Bible Study series: John 10:22-30. This is a clear text that supports the Son’s deity.
Friendly greetings and a warm welcome to this Bible study! I write to learn, so let’s learn together how to apply these truths to our lives.
I also translate to learn. The translations are mine, unless otherwise noted. If you would like to see many others, please click here:
For the Greek text, click here:
At that link, I provide a lot more commentary.
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: John 10:22-30
22 At that time it was the Feast of Dedication; it was winter. 23 Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon’s Colonnade. 24 Then the Jews encircled him and were saying to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus replied to them, “I have told you and you do not believe. The works which I do in my Father’s name—these testify about me. 26 But you do not believe, because you are not of my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me, 28 and I give them eternal life. And they will never perish, and no one snatches them from my hand. 29 What my Father has given me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch it from my Father’s hands. 30 I and my Father are one.” (John 10:22-30)
Comments:
22-23:
These verses set up the dialogue. The temple in Jerusalem was captured by Antiochus Epiphanes and held for three years (167-164, B.C.). He set up an idolatrous altar on top of the altar of Israel’s God. The Feast of Dedication celebrates the recapture of the temple by Judas Maccabaeus and his followers and reconstruction to its proper use in 25 Kislev ( = 14 December), 164 B.C. The Festival of Dedication is also called Ḥanukkah (pronounced khah-nook-kah), which commemorates the event. It is celebrated with lights, so it is further called the Festival or Feast of Lights. Jews today light candles in honor of those events and to remember the miraculous supply of oil to keep the sacred lampstand burning. You can look up more details everywhere online.
John mentions winter and Solomon’s covered colonnade possibly to indicate to indicate why Jesus sought shelter under it, which ran on the east side of the outer court of Herod’s temple. It must have been rainy.
In the book of Acts, Peter addressed the crowd there when they gathered to see a lame man healed (Acts 3:11). The Jerusalem believers regularly gathered there (Acts 5:12).
24:
John used “plainly” three times in Chapter 7 (vv. 4, 13, 26). Here it could be translated as “openly” or “publicly.” Too many of the establishment and ordinary Jews had blinded eyes (John 12:40). They had a political or military expectation, so they could not perceive his Messiahship.
Mounce says that the Greek idiom “how long will you keep us in suspense” can also be translated as “how much longer will you persist in provoking us to anger” (comment on v. 24). The religious authorities want to flush him out in the open to proclaim himself Messiah, but if he had done so, people would have misunderstood him to be a military Messiah, but he instead wanted first to be the Suffering Servant. When he comes back a second time, he will defeat all of his enemies.
11 They surrounded me on every side,
but in the name of the Lord I cut them down.
12 They swarmed around me like bees,
but they were consumed as quickly as burning thorns;
in the name of the Lord I cut them down. ….
22 The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
23 the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes.
24 The Lord has done it this very day;
let us rejoice today and be glad. …
27 The Lord is God,
and he has made his light shine on us.
With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession
up to the horns of the altar. (Ps. 118:11-12, 22-24, 27, NIV)
Judas Maccabaeus was nicknamed the “hammer.” “But this hero [Jesus] comes not like a ‘hammer’ but as a lamb—the Lamb of God (1:29)” (Klink, comment on v. 24).
What does the term Christ or Messiah really mean? The term means the Anointed One. In Hebrew it is Messiah, and in Greek it is Christ. It means that the Father through the Spirit equipped Jesus with his special calling and the fulness of power to preach and minister to people, healing their diseases and expelling demons (though demon expulsion is not mentioned in John’s Gospel). The Messiah / Christ ushered in the kingdom of God by kingdom preaching and kingdom works.
3. Titles of Jesus: The Son of David and the Messiah
25:
The phrase “In my Father’s name” indicates that Jesus was surrendered to his Father; Jesus did not act on his own and by his own authority but was in close communication with him. If the religious establishment really knew God, they would perceive that Jesus was from the Father and his works were signaled to him from the Father, so that they would believe. In other words, the Father told him to work this or that miracle. If they truly knew his Father, they would connect the dots, and Jesus’s works would show that he is in intimate contact with the Father and was sent by the Father.
As I have noted elsewhere, here is the purpose of the signs, without a complicated commentary:
30 So then Jesus performed many other signs in front of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 These were written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:30-31)
The signs are for us to believe that he is the Messiah (or Christ), the Son of God. They are signposts, which point to Jesus and his glory.
