John 8:43

43 Why know ye not my speech? for ye be not able to hear my word.

John 8:43 Meaning and Commentary

John 8:43

Why do ye not understand my speech?
&c.] Language, idiom, dialect, and form of speaking, in a figurative way; for they did not know what he meant by liberty, and bondage, and by having another father than Abraham, or by his own procession and coming forth from God:

[even] because ye cannot hear my word;
as they had no spiritual discerning and understanding of the doctrine of Christ, which showed them to be carnal, and natural men, and not regenerate ones, and the children of God; so they had an aversion to it, and could not bear to hear it.

John 8:43 In-Context

41 Ye do the works of your father. Therefore they said to him [And so they said to him], We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, God.

42 But Jesus saith to them, If God were your Father, soothly ye should love me; for I passed forth of God, and came [forsooth I proceeded, or went forth, of God, and came]; for neither I came of myself, but he sent me.

43 Why know ye not my speech? for ye be not able to hear my word.

44 Ye be of the father, the devil, and ye will do the desires of your father. He was a manslayer from the beginning, and he stood not in truth; for truth is not in him. When he speaketh lying [When he speaketh a lying], he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and father of it.

45 But for I say truth, ye believe not to me.