Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 8:44

Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

44. Ye are of your father the devil ] At last Christ says plainly, what He has implied in Joh 8:38 ; Joh 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 ; 1Jn 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’ (Mat 13:38); ‘ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves’ (Mat 23:15). With this denunciation generally compare those contained in Mat 11:20-24; Mat 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 Joh 6:67, Joh 7:17; and comp. Joh 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 Joh 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’ (1Jn 3:12; 1Jn 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 Joh 1:33), but (according to the common reading) the same that is used in Joh 1:35, Joh 3:29, Joh 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 hestken, but estken, the imperfect of stkein (Joh 1:26; Rom 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 is strange that any modern critics should have thought demonology so extravagant compatible with the theology of the Fourth Gospel.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Ye are of your father the devil – That is, you have the temper, disposition, or spirit of the devil. You are influenced by him, you imitate him, and ought therefore to be called his children. See also 1Jo 3:8-10; Act 13:10; Thou child of the devil.

The devil – See the notes at Mat 4:1.

The lusts – The desires or the wishes. You do what pleases him.

Ye will do – The word will, here, is not an auxiliary verb. It does not simply express futurity, or that such a thing will take place, but it implies an act of volitions. This you will or choose to do. The same mode of speech occurs in Joh 5:40. In what respects they showed that they were the children of the devil he proceeds to state:

1.In their murderous disposition;

2.In rejecting the truth;

3.In being favorable to falsehood and error.

He was a murderer from the beginning – That is, from the beginning of the world, or in the first records of him he is thus represented. This refers to the seduction of Adam and Eve. Death was denounced against sin, Gen 2:17. The devil deceived our first parents, and they became subject to death, Gen. 3. As he was the cause why death came into the world, he may be said to have been a murderer in that act, or from the beginning. We see here that the tempter mentioned in Gen. 3 was Satan or the devil, who is here declared to have been the murderer. Compare Rom 5:12, and Rev 12:9; And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. Besides, Satan has in all ages deceived men, and been the cause of their spiritual and eternal death. His work has been to destroy, and in the worst sense of the word he may be said to have been a murderer. It was by his instigation, also, that Cain killed his brother, 1Jo 3:12; Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. As the Jews endeavored to kill the Saviour, so they showed that they had the spirit of the devil.

Abode not in the truth – He departed from the truth, or was false and a liar.

No truth in him – That is, he is a liar. It is his nature and his work to deceive.

He speaketh of his own – The word own is in the plural number, and means of the things that are appropriate to him, or that belong to his nature. His speaking falsehood is originated by his own propensities or disposition; he utters the expressions of his genuine character.

He is a liar – As when he deceived Adam, and in his deceiving, as far as possible, the world, and dragging man down to perdition.

The father of it – The father or originator of falsehood. The word it refers to lie or falsehood understood. From him falsehood first proceeded, and all liars possess his spirit and are under his influence. As the Jews refused to hear the truth which Jesus spoke, so they showed that they were the children of the father of lies.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 44. Ye are of your father the devil] Ye are the seed of the old serpent. See Clarke on Joh 8:37.

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. This was the sentiment of the Jews themselves. In Sohar Kadash, the wicked are called, “The children of the old serpent, who slew Adam and all his descendants.” See Schoettgen.

Abode not in the truth] He stood not in the truth-was once in a state of glorious felicity, but fell from it; and, being deprived of all good himself, he could not endure that others should enjoy any; therefore by his lies he deceived Eve, and brought her, her husband, and, through them, their posterity, into his own condemnation.

He speaketh of his own] , He speaketh of his own offspring, or, from his own disposition, for he is the father and fountain of all error and falsity; and all who are deceived by him, and partake of his disposition, falsity and cruelty, are his offspring, for he is a liar, and the father of it– -literally, his father also. There is considerable difficulty in this verse. The Cainites, and the Archontites, mentioned by Epiphanius, read it thus: “Ye are the children of your father the devil, because he is a liar, and his father was a liar. He was a man-slayer, and he did not remain in the truth. When he speaketh, he speaketh a lie of his own, (progenitors understood,) because his father also was a liar.” The consequences which the above heretics drew from this verse were the following. They said that the father of the Jews was a demon; that he also had a demon for his father; and that he had a demon for his father, c. The Archontites maintained that Cain had a demon for his father, the spirit which our Lord speaks of here and that the Jews proceeded from the race of Cain.

Grotius, supposing that the devil who tempted Eve was not the prince of devils, but rather a subordinate one, seems to think he may be understood here, he is a liar, and his father also, which is the literal translation of the latter clause of the text, , as it has been read by many of the primitive fathers.

Mr. Wakefield, by changing , before , into , gives the text the following translation:- “The devil is your father, and ye willingly perform the lusts of your father. He was a man-slayer from the first, and continued not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When ANY ONE speaketh a lie, he speaketh according to his own kindred: for his father also is a liar.” Our own translation, that refers to , a lie, and not to , a liar, is probably the most correct.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Our Saviour now plainly tells them what he meant by their

father, mentioned Joh 8:38; viz. the devil, whose children though they were not by natural traduction, yet they were by imitation, wilfully doing the things which the devil would have them do. He instances in two of these lusts: 1. Murder. He saith, The devil from the beginning of the world had a mind and design against the sons of men; and he ever since (as the apostle tells us, 1Pe 5:9) hath gone about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And in this they were his true children, using all arts imaginable to destroy him whom God had sent into the world for mans salvation. In another thing also they were the true and genuine children of the devil; the devil had no truth in him, nor did he abide in the truth. God indeed created the angels (who afterward fell) in a state of rectitude, without unrighteousness; but they did not keep their first station. So, neither did they love the truth, nor abide in it, but were wholly false and liars, and could not abide the truth.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

44. Ye are of your father thedevil“This is one of the most decisive testimonies to theobjective (outward) personality of the devil. It isquite impossible to suppose an accommodation to Jewish views, or ametaphorical form of speech, in so solemn an assertion as this”[ALFORD].

the lusts of your fatherhisimpure, malignant, ungodly propensities, inclinations, desires.

ye will doare willingto do; not of any blind necessity of nature, but of purenatural inclination.

He was a murderer from thebeginningThe reference is not to Cain (as LOCKE,DE WETTE,ALFORD, c.), but to Adam[GROTIUS, CALVIN,MEYER, LUTHARDT,&c.]. The death of the human race, in its widest sense, isascribed to the murderous seducer of our race.

and abode not in thetruthAs, strictly speaking, the word means “abideth,”it has been denied that the fall of Satan from a former holystate is here expressed [LOCKE,&c.], and some superior interpreters think it only implied[OLSHAUSEN, &c.]. Butthough the form of the thought is presentnot pastthis isto express the important idea, that his whole character and activityare just a continual aberration from his own original truth orrectitude and thus his fall is not only the implied basisof the thought, but part of the statement itself, properlyinterpreted and brought out.

no truth in himvoid ofall that holy, transparent rectitude which, as His creature, heoriginally possessed.

When he speaketh a lie, hespeaketh of his ownperhaps his own resources, treasures (Mt12:35) [ALFORD]. (Theword is plural). It means that he has no temptation to it fromwithout; it is purely self-begotten, springing from anature which is nothing but obliquity.

the father of itthatis, of lying: all the falsehood in the world owes its existence tohim. What a verse is this! It holds up the devil (1) as the murdererof the human race; but as this is meant here in the more profoundsense of spiritual death, it holds him up, (2) as thespiritual parent of this fallen human family, communicating to hisoffspring his own evil passions and universal obliquity, andstimulating these into active exercise. But as there is “astronger than he,” who comes upon him and overcomes him (Luk 11:21;Luk 11:22), it is only such as”love the darkness,” who are addressed as children of thedevil (Mat 13:38; 1Jn 3:8-10).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Ye are of your father the devil,…. Not of his substance, but by imitation and example; and as being under his authority and influence, his instructions and directions, and ready to follow after him, and obey his commands; the word “your” is rightly supplied, and is in some copies:

and the lusts of your father ye will do; the Syriac and Persic versions read in the singular number, “the lust”, or “desire of your father”; by which may be particularly meant, his eager desire after the death of Christ, which he showed at different times; he instigated Herod to seek to destroy his life in his infancy, and when he was just entering on his public ministry, he tempted him to destroy himself; and often stirred up the Scribes and Pharisees, to stone him or kill him, some other way; and at last put it into the heart of one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, to betray him: this looks as if though the devil had a notion of the salvation of men by Christ, yet that he thought, as some erroneous men have also done, that it was only by his doctrine and example, and therefore he was in haste to get him out of the world, that he might not be useful, or any more so that way; and not by the shedding of his blood, the sacrifice of himself, or by his sufferings and death, in the room of sinners; or otherwise it is scarcely credible, that he would have sought his death so earnestly: now this selfsame lust and insatiable desire after the death of Christ prevailed in the Jews; and they were resolute and bent upon fulfilling it at any rate, nor could anything divert them from it; this is the thing Christ is speaking of in the context, and is what fully proved the devil to be their father, and them to be his children:

