Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God — the authorities object to Jesus's implication that they have another father. They assert, 'We have one Father, even God.' Yet in doing so, they ironically prove Jesus's point: they are claiming descent from God directly, bypassing the Law and the patriarchs. The mention of 'fornication' (porneia) is obscure—perhaps alluding to themselves as products of covenant breaking or to the charge that they are spiritually illegitimate. Jesus will clarify who their true father is in the next verse.

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