32).