John 8 · Verse 41

John 8:41

Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.
John 8:41, King James Version

John 8:41 in other translations

BSBYou are doing the works of your father.” “We are not illegitimate children,” they declared. “Our only Father is God Himself.”
WEBYou do the works of your father.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father, God.”
ASVYe do the works of your father. They said unto him, We were not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.
YLTye do the works of your father.' They said, therefore, to him, ‘We of whoredom have not been born; one Father we have--God;'
DARBYYe do the works of your father. They said therefore to him, We are not born of fornication; we have one father,God.
BBEYou are doing the works of your father. They said to him, We are true sons of Abraham; we have one Father, who is God.
WebsterYe do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We are not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.

What does John 8:41 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on John 8:37-41

37-41. ye seek to kill me--He had said this to their face before: He now repeats it, and they do not deny it; yet are they held back, as by some marvellous spell--it was the awe which His combined dignity, courage, and benignity struck into them. because my word hath no place in you--When did ever human prophet so speak of His words? They tell us of "the word of the Lord" coming to them. But here is One who holds up…

Read the full comment on John 8:37-41 →

Barnes' Notes
Verse 41. The deeds of your father. See Jn 8:38. Jesus repeats the charge, and yet repeats it as if unwilling to name Satan as their father. He chose that they should infer whom he meant, rather than bring a charge so direct and repelling. When the Saviour delivered an awful or an offensive truth, he always approached the mind so that the truth might make the deepest impression.

We be not born of fornication. The people still professed not to understand him; and since Jesus had denied that they were the children of Abraham, they affected to suppose that he meant they were a mixed, spurious race; that they had no right to the covenant privileges of the Jews; that they were not worshippers of the true God. Hence they said, We are not thus descended. We have the evidence of our genealogy. We are worshippers of the true God, descended from those who acknowledged him, and we acknowledge no other God and Father than him. To be children of fornication is an expression denoting in the Scriptures idolatry, or the worship of other gods than the true God, Isa 1:21, 57:3, Hos 1:2, 2:4. This they denied. They affirmed that they acknowledged no God for their Father but the true God.

(n) "we have one Father" Isa 63:16, 64:8

Albert Barnes, 1834 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 41 Ye do the deeds of your father - You have certainly another father than Abraham - one who has instilled his own malignant nature into you; and, as ye seek to murder me for telling you the truth, ye must be the offspring of him who was a murderer from the beginning, and stood not in the truth, Joh 8:44. We be not born of fornication - We are not a mixed, spurious breed - our tribes and families have been kept distinct - we are descended from Abraham by his legal wife Sarah; and we are no idolaters. We have one Father, even God - In the spiritual sense of father and son, we are not a spurious, that is, an idolatrous race; because we acknowledge none as our spiritual father, and worship none as such, but the true God. See Bishop Pearce.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on John 8:41-47
Satan prompts men to excesses by which they murder themselves and others, while what he puts into the mind tends to ruin men's souls. He is the great promoter of falsehood of every kind. He is a liar, all his temptations are carried on by his calling evil good, and good evil, and promising freedom in sin. He is the author of all lies; whom liars resemble and obey, with whom all liars shall have their portion for ever. The special lusts of the devil are spiritual wickedness, the lusts of the mind, and corrupt reasonings, pride and envy, wrath and malice, enmity to good, and enticing others to evil. By the truth, here understand the revealed will of God as to the salvation of men by Jesus Christ, the truth Christ was now preaching, and which the Jews opposed.

Matthew Henry, 1706 · public domain

John 8:41 in the original Greek

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

ὑμεῖςhumeisYou yourselvesG4771
ποιεῖτεpoieiteare doingG4160
τὰtatheG3588
ἔργαergaworksG2041
τοῦtouof theG3588
πατρὸςpatrosfatherG3962
ὑμῶν.humōnof you.G4771
εἶπανeipanThey saidG2036
οὖνounthereforeG3767
αὐτῷ·autōto Him;G846
ἡμεῖςhēmeisWe ourselvesG3165
ἐκekofG1537
πορνείαςporneiassexual immoralityG4202
οὐounotG3756
γεγεννήμεθα·gegennēmethahave been born;G1080
ἕναhenaoneG1520
πατέραpateraFatherG3962
ἔχομενechomenwe haveG2192
τὸνton<the>G3588
θεόν.¶theonGod.G2316

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for John 8:41

  • Isaiah 64:8

    But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.

  • Isaiah 63:16

    Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O Lord, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting.

  • John 8:38

    I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.

  • 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.

  • Malachi 2:11

    Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.

  • Jeremiah 3:19

    But I said, How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt not turn away from me.

  • Jeremiah 31:20

    Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord.

  • Isaiah 57:3-7

    But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore. Against whom do ye sport yourselves? against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood, Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks? Among the smooth stones of the stream is thy portion; they, they are thy lot: even to them hast thou poured a drink offering, thou hast offered a meat offering. Should I receive comfort in these? …

  • Deuteronomy 14:1

    Ye are the children of the Lord your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.

  • Malachi 1:6

    A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?

  • Deuteronomy 32:6

    Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? is not he thy father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee?

  • Exodus 4:22

    And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn:

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
do.
38,44
We be.
Isa 57:3-7; Eze 23:45-47; Ho 1:2; 2:2-5; Mal 2:11
we have.
Ex 4:22; De 14:1; Isa 63:16; 64:8; Jer 3:19; 31:20; Eze 16:20,21
Mal 1:6

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • John 8:40

    But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.

  • John 8:41

    Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.

  • John 8:42

    Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.

Read all of John 8

John 8:41 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Vosotros hacéis las obras de vuestro padre. Dijéronle entonces: Nosotros no somos nacidos de fornicación; un padre tenemos, que es Dios.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Vous, vous faites les œuvres de votre père. Ils lui dirent donc: Nous ne sommes pas nés de la fornication; nous avons un père, Dieu.
German
Elberfelder 1871		Ihr tut die Werke eures Vaters. Da sprachen sie zu ihm: Wir sind nicht durch Hurerei geboren; wir haben einen Vater, Gott.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Vos facitis opera patris vestri. Dixerunt itaque ei: Nos ex fornicatione non sumus nati: unum patrem habemus Deum.