John 8:45

And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(45) And because I tell you the truth.—The pronoun is full of emphatic meaning. And I, as contrary to him, because 1 tell you the truth, as contrary to the lie which is his characteristic.

Ye believe me not—i.e., ye believe not what I say. It does not mean, Ye believe not on Me, but Ye accept not the truth which I speak. There is something startling in this sharp opposition of truth and unbelief. To speak the truth is commonly to command belief. The mind of man is so constituted that truth is the first object of its search. Here was perfect truth presented to men, and they refused to accept it, because it was the truth, and they were themselves children of him who was a liar.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

8:41-47 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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Ye are of your father the devil - That is, you have the temper, disposition, or spirit of the devil. You are influenced by him, you imitate him, and ought therefore to be called his children. See also 1 John 3:8-10; Acts 13:10; "Thou child of the devil."

The devil - See the notes at Matthew 4:1.

The lusts - The desires or the wishes. You do what pleases him.

Ye will do - The word "will," here, is not an auxiliary verb. It does not simply express futurity, or that such a thing will take place, but it implies an act of volitions. This you will or choose to do. The same mode of speech occurs in John 5:40. In what respects they showed that they were the children of the devil he proceeds to state:

1. in their murderous disposition;

2. in rejecting the truth;

3. in being favorable to falsehood and error.

He was a murderer from the beginning - That is, from the beginning of the world, or in the first records of him he is thus represented. This refers to the seduction of Adam and Eve. Death was denounced against sin, Genesis 2:17. The devil deceived our first parents, and they became subject to death, Genesis 3. As he was the cause why death came into the world, he may be said to have been a murderer in that act, or from the beginning. We see here that the tempter mentioned in Genesis 3 was Satan or the devil, who is here declared to have been the murderer. Compare Romans 5:12, and Revelation 12:9; "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world." Besides, Satan has in all ages deceived men, and been the cause of their spiritual and eternal death. His work has been to destroy, and in the worst sense of the word he may be said to have been a murderer. It was by his instigation, also, that Cain killed his brother, 1 John 3:12; "Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother." As the Jews endeavored to kill the Saviour, so they showed that they had the spirit of the devil.

Abode not in the truth - He departed from the truth, or was false and a liar.

No truth in him - That is, he is a liar. It is his nature and his work to deceive.

He speaketh of his own - The word "own" is in the plural number, and means of the things that are appropriate to him, or that belong to his nature. His speaking falsehood is originated by his own propensities or disposition; he utters the expressions of his genuine character.

He is a liar - As when he deceived Adam, and in his deceiving, as far as possible, the world, and dragging man down to perdition.

The father of it - The father or originator of falsehood. The word "it" refers to lie or falsehood understood. From him falsehood first proceeded, and all liars possess his spirit and are under his influence. As the Jews refused to hear the truth which Jesus spoke, so they showed that they were the children of the father of lies.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

45-47. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not—not although, but just because He did so, for the reason given in the former verse. Had He been less true they would have hailed Him more readily.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Such is your hatred to the truth, that you hate me for no other reason but because I reveal my Father’s will (which is the truth) to you; than which nothing can evidence a greater hatred to truth, nor conformity and likeness to the devil. There cannot be a greater evidence of any one’s hatred of the truth, than the hatred of those who tell them the truth, and for this very reason, because they do so.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And because I tell you the truth,.... And no lie, the whole truth of the Gospel, and particularly the truth of his divine sonship:

ye believe me not; to such an infatuation and judicial blindness were they give up, to disbelieve him, because he told the truth, and to believe a lie, that they might be damned; which showed them to be the children of the devil, and under his power and influence.

Geneva Study Bible

And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

John 8:45. Because I, on the contrary, speak the truth, ye believe me not

ἐγὼ δέ] for the sake of strong emphasis, in opposition to the devil, placed at the beginning; and the causative ὅτι, a thoroughly tragical because, has its ground in the alien character of the relation between that which Jesus speaks and their devilish nature, to which latter a lie alone corresponds. Euth. Zigabenus aptly remarks: εἰ μὲν ἔλεγον ψεῦδος, ἐπιστεύσατέ μοι ἄν, ὡς τὸ ἴδιον τοῦ πατρὸς ὑμῶν λέγοντι. To take the sentence as a question (Ewald) would weaken its tragical force.

Expositor's Greek Testament

John 8:45. ἐγὼ δὲ. “But I”—in contrast to the devil—“because I speak the truth you do not believe me.” Had I spoken falsehood you would have believed me, because it is your nature to live in what is false (cf. Euthymius).

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

45. And because I tell you, &c.] Better, But because I speak the truth, ye do not believe me. ‘Ye will listen to the devil (John 8:38); ye will believe a lie: but the Messiah speaking the truth ye will not believe.’ The tragic tone once more: comp. John 1:5; John 1:10-11, John 2:24, John 3:10; John 3:19, &c.

Bengel's Gnomen

John 8:45. Ἐγώ, I) This pronoun is put with emphasis at the beginning of a sentence.—ὅτι, because) inasmuch as. It is a characteristic of truth, not to believed by the evil.—τὴν ἀληθείαν, the truth) to which the ψεῦδος, lie, is opposed.—λέγω, I tell) In antithesis to, he speaketh in the preceding verse.—οὐ, not) Ye give not ear to me: ye give ear to the devil.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 45. - Then, turning to these children of the wicked one, Christ delivered a tremendous denunciation: But because I say the truth - because I am the Organ, Utterance, and Incarnation of the truth - ye believe me not. If he spake lies to them, they would greedily receive them. The very cause of their lack of credence is the utterance of truth. The "I" is emphatic, and set over against the "you" of the second clause. There is a tragic force about this charge almost unparalleled, implying the most wilful estrangement from God, a rejection of known truth because it was truth, a love of darkness because it was darkness, a moral obtuseness which answers to the terrible language, "Lest they should see with their eyes," etc. John 8:45

Vincent's Word Studies

And because I((ἐγὼ δὲ ὅτι)

Render but, instead of and. You would believe falsehood if I should speak it, but because I tell you the truth, you do not believe. The I is emphatic. I, because I tell you, etc.