ST. JOHN VIII. 44.
(To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.") Snt„—In discussing the above passage your correspondents have now traced the father of the Devil as far back as 1876. I have been able to surprise my friend Professor Kenny by taking the trans- lation " he is a liar and so is his father " as far back as the third century A.D., and he wishes me to make the fact public. If it is a "howler," those who commit it are in good company, for it is to be found in Origen, one of the most original thinkers among the early Fathers. He gives it as a possible translation of the verse, and is prepared to accept the theory that the Devil had a father, even as He had Who declared him a liar. This occurs in the course of the earliest orthodox commentary on St. John's Gospel. (See Origcnis in Johannis Evangclium Commentarium, Tom. XX., cap. 21.)—I am, Sir, &e., T. W. CRAFER. St. Germain's Parsonage, Blackheath.
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