<p>8:48- see on Jn. 8:42.</p><p><i>The Jews answered and said to him: Say we not well that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?</i>- Perhaps the emphasis was upon &quot;<i>you</i>&quot;. They complained that the Lord was casting aspersions about their purity of descent from Abraham (see on :41). Now they suggested that <i>He</i> was in fact the one of questionable descent from Abraham. Their 'research' of His family of origin had led to this aspersion- that Mary and / or Joseph had Samaritan connections. The Lord purposefully framed Himself as a Samaritan in the parable of the good Samaritan; perhaps they wilfully misinterpreted that as meaning that He was in fact a Samaritan.</p><p>It has been widely recognized that John&rsquo;s Gospel often refers to the same themes found in the Synoptics, but in different language and from a different perspective. The account of the virgin birth as the word being made flesh is one such example. Another would be the effective repeating of the great commission in different terms. Yet another would be the description of water baptism as being born of water (Jn. 3:3&ndash;5). The accounts of casting out demons which we have in the Synoptic Gospels are not found in John &ndash; not in so many words. But I suggest that the essence of it all is there in John, too. The battle between Jesus and the &lsquo;Devil&rsquo; is referred to there frequently. He is accused of being in league with the Devil (Jn. 7:20; 8:48; 10:20); but He labels His critics as being of the Devil (Jn. 8:44). And in that same passage He redefines their view of &ldquo;the Devil&rdquo; as being a question of doing sinful &ldquo;desires&rdquo;. Judas is portrayed as being &ldquo;of the Devil&rdquo; (Jn. 6:70,71; 13:2,27). John speaks of an epic struggle between life and death, light and darkness, truth and error, faith and unbelief, God and evil / sin. In this struggle, the forces of evil have no real power over the Lord Jesus; He is greater than them and overcomes them to such an extent that they are effectively non-existent for those in Him. The Synoptics speak of the opposition to Jesus as being from Scribes, Pharisees etc. John describes this opposition as the Jewish &lsquo;Satan&rsquo; or adversary to the Lord. John presents the opposition to Jesus from the Jews as being symbolic of evil and sin itself. Effectively, the more literal accounts of the Synoptics are saying the same thing &ndash; that the Lord showed that the power of God is so great that effectively, demons don&rsquo;t exist as any realistic force in the lives of both Jesus and His people. John puts this in more epic and symbolic language &ndash; the forces of evil were overcome and revealed to be powerless by the Lord Jesus, ultimately expressing this through His death. And perhaps that&rsquo;s why John&rsquo;s Gospel doesn&rsquo;t speak of the Lord casting out demons &ndash; because his record has made it clear enough that effectively, those things don&rsquo;t exist.</p>