he was a murderer from the beginning; he was not only spoken of from the beginning, as he that should bruise the Messiah’s heel, or should compass his death, but he was actually a murderer of Adam and Eve, and of all their posterity, by tempting them to sin, which brought death and ruin upon them; and who quickly after that instigated Cain to slay his brother; and has had, more or less, a concern in all murders committed since; and has been in all ages, and still is, a murderer of the souls of men; and therefore is rightly called Abaddon, and Apollyon, which signify the destroyer: the phrase, “from the beginning”, does not intend the beginning of his own creation; for he was created a holy creature, was in the truth, though he abode not in it; and was in an happy state, though he lost it: nor strictly the beginning of time, or of the creation of the world, which were some days at least before the fall of man, when the devil commenced a murderer; but it being very near it, therefore this phrase is made use of: the Syriac version renders it, “from Bereshith”, which is the first word in the Hebrew Bible, and is frequently used by the Jewish Rabbins for the six days of the creation; and if Adam fell, as some think, the same day he was created, it might be properly said that the devil was a murderer from thence. Philo p speaks of Eve’s serpent, as , “a murderer of man”; applying to this purpose the text before referred to, Ge 3:15;

and abode not in the truth; neither in the integrity, innocence, and holiness, in which he was created; nor in veracity, or as a creature of veracity, but spake lies, and formed one, by which he deceived Eve, saying, “ye shall not surely die”, Ge 3:4, when God had said they should, Ge 2:17; nor in the truth of the Gospel, which was at least in part made known unto him; particularly that the Son of God should become man, and in that nature be the head of angels and men: this he and his associates, in the pride of their hearts, not bearing that the human nature should be exalted above that of theirs, left their first estate, broke off their allegiance to God, and turned rebels against him:

because there is no truth in him; not that this is a reason why he continued not in the truth, for there was originally truth in him; though he abode not in it; but a reason, showing there was none in him now, since he was fallen from it, and abode not in it; there is no truth in him, that is natural and genuine, and essential to him; and if at any time he speaks it, it is not from his heart, but because he is forced to it, or has an evil design in it:

when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; that is genuine and natural, of his own devising, willing, and approving:

for he is a liar, and the father of it; he was a liar, as early as he was a murderer, or rather earlier; it was with a lie he deceived, and so murdered our first parents, and he has continued so ever since; he was the first author of a lie; the first lie that ever was told, was told by him; he was the first inventor of one; he was the first of that trade; in this sense the word “father” is used, Ge 4:20; so the serpent is by the Cabalistic Jews q called, the lip of lie, or the lying lip.

p De Agricultura, p. 203. q Lex. Cabalist. p. 724.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Ye are of your father the devil ( ). Certainly they can “understand” ( in 43) this “talk” () though they will be greatly angered. But they had to hear it ( in 43). It was like a bombshell in spite of the preliminary preparation.

Your will to do ( ). Present active indicative of 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” ( ) 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 (). Old and rare word (Euripides) from , man, and , 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 ( ). Since , not , is genuine, the form of the verb is the imperfect of the late present stem (Mr 11:25) from the perfect active (intransitive) of , to place.

No truth in him ( ). Inside him or outside (environment). The devil and truth have no contact.

When he speaketh a lie ( ). Indefinite temporal clause with and the present active subjunctive of . But note the article : “Whenever he speaks the lie,” as he is sure to do because it is his nature. Hence “he speaks out of his own” ( ) like a fountain bubbling up (cf. Mt 12:34).

For he is a liar ( ). Old word for the agent in a conscious falsehood (). See 1John 1:10; Rom 3:4. Common word in John because of the emphasis on (truth).

And the father thereof ( ). 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.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Ye [] . Emphatic, in contrast with hJmeiv, we, of ver. 41. Of your father [] . Very suggestive, implying community of nature, as in ver. 42. Compare 1Jo 3:8, 10.

The Devil. See on Mt 4:1. John uses Satan only once in the Gospel (xiii. 27), frequently in Revelation, and nowhere in the Epistles. A few critics have adopted the very singular rendering, which the Greek will bear, ye are of the father of the devil. This is explained by charging John with Gnosticism, and making him refer to the Demiurge, a mysterious and inferior being descended from God, by whom God, according to the Gnostics, created the universe, and who had rebelled against God, and was the father of Satan. It is only necessary to remark with Meyer that such a view is both unbiblical and un – Johannine.

Lusts [] . See on Mr 4:19.

Ye will do [ ] . Wrong. Properly, ye will to do. Rev., it is your will to do. See on 7 17.

Murderer [] . Only here and 1Jo 3:15. Literally, a manslayer; from anqrwpov, man, and kteinw, to kill. The epithet is applied to Satan, not with reference to the murder of Abel, but to the fact of his being the author of death to the race. Compare Rom 7:8, 11; Heb 2:14.

From the beginning. Of the human race.

Stood not [ ] . This may be explained in two ways. The verb may be taken as the perfect tense of isthmi, which is the form for the English present tense, I stand. In that case it would describe Satan ‘s present standing in the element of falsehood : he standeth not in the truth. Or it may be taken as the imperfect tense of sthkw, I keep my standing, or simply, I stand, in which case the form will be esthken, and it will mean that even before his fall he was not true, or that he did not remain true to God, but fell. Meyer, who takes it in the former sense, observes : “Truth is the domain in which he has not his footing; to him it is a foreign, heterogeneous sphere of life…. The lie is the sphere in which he holds his place.” So Mephistopheles in Goethe’s “Faust” :

“I am the spirit that denies! And justly so; for all things from the void Called forth, deserve to be destroyed; ‘Twere better, then, were naught created. Thus, all which you as sin have rated, – Destruction, – aught with evil blent, – That is my proper element.”

When he speaketh a lie [ ] . More strictly, whenever – the lie, as opposed to the truth, regarded as a whole. Two interpretations are given. According to one, the Devil is the subject of speaketh : according to the other, the subject is indefinite; “when one speaketh;” stating a general proposition.

Of his own [ ] . Literally, out of the things which are his own. “That which is most peculiarly his ethical nature” (Meyer).

For he is a liar, and the father of it [ ] . Three interpretations are given.

1. That of the A. V. and Rev. “He is a liar, and the father of the lie.”

2. “He is a liar, and the father of the liar (since of it may also be rendered of him).”

3. Making oJ pathr aujtou, his father, the subject of the sentence, and referring his to one, the indefinite subject of speaketh (” when one speaketh a lie “). Thus the rendering will be, Because his father is a liar. As to Jesus ‘ course of thought – if we accept either of the first two renderings, it turns on the character of Satan.

After stating that the Jews are children of the Devil, He goes on to describe the Devil as a murderer and a liar, and enlarges on the latter characteristic by saying that falsehood is his natural and peculiar element. Whenever he lies he speaks out of his own false nature, for he is a liar, and the father of the lie or of the liar. If we accept the third rendering, the thought turns rather on the character of the Jews as children of Satan. He utters first, the general charge, ye are the children of the Devil, and as such will do his works. Hence you will be both murderers and liars. He was a murderer, and ye are seeking to kill me. He stood not in the truth, neither do ye; for, when one speaketh a lie, he speaketh out of his own false nature, by a birthright of falsehood, since his father also is a liar. 33

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “Ye are of your father the devil,” (humeis ek tou patros tou diabolou este) “You all are (exist) of and from your father (the) devil,” by nature children of wrath, Eph 2:3; and by practice, children of the devil, as expressed 1Jn 3:10; Rev 10:10; Mat 12:34.

2) “And the lusts of your father ye do.” (kai tes epithumias tou patros humon thelete poiein) “And you all have a priority will to do, repeatedly, the lustful desires of your father,” the devil; You will practice lusts as children of the wicked one, not of Abraham, as you claim, Joh 8:33; Joh 8:37; Mat 13:38; 1Jn 3:8.

3) “He was a murderer from the beginning,” (ekeinos anthropoktonos en ap’ arches) “That one (the devil) was (existed as) a man-killer from the beginning,” of his contact with men, even of Adam and Eve, Gen 3:1-24; And your plot to murder me comes from his nature in you, Joh 5:16; Joh 5:18; Joh 7:19-20; Joh 7:25; Joh 8:37; Joh 8:40.

4) “And abode not in the truth,” (kai en te aletheia ouk esteken) “And in the truth he did not stand,” or in the way of honesty and truth, for he lied to Adam and Eve, while they were in an unfallen state in Eden, Gen 3:4-5; Jud 1:6.

5) “Because there is no truth in him.” (hoti ouk estin aletheia en auto) “Because truth does not exist in him,” at all, in his nature, or in his moral integrity, of which he is totally void, Gen 3:13.

