John 8:44

8:44 You people ¹  are from ²  your father the devil, and you want to do what your father desires. ³  He ⁴  was a murderer from the beginning, and does not uphold the truth, ⁵  because there is no truth in him. Whenever he lies, ⁶  he speaks according to his own nature, ⁷  because he is a liar and the father of lies. ⁸ 

John 12:35

12:35 Jesus replied, ⁹  “The light is with you for a little while longer. ¹⁰  Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. ¹¹  The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.

John 14:10

14:10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? ¹²  The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own initiative, ¹³  but the Father residing in me performs ¹⁴  his miraculous deeds. ¹⁵ 

[8:44]  ¹ tn The word “people” is supplied in the translation to clarify that the Greek pronoun and verb are plural.

[8:44]  ² tn Many translations read “You are of your father the devil” (KJV, ASV, RSV, NASB) or “You belong to your father, the devil” (NIV), but the Greek preposition ἐκ (ek) emphasizes the idea of source or origin. Jesus said his opponents were the devil’s very offspring (a statement which would certainly infuriate them).

[8:44]  ³ tn Grk “the desires of your father you want to do.”

[8:44]  ⁴ tn Grk “That one” (referring to the devil).

[8:44]  ⁵ tn Grk “he does not stand in the truth” (in the sense of maintaining, upholding, or accepting the validity of it).

[8:44]  ⁶ tn Grk “Whenever he speaks the lie.”

[8:44]  ⁷ tn Grk “he speaks from his own.”

[8:44]  ⁸ tn Grk “because he is a liar and the father of it.”

[12:35]  ⁹ tn Grk “Then Jesus said to them.”

[12:35]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “Yet a little while the light is with you.”

[12:35]  ¹¹ sn The warning Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you operates on at least two different levels: (1) To the Jewish people in Jerusalem to whom Jesus spoke, the warning was a reminder that there was only a little time left for them to accept him as their Messiah. (2) To those later individuals to whom the Fourth Gospel was written, and to every person since, the words of Jesus are also a warning: There is a finite, limited time in which each individual has opportunity to respond to the Light of the world (i.e., Jesus); after that comes darkness. One’s response to the Light decisively determines one’s judgment for eternity.

[14:10]  ¹⁷ tn The mutual interrelationship of the Father and the Son (ἐγὼ ἐν τῷ πατρὶ καὶ ὁ πατὴρ ἐν ἐμοί ἐστιν, egw en tw patri kai Jo pathr en emoi estin) is something that Jesus expected even his opponents to recognize (cf. John 10:38). The question Jesus asks of Philip (οὐ πιστεύεις, ou pisteuei") expects the answer “yes.” Note that the following statement is addressed to all the disciples, however, because the plural pronoun (ὑμῖν, Jumin) is used. Jesus says that his teaching (the words he spoke to them all) did not originate from himself, but the Father, who permanently remains (μένων, menwn) in relationship with Jesus, performs his works. One would have expected “speaks his words” here rather than “performs his works”; many of the church fathers (e.g., Augustine and Chrysostom) identified the two by saying that Jesus’ words were works. But there is an implicit contrast in the next verse between words and works, and v. 12 seems to demand that the works are real works, not just words. It is probably best to see the two terms as related but not identical; there is a progression in the idea here. Both Jesus’ words (recall the Samaritans’ response in John 4:42) and Jesus’ works are revelatory of who he is, but as the next verse indicates, works have greater confirmatory power than words.

[14:10]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “I do not speak from myself.”

[14:10]  ¹⁹ tn Or “does.”

[14:10]  ²⁰ tn Or “his mighty acts”; Grk “his works.”