John 8:42–44

8:42 Jesus replied,98 “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come from God and am now here.99 I100 have not come on my own initiative,101 but he102 sent me. 8:43 Why don’t you understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot accept103 my teaching.104 8:44 You people105 are from106 your father the devil, and you want to do what your father desires.107 He108 was a murderer from the beginning, and does not uphold the truth,109 because there is no truth in him. Whenever he lies,110 he speaks according to his own nature,111 because he is a liar and the father of lies.112

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98	tn Grk “Jesus said to them.”
99	tn Or “I came from God and have arrived.”
100	tn Grk “For I.” Here γάρ (gar) has not been translated.
101	tn Grk “from myself.”
102	tn Grk “that one” (referring to God).
103	tn Grk “you cannot hear,” but this is not a reference to deafness, but rather hearing in the sense of listening to something and responding to it.
104	tn Grk “my word.”
105	tn The word “people” is supplied in the translation to clarify that the Greek pronoun and verb are plural.
106	tn Many translations read “You are of your father the devil” (KJV, ASV, RSV, NASB) or “You belong to your father, the devil” (NIV), but the Greek preposition ἐκ (ek) emphasizes the idea of source or origin. Jesus said his opponents were the devil’s very offspring (a statement which would certainly infuriate them).
107	tn Grk “the desires of your father you want to do.”
108	tn Grk “That one” (referring to the devil).
109	tn Grk “he does not stand in the truth” (in the sense of maintaining, upholding, or accepting the validity of it).
110	tn Grk “Whenever he speaks the lie.”
111	tn Grk “he speaks from his own.”
112	tn Grk “because he is a liar and the father of it.”