6) “When he speaketh a lie,” (hoton lale to pseudos) “When he speaks a lie,” gives God the lie, Gen 3:4-5.

7) “He speaketh of his own: for he is a liar,” (ek ton idion lalei hoti pseuetes estin) “He speaks out of his own nature, and character, because he exists as a liar.”

8) “And the father of it.” (kai ho pater autou) “And he is its father,” the father or begetter of the lie, of all lies and liars, who dying in impenitence shall have their part with him, their father, in the lake of fire and brimstone, Rev 12:9; Rev 20:10; Rev 21:8.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

44. You are of your father the devil. What he had twice said more obscurely, he now expresses more fully, that they are the devil ’ s children But we must supply the contrast, that they could not cherish such intense hatred to the Son of God, were it not that they had for their father the perpetual enemy of God. He calls them children of the devil, not only because they imitate him, but because they are led by his instigation to fight against Christ. For as we are called the children of God, not only because we resemble him, but because he governs us by his Spirit, because Christ lives and is vigorous in us, so as to conform us to the image of his Father; so, on the other hand, the devil is said to be the father or those whose understandings he blinds, whose hearts he moves to commit all unrighteousness, and on whom, in short, he acts powerfully and exercises his tyranny; as in 2Co 4:4; Eph 2:2, and in other passages.

The Manicheans foolishly and ineffectually abused this passage to prove their absurd tenets. For since, when Scripture calls us the children of God, this does not refer to the transmission or origin of the substance, but to the grace of the Spirit, which regenerates us to newness of life; so this swing of Christ does not relate to the transmission of substance, but to the corruption of nature, of which man’s revolt was the cause and origin. When men, therefore, are born children of the devil, it must not be imputed to creation, but to the blame of sin. Now Christ proves this from the effect, because they willingly, and of their own accord, are disposed to follow the devil.

He was a murderer from the beginning. He explains what are those desires, and mentions two instances, cruelty and falsehood; in which the Jews too much resembled Satan. When he says that the devil was a murderer, he means that he contrived the destruction of man; for as soon as man was created, Satan, impelled by a wicked desire of doing injury, bent his strength to destroy him. Christ does not mean the beginning of the creation, as if God implanted in him the disposition to do injury; but he condemns in Satan the corruption of nature, which he brought upon himself. This appears more clearly from the second clause, in which he says,

He did not remain in the truth. For though those who imagine that the devil was wicked by nature, endeavor to make evasions, yet these words plainly state that there was a change for the worse, and that the reason why Satan was a liar was, that he revolted from the truth That he is a liar, arises not from his nature having been always contrary to truth, but because he fell from it by a voluntary fall. This description of Satan is highly useful to us, that every person for himself may endeavor to beware of his snares, and, at the same time, to repel his violence and fury; for

he goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, (1Pe 5:8,)

and has a thousand stratagems at his command for deceiving. So much the more ought believers to be supplied with spiritual arms for fighting, and so much the more earnestly ought they to keep watch with vigilance and sobriety. Now, if Satan cannot lay aside this disposition, we ought not to be alarmed at it, as if it were a new and uncommon occurrence, when errors exceedingly numerous and varied spring up; for Satan stirs up his followers like bellows, to deceive the world by their impostures. And we need not wonder that Satan puts forth such strenuous efforts to extinguish the light of truth; for it is the only life of the soul. So, then, the most important and most deadly wound for killing the soul is falsehood. As all who have eyes to see perceive, in the present day, such a picture of Satan in Popery, they ought, first, to consider with what enemy they carry on war, and, next, to betake themselves to the protection of Christ their Captain, under whose banner they fight.

Because the truth is not in him. This statement, which immediately follows the other, is a confirmation a posteriori, as the phrase is; that is, it is drawn from the effect. For Satan hates the truth, and therefore cannot endure it, but, on the contrary, is entirely covered with falsehoods. Hence Christ infers, that he is entirely fallen from the truth, and entirely turned away from it. Let us not wonder, therefore, if he daily exhibits the fruits of his apostacy.

When he speaketh falsehood. These words are generally explained as if Christ affirmed that the blame of falsehood does not belong to God, who is the Author of nature, but, on the contrary, proceeds from corruption. But I explain it more simply, that it is customary with the devil to speak falsehood, and that he knows nothing but to contrive corruptions, frauds, and delusions. And yet we justly infer from these words, that the devil has this vice from himself, and that, while it is peculiar to him, it may likewise be said to be accidental; for, while Christ makes the devil to be the contriver of lying, he evidently separates him from God, and even declares him to be contrary to God. For he is a liar, and the father of it The word father has the same object as the preceding statement; for the reason why Satan is said to be the father of falsehood is, because he is estranged from God, in whom alone truth dwells, and from whom it flows as from the only fountain.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(44) Ye are of your father the devil.Ye is emphatic. Ye who have claimed Abraham and God as your father. Ye are of the father, but that father is the devil. The possessive pronoun (your) is not expressed in the Greek, and the form of the sentence is one which would have required it if it were included in the sense. The father who has been referred to in Joh. 8:38; Joh. 8:41 is now definitely named. The relation between father and son is maintained, but the father of the thoughts and acts of those to whom He speaks was not God, not Abraham, but the devil.

And the lusts of your father ye will do.Better, ye desire to do, ye will to do. The verb is not an auxiliary, as it appears to be in our version, but expresses the determination of the will. (Comp. Notes on Joh. 5:40; Joh. 7:17.)

He was a murderer from the beginning.Comp. Wis. 2:23-24, For 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 do find it. So St. Paul, By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin (Rom. 5:12). The Fall was the murder of the human race; and it is in reference to this, of which the fratricide in the first family was a signal result, that the Tempter is called a murderer from the beginning (see Note on Joh. 1:1). Cain was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. (Comp. Notes on 1Jn. 3:8-12, where the thought is expanded.) The reference to the murderer is suggested here by the fact that the Jews had been seeking to kill our Lord (Joh. 8:40). They are true to the nature which their father had from the beginning.

And abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.Better, and standeth not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. The word is not that which we have before had in the sense of abide (see Note on Joh. 5:38), and the tense of the verb is present in meaning. The words do not refer to the fall of the devil, which is here implied but not stated, but to his constant character. He has no place in the sphere of the truth; it is not the region of his action and outer life; and the result of this is that there is no truth in the sphere of his thought and inner life. Had he been true, he would have come to stand in the light and life of truth.

When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own.This is in contrast to the work of Christ (Joh. 8:28; Joh. 8:40) and to the work of the Holy Spirit (Note on Joh. 16:13.) The Holy Spirit will not speak of Himself; He came to speak the truth which He heard from God. The devil speaketh a lie (comp. Genesis 3), and this is of his own (see Note on Mat. 12:35).

For he is a liar, and the father of it.Better, and the father of the liar. This is probably the meaning of the Greek, and it can only be expressed in English by the repetition of the substantive. The verse ends as it begins, by a reference to the Jews whom He is addressing. They were of the nature of him whose spiritual children they were. The murderous thoughts in their hearts, and their non-receptivity of truth, plainly indicated who their father was.

The reader will hardly, perhaps, need to be cautioned against the old heretical rendering of the first and last clauses of this verse, by Ye are of the father of the devil . . . for he is a liar, and also his father. Still, as this view has been revived in some quarters in our own day, one word of reminder that it is no less opposed to the context and the teaching of this Gospel than it is to the whole tenor of Biblical truth and of rational theology, may not be misplaced. On the personality of the devil, which, if plain words have any meaning, is here implied in the words of Christ, see Notes on Matthew 4.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

44. Your father Not Abraham, not God, but the devil. It is clear that the devil is here named as a personal being, as truly as Abraham or God.

Lusts will do Their sonship consists in the conformity of their lusts and their doings to their father’s.

A murderer As these men are in heart murderers of Jesus, Joh 7:19; Joh 8:28; Joh 8:37; Joh 8:40.

Murderer from the beginning He murdered the previously pure and perfect Adam, and through him murdered the race. Cain was his son and image, showing by his character what his father Satan was.

Abode not in the truth In which he once stood, but, as his lie to Eve showed, most disastrously fell. So that as the devil is here most clearly named as a personal being, so his FALL, from his previous purity is decisively implied.

No truth in him He is so completely full of lie, that there is no room for truth in him Such are the great mass of wicked men. Satan’s falsehood so completely fills them, that they admit not a particle of the opposite truth of God.

He speaketh of his own Speaketh out from the full fund that is in him.

Father of it The grand original inventor of all lying in the universe. Before he lied, the harmony of truth universally reigned. God and all were truth; Satan created lie.

