John 8:39-41

“ They answered and said to him, Our father is Abraham. Jesus said to them, If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. 40. But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I have heard from God; Abraham did not do this. 41 a. You do the works of your father. ”

The Jews feel themselves insulted by the insinuation of John 8:38; they affirm more energetically, and with a feeling of wounded dignity, their descent from Abraham. Jesus takes up again His answer in John 8:37 and develops it. In this domain, He says, there is no real paternal relationship where there is opposition in conduct.

The Alexandrian reading: If you are...you would do, can be defended only by supposing a decided grammatical anomaly. John would at first lay down the fact as real (you are), to deny it afterwards in the second clause (you would do). In any case this explanation is preferable to that of Origen and Augustine, to which Weiss inclines, accepting the reading of B, “If you are... do then!” But Jesus is not exhorting, He is proving. This Alexandrian reading seems to be the result of an arbitrary correction. The verb of the principal clause ἐποιεῖτε ἄν, you would do, was first changed into the imperative ποιεῖτε, do, and after this it was necessary to transform the ἦτε (if you were) into ἐστε (if you are). Abraham was distinguished for an absolute docility to the divine truth (Genesis 12, 22), and by a respectful love for those who were the organs of it in his presence (Genesis 16, 18); what a contrast to the conduct of his descendants according to the flesh! Observe the gradation (John 8:40): 1. To kill a Man 1:2. A man who is an organ of the truth; 3. Of the truth which comes from God. Their moral descent from Abraham being thus set aside, the result is this: “You have therefore another father, the one whose will you do and whose works you practice, as I do those of my Father.”