John 8:41

41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then they said to him, We are not born of fornication; we have one Father, even 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 They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus said unto them, If ye were Abraham’s sons, ye would do the works of Abraham.

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

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

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

43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.