Others, however, as Alford, render this phrase, Father of him, that is, of the liar. Satan is the liar and the liar’s father. This accords with the current of thought, as Jesus is speaking of moral paternity and sonship.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

“You are of your father the Devil, and it is your will to do the longings of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and did not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own, for he is a liar and a father of them.”

Now He no longer restrained His words, and explained His enigmatic earlier statement about them being like their father. Far from showing themselves to be children of God and children of Abraham they were showing themselves to be like their father the Devil, for they were behaving just as he did. They were plotting to murder the One Whom God had sent and they were unwilling to face up to the truth. For the Devil too was a murderer, right from the beginning, and he too did not hold to the truth, and that was because there was no truth in him. When he lied he spoke according to his own nature, for he was a liar and ‘the father of lies’. The corollary was that there was no truth in them either, and that they too were deceivers.

‘He was a murderer.’ He brought death into the world for Adam and Eve, and through his interference Cain slew his brother and from then on all men died.

‘Did not stand in the truth’ could be aspirated to mean ‘does not stand in the truth’, meaning ‘has nothing to do with the truth’. He had ever been, and would always be, a deceiver.

‘According to his own nature.’ From his first efforts in the Garden of Eden he had demonstrated that deceit and falsehood were an intrinsic part of him. That is what his nature had become through rebellion against God. Indeed deceit began with him. He was ‘the father of lies’.

They were like ‘their father the Devil’ in that they longed for His death and could not bear the truth. They clung to their beliefs regardless of reality, deliberately refusing to see the weaknesses in them. These were traits of the Devil which were clearly coming out in them. Far from being the children of God, they were showing themselves by this to be as far from God as it was possible to be. Among the Jews it was customary to say that someone was a ‘child of’ whatever influenced them. Thus Jesus was saying to the Judaisers that their behaviour marked them out as ‘children of the Devil’ because they behaved like him.

We can compare here Paul’s words in 2Co 4:4. ‘The god of this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe lest the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ shine through to them’.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Joh 8:44. Ye are of your father the devil, “You inherit the nature of your father, the devil; and therefore you are determined to gratify the lusts which you have derived from him. He was the enemy and murderer of mankind, and ever since has endeavoured to work their ruin; sometimes by seducing them into sin by his lies, and sometimes by instigating them to murder those whom God sends to reclaim them. Withal, having wholly departed from holiness and truth, the habit of lying is become perfectly natural to him: wherefore, being a liar, and the father of it, that is, the first and greatest liar, when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh what is proper to himself.” The words , rendered ye will do, imply a resolute and obstinate persisting in any habit or action, Ch. Joh 1:43. The account which Josephus, their own historian, gives of the wickedness of the Jews about this time, comes up fully to the assertion of our Lord in this verse. See his Jewish War, B. 5: Ch. 10, &c.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Joh 8:44 . After the negative statement in Joh 8:42-43 comes now the positive: Ye ( , with great, decided emphasis ye people, who deem yourselves children of God!) are children of the devil , [29] in the sense, namely, of ethical genesis (comp. 1Jn 3:8 ; 1Jn 3:12 ), which is further explained from onward. The expression must therefore not be regarded as teaching an original difference in the natures of men (Hilgenfeld, comp. on Joh 3:6 ).

. . .] of the father who is the devil , not of your father, etc. (De Wette, Lcke), which is inappropriate after the emphatic , or ought to have been specially marked as emphatic ( , etc.). Nonnus well indicates the qualitative character of the expression: . Hilgenfeld’s view, which is adopted by Volkmar: “Ye descend from the father of the devil ,” which father is the (Gnostic) God of the Jews, is not only generally unbiblical, but thoroughly un-Johannine, and here opposed to the context. John could have written simply ., if the connection had not required that prominence should be given to the idea of father . But in the entire connection there is nothing that would call for a possible father of the devil; the question is solely of the devil himself, as the father of those Jews. Erroneously also Grotius, who explains the passage as though it ran,

. .

, etc.] The conscious will of the child of the devil is to accomplish that after which its father, whose organ it is, lusts. This is rooted in the similarity of their moral nature. The desire to kill is not exclusively referred to, though, as even the plural shows, it is included.

, etc.] for murder and lying were just the two devilish lusts which they were minded to carry out against Jesus .

] from the beginning of the human race. This more exact determination of the meaning is derivable from , inasmuch as it was through his seduction that the fall was brought about, in whose train death entered into the world (see on Rom 5:12 ). So Origen, Chrysostom, Augustine, Theophylact, and the majority of commentators; also Kuinoel, Schleiermacher, Tholuck, Olshausen, Klee, Maier, Lange (referring it, however, after the example of Euth. Zigabenus, also to Cain ), Luthardt, Ewald, Godet, Hofmann, Schriftbeweis , I. pp. 418, 478; Mller, Lehre v. d. Snde , II. p. 544 f. Exo 5 ; Lechler in the Stud. u. Kritik . 1854, p. 814 f.; Hahn, Theol. d. N. T . I. p. 355; Messner, Lehre d. Apostel , p. 332; Philippi, Glaubenslehre , III. p. 272; see especially Hengstenberg on the passage, and his Christol . I. p. 8 ff.; Weiss, Lehrbegr . p. 133 f. Compare the corresponding parallels, Wis 2:24 ; Rev 12:9 ; Rev 20:2 ; also Ev. Nicod. 23, where the devil is termed , ; see also Grimm on Wis 1:1 . This view is the only one that is appropriate to the expression , which the design of the context requires to be taken exactly ( , Lightfoot, p. 1045), as it must also be understood in 1Jn 3:8 . Comp. Joseph. Antiq . I. 1, 4. Others refer to Cain’s murder of his brother (Cyril, Nitzsch in the Berl. theol. Zeitschr . III. p. 52 ff., Schulthess, Lcke, Kling, De Wette, Reuss, Beitr . p. 53, Hilgenfeld, Baeumlein, Grimm), which is not, however, rendered necessary by 1Jn 3:12 , and would further, without any warrant, exclude an earlier commencement; would be opposed to the national and New Testament view (see on 2Co 11:3 ) of the fall and the connection of the present passage; and would finally lack any allusion to it in Gen 4 ; whilst, on the contrary, the antithesis between truth and falsehood, which follows afterwards, points unmistakeably to Gen 3 . Finally, inasmuch as must signify some definite historical starting-point, it is incorrect, with B. Crusius, to deny a reference either to the fall or to Cain’s murder of his brother, and to take . as simply a general designation.

Brckner also treats the reference to a definite fact as unnecessary.

] that is, during the entire past, onwards.

. . ] does not refer to the fall of the devil (2Pe 2:4 ; Jud 1:6 ), as Augustine, Nonnus, and most Catholics maintain, [30] as though (Vulg.: stetit ) had been employed, but is his constant characteristic: [31] and he does not abide in the truth , , , Euth. Zigabenus. The truth is the domain in which he has not his footing; to him it is a foreign, heterogeneous sphere of life: the truth is the opposite of the lie, both in formal and material significance. The lie is the sphere in which he holds his place; in it he is in the element proper and peculiar to him; in it he has his life’s standing.

. ] the inner ground of the preceding statement. The determining cause of this inner ground, however, is expressed by the words , which are emphatically placed at the end. As truth is not found in him , as it is lacking to his inner essence and life , it cannot possibly constitute the sphere of his objective life. Without truth in the inward parts truth regarded, namely, as a subjective qualification, temper, tendency that is, without truth in the character, a man must necessarily be foreign to, and far from, the domain of objective truth, and cannot have his life and activity therein. Without truth in the inward parts, a man deals in life with lies, deception, cunning, and all . Note that . is used first with , and then without , the article.

] of that which is his own , which constitutes the proper ground or essence of his inner man, of that which is most peculiarly his ethical nature. Comp. Mat 12:34 .

. ] namely, of the liar; he, generically considered, to wit, the liar as such in general , is the devil’s child. The characterization of the devil thus aptly concludes with a declaration which at the same time confirms the reproach, . . . . The less to be approved, therefore, is the common explanation of , as standing for , which is to be derived from ( mendacii auctor , after Gen 3:4 f.); although, linguistically considered, it is in itself admissible (Winer, p. 181 f. [E. T. p. 138]; Buttmann, p. 93 [E. T. p. 106]). The correct view has been taken also by B. Crusius, Luthardt, Tholuck, Hengstenberg, and as early as Bengel. The old heretical explanation, “ as his father ,” [32] or, “ also his father ,” as though referred to the devil , and the demiurge , whose lie is the pretending to be the most high God, were really intended (Hilgenfeld, Volkmar), must be rejected; for, on the one hand, John ought at the very least, in order to avoid being completely misunderstood, to have written . . . . . .; [33] while, on the other hand, he did not in the remotest degree entertain the monstrous, wholly unbiblical notion of a father of the devil . Nay, further, a father of this kind would not at all harmonize with the context. Even a writer as early as Photius, Quaest. Amphiloch . 88, takes the opposite view; as also Ewald, Jahrb . V. p. 198 f. It was in the highest degree unnecessary that Lachmann, ( Praef . II. p. 7), in order to avoid having to refer to the devil, should have approved the reading qui , or , instead of , which is supported by the feeblest evidence: “qui loquitur mendacium, ex propriis loquitur, quia patrem quoque mendacem habet.”