Bruce:
The restoration of health, the restoration of sight, and the forthcoming restoration of life (in the Lazarus incident) were all works declaring the character as well as the power of God to those whose hearts were not totally insensitive. But where the heart of the spectator was insensitive, each successive work served but to harden it the more: it was raising of Lazarus that made Jesus’ enemies finally resolve to encompass his death (John 11:53). (comment on v. 25)
For more comments on the noun name, please scroll back up to v. 3.
26-27:
In the prologue to John’s Gospel (1:1-18), Jesus came to his own, but they did not recognize him (1:11). The religious establishment and many ordinary Jews were part of the non-receivers. His sheep, in contrast, recognize his voice and follow him. He calls them by name because he knows each one by name (10:3-4). It is good to know that God is personal. He knows us better than we know ourselves. His sheep already follow him because they have already responded to his call. There is no word about God limiting the call just to the select few. The call goes out to everyone; some respond positively, and others respond, by their significant degree of free will, negatively. The religious establishment and many other Jews responded negatively, but some responded positively. After Pentecost, many thousands of Jerusalem and Judean Jews converted (Acts 2:41; 4:4; 6:7 [large number of priests], and 21:20).
“There is no God without Jesus, and there is no belief in God without believing in Jesus. Just as the Father works through the Son (v. 25), so also it is the Son that makes the Father known” (Klink, comment on v. 26).
In Jesus’s rebuke of the Jews, he is saying, “It is not just their (passive) inability to recognize him as their shepherd; it is also his (active) rejection of them as his sheep. Not only are the Jewish authorities declared incompetent as shepherds (10:1-21), but they are now no longer even able to call themselves sheep!” (Klink, comment on v. 27).
28:
“eternal life”: see v. 10 for the basics. Jesus now promises his sheep eternal life, as he had before (3:15, 16, 6:40, 47). To have eternal life means that one lives forever (6:51, 58) or he will never see or taste death (8:51-52). Here in v. 27, his sheep will never perish, as John 3:16 famously says.
No one can snatch them out of his hand. Literally the Greek reads “anyone” or “someone” will not snatch them out of his hand. We have five characters. The Father, Jesus, the thief (v. 10), the sheep, and “someone.” The first two do not want to turn their hand upside down and drop the one sheep. The thief, which is the religious establishment, but let’s expand it to mean Satan, would love to snatch the sheep, but the Father and Jesus will not allow it, at least by direct assault and thievery. The “someone,” whoever he is or whatever it is, cannot snatch the sheep by direct assault or thievery. So what about the sheep? There are too many passages, planted throughout the NT, which say that a man can walk away from his salvation (e.g. Heb. 6:1-8). So the sheep, may be buffeted indirectly by circumstances and disappointment, can simply walk off the hand. True, God woos the wandering sheep and may even find him and bring him back (Matt. 18:12-13; Luke 15:4-6). But it is possible for the sheep itself to wander off, without the thief or another human being able to snatch him away.
Remaining a Christian or Falling Away?
Possible Apostasy or Eternal Security?
29:
Here we have a manuscript problem. Most translations ignore the better reading (which Novakovic, Klink, and I have) and go with: “My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all.” However, the better reading says, “What my Father has given me is greater than all.” But if you want to follow the majority of translations, you may certainly do so.
So now the question for me (and Novakovic and Klink) is: what does “what” refer to? I like Klink’s statement: “While [the ‘what’] includes the ‘sheep,’ as v. 28 makes clear, it must also include everything that the Father has elsewhere been described as having given to the Son, including authority, judgment, and life itself (5:22-27). Thus, it is not just the sheep that are in the Father’s hand … But authority, judgment, and life itself, under which the sheep are firmly and securely selected to dwell. What the Father gave to the Son was not merely sheep but his Sonship and everything that goes with it!” (comment on v. 29).
For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. (Col. 3:3, NIV)
30:
I add to Klink’s comments in v. 29: in the more immediate context: what the Father has given the Son is also complete unity with him, while his Son was on earth. In heaven for all eternity, the Father and Son were completely united, and this unity as a gift from the Father was maintained at the incarnation. This is the greatest given “what” of all.
By the way, the Greek here could be more literally translated as “I and the Father—we are one.”
“The work of the Father and Son are so intertwined that they must be described as one God, without denying their distinction as persons. In this way, the first verbal exchange comes to an end with one of the most elevated and divine statements in all of Scripture being used as a rebuke of the disbelief of the Jewish authorities” (Klink, comment on v. 30).
GrowApp for John 10:22-30
1. As you remain in union with Christ, you are eternally secure. How do you respond to this promise?
2. How do you remain in union with Christ or remain in Jesus’s and the Father’s hand?
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3. Archaeology and John’s Gospel
SOURCES
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