John 8:43 — Community Reflections

JOHN 8:43 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.”

Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word — Jesus explains their incomprehension: they do not understand his speech (dialektos, language, way of speaking) and cannot hear his word (logos). The distinction between understanding speech and hearing the word is important: they have ears but cannot receive his message. The reason is spiritual: without faith, the ear remains closed. Jesus's language is the language of heaven; those rooted only in the world cannot comprehend it.

Church Fathers on John 8:43

The Jews had begun to understand that our Lord was not speaking of sonship according to the flesh, but of manner of life. Scripture often speaks of spiritual fornication, with many gods, and of the soul being prostituted, as it were, by paying worship to false gods. This explains what follows: Then said they to Him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.
Augustine · 4th century

As if their motive against Him was a desire to avenge God’s honor.
Theophylact · 11th century

Or their sonship to Abraham having been disproved, they reply by bitterly insinuating, that our Savior was the offspring of adultery. But perhaps the tone of the answer is disputatious, more than any thing else. For whereas they have said shortly before, We have Abraham for our father, and had been told in reply, If you are Abraham’s children, do the works of Abraham; they declare in return that they have a greater Father than Abraham, i.e. God; and that they were not derived…
Origen · 3rd century

Read all 11 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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