John 8:41

You do the works of your father.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father, God.”

World English Bible
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Other translations

WEBBE

You do the works of your father.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father, God.”

BSB

You are doing the works of your father.” “We are not illegitimate children,” they declared. “Our only Father is God Himself.”

KJV

Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.

ASV

Ye do the works of your father. They said unto him, We were not born of fornication; we have one Father, [even] God.

BBE

You are doing the works of your father. They said to him, We are true sons of Abraham; we have one Father, who is God.

Original Greek

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ὑμεῖς humeis You yourselves G4771 ποιεῖτε poieite are doing G4160 τὰ ta the G3588 ἔργα erga works G2041 τοῦ tou of the G3588 πατρὸς patros father G3962 ὑμῶν humōn of you G4771 εἶπαν eipan They said G2036 οὖν oun therefore G3767 αὐτῷ autō to Him G846 ἡμεῖς hēmeis We ourselves G3165 ἐκ ek of G1537 πορνείας porneias sexual immorality G4202 οὐ ou not G3756 γεγεννήμεθα gegennēmetha have been born G1080 ἕνα hena one G1520 πατέρα patera Father G3962 ἔχομεν echomen we have G2192 τὸν ton (the) G3588 θεόν.¶ theon God G2316

The early church

(Tr. xlii. 6) He does not say as yet who is their father.
Augustine of Hippo · d. 430Catena Aurea (Aquinas, 1274)
(Tr. xlii. 7.) The Jews had begun to understand that our Lord was not speaking of sonship according to the flesh, but of manner of life. Scripture often speaks of spiritual fornication, with many gods, and of the soul being prostituted, as it were, by paying worship to false gods. This explains what follows: Then said they to Him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.
Augustine of Hippo · d. 430Catena Aurea (Aquinas, 1274)
"Then said they to Him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God." Abraham has now lost his importance. For they were repulsed as they ought to have been by the truth-speaking mouth; because such was Abraham, whose deeds they failed to imitate, and yet gloried in his lineage. And they altered their reply, saying, I believe, with themselves, As often as we name Abraham, he goes on to say to us, Why do ye not imitate him in whose lineage ye glory? Such a man, so holy, just, and guileless, we cannot imitate. Let us call God our Father, and see what he will say to us.
Augustine of Hippo · d. 430Tractates on John
As if their motive against Him was a desire to avenge God's honour.
Theophylact of Ohrid · d. 1107Catena Aurea (Aquinas, 1274)

Commentary

Matthew Henry · Verses 41–47

Satan prompts men to excesses by which they murder themselves and others, while what he puts into the mind tends to ruin men's souls. He is the great promoter of falsehood of every kind. He is a liar, all his temptations are carried on by his calling evil good, and good evil, and promising freedom in sin. He is the author of all lies; whom liars resemble and obey, with whom all liars shall have their portion for ever. The special lusts of the devil are spiritual wickedness, the lusts of the mind, and corrupt reasonings, pride and envy, wrath and malice, enmity to good, and enticing others to evil. By the truth, here understand the revealed will of God as to the salvation of men by Jesus Christ, the truth Christ was now preaching, and which the Jews opposed.

Read Matthew Henry on John 8 →

Cross-references

16

Topics

GodSatanSelf-Delusion

Cross-references: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. Hebrew and Greek data from STEPBible.org (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0. Library: sources.