John 8:41

41 You are doing the deeds of your father." "We," they replied, "are not illegitimate children. We have one Father, namely God."

John 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.

John 8:41 In-Context

39 "Our father is Abraham," they said. "If you were Abraham's children," replied Jesus, "it is Abraham's deeds that you would be doing.

40 But, in fact, you are longing to kill me, a man who has spoken to you the truth which I have heard from God. Abraham did not do that.

41 You are doing the deeds of your father." "We," they replied, "are not illegitimate children. We have one Father, namely God."

42 "If God were your Father," said Jesus, "you would love me; for it is from God that I came and I am now here. I have not come of myself, but *He* sent me.

43 How is it you do not understand me when I speak? It is because you cannot bear to listen to my words.