[29] In his Leben Jesu (p. 338 ff.), Schleiermacher groundlessly advances the opinion that Jesus had here no intention of teaching any doctrine regarding the devil, but wished merely to add force to His reproach by referring to the generally-adopted interpretation of the narrative of the fall. On the contrary, by His reproach, he not merely lays down the doctrine, but also further intentionally and explicitly expounds it, especially by assigning the ground, , etc. Baur (still in his Neut. Theol. p. 393) deduces from this passage that, according to John, Jesus had little sympathy for the Jews. He is speaking, however, not at all against the Jews in general , but merely against the party that was hostile to Him.

[30] Comp. also Martensen’s Dogmatics , 105. Delitzsch, too (see Psychol. p. 62), explains the passage as though were used: the devil, instead of “ taking his stand in the truth,” revolted, as the god of the world, selfishly against God; for which reason the world has been “degraded and materialized” by God to a , etc. In this way a new creation of the world is made out of the creation in Gen 1 , and out of the first act in the history of the world, a second.

[31] At the same time, we do not mean herewith to deny to John the idea of a fall of the devil, or, in other words, to represent him as believing the devil to have been originally evil. The passage under consideration treats merely of the evil constitution of the devil as it is , without giving any hint as to its origin. This in answer to Frommann, p. 330, Reuss, and Hilgenfeld. In relation to the doctrine of the fall of the devil nothing is here taught. Comp. Hofmann, Schriftbeweis , passim; Hahn, Theol. d. N. T. I. p. 319. Such a fall is, however, necessarily presupposed by this passage.

[32] Hence, also, the readings and , instead of , which, though early in date, are supported by feeble testimony.

[33] Comp. Nonnus: , .

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

Ver. 44. Ye are of your father the devil ] Who hath set his limbs in you, so that ye are as like him as if spit out of his mouth. Satan is called the god of this world, because as God at first did but speak the word, and it was done; so if the devil do but hold up his finger, give the least hint, they obey him.

The lusts of your father ye will do ] If the fruits of the flesh (said Bradford) grow out of the trees of your hearts, surely, surely, the devil is at inn with you. You are his birds, whom when he hath well fed, he will broach you and eat you, chaw you and champ you, world without end, in eternal woe and misery, &c.

And abode not in the truth ] Si Satan in conspectu Dei tantas res ausus est, quid apud nos non audebit? (Bucholcer.)

When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own ] And so when we do evil, we work de nostro, et secundum hominem, 1Co 3:3 . It is as impossible for us naturally to do good as for a toad to spit cordials.

For he is a liar, and the father of it ] The devil did only equivocate to our first parents, and yet is here called a liar, and 2Co 11:3 , a deceiver. A lie hath been always held hateful; but equivocation is now set forth of a later impression. The Jesuits have called back this pest from hell, lately, for the comfort of afflicted Catholics, as arch-priest Blackwell and provincial Garnet shamed not to profess. Est autem Satanae pectus semper faecundissimum mendaciis, saith Luther. He began his kingdom by a lie, and by lies he upholds it, as were easy to instance. See Trapp on “ Gen 3:1 “ &c.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

44. ] The first article is important, and to be rendered (against Meyer) as in E. V., your father the devil . This verse is one of the most decisive testimonies for the objective personality of the devil. It is quite impossible to suppose an accommodation to Jewish views, or a metaphorical form of speech, in so solemn and direct an assertion as this.

is important, and should have been in E. V. more marked: Your will is to do : or, as A.V.R. “ ye love to do ” [or, are inclined to do ]. It indicates, as in ch. Joh 5:40 , the freedom of the human will , as the foundation of the condemnation of the sinner .

] The most obvious reference seems to be, to the murder of Abel by Cain: see the Apostle’s own comment on these words, 1Jn 3:12 ; 1Jn 3:15 . But this itself was only a result of the introduction of death by sin, which was the work of the devil: Adam and Eve were the first whom he murdered. But then again both these were only manifestations of the fact here stated by divine omniscience respecting him: that he was .

, the author and bringer in of that hate which is , 1Jn 3:15 .

The mention of murder is introduced because the Jews went about to kill Jesus; and the typical parallel of Cain and Abel is certainly hinted at in the words: see Lcke’s note, ii. 338 ff., and Stier, iv. 414 (edn. 2) ff.

, not ‘ abode not,’ E. V.; a sense which will not bear, being always present in meaning, and = ‘I have placed myself,’ i.e. I stand : see Mat 12:47 ; Mat 20:6 ; Mar 9:1 ; Mar 11:5 ; Joh 3:29 ; Act 1:11 ; Act 7:33 ; Rom 5:2 ; Rom 11:20 alli [131] . fr.: whereas the pluperfect, , ‘I had placed myself,’ i.e. I stood , is imperfect in sense: see Mat 12:46 . And that this place forms no exception, is shewn by (not ) immediately following. But as the account of this present sense shews, it is not a mere present, but a present dependent on and commencing with an implied past fact. And that fact here is, the fall of the devil, which was not an insulated act, but in which state of apostasy from the truth he , it is his status . So Euthym [132] : , .

[131] alli = some cursive mss.

[132] Euthymius Zigabenus, 1116

, as De Wette remarks, is objective: the truth of God: in this he standeth not , because there is no truth (‘ truthfulness,’ subjective ) in him . His lie has become his very nature, and therefore he is thoroughly alien from the truth of God. To take as ‘not the cause, but the proof’ ( for , i.e. ‘for we see it by this, that’ ) is not only to do violence to construction, but to overthrow the whole sense of the passage.

, a lie ; generic: we in English have retained the article in the expression ‘to speak the truth,’ but not in the corresponding one. He to Eve.

. ., of his own , as E. V., not, ‘ according to his character ’ (De Wette), but ‘out of his own resources,’ ‘treasures:’ see Mat 12:35 .

. ] i.e. either (absolutely, or as understood in , Orig [133] , Euthym [134] , Theophyl., &c. Nitzsch (Theol. Zeitschrift, 1822), De Wette, Lcke, Wordsw., and Winer, 22. 3. b), or (= ), of the liar generally . The former is not the fact , for the devil is not the father , but , by being himself one whose very nature has become . Certainly by this he has become the author, promoter, of falsehood among men; but this kind of paternity is not here in question: the object being to shew that he was the father of these lying Jews. I therefore hold the latter interpretation, with Bengel, Meyer, and Stier.

[133] Origen, b. 185, d. 254

[134] Euthymius Zigabenus, 1116

The construction of this passage with the art. before has presented insuperable difficulty to Bp. Middleton and others: see Midd. in loc. The rendering which he proposes is this: “When (any of you) speaks that which is false, he speaks after the manner of his kindred ( !), for he is a liar, and so also is his father,” i.e. the devil. To which the late Prof. Scholefield proposes an emendation, to take away the comma after , and translate, “For his father also is a liar,” not knowing, apparently, that this was the ancient heretical interpretation according to which the was the Demiurge: see Meyer, edn. 3, and Hilgenfeld, referred to by him as supporting this rendering. It is really almost incredible that learned men, students of our Lord’s discourses, should seriously uphold an interpretation so utterly absurd and preposterous. It is only an instance how the judgment may be warped by the adoption of canons respecting the article grounded on insufficient observation. The instances which Middleton adduces to prove that according to the ordinary rendering, the article must be omitted before , none of them touch the question. The article here is emphatic , and could not be omitted, any more than in the sentence . The simple account to be given of this construction, is that it = , : but by being singular, the pronoun is attracted into the singular also.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Joh 8:44 . This was the result and evidence of their paternity: [ is read by all recent editors]. “Ye are of the father who is the devil.” The translation, “of the father of the devil,” i.e. , the (Gnostic) God of the Jews, is, as Meyer says, thoroughly un-Johannine. Perhaps a slight pause before the culminating words would emphasise them and show that this had been in His mind throughout the conversation. Being, of this parentage they deliberately purpose [ ] and not merely unintentionally are betrayed into the fulfilment of his desires. Their origin is determined by the fact that “from the first the devil was a manslayer”. To what does refer? Since the beginning of the human race, or since men first were killed; not since the devil’s beginning. Cyril and some others think it is the first murder, that of Abel, that is in view ( cf. 1Jn 3:15 ), but far more probably it is the introduction of death through the first sin ( Wis 2:23-24 ). So almost all recent commentators. Some think both references are admissible (see Lcke). , “and stands not in the truth”. R.V [70] has “and stood not”; so the Vulgate “et in veritate non stetit”. W.H [71] adopt the same translation, reading , the imperfect of , I stand; but good reasons against this reading are given by Thayer s.v. is the usual perfect of with the sense of a present. The reference therefore is not to the fall of the angels, but to the constant attitude of the devil; , Euthymius. “The truth is not the domain in which he has his footing.” Meyer, Weiss. He does not adhere to the truth and live in it. The reason being, , “because truth is not in him”. There is not in him any craving for the truth. He is not true to what he knows. His nature is so false that , “whenever he speaks what is false, he speaks of his own”. “But the article may mean ‘the lie that is natural to him,’ ‘ his lie’ ” (Plummer). means that he speaks out of that which is characteristically and peculiarly his ( cf. Mat 12:34 ); “because he is” this is his character and description “a liar and his father,” i.e. , he is himself a liar and the father of all liars. This is added to reflect light on the first statement of this verse. So Holtzmann and most recent interpreters. But Weiss rightly defends the reference of to as in A.V [72] Westcott proposes to translate: “Whenever a man speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for his father also is a liar”. Paley renders: “When (one) utters he is speaking from his own, because he is a liar, and (so is) his father”. Westcott’s translation makes excellent sense and suits the context and gives a good meaning to the , but, as he himself owns, the omission of the subject ( ) is certainly harsh; it may be said, impossible.

