John 8:43

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: - q.d., 'If ye had anything of His moral image, as children have their father's likeness, ye would love Me, because I am immediately of Him and directly from Him. But "My speech" (meaning His special style of expressing Himself on these subjects) 'is unintelligible to you' because ye cannot take in the truth which it conveys.'...

43._Why do you not understand my language? _In this passage, he reproaches the Jews with their obstinacy, which was so great, that _they could not even endure to hear him speak _Hence he infers, that they are actuated and hurried away by diabolical rage. Some make a distinction here between _language _and _speech_, as if _speech _had a more extensive meaning; but I do not see it; (239) and besides, it would not be appropriate that the word which means less should be placed first. Many point this verse in such a manner as to make the question close with the word _language_; (240) as if the question consisted only of these words, _Why do you not understand my language _? So that the reason is immediately assigned, _Because you cannot hear my word. _But I think that it ought rather to be read in immediate connection, as if he had said, “What i

41-47 Satan prompts men to excesses by which they murder themselves and others, while what he puts into the mind tends to ruin men's souls. He is the great promoter of falsehood of every kind. He is a liar, all his temptations are carried on by his calling evil good, and good evil, and promising freedom in sin. He is the author of all lies; whom liars resemble and obey, with whom all liars shall have their portion for ever. The special lusts of the devil are spiritual wickedness, the lusts of the mind, and corrupt reasonings, pride and envy, wrath and malice, enmity to good, and enticing others to evil. By the truth, here understand the revealed will of God as to the salvation of men by Jesus Christ, the truth Christ was now preaching, and which the Jews opposed....

Verse 43. _WHY DO YE NOT UNDERSTAND MY SPEECH?_] την λαλιαν την εμην, _This my mode of speaking _- when illustrating spiritual by natural things: λαλια refers to the manner of speaking; λογος, to the matter or subject on which he spoke. For λαλιαν, the _Codex_ _Bezae_ had originally αληθειαν: _why do ye not acknowledge this_ _TRUTH of mine_? A few other MSS. agree in this reading. _BECAUSE YE CANNOT HEAR MY WORD._] That is, ye cannot bear my doctrine: it comes too close to you; it searches your hearts, detects your hypocrisy, and exposes your iniquitous intentions and designs; and as ye are determined not to leave your sins, so ye are purposed not to hear my doctrine....

WHY DO YE NOT ... - My meaning is clear, if you were disposed to understand me. EVEN BECAUSE YE CANNOT HEAR MY WORD - The word “hear” in this place is to be understood in the sense of bear or tolerate, as in John 6:60. His doctrine was offensive to them. They hated it, and hence they perverted his meaning, and were resolved not to understand him. Their pride, vanity, and wickedness opposed it. The reason why sinners do not understand the Bible and its doctrines is because they cannot bear them. They hate them, and their hatred produces want of candor, a disposition to cavil and to pervert the truth, and an obstinate purpose that it shall not be applied to their case. Hence, they embrace every form of false doctrine, and choose error rather than truth, and darkness rather than light. A disposition to believe God is one of the

EXPOSITION Verses 7:53-8:11 (8) _The pericope adulterae. _(A)_ Excursus on the genuineness of _John 7:53-43__John 7:53-43. It is our duty to examine the various grounds on which this passage has been almost universally concluded to have formed no portion of the original Fourth Gospel; and then the internal grounds on which it has been rejected, and some of the speculations as to its origin and value. Doubts have beset the authenticity of the passage from the fourth and fifth centuries in the Eastern Church, both on external and internal grounds. The authority and practice of Augustine, Ambrose, and Jerome gave it a secure resting place till the criticism of Erasmus re-awakened doubt. Calvin expressed a more favourable opinion con

WHY DO YE NOT UNDERSTAND MY SPEECH?.... Language, idiom, dialect, and form of speaking, in a figurative way; for they did not know what he meant by liberty, and bondage, and by having another father than Abraham, or by his own procession and coming forth from God: [EVEN] BECAUSE YE CANNOT HEAR MY WORD; as they had no spiritual discerning and understanding of the doctrine of Christ, which showed them to be carnal, and natural men, and not regenerate ones, and the children of God; so they had an aversion to it, and could not bear to hear it....

John 8:28. _Then said Jesus unto them;_ That is, to the Jews who were questioning and opposing him,- John 8:28. _When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things._ Blessed be God, there were many, after the crucifixion of Christ, who did. believe in him! Yet, alas! in others, the blindness of heart continued, and they would not see the Messiah in him who was crucified. We, who believe in the uplifted Saviour, can see the Father in the Son; and to us, faith has become a most blessed thing; and we know that he does nothing of himself, and that, as the Father has taught him, so he speaks....

CHAPTER 8 _ 1. The Woman Taken in Adultery. (John 8:1 .)_ 2. The Light of the World. (John 8:12 .) 3. His Testimony Concerning Himself and the Father. (John 8:13 .) 4. His Solemn Declarations. (John 8:21 .) 5. Before Abraham Was, I Am. (John 8:48 .) The first verse belongs to the preceding chapter. The officers returned without Him, bearing their testimony that “never man spake like this man.” Nicodemus ventured his timid defense. Then every man went to his own house while the Lord went to the Mount of Olives. The story of the woman

CONTROVERSY WITH THE JEWS WHO BELIEVED. Many are convinced by this appeal. The following section summarises the teaching by which Jesus tried to bring the more favourably disposed of the Jewish party to a fuller faith. If they will make Christ's teaching a real part of their lives, they will gain the truth which sets men free. They take offence. If they have had to submit to foreign power, they have never been reduced to slavery. Sin is slavery, Jesus replies, and the slave has no secure place in the house as the son has. The author adds that true freedom is the gift of the Son. Jesus admits their physical descent from Abraham (John 8:37). But their conduct does not correspond to their parentage. They do not dissociate themselves from their party's policy of trying to get rid of one whose teaching is unacceptable. He follows His Father's example. Let them follow the example of theirs. Th...