John 10:22-31

CLAIMS TO DEITY

Text 10:22-31

22

And it was the feast of the dedication at Jerusalem:

23

it was winter; and Jesus was walking in the temple in Solomon's porch.

24

The Jews therefore came round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou hold us in suspense? If thou art the Christ, tell us plainly.

25

Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believe me not: the works that I do in my Father's name, these bear witness of me.

26

But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep.

27

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me :

28

and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand.

29

My Father, who hath given them unto me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.

30

I and the Father are one.

31

The Jews took up stones again to stone him.

Queries

a.

Why the inferences of a particular season (John 10:22-23)?

b.

Why did the Jews say, ... tell us plainly?

c.

Is Jesus declaring eternal security in John 10:28-29?

Paraphrase

And the Feast of the Dedication of the Temple was in progress at Jerusalem. It was winter-time and Jesus was walking in the temple in the colonnade which is called Solomon's Porch. So the Jews encircled Him and demanded, How much longer are you going to keep us hanging in suspense? If you really are the Messiah, tell us so in plain words! Jesus answered them, I told you before and you do not believe. The miraculous works that I do in My Father's name bear sufficient testimony to prove my Messiahship. However, you do not believe because you are not willing to surrender to the implications of these works and become my obedient sheep. My sheep hear and obey my voice and I, in turn, recognize them as my own. My sheep follow me wherever I lead them, and I give them eternal life now. Furthermore, they will never, never lose this life for all eternity for no one is able to snatch them from the safety of my hand. My Father and I are equal; He gave me the sheep and He is certainly greater than all the enemies of the sheepno one is able to snatch them from His hand. I and the Father are One!
At this declaration the Jews ran and picked up stones carrying them to Solomon's Porch to stone Jesus to death.

Summary

The hostile Jews demand an unequivocal statement from Jesus as to His Messiahship. He states plainly that He and the Father are One, especially in omnipotence. The Jews, unwilling to have a Messiah who is God in the flesh, prepare to kill Him. The awfulness of unbelief!

Comment

This section (John 10:22-31) takes us from the Feast of Tabernacles (September) to the Feast of Dedication (December). Three months of the ministry of Jesus is omitted by John between John 10:21 and John 10:22, but recorded by the Synoptics (cf. Map #5, John 7:1-53 chapter comments). The Feast of Dedication came on the 25th of Chisleu (December). This is the beginning of winter in Jerusalem. The weather is stormy, with the rainy season well under way; snow has been known to fall on the mountain-tops of Judea at this time of the year. The seasonal note of John 10:2 with the accompanying phrase picturing Jesus walking under the protection of the roof of Solomon's porch is very graphic.

The Feast of Dedication was founded on this wise: Upon the death of Alexander the Great, his Grecian world empire was divided three ways. Seleucus I, one of Alexander's army officers, obtained the satrapy of Babylonia. By later conquests, he became the ruler of Syria and the greater part of Asia Minor and founded the Seleucid era which lasted from about 312 B.C. to 65 B.C. (when Pompey reduced the kingdom of Syria to a Roman province).
During the era of the Seleucid rulers, one Antiochus Ephiphanes came to the throne at a time (175-164 B.C.) when all the Near East was under Seleucid rule. Antiochus Ephiphanes was a lover and devotee of Greek culture and very passionately so. He made up his mind that he would do away with Jewish religion and culture for good and introduce Greek culture and religion into Palestine. Some of the Jews welcomed Hellenization, but others were so patriotic and faithful to the Hebrew religion that many forfeited their lives in resistance. This great struggle, incidentally, gave birth to the sect of the Pharisees (also known as Separatists) who were men dedicated by vows to resist any heathen encroachment upon the Hebrew customs and religion. At first Antiochus tried to introduce his cultural renovation by peaceful methods, but found the resistance too strong. In 170 B.C., Antiochus attacked Jerusalem and it is said that 80,000 Jews perished and almost as many were taken away into slavery. About $2,000,000 was stolen from the temple treasury. It became a capital offense to possess a copy of the Hebrew law, or to circumcise a child; and mothers who did circumcise their children were crucified with their children hanging around their necks. The temple courts were profaned with heathen intrusions; the temple chambers were turned into brothels; and the ultimate insult was when Antiochus ordered a sow (swine) sacrificed upon the altar of burnt offering in the temple of the Jews. This was the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak, and Judas Maccabaeus, with his brothers and an outnumbered and ill-equipped, but courageous army, arose to fight a war of six long, bloody years for independence. In 164 B.C., the first time for about 400 years, the Jews were an independent kingdom. In this year the Temple was cleansed and purified of all heathen defilements, The altar was rebuilt; the robes and the utensils which had been stolen were replaced. The Temple was re-dedicated! It was to commemorate this re-dedication that the Feast of Dedication was instituted. 1Ma. 4:59 reads, ... the days of the dedication of the altar should be kept in their season from year to year, by the space of eight days, from the five and twentieth day of the month of Chisleu, with gladness and joy. Most historians point out the close similarity in the ritual of this feast with the Feast of Tabernacles (lighting of the great candleabra, singing of the Hallel, etc.).

