John 8:44

Ye are of your father the devil At last Christ says plainly, what He has implied in John 8:38; John 8:41. -Ye" is emphatic; -ye, who boast that ye have Abraham and God as your Father, ye are morally the Devil's children." Comp. 1Jn 3:8; 1 John 3:10, which is perhaps an echo of Christ's words.

This passage seems to be conclusive as to the real personal existence of the devil. It can scarcely be an economy, a concession to ordinary modes of thought and language. Would Christ have resorted to a popular delusion in a denunciation of such solemn and awful severity? Comp. -the children of the wicked one" (Matthew 13:38); -ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves" (Matthew 23:15). With this denunciation generally compare those contained in Matthew 11:20-24; Matthew 23:13-36. "It is likely that dialogues of this sort would be of not infrequent occurrence, especially just at this time when the conflict is reaching its climax. It is likely too that they would be of the nature of dialogues broken by impatient interruptions on the part of the Jews, and not always a continuous strain of denunciation as in Matthew 23." S. p. 159.

A monstrous but grammatically possible translation of these words is adopted by some who attribute a Gnostic origin to this Gospel; -ye are descended from the father of the devil." This Gnostic demonology, according to which the father of the devil is the God of the Jews, is utterly unscriptural, and does not suit the context here.

and the lusts of your father ye will do Rather, ye will to do. See on John 6:67; John 7:17; and comp. John 8:40. -Ye love to gratify the lusts which characterize him, especially the lust for blood. Being his children, ye are like him in nature."

He was a murderer from the beginning The word for -murderer" etymologically means -man-slayer," and seems to connect this passage with John 8:40 (see note there). The devil was a murderer by causing the Fall, and thus bringing death into the world. Comp. -God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of His own eternity. Nevertheless, through envy of the devil came death into the world, and they that do hold of his side shall find it (Wis 2:23-24): and -Cain was of that wicked one and slew his brother:" and -whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer" (1 John 3:12; 1 John 3:15).

and abode not in the truth Rather, and standeth not in the truth. The verb is not S. John's favourite word -abide" (see on John 1:33), but (according to the common reading) the same that is used in John 1:35; John 3:29; John 7:37, &c. Though perfect in form it is present in meaning: therefore not -hath stood," still less -stood" or -abode," but standeth. The true reading, however, is probably not hestêken, but estêken, the imperfect of stêkein(John 1:26; Romans 14:4), a stronger form of the verb; stood firm. Truth is a region from which the devil has long since departed.

he speaketh of his own Literally, he speaketh out of his own; out of his own resources, out of his own nature: the outcome is what might be expected from him.

for he is a liar, and the father of it Better, because he is a liar and the father thereof, i.e. father of the liar, rather than father of the lie (understood in liar). Here again a monstrous misinterpretation is grammatically possible; -for he is a liar, and his father also." It is not strange that Gnostics of the second and third centuries should have tried to wring a sanction for their fantastic systems out of the writings of S. John. It isstrange that any modern critics should have thought demonology so extravagant compatible with the theology of the Fourth Gospel.