John 8.42-47.
Here we get to Jesus’s notorious “You’re from your father the devil” statement. Before he outright said it, he’d been suggesting it. Now he gets blunt.
His audience was deliberately choosing to misunderstand and misinterpret him. They had pre-judged him as a heretic, presumed everything he said had a corrupt or evil intent, and flipped his meanings 180 degrees away from what he meant. Which being regularly flips things 180 degrees away from what God or the scriptures mean? Yeah, of course it’s the devil. Jesus knew it too, and said so outright.
Said it, same as he’d been saying everything else, in plain Greek. Or maybe Syriac, ’cause it’s what the inhabitants of the west coast of Asia largely spoke back then, but this story was likely taking place right after Tabernacles, when Jews from all over the Roman Empire were visiting Jerusalem. Not all of ’em spoke Syriac, but all of them did know Greek as their second language, or even their first. John’s writings are usually very simple Greek; first-year Greek students regularly practice on them. Jesus’s audience should’ve easily understood him. But like I said, they chose not to.
To Jesus it was really obvious why:
- John 8.39-47 KWL
- 43“For what reason do you² not understand my speech?
- —because you² can’t hear my word.
- 44You’re² from your father the devil,
- and you² yearn to do what your² father desires.
- That one’s a murderer ever since the beginning,
- and doesn’t stand in the truth,
- because truth isn’t in it.
- When it speaks lies, it speaks in its dialect:
- It’s a liar,
- and the father of lying.ᴾ
- 45Because I tell you² the truth,
- you² don’t trust me.”
- 46Which of you² finds fault with me over sin?
- Why don’t you² believe me if I say the truth?
- 47One who is from God
- hears God’s sayings.
- This is why you² don’t hear:
- You’re not from God.”
Jesus came into the world to bring us life and truth, and grant us his power. The devil? Just the opposite: No life, no truth, and to hog any power for itself. Hence Jesus’s purposes undermine and destroy the devil’s works. 1Jn 3.8 And Satan, recognizing this, tries to destroy Jesus’s works as well. And Jesus himself, if possible. Jesus’s opponents are simply its unwitting pawns.
And nowadays, all too often, Jesus’s fans are its unwitting pawns. When they claim to be Christian, yet they don’t know a single thing Jesus instructed in the Sermon on the Mount, and typically do the very opposite. When their politics likewise do the opposite, and if anyone dared correct them, they’d dismiss such a person as “woke.” When they feel it’s okay if they lie, cheat, steal, and kill to get their way, because they represent Jesus and others supposedly don’t. When they’re behaving worse than antichrists instead of Christ, guess who their real father is?
The devil’s modus operandi.
From the beginning, as Jesus said in verse 44, Satan’s been an ἀνθρωποκτόνος/anthropoktónos, “human-destroyer” or “homicide,” which I and many bibles translate as “murderer.” In Revelation John identified Satan as the serpent which deceived the whole world, Rv 12.9 namely the serpent which got Adam and Eve to sin, and got ’em expelled from paradise. Ge 3 In paradise, humans would’ve lived forever, Ge 3.22 as we were always meant to. Outside it we don’t—there’s no tree of life to cure us of everything—and we kill one another all the time. Humans acting like their father.
Jesus didn’t say the devil wanted him dead because of who he is—God incarnate, God the Son, ruler of the world, defeater of Satan. Frankly, anyone’s death will suit the devil just fine: Jesus’s, yours, mine, convicted criminals, starving refugees, war victims, unborn babies, neglected seniors, noble soldiers, the poor, the rich, whoever. Heck, killing animals for the pure murdery fun of it, or killing them with pollution out of pure apathy, pleases the devil too. But people especially, and Satan doesn’t care what excuses we make for deliberately killing ’em, or casually dismissing the deaths of such people. Whatever gets us to not love our neighbors, and do the devil’s dirty work.
It’s a liar, Jesus pointed out. When Satan lies, it ἐκ τῶν ἰδίων λαλεῖ/ek ton idíon laléi, “speaks from [its] own,” or “speaks from [its] idiom.” Nothing comes out of its mouth but lies and half-truths; why tell the truth when lies are more fun? Lies come naturally to it. Lies originated with it. Anyone who thinks God is the first cause of absolutely everything in the cosmos, clearly missed Jesus’s statement here. God is not the first cause of lying. That’d be Satan. Jn 8.44
Jesus is the truth. When he offers people truth, and they reject it and won’t hear him, they’re clearly not following God. His followers should immediately recognize truth when we hear it; the Holy Spirit living within us should make it resonate throughout our spirits. But if there’s no Holy Spirit in us—if there’s nothing in us but pitch-black self-centeredness—we’ll have the darnedest time detecting truth or falsehood. We’ll instead pick whichever pleases us most. And if we pick nothing but falsehood—almost as if you flipped a coin a thousand times and it always came up heads—clearly something’s rigged. If there’s no room for Jesus, something else has taken up the space.
Your average pagan, who claims they like and respect Jesus, and think him a great moral teacher, is often trying to have it both ways: They wanna acknowledge Jesus is a great person. But not great enough to follow, nor even take seriously. They like all his “peace and love” stuff, but don’t wanna call him Lord. They won’t bluntly accuse him of lying, and can’t prove anything he says is wrong… but their refusal to actually follow him proves they simply don’t believe and trust him.
“Who among you can convict me of sin?” Jesus points out. Jn 8.46 If he’s a sinner, surely that undermines everything he teaches. If he’s lying, don’t follow him! And conversely, “If I say the truth, why don’t you trust me?” But people don’t trust him… and wanna pretend they think he’s great. Well, he’s calling them on their hypocrisy. If Abraham were really their father—if they really had Abrahamic faith, they’d follow Jesus. They don’t, so they have no such faith. They only have lies. Like Satan.
Who’s your father?
Historically, antisemites have used this passage to claim Jesus’s statement, “You’re from your father the devil” applies to every Jew. They didn’t accept Jesus as Messiah, so to antisemites it makes ’em Satan’s children, and they’re justified in doing horrible things to Jews.
What about Jews who become Christian? Well, some antisemites say they don’t count; embracing Jesus takes ’em out of the devil’s camp. Other antisemites don’t care: Jesus’s statement cursed the Jews, and once cursed always cursed. No, none of their reasoning is either logical nor biblical. Racists aren’t into either logic or bible anyway.
Jesus’s statement is no curse. He was simply calling things as he saw them. Spiritual children do as their spiritual father does. If people wanna kill, their spiritual father is therefore a killer. No matter what religion they claim to follow: If Hindus persecute Muslims, or Muslims Hindus; if Jews persecute Palestinians, or Palestinians Jews; if Protestants persecute Catholics, or Catholics Protestants: Those who seek to kill anyone are following their spiritual father, the devil. Because the devil is into homicide, and religious reasons for homicide do its bidding just as well as any.
So if we want anyone dead, whom does that make our spiritual father?
Same with lies. Plenty of Christians have no trouble with fudging the truth, so long that we win our debates—whether they’re political debates, apologetics arguments, discussions about our Christian duty, anything. The truth matters far less than winning. But again, whom does that make our spiritual father?
