³⁴ Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.^{(A) 35} Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.^{(B) 36} So if the Son sets you free,^(C) you will be free indeed. ³⁷ I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me,^(D) because you have no room for my word. ³⁸ I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence,^(E) and you are doing what you have heard from your father.^[a]”^(F)

³⁹ “Abraham is our father,” they answered.

“If you were Abraham’s children,”^(G) said Jesus, “then you would^[b] do what Abraham did. ⁴⁰ As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me,^(H) a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God.^(I) Abraham did not do such things. ⁴¹ You are doing the works of your own father.”^(J)

“We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.”^(K)

⁴² Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me,^(L) for I have come here from God.^(M) I have not come on my own;^(N) God sent me.^(O)