[70] Revised Version.

[71] Westcott and Hort.

[72] Authorised Version.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

devil. Greek. diabolos. Thrice in this Gospel: here, Joh 6:70; Joh 13:2. Not the same word as in verses: Joh 8:48, Joh 8:49.

lusts = strong desires of all kinds. Compare Mar 4:10. The only occurance of epithumia in John’s Gospel. Occurs in 1Jn 2:16, 1Jn 2:17, and Rev 18:14.

will do = will (App-102.) to do (two verbs).

murderer = manslayer. Occurs only here and in 1Jn 3:15. Because death came through him. Compare Heb 2:14.

from the beginning. Greek. ap’ archies. The expression occurs twenty-one times, and the dependent noun must be supplied. In Mat 19:4, Mat 19:8; Mat 24:21. Mar 10:6; Mar 13:19. 2Pe 3:4, we must supply “from the beginning [of the creation]”. Here we must supply “[of the human race]”. In Luk 1:2, Joh 15:27. 1Jn 1:1 we must supply “[of the Lord’s ministry]”. In Act 26:4, supply “[of my public life]”. 1Jn 2:7; 1Jn 2:7 (all the texts, with Syriac, omit), 13, 14, 24, 24; 1Jn 3:11 [or Joh 3:11?]; 2John [Chapters?] 5, 6 supply “[of your hearing ]”.

abode not = stood not. His fall must have taken place before Gen 3:1. Probably in “the world that then was “(Gen 1:1. 2Pe 3:6).

a = the. Compare 2Th 2:11.

his own. Compare Joh 15:19.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

44.] The first article is important, and to be rendered (against Meyer) as in E. V., your father the devil. This verse is one of the most decisive testimonies for the objective personality of the devil. It is quite impossible to suppose an accommodation to Jewish views, or a metaphorical form of speech, in so solemn and direct an assertion as this.

is important, and should have been in E. V. more marked: Your will is to do: or, as A.V.R. ye love to do [or, are inclined to do]. It indicates, as in ch. Joh 5:40, the freedom of the human will, as the foundation of the condemnation of the sinner.

] The most obvious reference seems to be, to the murder of Abel by Cain: see the Apostles own comment on these words, 1Jn 3:12; 1Jn 3:15. But this itself was only a result of the introduction of death by sin, which was the work of the devil: Adam and Eve were the first whom he murdered. But then again both these were only manifestations of the fact here stated by divine omniscience respecting him: that he was .

, the author and bringer in of that hate which is , 1Jn 3:15.

The mention of murder is introduced because the Jews went about to kill Jesus; and the typical parallel of Cain and Abel is certainly hinted at in the words: see Lckes note, ii. 338 ff., and Stier, iv. 414 (edn. 2) ff.

, not abode not, E. V.; a sense which will not bear, being always present in meaning, and = I have placed myself, i.e. I stand: see Mat 12:47; Mat 20:6; Mar 9:1; Mar 11:5; Joh 3:29; Act 1:11; Act 7:33; Rom 5:2; Rom 11:20 alli[131]. fr.: whereas the pluperfect, , I had placed myself, i.e. I stood, is imperfect in sense: see Mat 12:46. And that this place forms no exception, is shewn by (not ) immediately following. But as the account of this present sense shews, it is not a mere present, but a present dependent on and commencing with an implied past fact. And that fact here is, the fall of the devil, which was not an insulated act, but in which state of apostasy from the truth he ,-it is his status. So Euthym[132]: , .

[131] alli = some cursive mss.

[132] Euthymius Zigabenus, 1116

, as De Wette remarks, is objective: the truth of God:-in this he standeth not, because there is no truth (truthfulness, subjective) in him. His lie has become his very nature, and therefore he is thoroughly alien from the truth of God. To take as not the cause, but the proof (for, i.e. for we see it by this, that ) is not only to do violence to construction, but to overthrow the whole sense of the passage.

, a lie; generic: we in English have retained the article in the expression to speak the truth, but not in the corresponding one. He to Eve.

. ., of his own, as E. V., not, according to his character (De Wette),-but out of his own resources, treasures: see Mat 12:35.

. ] i.e. either -(absolutely, or as understood in ,-Orig[133], Euthym[134], Theophyl., &c. Nitzsch (Theol. Zeitschrift, 1822), De Wette, Lcke, Wordsw., and Winer, 22. 3. b),-or (= ), of the liar generally. The former is not the fact,-for the devil is not the father , but , by being himself one whose very nature has become . Certainly by this he has become the author, promoter, of falsehood among men; but this kind of paternity is not here in question: the object being to shew that he was the father of these lying Jews. I therefore hold the latter interpretation, with Bengel, Meyer, and Stier.

[133] Origen, b. 185, d. 254

[134] Euthymius Zigabenus, 1116

The construction of this passage with the art. before has presented insuperable difficulty to Bp. Middleton and others: see Midd. in loc. The rendering which he proposes is this: When (any of you) speaks that which is false, he speaks after the manner of his kindred ( !), for he is a liar, and so also is his father, i.e. the devil. To which the late Prof. Scholefield proposes an emendation, to take away the comma after , and translate, For his father also is a liar, not knowing, apparently, that this was the ancient heretical interpretation according to which the was the Demiurge: see Meyer, edn. 3, and Hilgenfeld, referred to by him as supporting this rendering. It is really almost incredible that learned men, students of our Lords discourses, should seriously uphold an interpretation so utterly absurd and preposterous. It is only an instance how the judgment may be warped by the adoption of canons respecting the article grounded on insufficient observation. The instances which Middleton adduces to prove that according to the ordinary rendering, the article must be omitted before , none of them touch the question. The article here is emphatic, and could not be omitted, any more than in the sentence . The simple account to be given of this construction, is that it = , : but by being singular, the pronoun is attracted into the singular also.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Joh 8:44. , ye) A most undisguised proof against them.-, and) and thence it is that.-, the lusts) which from the beginning he has been unable to accomplish, as respects the Son of God.-, ye wish) with all your might.–) a man-destroyer [murderer].- , from the beginning) ever since he knew anything of the nature of man.- -, and in-when) Two sentences, expressing two contraries; to each of the two, , because [for] is added.- , he abode not [did not stand fast]) The Prterite time, and the theme itself , I stand, imply this to be the meaning; He did not attain to a fixed standing in the truth: (A similar expression occurs Rom 5:2, We have access by faith into this grace, wherein we have obtained an established standing) i.e. He was a liar from the beginning, as well as a man-destroyer; for this clause does not go before the mention of his lust of murder, but follows it.- , is not) There was truth in him; but there is not now. Moreover, when first the truth ceased to exist in him, it was by his own fault; the lust of murder had place in him, and he determined to destroy man for that very reason, because man was then in the truth. From this it is evident that it was not long before the sin of man, that the devil sinned, and that the devil was created, not long before he sinned.- , what is false [a lie]) Scripture is wont to designate not merely a voluntary lie by this severe term, but even error itself. Rom 1:25, Who changed the truth of God into a lie; 2Th 2:9; 2Th 2:11, lying wonders-God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; 1Jn 2:21, Because ye know-the truth-and that no lie is of the truth; 27, The anointing-is truth, and is no lie.- , of his own) The origin of evil. The contrary holds good of Christ; ch. Joh 7:17, If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself; He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory, but He that seeketh His glory that sent Him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him.- , his father) The article has this force; and so. The word can be expressly referred to , concerning which lie treats in the following clause; but it ought rather to be referred to the noun , a liar, which must be repeated in an indefinite sense.[229] For sometimes a relative expressed or implied appertains to another subject similar to it. 1Ti 2:15, She shall be saved, namely, woman, indefinitely although the she is to be referred to Eve [the woman alluded to, Adam was not deceived, but the woman, in the previous verse. So Job 1:21, Naked came I forth from my mothers womb, and naked shall I return THITHER [to my mothers womb in a different and wider sense than in the first clause, viz. the womb of the earth]. Thus here the devil is said to be both a liar himself and father of every liar. For the opposition is clear between God and the devil, and between the sons of God and the sons of the devil. The man who is a liar, is a son of the devil. It is not the lie that is said in this passage to be the offspring of the devil.

