# John 8.44 > You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44, NASB95) John 8:44 is the harshest single statement Jesus makes about unbelief in the Fourth Gospel. To the religious-leadership audience pressing the conversation toward physical paternity from Abraham, Jesus answers with a paternity claim of His own about them: their *moral and volitional* paternity is from the devil, identified by two signature acts, murder *from the beginning* and lying *from his own nature*. The verse is a load-bearing satanology text (the closest Johannine analogue to the Pauline *god of this age*, 2 Cor 4:4) and a load-bearing hamartiology text (sin's deepest grammar is willing-the-desires-of-the-devil, not bare lawbreaking). ## Immediate context (±2 verses) **ASV** ([ASV](/codex/asv/)) > 42. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I came forth and am come from God; for neither have I come of myself, but he sent me. 43. Why do ye not understand my speech? Even because ye cannot hear my word. > > **44. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and standeth not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof.** > > 45. But because I say the truth, ye believe me not. 46. Which of you convicteth me of sin? If I say truth, why do ye not believe me? (John 8:42-46, ASV) **WEB** ([WEB](/codex/web/)) > 42. Therefore Jesus said to them, 'If God were your father, you would love me, for I came out and have come from God. For I haven't come of myself, but he sent me. 43. Why don't you understand my speech? Because you can't hear my word. > > **44. You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn't stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and its father.** > > 45. But because I tell the truth, you don't believe me. 46. Which of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? (John 8:42-46, WEB) **KJV** ([KJV](/codex/kjv/)) > 42. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. 43. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. > > **44. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. of his own: or, from his own will or disposition** > > 45. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. 46. Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? (John 8:42-46, KJV) **YLT** ([YLT](/codex/ylt/)) > 42. Jesus then said to them, 'If God were your father, ye were loving me, for I came forth from God, and am come; for neither have I come of myself, but He sent me; 43. wherefore do ye not know my speech? because ye are not able to hear my word. > > **44. 'Ye are of a father, the devil, and the desires of your father ye will to do; he was a man-slayer from the beginning, and in the truth he hath not stood, because there is no truth in him; when one may speak the falsehood, of his own he speaketh, because he is a liar, also his father.** > > 45. 'And because I say the truth, ye do not believe me. 46. Who of you doth convict me of sin? and if I speak truth, wherefore do ye not believe me? (John 8:42-46, YLT) ## Setting - **Speaker:** Jesus, in temple-court polemic with hostile leadership - **Audience:** Judean opponents who claim Abrahamic paternity (vv.33, 39) and divine paternity (v.41) - **Location:** Jerusalem, the temple precincts, during the Feast of Tabernacles cycle (John 7-8) - **Time period:** events c. AD 29-32; the Gospel composed c. AD 85-95, traditionally by John the Apostle at Ephesus ## Theological reading The two signature works of the devil in this verse, *murderer from the beginning* (*anthropoktonos ap' arches*) and *liar... father of lies*, both reach back to Genesis 3 and Genesis 4. Most commentators (Augustine, Chrysostom, Cyril, Westcott, Carson) identify the *murder* clause with the death of Adam in Genesis 3 (the devil's lie in the garden brought death on humankind) rather than with Cain's killing of Abel directly; the *murder from the beginning* tag fits the Edenic deception that murdered the human race. The *liar* clause then circles back to the same garden event from the deceit angle: the devil *spoke from his own nature* in saying *you surely will not die* (Gen 3:4). Both clauses describe the same primal act under two profiles. Some commentators include Cain's act (Gen 4:8) under the *murder* clause as a derivative case; the Johannine echo at 1 John 3:12-15 (Cain *was of the evil one, and slew his brother*) makes the inclusion reasonable, but the *from the beginning* (*ap' arches*) marker favors the Edenic primary reference. The lie's structure here is *speaks from his own nature* (Greek: *ek ton idion lalei*), lying is the devil's idiom, what he generates *out of himself*. This is the closest the NT comes to defining the devil's mode of being: he does not *have* falsehood as a contingent property but *is* the source