40. Nunc autem quaeritis me interficere, hominem qui veritatem vobis locutus sum, quam audivi a Deo: hoc Abraham non fecit.40. But now you seek to kill me, a man who have spoken the truth to you, which I have heard of God. This Abraham did not.
41. Vos facitis opera patris vestri. Dixerunt itaque ei: Nos ex fornicatione non sumus nati: unum patrem habemus Deum.41. You do the works of your father. They said therefore to him: We are not born of fornication: we have one Father even God.
42. Dixit ergo eis Iesus: Si Deus pater vester esset, diligeretis utique me: ego enim ex Deo processi, et veni: neque enim a me ipso veni, sed ille me misit.42. Jesus therefore said to them: If God were your father, you would indeed love me. For from God I proceeded, and came: for I came not of myself, but he sent me.

41, 42. Understanding Christ to mean that they were not true Jews, but idolaters (πορνέια being frequently used of idolatry in the Bible; e.g., Ezech. xvi. 15, foll.; see ii. [4], [5],), they protest that they are not idolaters, and that they worship but one God. To this Christ replies, that if they were true children of God, they would love Himself. I proceeded and came, denote respectively the eternal generation, and mission in time.

43. Quare loquelam meam non cognoscitis? Quia non potestis audire sermonem meum.43. Why do you not know my speech? Because you cannot hear my word.

43. The sense is: why do [pg 160] you not understand My discourses (λαλιάν) on this and on other occasions? The reason is, because you cannot, you will not, receive My doctrine (λόγος). What we do not desire to hear, we are slow to understand. Christ's teaching, so opposed to flesh and blood, so much at variance with all that the Jews had hoped for from their Messias, they were very unwilling to accept. “Ideo audire non poterant, quia corrigi credendo nolebant” (St. August.).

44. Vos ex patre diabolo estis: et desideria patris vestri vultis facere. Ille homicida erat ab initio, et in veritate non stetit: quia non est veritas in eo: cum loquitur mendacium, ex propriis loquitur, quia mendax est, et pater eius.44. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof.

44. At last He plainly tells them who their father is. He was a murderer from the beginning, for he tempted Eve, and thus brought death upon the human race, and he prompted Cain to slay Abel.

And he stood not in the truth; or rather, he standeth not in the truth (the perfect of this verb having a present signification. See Winer, Gr. Gram. N. T., p. 342[69]), because there is no truth in his nature. St. Augustine argued from this verse to prove the fall of the rebel angels: “Ergo in veritate fuit, sed non stando cecidit, et de veritate lapsus est.” But the conclusion is not warranted by this verse, for the true meaning of ἕστηκεν, and the reason given by our Lord for the devil's not standing in the truth—namely, because truth is not in him, show that there is no reference to the devil as he was before the fall, but only to his nature and methods since. Of his own, i.e., in accordance with his nature. The father thereof, namely, of lying. We thus, with Beelen, refer αὐτοῦ (ejus) to ψεύδους [pg 161] (understood). “Αὐτοῦ, scil. ψεύδους quae vox sumi debet ex antegressa ψεύστης in qua veluti continetur” (Gr. Gram. N. T., page 104).

45. Ego autem si veritatem dico, non creditis mihi.45. But if I say the truth, you believe me not.

45. Instead of “si” (Vulg.) the Greek has ὅτι (quia): because I speak the truth.

46. Quis ex vobis arguet me de peccato? Si veritatem dico vobis, quare non creditis mihi?46. Which of you shall convince me of sin? If I say the truth to you, why do you not believe me?