Interpretive options for belief in John 8:30 — salvific vs. surface belief; audience complexity

Mike explores three options: (1) It was salvific belief and they lost it almost immediately (from believing to attempted murder within moments) — theologically fraught. (2) 'Believed him/believed in him' is a lesser, surface-level belief — they found him credible but had not truly committed; as they learned more, they realized they were rejecting him. They were always going to reject; they just did not yet know it. (3) Jesus is not addressing a monolithic crowd of believers; he is speaking to the believing subset while the wider crowd (who will reject him) is also present — consistent with John 1:11 ('he came to his own but his own did not receive him') and the broader Johannine theme that the majority reject him.