John 8:41

οὐκ ἐγεννήθημεν (BD1) for οὐ γεγεννήμεθα (CD2).

41. ὑμεῖς π. τ. ἐρ. Ye are doing the works of your father: ὑμεῖς in emphatic contrast to Ἀβραάμ. This shews them that He means spiritual not literal descent; so they accept His figurative language, but indignantly deny any evil parentage. ‘Thou art speaking of spiritual parentage. Well, our spiritual Father is God.’

ἡμεῖς ἐκ πορνείας. The meaning of this is very much disputed. The following are the chief explanations: (1) Thou hast denied that we are the children of Abraham, then we must be the children of some one sinning with Sarah: which is false.’ But this would be adultery, not fornication. (2) ‘We are the children of Sarah, not of Hagar.’ But this was lawful concubinage, not fornication. (3) ‘We are not a mongrel race, like the Samaritans; we are pure Jews.’ This is farfetched, and does not suit the context. (4) ‘We were not born of fornication, as Thou art.’ But His miraculous birth was not yet commonly known, and this foul Jewish lie, perpetuated from the second century onwards (Origen, c. Celsum I. xxxii.), was not yet in existence. (5) ‘We were not born of spiritual fornication; our son-ship has not been polluted with idolatry. If thou art speaking of spiritual parentage, we have one Father, even God.’ This last seems the best. Idolatry is so constantly spoken of as whoredom and fornication throughout the whole of the O. T., that in a discussion about spiritual fatherhood this image would be perfectly natural in the mouth of a Jew. Exodus 34:15-16; Leviticus 17:7; Judges 2:17; 2 Kings 9:22; Psalms 73:27; Isaiah 1:21; Jeremiah 3:1; Jeremiah 3:9; Jeremiah 3:20; Ezekiel 16:15; &c. &c. See esp. Hosea 2:4. There is a proud emphasis on ‘we;’—‘we are not idolaters, like Thy friends the Gentiles’ (comp. John 7:35). Ἕνα also is emphatic: One Father we have, in contrast to the many gods of the heathen and of the first Samaritans (2 Kings 17:33): comp. John 8:48.