There is a great nationalistic heritage connected with this festival. Furthermore, it was recent enough in Jewish history at Jesus-' time to be extremely significant. Time and events in Jesus-' day were pregnant with meaning. Many of the elders of the Jews could remember in their own lifetime the last days of the Maccabean freedomthen came the Roman oppression and domination. Then there came among the Jews a John the Baptist preaching repentance for the kingdom of God is near at hand; following him comes a miracle-working Nazarene claiming to be the Messiah.

Therefore, the intenseness of the challenge by the Jews in John 10:24 is not difficult to understand. Political freedom and social reform is uppermost in their minds as they participate in this Feast of Dedication and hear hints and rumors concerning a Messiah.

B. F. Westcott says that the tense of the verb ekuklosan (encircled) indicates a definite, decisive act. They had Him cornered in a public place and this time He would not escape until they had what they wanted from Himan unequivocal statement that He was the Messiah.

It is hardly in keeping with the context of this incident to maintain, as do some commentators, that the Jews surrounding Him were sincere in their question as to His claims. The multitudes, it is true, were hanging on His every word and calling Him the prophet (cf. Luke 12:1; Luke 13:17). But John almost always means the rulers when he says the Jews. and the animosity of the rulers was coming to a fevered pitch (cf. John, Chapter s 7 through John 10:21 and see also Luke 11:53). All this makes us believe that these Jews who encircled Jesus were the rulers and their subordinatesall with a definite plan to trap Him and kill Him.

If they could not kill Him, they might at least discredit and denounce Him publicly. A literal rendering of the question of the Jews in John 10:24 would read, Until when do you lift up our soul? What these enemies probably aim at is a plain, straight-forward, not-to-be misunderstood statement, I am the Messiah! He was not behaving as they thought He oughtpolitically, militaristicif He was the Messiah. Yet, though Jesus did not fulfill the popular concept of the Messiah, the multitudes were stirred up and of divided opinion concerning Him. Some were even opposing the rulers in favor of the Nazarene (cf. John 7:12; John 7:31; John 7:43; John 10:19-21). The rulers are actually challenging Jesus to either stop His meddling in morals, ethics, and doctrine, or come out and declare Himself plainly as their type of Messiah.

Jesus replies, I did tell you, but you did not believe me! Although He never said as plainly as they demanded, I am the Christ, (except in two instances to individuals, cf. John 4:26; John 9:37), His works accomplished always in the name of the Father were plain enoughNicodemus recognized Him as sent from God (cf. John 3:2). Over and over again, Jesus told them that He and the Father were one (cf. John 5:17-47; John 8:16-19; John 8:26-29, John 8:42, John 8:56-58; John 10:11-18), and substantiated it with His miracles. The evidence was of the highest nature of credibility and verificationempirical! Their failure to accept Him as the Son of God was not due to insufficient evidenceit was their own sin! Greed and false pride led them into bigotry, prejudice and spiritual blindness. They did not believe because they did not want to believe! They were not like the humble, obedient, trusting sheep who listened to Jesus-' voice (e.g., the Samaritan woman, John 4:1-54, and the blind beggar, John 9:1-41).

We have dealt with the subject of sheep and Shepherd in our comments on John 10:11-18. However, there is one aspect of that relationship emphasized here in John 10:27-29 that was not stressed in the previous section. Those who become obedient, trusting, and following sheep to the Good Shepherd will be given eternal life. The verb didomi (give) is in the present tense, indicating that one is given eternal life at the moment he becomes one of Jesus-' sheep. Those who are believing in Jesus are possessing eternal life (cf. our comments, John 5:24, Vol. I, p. 188). John the Apostle later wrote his First Epistle to give Christians assurance that they might know that they have eternal life (cf. 1 John 5:13). They will never perish! Perish here does not mean annihilation, but eternal separation from the presence of God. The Greek idiom to express never is emphatic! Translated literally John 10:28 b would read, ... and they shall not perish, no, not even unto eternity!

