John 8:48-51 Then answered the Jews, and said to him, Say we not well that you are a Samaritan, and have a devil?… The rendering "devil" cannot now be improved. Wiclifs word is "fiend," which in this sense is obsolete. But every reader of the Greek must feel how little our English word can represent the two distinct ideas represented by two distinct words, here and in ver. 44. "Demon," used originally for the lower divinities, and not unfrequently for the gods, passed in the Scriptures, which taught the knowledge of the true God, into the sense of an evil spirit. Thus the word which could represent the attendant genius of Socrates came to express what we speak of as demoniacal possession, and the supposed power of witchcraft and sorcery. is made to say: "For this reason, therefore, rather than for any other, he calls them demons, because they were prudent and knowing." The history of reminds us that the people of Samaria, from the least to the greatest, had been for a long time under the influence of his sorceries (Acts 8:9, etc.), and it is probable that there is a special connection in the words note, "Samaritan" and "devil." (Archdeacon Watkins.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?WEB: Then the Jews answered him, "Don't we say well that you are a Samaritan, and have a demon?" |
    |