Joh 8:37-44 | RWP | e4.org | Yet ye seek to kill me ( αλλα ζητειτε με αποκτεινα ). As at the recent feast ( , , , ; ). Some of these very professed believers were even now glowering with murderous vengeance. Hath not free course in you ( ου χωρε εν υμιν ). Intransitive use of χωρεω , old verb from χωρος (space, place), to have space or room for. They would not abide in Christ's word (verse ). They had no longer room for his word when once they understood the spiritual aspect of his message. Jerusalem was now just like Galilee once before ( ).

‏ John 8:37-44

Yet ye seek to kill me ( αλλα ζητειτε με αποκτεινα ). As at the recent feast (7:20, 25, 30, 32; 8:20). Some of these very professed believers were even now glowering with murderous vengeance.

Hath not free course in you ( ου χωρε εν υμιν ). Intransitive use of χωρεω, old verb from χωρος (space, place), to have space or room for. They would not abide in Christ's word (verse 31). They had no longer room for his word when once they understood the spiritual aspect of his message. Jerusalem was now just like Galilee once before (6:60-66).

With my Father ( παρα τω πατρ ). Locative case of πατηρ and article used as possessive (common idiom), "by the side of my Father," picture of intimate fellowship like προς τον θεον (face to face with God) in 1:1.

From your father ( παρα του πατρος ). Ablative case with παρα (from the side of) and same possessive use of του in each instance, though "the" will really answer both times. But ο πατηρ does not mean the same person. Christ's Father by contrast is not their father.

Our father is Abraham ( ο πατηρ ημων Αβρααμ εστιν ). They saw the implication and tried to counter it by repeating their claim in verse 33 which was true so far as physical descent went as Jesus had admitted (verse 37).

If ye were ( ε εστε ). Strictly, "if ye are" as ye claim, a condition of the first class assumed to be true.

Ye would do ( εποιειτε αν ). Read by C L N and a corrector of Aleph while W omits αν. This makes a mixed condition (protasis of the first class, apodosis of the second. See Robertson, Grammar, p. 1022). But B reads ποιειτε like the Sin. Syriac which has to be treated as imperative (so Westcott and Hort).

But now ( νυν δε ). Clear statement that they are not doing "the works of Abraham" in seeking to kill him. See this use of νυν δε after a condition of second class without αν in Joh 16:22, 24.

This did not Abraham ( τουτο Αβρααμ ουκ εποιησεν ). Blunt and pointed of their unlikeness to Abraham.

A man that hath told you the truth ( ανθρωπον ος τεν αληθειαν υμιν λελαληκα ). Ανθρωπον (here=person, one) is accusative case in apposition with

me ( με ) just before. The perfect active indicative λελαληκα from λαλεω is in the first person singular because the relative ος has the person of με, an idiom not retained in the English

that hath (that have or who have) though it is retained in the English of 1Co 15:9 "that am" for ος ειμ.

Which I heard from God ( ην ηκουσα παρα του θεου ). Here we have "I" in the English. "God" here is equal to "My Father" in verse 38. The only crime of Jesus is telling the truth directly from God.

Ye do the works of your father ( υμεις ποιειτε τα εργα του πατρος υμων ). Who is not Abraham and not God as Jesus plainly indicates.

We were not born of fornication ( ημεις εκ πορνειας εγεννηθημεν ). First aorist passive indicative of γενναω. This they said as a proud boast. Jesus had admitted that they were physical (De 23:2) descendants of Abraham (37), but now denies that they are spiritual children of Abraham (like Paul in Ro 9:7). Πορνεια is from πορνος (harlot) and that from περνημ, to sell, a woman who sells her body for sexual uses. It is vaguely possible that in this stern denial the Pharisees may have an indirect fling at Jesus as the bastard son of Mary (so Talmud).

We have one Father, even God ( ενα πατερα εχομεν τον θεον ). No "even" in the Greek, "One Father we have, God." This in direct reply to the implication of Jesus (verse 38) that God was not their spiritual Father.