[229] The father of every one who is a liar.-E. and T.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Joh 8:44

Joh 8:44

Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your will to do.-The devil inspired their course. He is the author of all evil. The devil was their father because they desired to do his will, and while desiring to do his will they could not understand the teachings of Jesus. No man can understand or serve God who desires to follow the devil. Those who desire to do the lust of the devil are the children of the devil.

He was a murderer from the beginning, and standeth not in the truth,-He delights in the corruption and ruin of souls as God delights in their salvation. This implies that the devil was once in the truth, was in heaven, even the atmosphere of heaven; but he loved falsehood better than truth, was cast out of heaven and was carried down to hell. For if God spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell, and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment. (2Pe 2:4). “And angels that kept not their own principality, but left their proper habitation, he hath kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. (Jud 1:6). “And the great dragon was cast down, the old serpent, he that is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world; he was cast down to the earth, and his angels were cast down with him. (Rev 12:9).

because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof.-In lying, falsehood, and deception he was speaking of his own nature and led others with him into ruin.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

the devil

diabolos. (See Scofield “Rev 20:10”)

Satan, Joh 13:2; Joh 13:27; Gen 3:1.

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

are: Joh 8:38, Joh 8:41, Joh 6:70, Gen 3:15, Mat 13:38, Act 13:10, 1Jo 3:8-10, 1Jo 3:12

He was: Gen 3:3-7, 1Ki 22:22, 1Ch 21:1, Jam 4:1-7, 1Pe 5:8, Rev 2:10, Rev 9:11, Rev 13:6-8, Rev 20:7-9

and abode: 2Pe 2:4, Jud 1:6

When: Gen 3:4, Gen 3:5, 2Ch 18:20-22, Job 1:11, Job 2:4-6, Act 5:3, Act 13:10, 2Co 11:3, 2Co 11:13-15, 2Th 2:9-11, Rev 12:9, Rev 13:14, Rev 20:2, Rev 20:3, Rev 20:10, Rev 21:8, Rev 22:15

Reciprocal: Gen 4:2 – a keeper Gen 4:9 – I know Gen 4:20 – the Gen 12:13 – Say Lev 6:2 – lie Lev 11:42 – goeth upon the belly Deu 13:13 – the children 2Ki 5:22 – My master 2Ch 18:21 – General Neh 6:8 – thou feignest Job 24:13 – nor abide Psa 31:18 – the lying Psa 52:3 – lying Psa 62:4 – delight Pro 6:17 – lying Pro 26:28 – lying Pro 30:15 – The horseleach Eze 16:3 – Thy birth Mat 3:7 – O generation Mat 5:37 – cometh Mat 12:34 – generation Mat 13:15 – ears Mat 23:15 – ye make Mat 23:33 – serpents Mat 25:41 – prepared Mar 5:5 – crying Mar 5:13 – the herd Mar 9:20 – the spirit Luk 3:7 – O generation Luk 4:6 – All Luk 8:33 – the herd Luk 9:39 – lo Luk 11:29 – This is Luk 13:16 – whom Joh 3:19 – because Joh 8:55 – shall Act 24:9 – General Eph 2:2 – the prince Eph 2:3 – in the Eph 4:25 – putting Col 3:9 – Lie 2Th 2:13 – from 1Ti 1:10 – for liars Jam 3:15 – devilish 1Jo 1:6 – we lie 1Jo 2:22 – Who 1Jo 3:10 – and Rev 12:4 – the dragon Rev 12:17 – the dragon Rev 16:14 – the spirits

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

4

The Greek word for father is PATER, and it is used 417 times in the New Testament. The definitions are so numerous that lack of space forbids copying them all. The first definition of Thayer is, “Generator or male ancestor.” As a secondary definition he gives, “The founder of a race or tribe, progenitor [ancestor in the line] of a people, forefather.” In his comments or explanations of one of the secondary definitions, Thayer says, “The originator or transmitter of anything . . . one who has infused his own spirit into others, who actuates [causes to act] and governs their minds.” The last sentence Thayer applies to the verse of this paragraph. That is true, for it was the spirit of the devil that caused Cain to slay his brother, then lie about it when he said he did not know where he was. It is the same spirit that has caused men to lie and commit murder all down through the centuries. Hence it was perfectly Just for Jesus to -call these wicked Jews the children of the devil.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

[A murderer from the beginning.] For so the Hebrew idiom would render he was a murderer from the days of the creation. And so Christ, in saying this, speaks according to the vulgar opinion, as if Adam fell the very first day of his creation.

[He abode not in the truth.] I. He abode not in the truth; i.e. he did not continue true, but found out the way of lying.

II. He did not persist in the will of God which he had revealed concerning man. For the revealed will of God is called truth; especially his will revealed in the gospel. Now when God had pleased to make known his good will towards the first man, partly fixing him in so honourable and happy a station, partly commanding the angels that they should minister to him for his good, Heb 1:14; the devil did not abide in this truth, nor persisted in this will and command of God. For he, envying the honour and happiness of man, took this command of God concerning the angels’ ministering to him, in so much scorn and contempt, that, swelling with most envenomed malice against Adam, and infinite pride against God, he chose rather to dethrone himself from his own glory and felicity, than he would bear Adam’s continuance in so noble a station, or minister any way to the happiness of it. An angel was incapable of sinning either more or less than by pride or malice.

Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels

Joh 8:44. Ye are of the father who is the devil, and the desires of your father it is your will to do. It seems desirable to preserve in translation the expression the father (for your is not found in the Greek), because it seems to be our Lords design to set this in strongest contrast to the name which He has used with most significant emphasis, the Father (see the notes on Joh 8:27; Joh 8:38). All the desires of this their father it was their will to do. Their works, deliberately chosen, answered to their parentage: hence their seeking to kill Jesus (Joh 8:37; Joh 8:40), and their inability to listen to His word (Joh 8:43).

He was a man-killer from the beginning, and stood not in the truth. Well may they seek to kill Jesus, for their father, the devil, was a man-killer from the beginning of his dealings with mankind. His seduction of mankind was itself a murder, severing man from the life of God, and bringing in the evil that has been the cause of every crime. Thus he is the shedder of all the righteous blood shed upon the earth. Not only was he a man-killer, but he stood not in the truth.[1] It does not seem likely that these words refer to the fall of the angels who kept not their first estate, for then surely the order of the clauses would have been reversed. Throughout all past human history the devil shunned the truth, took his stand without the borders of the truth, because this action alone is suitable to his essential (though not original) nature.

[1] Not standeth: the word is probably an imperfect (of ).

Because there is no truth in him. His hatred of the truth springs from this, that he is not true; truth (now used without the article) is not in him; and his own hatred of the truth is transmitted to his children, who cannot hear the word of Jesus (Joh 8:43).

