Albert Barnes Commentary John 8:40

"But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I heard from God: this did not Abraham." — John 8:40 (ASV)

Ye seek to kill me. See John 8:37.

This did not Abraham. Or such things Abraham did not do. There are two things noted here in which they differed from Abraham:

1. In seeking to kill him, or in possessing a murderous and bloody purpose.
2. In rejecting the truth as God revealed it. Abraham was distinguished for love to man as well as God. He liberated the captives (Genesis 14:14–16); was distinguished for hospitality to strangers (Genesis 18:1–8); and received the revelations of God to him, however mysterious, or however trying their observance, Genesis 12:1–4; Genesis 15:4–6; Genesis 22:1–24. It was for these things that he is so much commended in the New Testament (Romans 4:9; Romans 9:9; Galatians 3:6); and, as the Jews sought to kill Jesus instead of treating him hospitably and kindly, they showed that they had none of the spirit of Abraham.