Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
2 Timothy 4:3-4 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having it…
John 3:19-20 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
John 7:7 The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.
John 18:37 Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cau…
Galatians 4:16 Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?
2 Thessalonians 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be save…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on John 8:38-47
Here Christ and the Jews are still at issue; he sets himself to convince and convert them, while they still set themselves to contradict and oppose him.
I. He here traces the difference between his sentiments and theirs to a different rise and origin (Joh 8:38): I speak that which I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have seen with your father. Here are two fathers spoken of, according to the two families into which the sons of men are divided - God and the devil, and without controversy these are contrary the one to the other.
1. Christ's doctrine was from heaven; it was copied out of the counsels of infinite wisdom, and the kind intentions of eternal love. (1.) I speak that whic…
And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not--not although, but just because He did so, for the reason given in the former verse. Had He been less true they would have hailed Him more readily.
Adam Clarke on John 8:44
Ye are of your father the devil - Ye are the seed of the old serpent. See on Joh 8:37 (note).
The lusts of your father - Like father like son. What Satan desires, ye desire; because ye are filled with his nature. Awful state of unregenerate men! They have the nearest alliance to Satan; they partake of his nature and have in them the same principles and propensities which characterize the very nature and essence of the devil! Reader, canst thou rest in this state? Apply to God, through Christ, that thou mayest be born again.
He was a murderer from the beginning - It was through him that Adam transgressed; in consequence of which death entered into the world, and slew him and all his posterity…
And because I tell you the truth,.... And no lie, the whole truth of the Gospel, and particularly the truth of his divine sonship:
ye believe me not; to such an infatuation and judicial blindness were they give up, to disbelieve him, because he told the truth, and to believe a lie, that they might be damned; which showed them to be the children of the devil, and under his power and influence.
The Church Fathers
"And because I tell you the truth, ye believe Me not." What kind of consequence is this? "Having no charge against Me, ye desire to kill Me. For because ye are enemies of the truth, therefore ye persecute Me. Since had this not been the reason, ye would have named your charge." Wherefore He added, "Which of you convinceth Me of sin?" Then they said, "We be not born of fornication." Yet in fact many of them were born of fornication, for they practiced unbefitting unions. Still He doth not convict them of this, but setteth Himself to the other point. For when He hath proved them to be, not of God, but of the devil, by all these signs, (for to do murder is of the devil, and to lie is of the devil, both which ye do,) then He showeth that to love is the sign of being of God.
We must question how he says, to people who believe in him, "because I speak the truth, you do not believe in me." Consider whether it is possible to believe in someone in one particular aspect but not to believe in another aspect. For instance, one could believe that Jesus was crucified in Judea in the time of Pontius Pilate but not believe that he was born of the Virgin Mary. This one believes and disbelieves in the same person. Take, as another example, those who believe in the Jesus who performed the recorded wonders and signs in Judea but who do not believe in the Son of the one who made heaven and earth. These believe and disbelieve in the same one.…It is likely that they believed in him on the basis of what was seen because of his marvelous deeds, but they did not believe in his deeper sayings.… You see this even in the present, that there are many people who marvel at Jesus whenever they consider the story about him but who no longer believe when a teaching that is deeper and greater than their capacity is disclosed to them, but instead suspect it to be false.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Falsehood · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Self-Righteousness · .Pharisees — .Pharisees
Truth · Christ spoke — Christ spoke
Unbelief · 5:12-14; — 5:12-14;
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Calvin on John 8:43-45
John 8:43-45
43. Why do you not understand my language, that you cannot hear my word? 44. You are of your father the devil, and you wish to execute the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he did not remain in the truth, because there is no truth in him. 45. And because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.
43. Why do you not understand my language? In this passage, he reproaches the Jews with their obstinacy, which was so great, that they could not even endure to hear him speak Hence he infers, that they are actuated and hurried away by diabolical rage. Some make a distinction here between language and speech, as if speech had a more extensive meaning; but…
Since the unbelieving people did not love Jesus (8:42; 1 Jn 5:1), they were not children of the Father in heaven who sent his beloved Son (John 8:47). Their true spiritual ancestry was revealed in their desire to kill God’s Son. This was the work of the devil, who brought death to the world (see Gen 3:1-20; Rom 5:12-14).
