John 8:41

Myles Coverdale Bible

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

Parallel Translations

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

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.

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.

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."

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."

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."

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."

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

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."

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.

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."

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.

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."

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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."

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."

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.

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;'

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.

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

Contextual Overview

³⁸ I speake that I haue sene of my father, & ye do that ye haue sene of youre father. ³⁹ They answered, and sayde vnto him: Abraham is oure father. Iesus sayde vnto them: Yf ye were Abrahams children, ye wolde do the dedes of Abraham. ⁴⁰ But now ye go aboute to kyll me, a man, that haue tolde you the trueth, which I haue herde of God, this dyd not Abraham. ⁴¹ Ye do the dedes of youre father. Then sayde they vnto him: We are not borne of fornicacion, we haue one father, euen God. ⁴² Iesus sayde vnto them: Yf God were youre father, then wolde ye loue me. For I am proceaded forth, and come from God. For I am not come of my self, but he hath sent me. ⁴³ Why knowe ye not the my speach? Eue because ye can not abyde the hearinge of my worde. ⁴⁴ Ye are of the father the deuell, and after the lustes of youre father wyl ye do. The same was a murthurer from the begynnynge, and abode not in the trueth: for the trueth is not in him. Whan he speaketh a lye, then speaketh he of his awne: for he is a lyar, and a father of the same. ⁴⁵ But because I saye the trueth, ye beleue me not.

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.