Church Fathers Commentary John 8:37-41

"I know that ye are Abraham`s seed: yet ye seek to kill me, because my word hath not free course in you. I speak the things which I have seen with [my] Father: and ye also do the things which ye heard from [your] father. They answered and said unto him, Our father is Abraham. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham`s children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I heard from God: this did not Abraham. Ye do the works of your father. They said unto him, We were not born of fornication; we have one Father, [even] God." — John 8:37-41 (ASV)

St. Augustine of Hippo: The Jews had asserted they were free because they were Abraham’s seed. Our Lord replies, I know that you are Abraham’s seed; as if to say, “I know that you are the sons of Abraham, but according to the flesh, not spiritually and by faith.” So He adds, But you seek to kill Me.

St. John Chrysostom: He says this so that they might not attempt to answer that they had no sin. He reminds them of a present sin—a sin they had been contemplating for some time and which was in their thoughts at that very moment, setting aside their general course of life.

He thus removes them by degrees from their relationship to Abraham, teaching them not to pride themselves so much on it. For just as bondage and freedom are consequences of works, so too is relationship. And so that they could not say, “We do so justly,” He adds the reason why: Because My word has no place in you.

St. Augustine of Hippo: That is, it has no place in your hearts because your hearts do not receive it. The word of God is like a hook to the believer: it catches when it is caught. Yet this is not to the harm of those who are caught by it; they are caught for their salvation, not for their destruction.

St. John Chrysostom: He does not say, “You do not receive My word,” but My word has no room in you, showing the depth of His doctrines. But they might say, “What if you speak of yourself?” So He adds, I speak that which I have seen with My Father, for I have not only the Father’s substance but also His truth.

St. Augustine of Hippo: When our Lord speaks of “His Father,” He wants us to understand God. It is as if He is saying, “I have seen the truth, I speak the truth, because I am the truth.” If our Lord, then, speaks the truth which He saw with the Father, it is Himself that He saw and Himself that He speaks, for He is the truth of the Father.

Origen of Alexandria: This is proof that our Savior was a witness to what was done with the Father, whereas men, to whom the revelation is made, were not witnesses.

Theophylact of Ohrid: But when you hear, I speak that which I have seen, do not think it means bodily vision, but rather innate, sure, and proven knowledge. For just as the eyes, when they see an object, see it completely and correctly, so I speak with certainty what I know from My Father.

Origen of Alexandria: As yet, He has not named their father. He did mention Abraham a little earlier, but now He is going to mention another father, namely, the devil. They were his sons insofar as they were wicked, not in their nature as men. Our Lord is reproaching them for their evil deeds.

St. John Chrysostom: Another reading has, And you do that which you have seen with your father. This is as if to say, “Just as I, in both word and deed, declare the Father to you, so you, by your works, should show forth Abraham.”

Origen of Alexandria: Another reading also has, And you do what you have heard from the Father. All that was written in the Law and the Prophets they had heard from the Father. Someone who accepts this reading may use it to prove, against those who hold otherwise, that the God who gave the Law and the Prophets was none other than Christ’s Father.

We also use it as an answer to those who maintain two original natures in humanity and who explain the words, My word has no place in you, to mean that these people were by nature incapable of receiving the word. How could those who had heard from the Father be of an incapable nature? And how, again, could they be of a blessed nature, when they sought to kill our Savior and would not receive His words? They answered and said to Him, Abraham is our father. This answer from the Jews is a great departure from our Lord’s meaning. He had referred to God, but they take “father” in the sense of their natural father, Abraham.

St. Augustine of Hippo: It is as if they were saying, “What are you going to say against Abraham?” They seem to be inviting Him to say something disparaging about Abraham, and so give themselves an opportunity to carry out their purpose.

Origen of Alexandria: Our Savior denies that Abraham is their father. Jesus said to them, If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham.

St. Augustine of Hippo: And yet He says above, I know that you are Abraham’s seed. So He does not deny their origin but condemns their deeds. Their flesh was from Abraham, but their life was not.

Origen of Alexandria: Or we may explain the difficulty this way. Above, in the Greek, it says, I know that you are Abraham’s seed. So let us examine whether there is a difference between a bodily seed and a child. It is evident that a seed contains within itself all the properties of the one whose seed it is, though they are dormant and waiting to be developed. When the seed has changed and molded the material it meets within the woman, has derived nourishment from there, and has gone through a process in the womb, it becomes a child, the likeness of its father. A child, then, is formed from the seed, but the seed is not necessarily a child.

Now, concerning those who are judged by their works to be the seed of Abraham, can we not conceive that they are so because of certain seminal properties implanted in their souls? Not all people are the seed of Abraham, for not all have these properties implanted in their souls. But one who is the seed of Abraham has yet to become his child by likeness. And it is possible for him, through negligence and laziness, to cease even to be the seed. But those to whom these words were addressed were not yet cut off from hope. Therefore, Jesus acknowledged that they were still the seed of Abraham and still had the power to become children of Abraham. So He says, If you are the children of Abraham, do the works of Abraham.

If, as the seed of Abraham, they had attained their proper form and growth, they would have received our Lord’s words. But not having grown to be children, they did not care; instead, they wished to kill the Word and, as it were, break it in pieces, since it was too great for them to receive. If any of you, then, are the seed of Abraham and do not yet receive the word of God, do not seek to kill the word. Rather, change yourself into a son of Abraham, and then you will be able to receive the Son of God.

Some select one of the works of Abraham, namely that in Genesis: And Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. But even granting them that faith is a work, if this were so, why was it not, “Do the work of Abraham,” using the singular instead of the plural? The expression as it stands is, I think, equivalent to saying, “Do all the works of Abraham”—that is, in the spiritual sense, interpreting Abraham’s history allegorically. For it is not required of someone who would be a son of Abraham that he marry his maidservants or, after his wife’s death, marry another in his old age.

St. John Chrysostom: This refers to the truth that He was equal to the Father, for it was this that moved the Jews to kill Him. To show, however, that this doctrine is not opposed to the Father, He adds, which I have heard from God.

Alcuin of York: Because He Himself, who is the truth, was begotten of God the Father, for Him “to hear” is, in fact, the same as “to be from” the Father.

Origen of Alexandria: He says they seek to kill Me, a man. I say nothing now of the Son of God, nothing of the Word, because the Word cannot die. I speak only of that which you see. It is in your power to kill what you see and offend Him whom you do not see.

Alcuin of York: It is as if to say, “By this you prove that you are not the sons of Abraham, because you do works contrary to those of Abraham.”

Origen of Alexandria: It might seem to some that it is unnecessary to say that this Abraham did not do, since it would have been impossible; Christ was not born at that time. But we may remind them that in Abraham’s time a man was born who spoke the truth which he heard from God, and Abraham did not seek this man's life. Know, too, that the saints were never without the spiritual advent of Christ.

I understand, then, from this passage that everyone who commits sin after regeneration and receiving other divine graces, by this return to evil, incurs the guilt of crucifying the Son of God—something Abraham did not do.

St. Augustine of Hippo: He does not yet say who their father is.

St. John Chrysostom: Our Lord says this with the goal of putting down their vain boasting about their descent and persuading them to rest their hopes of salvation no longer on natural relationship, but on adoption. For it was this very thing that prevented them from coming to Christ: namely, their thinking that their relationship to Abraham was sufficient for their salvation.