John 8:41

Contemporary English Version

But you are doing exactly what your father does." "Don't accuse us of having someone else as our father!" they said. "We just have one father, and he is God."

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
So you are doing what your own father did." But they said, "We are not like children who never knew who their father was. God is our Father. He is the only Father we have."

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
Ye do the dedes of youre father. Then sayde they vnto him: we were not borne of fornicacion. We have one father which is God.

Hebrew Names Version
You do the works of your father." They said to him, "We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father, God."

International Standard Version
You are doing your father's works."Isaiah 63:16; 64:8; Malachi 1:6;">[xr] They said to him, "We are not illegitimate children. We have one Father, God himself."

New American Standard Bible
"You are doing the deeds of your father." They said to Him, "We were not born as a result of sexual immorality; we have one Father: God."

New Century Version
So you are doing the things your own father did." But they said, "We are not like children who never knew who their father was. God is our Father; he is the only Father we have."

Update Bible Version
You do the works of your father. Therefore they said to him, We were not born of fornication; we have one Father, [even] God.

Webster's Bible Translation
Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We are not born of fornication; we have one Father, [even] God.

English Standard Version
You are doing the works your father did." They said to him, "We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God."

World English Bible
You do the works of your father." They said to him, "We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father, God."

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
Abraham did not thus. Ye do the deeds of your father. They said to him, We were not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.

Weymouth's New Testament
You are doing the deeds of your father." "We," they replied, "are not illegitimate children. We have one Father, namely God."

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Ye doen the werkis of youre fadir. Therfor thei seiden to hym, We ben not borun of fornycacioun; we han o fadir, God.

English Revised Version
Ye do the works of your father. They said unto him, We were not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.

Berean Standard Bible
You are doing the works of your father." "We are not illegitimate children," they declared. "Our only Father is God Himself."

Amplified Bible
"You are doing the works of your [own] father." They said to Him, "We are not illegitimate children; we have one [spiritual] Father: God."

American Standard Version
Ye do the works of your father. They said unto him, We were not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.

Bible in Basic English
You are doing the works of your father. They said to him, We are true sons of Abraham; we have one Father, who is God.

Complete Jewish Bible
You are doing the things your father does." "We're not illegitimate children!" they said to him. "We have only one Father — God!"

Darby Translation
Ye do the works of your father. They said [therefore] to him, We are not born of fornication; we have one father, God.

Etheridge Translation
But you do the deeds of your father. They say to him, We from fornication are not; one Father have we, Aloha.

Murdock Translation
But ye do the works of your father. They say to him: We are not [fn] of whoredom; we have one Father, God.

King James Version (1611)
Ye doe the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not borne of fornication, wee haue one Father, euen God.

New Living Translation
No, you are imitating your real father." They replied, "We aren't illegitimate children! God himself is our true Father."

New Life Bible
You are doing the works of your father." They said to Him, "We were born of parents who were faithful in marriage. We have one Father. He is God."

New Revised Standard
You are indeed doing what your father does." They said to him, "We are not illegitimate children; we have one father, God himself."

Geneva Bible (1587)
Ye do the workes of your father. Then said they to him, We are not borne of fornication: we haue one Father, which is God.

George Lamsa Translation
But you do the works of your father. They said to him, We are not born of fornication; we have one Father, God.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Ye, are doing the works of your father. They said unto him - We, of fornication, were not born: One father, have we - God.

Douay-Rheims Bible
You do the works of your father. They said therefore to him: We are not born of fornication: we have one Father, even God.

Revised Standard Version
You do what your father did." They said to him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God."

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Ye do the deedes of your father. Then said they to him: We be not borne of fornication, we haue one father, euen God.

Good News Translation
You are doing what your father did." "God himself is the only Father we have," they answered, "and we are his true children."

Christian Standard Bible®
You’re doing what your father does.”

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

Lexham English Bible
You are doing the deeds of your father!" They said to him, "We were not born from sexual immorality! We have one father, God!"

Literal Translation
You do the works of your father. They said to Him, We were not born of fornication; we have one father, God.

Young's Literal Translation
ye do the works of your father.' They said, therefore, to him, `We of whoredom have not been born; one Father we have -- God;'

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Ye do the dedes of youre father. Then sayde they vnto him: We are not borne of fornicacion, we haue one father, euen God.

Mace New Testament (1729)
your actions are like your father. at this they reply'd, we are no bastards; we have but one father, even God.

New English Translation
You people are doing the deeds of your father." Then they said to Jesus, "We were not born as a result of immorality! We have only one Father, God himself."

New King James Version
You do the deeds of your father." Then they said to Him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father--God."

Simplified Cowboy Version
You all are acting like your real father."They yelled back, "We are not bastard children! God is our real father."

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"You are doing the deeds of your father." They said to Him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God."

Legacy Standard Bible
You are doing the deeds of your father." They said to Him, "We were not born of sexual immorality; we have one Father: God."

Contextual Overview

³⁸ I am telling you what my Father has shown me, just as you are doing what your father has taught you. ³⁹ The people said to Jesus, "Abraham is our father!" Jesus replied, "If you were Abraham's children, you would do what Abraham did. ⁴⁰ Instead, you want to kill me for telling you the truth that God gave me. Abraham never did anything like that. ⁴¹ But you are doing exactly what your father does." "Don't accuse us of having someone else as our father!" they said. "We just have one father, and he is God." ⁴² Jesus answered: If God were your Father, you would love me, because I came from God and only from him. He sent me. I did not come on my own. ⁴³ Why can't you understand what I am talking about? Can't you stand to hear what I am saying? ⁴⁴ Your father is the devil, and you do exactly what he wants. He has always been a murderer and a liar. There is nothing truthful about him. He speaks on his own, and everything he says is a lie. Not only is he a liar himself, but he is also the father of all lies. ⁴⁵ Everything I have told you is true, and you still refuse to have faith in me.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

do: John 8:38, John 8:44

We be: Isaiah 57:3-7, Ezekiel 23:45-47, Hosea 1:2, Hosea 2:2-5, Malachi 2:11

we have: Exodus 4:22, Deuteronomy 14:1, Isaiah 63:16, Isaiah 64:8, Jeremiah 3:19, Jeremiah 31:20, Ezekiel 16:20, Ezekiel 16:21, Malachi 1:6

Reciprocal: Genesis 6:2 - the sons Deuteronomy 23:2 - General Deuteronomy 32:5 - their spot Deuteronomy 32:6 - thy father Isaiah 48:2 - and stay Hosea 2:4 - children of Malachi 2:10 - hath Malachi 3:2 - who may abide Mark 7:6 - honoureth John 8:54 - ye say John 9:34 - wast Romans 2:17 - makest 2 Thessalonians 2:9 - is

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The deeds of your father - See John 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, Isaiah 1:21; Isaiah 57:3; Hebrews 1:2; Hebrews 2:4. This they denied. They affirmed that they acknowledged no God for their Father but the true God.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

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, John 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.