43. Speech—word (Aadiav—Adyov). The former word re- fers to the form, the latter to the substance of discourse. So Matt. xxvi. 73, of Peter, “thy speech (Aadsa) bewrayeth thee ;” thy mode of speaking. If they had understood the substance, they would have understood the form.
Cannot. See on vii. 7.
44. Ve (ipets). Emphatic, in contrast with jets, we, of ver. 41.
Of your father (é«). Very suggestive, implying community of nature, as in ver. 42. Compare 1 John iii. 8, 10.
The Devil. See on Matt. iv. 1. John uses Satan only once in the Gospel (xiii. 27), frequently in the Apocalypse, and no- where in the Epistles. A few critics have adopted the very singular rendering, which the Greek will bear, ye are of the fa- ther of the devil. This is explained by charging John with Gnosticism, and making him refer to the Demiurge, a mysteri- ous and inferior being descended from God, by whom God, ac- cording to the Gnostics, created the universe, and who had rebelled against God, and was the father of Satan. It is only necessary to remark with Meyer that such a view is both un- biblical and un-Johannine.
Lusts (ésrudupias). See on Mark iv. 19.
Ve will do (Sérere wrouetv). Wrong. Properly, ye will to do. Rev., 2¢ is your will to do. See on vii. 17.
Murderer (av3pwzoxrovos). Only here and 1 John iii. 15. Lit.,@ manslayer; from av3$pwrros, man, and xrelvo, to kill. The epithet is applied to Satan, not with reference to the mur- der of Abel, but to the fact of his being the author of death to the race. Compare Rom. vii. 8, 11; Heb. ii. 14.
From the beginning. Of the human race.