John 8:42-44

8:42 Jesus replied,¹ “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come from God and am now here.² I³ have not come on my own initiative,⁴ but he⁵ sent me. 8:43 Why don’t you understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot accept⁶ my teaching.⁷ 8:44 You people⁸ are from⁹ your father the devil, and you want to do what your father desires.¹⁰ He¹¹ was a murderer from the beginning, and does not uphold the truth,¹² because there is no truth in him. Whenever he lies,¹³ he speaks according to his own nature,¹⁴ because he is a liar and the father of lies.¹⁵

¹tn Grk “Jesus said to them.”

²tn Or “I came from God and have arrived.”

³tn Grk “For I.” Here γάρ (gar) has not been translated.

⁴tn Grk “from myself.”

⁵tn Grk “that one” (referring to God).

⁶tn 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.

⁷tn Grk “my word.”

⁸tn The word “people” is supplied in the translation to clarify that the Greek pronoun and verb are plural.

⁹tn 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).

¹⁰tn Grk “the desires of your father you want to do.”

¹¹tn Grk “That one” (referring to the devil).

¹²tn Grk “he does not stand in the truth” (in the sense of maintaining, upholding, or accepting the validity of it).

¹³tn Grk “Whenever he speaks the lie.”

¹⁴tn Grk “he speaks from his own.”

¹⁵tn Grk “because he is a liar and the father of it.”