#15: “You Are of Your Father the Devil!”
SCRIPTURE: 8:39-59
INTRO:
Jesus is still teaching in the temple area. He has made reference to
Abraham, who the Jews correctly considered their forefather. In verses 37 and
38 He says, “I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me
because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my
Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.” So here in verse 39
they respond with: “Abraham is our father.”

Beauford Bryant and Mark Krause offer this note in their commentary on
the gospel of John (College Press):
“Several things are implied in this claim. First, there was the immense pride of
the Jews in the antiquity of their known ancestry. They were able to trace their
genealogy back 2,000 years to a man who had a unique relationship with God.
Second, Jesus’ charge that they suffer enslavement is answered by this claim.
Abraham is their true father, therefore they are his true sons. We are not
illegitimate children, they say. We are from the legitimate line of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, not the bastard line of Ishmael. Third, there is a personal
challenge to Jesus in the assertion that Abraham is our father, presumably, as a
Jew, Abraham is the ‘father’ of Jesus. If Jesus is now talking about having a
different father, his very Jewishness is being called into question” (p. 207).