Whensoever one speaketh the lie, he speaketh of his own, because his father also is a liar. Whensoever a man who is a child of the devil uttereth falsehood, he is giving forth what by very nature belongs to him, what is his peculiar property by right of kindred and inheritance,because his father also, the devil, is a liar.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Joh 8:44-47. Ye are of your father the devil Ye are the genuine children of Satan; and the lusts , the desires; of your father ye will do Namely, resolutely and obstinately, as the words, , evidently imply. The account which Josephus gives of the wickedness of the Jews, about this time, abundantly vindicates this assertion of our Lord from any appearance of undue severity. He was a murderer Greek, , man-slayer, or man-killer; from the beginning The common term for murderer, in the New Testament, is . And it seems not without intention, that the devil, a being not of earthly extraction, is rather called a manslayer than a murderer, as marking with greater precision his enmity to the human race. Campbell. Satan was a manslayer in inclination, from the beginning of his becoming a devil, and actually such from the beginning of the world: for, from the beginning of the creation, he contrived and designed the ruin of mankind. And he has ever since endeavoured to work their ruin; sometimes by seducing them into sin by his lies, (for as he abode not in the truth, there is no truth in him,) and sometimes by instigating them to kill those whom God sends to reclaim them; as well as in various other ways. Withal, having early departed from holiness and truth, a habit of lying has become perfectly natural to him; and when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own Speaketh what is proper to himself, he being the proper parent, and, as it were, creator of lying. Because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not Ye, his children, disbelieve me, because, instead of soothing you in your sins, and flattering you with lies, I tell you the truth, to which, like your father, you are utterly averse. Which of you convinceth me of sin? Greek, , which of you convicteth me of sin. The word convinceth is not the proper term in this place; for it relates only to the opinion of the person himself, about whom the question is. But our Lord here, in order to show that the unbelief of his hearers had no reasonable excuse, challenges them openly to convict him, if they could, in any instance, of a deviation from truth or righteousness. As if he had said, Bring evidence of such a deviation, evince it to the world: prove that I have not received my commission from God; or that I have done something to render me unworthy of credit. Show, if you can, that I have taught false doctrine, reproved you unjustly for your actions, or committed sin myself. If you cannot, but must acknowledge that my life is as unreprovable as my doctrine; that the latter is confirmed by the former, and that both are such as become a messenger of God; what is the reason that ye do not believe me? He that is of God, heareth Gods words He that is a child of God, humbly receiveth the revelations which God makes of himself by his messengers, hears his words, and obeys his commands, with joy and reverence. Ye, therefore, hear them not Ye reject the revelations, doctrines, commandments, promises, and threatenings, and his word in general, declared by me, his Messenger, and my servants, for no other reason but because you are not his children.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Ver. 44. You are born of the father, the devil, and you wish to fulfil the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he is not in the truth, because there is no truth in him; when he speaks falsehood, he speaks of his own, for he is a liar and the father of the liar.

The light does not succeed in penetrating into this Jewish medium, because it is subjected to a principle of darkness. , you, is strongly emphasized: You who boast of having God as your Father. Grotius made , of the devil, the object of, taking the former word in a collective sense: the father of the demons. Hilgenfeld, starting from the same grammatical construction, surprises the evangelist here in the very act of Gnosticism. This father of the devil, according to this critic, is the Demiurge of the Gnostics; in other words, the creator of this material world, the God of the Jews, who is designated here as the father of Satan, in accordance with the doctrine of the Ophites in Irenaeus. Jesus would thus say to the Jews, not: You are the sons of the devil, but: You are the sons of the father of the devil; that is to say, the brothers of the latter. But where can we find in the Scriptures a word respecting the person of the devil’s father? And how, on the supposition that this father of the devil was the God of the Jews, could Jesus have called this God of the Jews His own Father (the house of my Father Joh 2:16)? Finally, it is sufficient to compare 1Jn 3:10, in order to understand that He calls the Jews not the brothers, but the sons of the devil. The literal meaning is the following: You are sons of the father who is the devil, and not, as you think, of that other father who is God.

The lawless passions () by which this father is animated and which he communicates to them, are unfolded in the second part of the verse: they are, first, hatred of man, and then, abhorrence of truth; precisely the tendencies with which Jesus had just reproached the Jews, Joh 8:40. The verb , you desire, you are eager for(Joh 8:35), is contrary to the fatalistic principle which Hilgenfeld attributes to John; it expresses the voluntary assent, the abounding sympathy with which they set themselves to the work of realizing the aspirations of their father. The first of these diabolical appetites is the thirst for human blood. Some interpreters ancient and modern (Cyril, Nitzsch, Lucke, de Wette, Reuss) explain the word , murderer, by an allusion to the murder of Abel. Comp. 1Jn 3:12; 1Jn 3:15 : Not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother….Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer. But the Scriptures do not ascribe to the demon a part in this crime, and the relation which Jesus establishes here between the murderous hatred of Satan and his character as a liar, leads us rather to refer the word murderer to the seduction in Paradise by which Satan caused man to fall under the yoke of sin and thereby of death. By thus separating him from God, through falsehood, he has devoted him to spiritual and physical ruin. The expression from the beginning may, on this view, be much more strictly explained. The sense of , beginning, does not differ from that of this word in Joh 1:1, except that here the question is of the beginning of the human race, there of the beginning of creation. As to the quotation taken from 1 John, it proves nothing in favor of the allusion to the act of Cain; for that act is there cited as the first example of the hatred of a man to his brother.

When Jesus said in Joh 8:40 : You seek to kill me, a man, He already had in His mind the idea of that murderous hatred which is expressed by the word . Whence did this hatred of Satan against man arise? Undoubtedly, from the fact that he had discerned in him the future organ of divine truth and the destroyer of his own lies. Thus the two features of his character are united: hatred of man and enmity to the truth. And we may understand how this double hatred must be concentrated in the highest degree upon Jesus, in whom at length was perfectly realized the idea of man and of man as the organ of divine truth. Some interpreters, ancient and modern, have applied the expression to the fall of the devil. Vulgate: in veritate non stetit; Arnaud: he did not abide in the truth; Ostervald: he did not persist in …But the perfect does not mean: did not abide in; its sense, in the sacred as in the classic Greek, is: I have placed myself in a position and I am there. Jesus therefore does not mean to say that the devil has abandoned the domain of truth, in which he was originally placed by God, but rather that he does not find himself there, or, more exactly, that he has not taken his place there, and consequently is not there. The domain of truth is that of the real essence of things, clearly recognized and affirmed, holiness. And why does he not live in this domain? Because, Jesus adds, there is no truth in him. He is wanting in inward truth, truth in the subjective sense, that uprightness of will which aspires after divine reality. We must observe, in this last clause, the absence of the article before the word , truth: Satan is cut off from the truth, because he is destitute of truth. One can abide in the truth (objectively speaking) in that which God reveals, only when one sincerely desires it. The , because, is the counterpart of that in Joh 8:43. Like father, like son: each of the two lives and works in what is false, because he is false.

What Jesus has just set forth in a negative form, He reproduces in a positive form in the second part of the verse. Not desiring to derive anything from divine truth, Satan is compelled to draw everything that he says from his own resources, that is from the nothingness of his own subjectivity; for the creature, separated from God, is incapable of possessing and creating anything real. Lying is, in this condition, his natural language, as much as speaking the truth is the natural language of Jesus (Joh 8:38) in the communion with God in which He lives. , from his own resources, admirably characterizes the creative faculty of a being separated from God, who is capable no doubt of producing something, even sometimes great works, and of uttering great words, but whose creations, in proportion as he creates apart from God, are always only a vain phantasmagoria. The word , a liar, reproduces the idea: He has no truth in him. In the expression: He is a liar and also his father, we must not make the word his father a second subject to is, as if the question were here also of the father of the devil (Hilgenfeld). The word: and his father is the predicate: he is a liar and father of… Otherwise would have been necessary.

Only it may be asked to what substantive it is necessary to refer the pronoun (his); to the word, liar, or the word , falsehood, in the preceding clause? I think, with Lucke, Meyer and others, that the context is decisive in favor of the first alternative. For the question here is, not of the origin of falsehood in general, but specially of the moral sonship of the individual liars whom Jesus has before Him (Joh 8:40; Joh 8:44). Weissobjects that in the expression: he is a liar, the word liar is used in the generic sense. It is true; but we may certainly derive from it the notion of a concrete substantive. In both senses, there is a slight grammatical difficulty to be overcome. The theory of accommodation, by means of which it is often sought to weaken the force of the declarations of Jesus respecting the personal existence of Satan, may have some probability when it is applied to His conversations with the demoniacs. But here Jesus gives altogether spontaneously this teaching with respect to the person, the character and the part of this mysterious being. After this Jesus comes back from the father to the children: they are enemies of the truth, just as the evil being is to whom they are subject:

Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

8:44 Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the {l} beginning, and {m} abode not in the {n} truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his {o} own: for he is a liar, and the {p} father of it.

(l) From the beginning of the world: for as soon as man was made, the devil cast him headlong into death.

(m) That is, did not continue constantly, or did not remain.

(n) That is, in faithfulness and uprightness, that is, he did not remain in the manner in which he was created.

(o) Even from his own head, and from his own mind or disposition.

(p) The author of it.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Finally Jesus identified the father of these Jews to whom He had been alluding (Joh 8:38; Joh 8:41). Their attitudes and actions pointed to the devil as their father for two reasons. They wanted to kill Jesus, and Satan was a murderer from the beginning of his career as a fallen angel. He indirectly murdered Adam and then Abel. Second, they had abandoned the truth for lies, and the devil had consistently done the same thing throughout history (cf. Gen 2:17; Gen 3:17). [Note: See Gregory H. Harris, "Satan’s Work as a Deceiver," Bibliotheca Sacra 156:622 (April-June 1999):190-202.]

In one sense every human being is a child of the devil since we all do the things that He does out of a sinful human nature. We usually think of this sinful behavior as identifying fallen Adam as our father, but Satan was behind the Fall. However the believer is also a child of God by faith in Jesus Christ. Consequently we are always either manifesting the traits of one of our spiritual fathers or the other. This is the result of walking either by the flesh or by the Spirit.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)