Ye would love me ( ηγαπατε αν εμε ). Conclusion of second-class condition with distinct implication that their failure to love Jesus is proof that God is not their Father (protasis).

For I came forth from God ( εγω γαρ εκ του θεου εξηλθον ). Second aorist active indicative of εξερχομα, definite historical event (the Incarnation). See 4:30 for εξηλθον εκ. In 13:3; 16:30 Jesus is said to have come from ( απο ) God. The distinction is not to be pressed. Note the definite consciousness of pre-existence with God as in 17:5.

And am come ( κα ηκω ). Present active indicative with perfect sense in the verb stem (state of completion) before rise of the tense and here retained. "I am here," Jesus means.

Of myself ( απ' εμαυτου ). His coming was not self-initiated nor independent of the Father. "But he ( εκεινος, emphatic demonstrative pronoun) sent me" and here I am.

My speech ( την λαλιαν την εμην ) and

my word ( τον λογον τον εμον ). Perhaps λαλια, old word from λαλος (talk), means here more manner of speech than just story (4:42), while λογος refers rather to the subject matter. They will not listen ( ου δυνασθε ακουειν ) to the substance of Christ's teaching and hence they are impatient with the way that he talks. How often that is true.

Ye are of your father the devil ( υμεις εκ του πατρος του διαβολου ). Certainly they can "understand" ( γινωσκετε in 43) this "talk" ( λαλιαν ) though they will be greatly angered. But they had to hear it ( ακουειν in 43). It was like a bombshell in spite of the preliminary preparation.

Your will to do ( θελετε ποιειν ). Present active indicative of θελω and present active infinitive, "Ye wish to go on doing." This same idea Jesus presents in Mt 13:38 (the sons of the evil one, the devil) and 23:15 (twofold more a son of Gehenna than you). See also 1Jo 3:8 for "of the devil" ( εκ του διαβολου ) for the one who persists in sinning. In Re 12:9 the devil is one who leads all the world astray. The Gnostic view that Jesus means "the father of the devil" is grotesque. Jesus does not, of course, here deny that the Jews, like all men, are children of God the Creator, like Paul's offspring of God for all men in Ac 17:28. What he denies to these Pharisees is that they are spiritual children of God who do his will. They do the lusts and will of the devil. The Baptist had denied this same spiritual fatherhood to the merely physical descendants of Abraham (Mt 3:9). He even called them "broods of vipers" as Jesus did later (Mt 12:34).

A murderer ( ανθρωποκτονος ). Old and rare word (Euripides) from ανθρωπος, man, and κτεινω, to kill. In N.T. only here and 1Jo 3:15. The Jews were seeking to kill Jesus and so like their father the devil.

Stood not in the truth ( εν τη αληθεια ουκ εστηκεν ). Since ουκ, not ουχ, is genuine, the form of the verb is εστεκεν the imperfect of the late present stem στηκω (Mr 11:25) from the perfect active εστηκα (intransitive) of ιστημ, to place.

No truth in him ( ουκ εστιν αληθεια εν αυτω ). Inside him or outside (environment). The devil and truth have no contact.

When he speaketh a lie ( οταν λαλη το ψευδος ). Indefinite temporal clause with οταν and the present active subjunctive of λαλεω. But note the article το: "Whenever he speaks the lie," as he is sure to do because it is his nature. Hence "he speaks out of his own" ( εκ των ιδιων λαλε ) like a fountain bubbling up (cf. Mt 12:34).

For he is a liar ( οτ ψευστης εστιν ). Old word for the agent in a conscious falsehood ( ψευδος ). See 1Jo 1:10; Ro 3:4. Common word in John because of the emphasis on αληθεια (truth).

And the father thereof ( κα ο πατηρ αυτου ). Either the father of the lie or of the liar, both of which are true as already shown by Jesus.

Autou in the genitive can be either neuter or masculine. Westcott takes it thus, "because he is a liar and his father (the devil) is a liar," making "one," not the devil, the subject of "whenever he speaks," a very doubtful expression.