Yochanan 8:41

41 You are doing the ma’asim of your Av. They said, therefore, to Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, We are not mamzerim who have been born of zenunim (fornication). We have Av Echad, Hashem. [Gn 38:24; Isa 63:16; 64:8; Mal 2:10; Dt 32:6].

Yochanan 8:41 Meaning and Commentary

John 8:41

Ye do the deeds of your father
Not Abraham, but the devil.

Then said they unto him, we be not born of fornication:
meaning either literally, that they were not a brood of bastards, children of whoredom, illegitimately begotten in unlawful copulation, or wedlock; or figuratively, that they were not the children of idolaters, idolatry being called fornication in Scripture; but that they were the holy seed of Israel, and children of the prophets, who had retained the pure word, and the true worship of God, though in all this they might have been contradicted and refuted; to which they add,

we have one Father, [even] God;
Israel being called by God his Son, and firstborn to them belonged the adoption, in a national sense, and of this they boasted; though few of them were the children of God by special adoption, or God their Father by regenerating grace.

Yochanan 8:41 In-Context

39 They answered and said unto him, Avinu hu Avraham. Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach says to them, If you were yeladim of Avraham, you would have been doing the ma’asei Avraham.
40 But now you are seeking to kill me, a man who has told you HaEmes, which I heard from Hashem; this was not a ma’aseh that Avraham did. [TEHILLIM 15:2]
41 You are doing the ma’asim of your Av. They said, therefore, to Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, We are not mamzerim who have been born of zenunim (fornication). We have Av Echad, Hashem. [Gn 38:24; Isa 63:16; 64:8; Mal 2:10; Dt 32:6].
42 He said to them, If Hashem were the Av of you, you would have had ahavah for me, for I came forth from Hashem, and now I am present here, for I have not come on my own, but HaAv sent me [Isa 55:11].
43 Why do you not understand my dvarim? Because you are not able to give obedient shemah (hearing) to my dvar.
The Orthodox Jewish Bible fourth edition, OJB. Copyright 2002,2003,2008,2010, 2011 by Artists for Israel International. All rights reserved.