of it. The verse provides the strongest scriptural ground for thinking of evil as parasitic on truth, the devil cannot speak truth on his own account; truth is foreign to him. The verse is also relevant against the modern objection that *Jesus was uniformly meek and accepting toward His critics*. The historical Jesus' polemic against hardened unbelief is sharp, paternity-from-the-devil is the polar opposite of paternity-from-God in v.42. The harshness is not gratuitous; it is the necessary contrast that exposes the leadership's actual moral allegiance, in a Gospel whose first concern (John 1:11-13) is who-has-what-paternity. ## Key words - [G1228 - diabolos](/codex/g1228-diabolos/), *diabolos* (devil, slanderer); the noun used here as the false father. - [G0746 - arche](/codex/g0746-arche/), *arche* (beginning); the temporal marker tying the devil's murder back to Eden. - [G3962 - pater](/codex/g3962-pater/), *pater* (father); the paternity-frame Jesus inverts against the leadership. - [G0225 - aletheia](/codex/g0225-aletheia/), *aletheia* (truth); the standard the devil does not stand in. - *pseustes*, *pseustes* (liar); the devil's defining title in this verse. ## Theological themes - **Satanology grounded in Eden.** The two crimes, murder and lying, both originate at the garden deception, identifying the devil as the source of human death and human falsehood. - **Paternity as moral, not biological.** Against the Abrahamic-paternity claim, Jesus reframes paternity in terms of *desires done* (*epithymias poiein*); whose will one performs reveals whose child one is. - **The lie as devil's idiom.** *Speaks from his own nature*, falsehood is not contingent on the devil but constitutive of him; truth is foreign. - **Unbelief as moral, not cognitive.** *You cannot hear My word* (v.43) is not a mental incapacity but a volitional refusal traced to paternity-from-the-devil. - **Sharp polemic in the historical Jesus.** The verse undercuts the *Jesus-was-uniformly-gentle* portrait; harshness toward hardened unbelief is biblically warranted. ## Cross-references - Genesis 3:1-7, the garden deception, the primal lie and murder. - [Genesis 4](/codex/genesis-4/), Cain's killing of Abel, sometimes read under the *murder from the beginning* clause. - [Revelation 12.9](/codex/revelation-12-9/), *the great dragon... the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world*; the canonical bookend identifying the same figure. - 1 John 3:8-12, *the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning*; Johannine commentary on this verse. - [2 Corinthians 4.4](/codex/2-corinthians-4-4/), *the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving*; Pauline parallel. - [1 Peter 5.8](/codex/1-peter-5-8/), *your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion*; apostolic warning. ## See also - [Satan](/codex/h7854-satan/), the master hub - demonology - the Fall - hamartiology - [John](/codex/john-the-apostle/), book hub ## Quoted in **Arguments and defeaters:** - [Atheism Promotes Hatred Lies and Self-Idolatry](/codex/atheism-promotes-hatred-lies-and-self-idolatry/) - [Tree of Knowledge Objection Defeater](/codex/tree-of-knowledge-objection-defeater/) **Concepts:** - [Atheism](/codex/atheism/) - [External Sources of Thought](/codex/external-sources-of-thought/) - [Jesus Said](/codex/jesus-said/), via [John 8](/codex/john-8/) - [Satan](/codex/h7854-satan/) - [The Devil](/codex/the-devil/) - [Tree of Knowledge Objection](/codex/tree-of-knowledge-objection/) **Lexicon:** - [G1228 - diabolos](/codex/g1228-diabolos/) - [G3962 - pater](/codex/g3962-pater/) **Passages:** - [James 4.7](/codex/james-4-7/) - [John 6.70-71](/codex/john-6-70-71/) - [Luke 4.1-2](/codex/luke-4-1-2/) - [Matthew 4.1](/codex/matthew-4-1/) - [Revelation 12.9](/codex/revelation-12-9/) --- _Scripture quotations taken from the **New American Standard Bible®** (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by **The Lockman Foundation**. Used by permission. All rights reserved. [www.lockman.org](https://www.lockman.org)_ ## Why these four translations ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the **most literal English translations available** (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the **public domain in the United States**, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance. The four: - **[ASV](/codex/asv/)** (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition. - **[WEB](/codex/web/)** (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English. - **[KJV](/codex/kjv/)** (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base. - **[YLT](/codex/ylt/)** (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff. See [Bibles](/codex/bibles/) for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.