The main idea Jesus propagates in the last phrase of John 10:28 (and no one shall snatch them out of my hand) is the equality of power to protect the sheep He shares with the Father, Jehovah-God. He is leading up to the sublime, unfathomable, and astounding statement, I and the Father are one. He wants these Jews to know that along with His promise of eternal life He promises omnipotent protection. He can promise divine security because the Father is omnipotent and He and the Father are one! The Father gave Him the sheep and sent Him into the world with all His power and authority (again we refer you to John 5:17-47). Lenski says, Does the promise of Jesus, standing there in human form before the Jews, sound preposterous, that no one shall snatch his sheep out of his hand? To snatch them out of his hand is the same as snatching them out of the Father'S hand. Paul speaks of the safety of our newly given life in Colossians 3:3, For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

These two verses (John 10:28-29) certainly do not offer proof texts for the unscriptural doctrine of once in grace, always in grace, or the more dignified, eternal security. Westcott says concisely, If man falls at any stage in his spiritual life, it is not from want of divine grace, nor from the overwhelming power of adversaries, but from his neglect to use that which he may or may not use. We cannot be protected against ourselves in spite of ourselves. The sense of the divine protection is at any moment sufficient to inspire confidence, but not to render effort unnecessary. Paul states plainly that salvation is given by God, but requires a continuing effort of faith and works on the part of man (cf. Ephesians 2:8-10; Philippians 2:12-13). Romans, the eighth chapter, combines the two ideas that when man submits to the leading of the Holy Spirit and puts to death the deeds of the body, there is no principality, power, nor any other creature which is able to separate him from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. As the old adage has it, No one can snatch us out of the Lord's hand, but we can certainly jump out ourselves! Perhaps Jesus has in mind the poor blind beggar who, three months before, had been excommunicated from the temple. The Jewish rulers might cast him out, but no one would be able to snatch him out of the Good Shepherd's hand, for he was one of the true sheep.

Having inferred His equality with the Father in the matter of protection for the true believer, Jesus says straight out in John 10:30, I and the Father are one. Commentators go to great lengths to argue whether this oneness is oneness of wills and works or oneness in essence. Some even attempt to explain how the Father and Son may be two persons yet be One. It is useless to bring earthly analogies into play to try to explain this unique relationship. All are untrue and fall far short of explaining this unity. We are forced to see that Jesus speaks distinctly about two persons and yet, they are one! Here we must walk by faith and not by sight. It is better to accept the profound statements of Scripture on this subject, e.g., ... for in him dwelleth all the fullness of the godhead bodily. (Colossians 2:9) and concern ourselves with interpreting His will for our lives. Of one thing we may be certain, the Son and the Father are equally God (cf. John 1:1; John 1:14; John 1:18; John 5:17-23; John 14:8-11).

This declaration was certainly plain enough! Perhaps it was too much! Perhaps if Jesus had said, I am your Messiah, they would not have been so violent. It seems that the Jews, in spite of clear prophecy to the contrary, had an idea that the Messiah would be simply a powerful, personable, politically oriented human being. They certainly were not looking for Immanuel (God with us). When one stood before them in mortal flesh and claimed, I am equal with the Father, they would have none of it. They had no time for God among them, convicting them of their sins and preaching a spiritual kingdomthey wanted a Messiah that would give them food in their stomachs (cf. John 6:26). Therefore, they ran (as the Greek verb implies) to some section of the temple where there were stones, probably piled for repairs, and carried them to Solomon's Porch ready to stone Him to death for alleged blasphemy.

Quiz

1.

What is the history behind the Feast of Dedication?

2.

Why did the Jews encircle Jesus near Solomon's Porch?

3.

How did Jesus tell the Jews that He was the Christ?

4.

Does John 10:28 teach once saved, always saved?

5.

Can you explain how The Father and The Son are One, yet two persons?

6.

Why would these Jews suddenly become so violent as to want to kill Jesus for the simple statement, I and the Father are one?