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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
"They said unto Him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye had Abraham to your father, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill Me." He here repeatedly handleth their murderous intention, and maketh mention of Abraham. …
Cyril of Alexandria
O great unlearning and mind withered unto unbelief and looking to only wrangling! For while our Saviour Christ consenteth and saith openly, I know that ye are Abraham's seed, they persist in the same, and as though one were holding out and contradicting and saying that they were not of Abraham's seed after the flesh, they again say, Our father is Abraham, and blush not going oft through the same words, who think that they ought not to yield even to Battus, but are but most excellent emulators of that man's babbling. …
Theophylact of Ohrid
He presents the devil as their father, because in their deeds he sees them resembling him; but they constantly present Abraham. The Lord frequently reminds them of their criminal intention and denies their kinship with the righteous one in order to cut off their excessive boasting and to convince them that hope must be placed not in the vain pride of fleshly kinship, but in the likeness of free will. …
Western Saints
Augustine of Hippo
"They answered and said unto Him, Abraham is our father;" as if, What hast thou to say against Abraham? or, If thou canst, dare to find fault with Abraham. Not that the Lord dared not find fault with Abraham; but Abraham was not one to be found fault with by the Lord, but rather approved. But these men seemed to challenge Him to say some evil of Abraham, and so to have some occasion for doing what they purposed. "Abraham is our father." Let us hear how the Lord answered them, praising Abraham to their condemnation. …
Thomas Aquinas
After showing that the Jews had a certain spiritual origin, our Lord here rejects certain origins which they had presumptuously attributed to themselves. First, he rejects the origin they claimed to have from Abraham; secondly, the origin they thought they had from God (v 41). As to the first he does two things: first, he gives the opinion of the Jews about their origin; secondly, he rejects it (v 39b). …
Bonaventure
"They answered and said to him." Here it is shown that they are not children of Abraham by imitation, as they themselves boasted; on account of which they said to him: "Abraham is our father." They repeat this because he had said that they were doing the works of their father: and the Lord shows that he did not mean that father: therefore Jesus says to them: "If you are children of Abraham, do the works of Abraham," that is, if you wish to be children by imitation, as you are according to the flesh: do the works of Abraham, otherwise …
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