John 8:43
New International Version
Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say.

New Living Translation
Why can’t you understand what I am saying? It’s because you can’t even hear me!

English Standard Version
Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word.

Berean Standard Bible
Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you are unable to accept My message.

Berean Literal Bible
Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to hear My word.

King James Bible
Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.

New King James Version
Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word.

New American Standard Bible
Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot listen to My word.

NASB 1995
“Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word.

NASB 1977
“Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word.

Legacy Standard Bible
Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word.

Amplified Bible
Why do you misunderstand what I am saying? It is because [your spiritual ears are deaf and] you are unable to hear [the truth of] My word.

Christian Standard Bible
Why don’t you understand what I say? Because you cannot listen to my word.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Why don’t you understand what I say? Because you cannot listen to My word.

American Standard Version
Why do ye not understand my speech? Even because ye cannot hear my word.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
“And why do you not understand my word? It is because you cannot hear my word.”

Contemporary English Version
Why can't you understand what I am talking about? Can't you stand to hear what I am saying?

Douay-Rheims Bible
Why do you not know my speech? Because you cannot hear my word.

English Revised Version
Why do ye not understand my speech? Even because ye cannot hear my word.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Why don't you understand the language I use? Is it because you can't understand the words I use?

Good News Translation
Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to listen to my message.

International Standard Version
Why don't you understand what I've said? It's because you can't listen to my words.

Literal Standard Version
why do you not know My speech? Because you are not able to hear My word.

Majority Standard Bible
Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you are unable to accept My message.

New American Bible
Why do you not understand what I am saying? Because you cannot bear to hear my word.

NET Bible
Why don't you understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot accept my teaching.

New Revised Standard Version
Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot accept my word.

New Heart English Bible
Why do you not understand my speech? Because you cannot hear my word.

Webster's Bible Translation
Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.

Weymouth New Testament
How is it you do not understand me when I speak? It is because you cannot bear to listen to my words.

World English Bible
Why don’t you understand my speech? Because you can’t hear my word.

Young's Literal Translation
wherefore do ye not know my speech? because ye are not able to hear my word.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Children of the Devil
42Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on My own, but He sent Me. 43Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you are unable to accept My message. 44You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out his desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, refusing to uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, because he is a liar and the father of lies.…

Cross References
Matthew 13:15
For this people's heart has grown callous; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.'

John 5:25
Truly, truly, I tell you, the hour is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

John 7:17
If anyone desires to do His will, he will know whether My teaching is from God or whether I speak on My own.

John 8:33
"We are Abraham's descendants," they answered. "We have never been slaves to anyone. How can You say we will be set free?"

John 8:39
"Abraham is our father," they replied. "If you were children of Abraham," said Jesus, "you would do the works of Abraham.


Treasury of Scripture

Why do you not understand my speech? even because you cannot hear my word.

do.

John 8:27
They understood not that he spake to them of the Father.

John 5:43
I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.

John 7:17
If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.

ye cannot.

John 6:60
Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?

Isaiah 6:9
And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.

Jeremiah 6:10
To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of the LORD is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it.

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John 8
1. Jesus delivers the woman taken in adultery.
12. He declares himself the light of the world, and justifies his doctrine;
31. promises freedom to those who believe;
33. answers the Jews who boasted of Abraham;
48. answers their reviling, by showing his authority and dignity;
59. and slips away from those who would stone him.














(43) Why do ye not understand my speech, . . . my word.--The distinction between "speech" (the form) and "word" (the matter which was spoken) is rightly preserved. Comp. John 12:48, "the word that I have spoken." A good instance of the meaning of "speech is found in Matthew 26:73, "thy speech betrayeth thee." From John 8:33 onwards, they had constantly misunderstood His expressions. The reason is that the subject-matter of His discourse is altogether above them. He is speaking of spiritual things, which are spiritually discerned. They, if children of the Father whom they claimed, would recognise these spiritual truths and know the language of home.

Ye cannot hear.--Comp. Note on John 6:60. The sense is, "Ye cannot hear, so as to receive and obey." He supplies the answer to His own question. In the following verses (44-47), He expresses this answer more fully.

Verse 43. - Why do ye not understand - come to appreciate and penetrate the significance of - my speech? There is delicate subtle distinction between λαλιά and λόγος, corresponding to that between λαλέω and λέγω. The former word connotes the form, manner, and tone of utterance, and the latter its inner substance and power. Λαλιά is a, word used for any manifestation of sound, a voice, the babble of children, the cries and songs of beasts or birds, for which purpose λὲγω and λόγος are not used (Trench, 'Syn. of N.T.'). Peter's λαλιά betrayed him to the Jerusalem crowd (Matthew 26:73). Λόγος is the substance of the message, the burden of the revelation. The speech (λαλιά) of Christ refers to the appropriate and significant clothing which he gave to his word (λόγος). He mournfully asks why they had failed to get to understand the method of his converse; why they perpetually failed to appreciate his discourse; why they persistently put wrong constructions upon his phrase, and imagined him to be speaking of earthly things when he was discoursing to them of heavenly ones. Why? Because ye cannot hear my word - the Divine communication I have made to you. They were morally so far from him that they could not listen so as to receive his revelation. The inward organ of receptivity was lacking, and "so the spiritual idiom in which he spake was not spiritually understood" (Alford). The Divine significance of the whole word of Christ, the new and strange doctrines of Messiah, of redemption, of the Father, of a sacrifice and death on the part of the Son of man for the salvation of the world excited their animosity and bitter antipathies. They were not conscious of any of the need he came to satisfy, and so they failed to apprehend the entire manner of his revelation. They were from beneath (ver. 23). He is disclosing heavenly things. "Their ears have they closed, lest they should hear."

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
Why
Διὰ (Dia)
Preposition
Strong's 1223: A primary preposition denoting the channel of an act; through.

do you not understand
γινώσκετε (ginōskete)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 1097: A prolonged form of a primary verb; to 'know' in a great variety of applications and with many implications.

what
τὴν (tēn)
Article - Accusative Feminine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

I
ἐμὴν (emēn)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Accusative Feminine 1st Person Singular
Strong's 1699: My, mine. From the oblique cases of ego; my.

am saying?
λαλιὰν (lalian)
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular
Strong's 2981: (in classical Greek: babble, chattering) speech, talk; manner of speech, dialect. From laleo; talk.

[It is] because
ὅτι (hoti)
Conjunction
Strong's 3754: Neuter of hostis as conjunction; demonstrative, that; causative, because.

you are unable
δύνασθε (dynasthe)
Verb - Present Indicative Middle or Passive - 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 1410: (a) I am powerful, have (the) power, (b) I am able, I can. Of uncertain affinity; to be able or possible.

to accept
ἀκούειν (akouein)
Verb - Present Infinitive Active
Strong's 191: To hear, listen, comprehend by hearing; pass: is heard, reported. A primary verb; to hear.

My
ἐμόν (emon)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Accusative Masculine 1st Person Singular
Strong's 1699: My, mine. From the oblique cases of ego; my.

message.
λόγον (logon)
Noun - Accusative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3056: From lego; something said; by implication, a topic, also reasoning or motive; by extension, a computation; specially, the Divine Expression.


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NT Gospels: John 8:43 Why don't you understand my speech? Because (Jhn Jo Jn)
John 8:42
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