Bible Study series: John 10:31-39. Jews (the establishment) wanted to stone him for his proclamation that he close to his Father.
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Let’s begin.
Scripture: John 10:31-39
31 The Jews again picked up stones, so that they may stone him. 32 Jesus replied to them, “I have demonstrated many good works from the Father. For which work of them are you going to stone me?” 33 The Jews replied to him, “We don’t stone you concerning a good work but concerning blasphemy, because you, though being a man, make yourself God.” 34 Jesus replied to them, “Is it not written in your law that ‘I have said, “You are gods”’? [Ps. 82:6] 35 If he calls these ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came (and Scripture cannot be abolished), 36 do you say to the one whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world, ‘He is blaspheming’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?” 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, do not believe me. 38 But if I do them, and even if you may not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and continue to know that the Father is in me and I in the Father. 39 Then they were attempting to arrest him, but he departed out of their hands. (John 10:31-39)
Comments:
31:
Jesus was making a similar point as he did in John 8:58-59. “Before Abraham was, I am.” The establishment Jews also intended to stone him at that time. As I noted under 8:59:
Lev. 24:16 says that anyone who blasphemes by assuming divine prerogatives must be put to death.
[A]nyone who blasphemes the name of the Lord is to be put to death. The entire assembly must stone them. Whether foreigner or native-born, when they blaspheme the Name they are to be put to death. (Lev. 24:16, NIV)
The Romans would not allow the Jews to impose the death penalty, but after mob justice what could the authorities do? And they may even look the other way.
32:
Jesus uses irony here. He knows they are going to stone him for his (alleged) blasphemy, but he asks them instead whether they were going to stone him for a good work. In other words, his works prove who he is, and these works permit him to make his claims in words. The works support his words. Therefore, he has a right to say that he and his Father are one.
33:
No, it is not any one work that provokes them, but his words do. The religious establishment obsessed over words, as their oral traditions were accumulating rapidly from the past, their present, and would go on accumulating in their oral (unwritten) law—finally written down in the Talmudic literature. In contrast, Jesus has been insisting that his works demonstrate his divine origins.
34-36:
I acknowledge that this syntax (sentence structure) is complex in these three verses, and professional grammarian Novakovic guided me through it in her grammar commentary. And she got her ideas from other grammarians.
Jesus is about to launch into the lesser to the greater argument (though Klink doubts this argument is used here [comment on v. 36]). These lesser beings in Ps. 82 are called elohim in Hebrew, the standard word for God (though elohim is actually plural in form). But in Ps. 82 they seem to be human judges or rulers. I have argued that these lesser beings are in fact human judges or rulers and not celestial or supernatural beings, in this post:
Who Were the ‘Sons of God’ in Genesis?
Also see:
6. Titles of Jesus: The Son of God
When Did Jesus “Become” the Son of God?
But that issue is secondary. The Septuagint (pronounced sep-TOO-ah-gent) is the third-to-second century (B.C.) translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek. It uses the Greek plural form of god: gods (theoi). They are sentenced and condemned for not judging wisely. In contrast, Jesus is the one whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world. Apparently, the Father did not consecrate or send these human “gods” in the original context, or they were appointed but they rendered unjust verdicts, so they are to be punished. So if the true God calls these lesser, misguided beings “gods” or “sons of the Most High,” then the religious establishment should not object to Jesus calling himself the Son of God (the greater being) because he is not misguided; he is united with the Father and does what he sees his Father doing. So Jesus is greater than they are and has the right to call himself by this title.
“This pericope (pronounced puh-RIH-koh-pea) or unit or section presents Jesus as the true judge of Israel and only one who is deserving of the office (and title) of ‘god,’ in contrast to the failed contemporary rulers of the of the Jewish people. The irony is stark. Jesus is not only the intended replacement of these judges but also a perfect replacement of their office” (Klink, comment on v. 35).
I agree with Morris, who says that the gods of Ps. 82:6 are human “judges of Israel, and the expression ‘gods’ is applied to them in the exercise of their high and God-given office” (comment on v. 34). Jesus’s argument is of the “how much more” variety. But Morris goes on to warn that Jesus is not placing himself on a human level equal merely to human judges because he says that he is the one whom the Father set aside (consecrated) and sent into the world. He claims a special filial (sonship) relationship with the Father (v. 36).
So the argument seems to go like this:
The judges / rulers in Ps. 82
=
The judges / rulers of Jerusalem in John 10
And
The judges / rulers were called ‘gods’ (elohim) and judged to be failures in Ps. 82
=
The judges / rulers of contemporary Jerusalem are also judged to be failures (though they are not literally called “gods” by Jesus).
“your law”: it is a catch-all term for the whole Hebrew Bible. “It cannot be set aside when the teaching is inconvenient. What is written remains written” (Bruce, comments on vv. 34-36).
Let’s look at how other commentators interpret those verses.
I now provide an overview of their comments here:
John 10:34-36 and Psalm 82: Who Were the ‘Gods’ and ‘Sons of Most High’?
They are unanimous that the ‘gods’ and ‘sons of the Most High’ are not celestial beings. Then who were they?
“Son of God”: Let’s look into some more systematic theology (as I do throughout this commentary). Jesus was the Son of the Father eternally, before creation. The Son has no beginning. He and the Father always were, together. The relationship is portrayed in this Father-Son way so we can understand who God is more clearly. In any case, on our repentance and salvation and union with Christ, we are brought into his eternal family.
Once again:
6. Titles of Jesus: The Son of God
When Did Jesus “Become” the Son of God?
37–38:
Jesus presents a hypothetical or conditional. If he is really not doing the works of his Father, don’t believe him. But if he is doing them, then they do not even have to believe him; they can believe in the works. The purpose in believing in the works is to believe that the Father and the Son are so unified that the Father dwells in his Son, and the Son dwells in his Father. Recall the two verses quoted in v. 25 and the purpose of the signs: the people may believe in the Messiah, the Son of God. Nicodemus privately believed that Jesus was a teacher sent from God because only such a teacher could do those signs (3:2), though Nicodemus stopped short of calling him the Son of God.
39:
This verse reminds me of these two verses:
So then Jesus, knowing that they were about to seize him in order to make him king, withdrew alone to the hill country. (John 6:15)
So they were seeking to seize him, yet no one put their hands on them because his hour had not yet come. (John 7:30)
As I noted in my comments on 6:15 and 7:30, Jesus was not fearful of their plans because he trusted in God. This idea parallels a scene in Luke’s Gospel:
29 They got up and drove him out of the town and led him up to the edge of the hill on which their town had been built, to throw him off. 30 But he passed through the middle of them and left. (Luke 4:29-30)
In those two verses in Luke, they intended to seize him by force to throw him off a high point. But he miraculously walked through them, as if he had a divine hedge of protection surrounding him and keeping them away. The Father was not going to allow his Son to be subjected to the people’s will and plans.
God will not allow people or Satan to ultimately frustrate his plans. I say “ultimately” because sometimes his plans can be temporarily thwarted (1 Thess. 2:18). But God will make a way after the temporary hindrance.
GrowApp for John 10:31-39
1. Jesus knew who he was in his Father. Do you really know who you are in Christ?
RELATED
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
12. Eyewitness Testimony in John’s Gospel
4. Church Fathers and John’s Gospel
3. Archaeology and John’s Gospel
SOURCES
For the bibliography, click on this link and scroll down to the very bottom:
Dr. Jim's Essential Bible Teaching 