Church Fathers Commentary John 10:31-38

"The Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from the Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came (and the scripture cannot be broken), say ye of him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am [the] Son of God? If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do them, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father." — John 10:31-38 (ASV)

St. Augustine of Hippo: At the statement, I and My Father are one, the Jews could not contain their rage and, in their usual hard-hearted way, ran to take up stones: Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: The heretics now, as unbelieving and rebellious against our Lord in heaven, show their impious hatred by the stones—that is, the words—they cast at Him, as if they wanted to drag Him down again from His throne to the cross.

Theophylact of Ohrid: Our Lord remonstrates with them, saying, Many good works have I shown you from My Father, showing that they had no just reason for their anger.

Alcuin of York: He showed them works from the Father—healing the sick, teaching, miracles—because He sought His Father’s glory in all of them. For which of these works do you stone Me? They confess, though reluctantly, the benefit they have received from Him, but at the same time charge Him with blasphemy for asserting His equality with the Father: For a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a man, make Yourself God.

St. Augustine of Hippo: This is their answer to the statement, I and My Father are one. Behold, the Jews understood what the Arians do not understand. They are angry for this very reason: they understood that by saying, I and My Father are one, He meant the equality of the Father and the Son.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: The Jew said, "You, being a man," and the Arian says, "You, being a creature," but both say, "You make Yourself God." The Arian supposes a God of a new and different substance, a God of another kind, or not a God at all. He says, "You are not Son by birth; you are not God of truth; you are a superior creature."

St. John Chrysostom: Our Lord did not correct the Jews, as if they misunderstood His statement, but confirmed and defended it in the very sense they had taken it. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law,

St. Augustine of Hippo: ...that is, the Law given to you, I said, "You are gods"? God says this through the Prophet in the Psalm.

Our Lord calls all those Scriptures the "Law" generally, though elsewhere He spiritually distinguishes the Law from the Prophets, as when He says, On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. In another place, He makes a threefold division of the Scriptures: All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning Me.

Here, He calls the Psalms the Law and argues from them: If He called them gods to whom the word of God came—and the Scripture cannot be broken—do you say of Him whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world, 'You blaspheme,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Before proving that He and His Father are one, He answers the absurd and foolish charge that He, being a man, made Himself God. Since the Law applied this title to holy men, and the indelible word of God sanctioned this use of the incommunicable name, it could not be a crime in Him to make Himself God, even if He were only a man.

The Law called mere men "gods." If any man could bear this name piously and without arrogance, surely it would be the one sanctified by the Father in a way that no one else is sanctified to Sonship, as the blessed Paul said, Declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness. For all of this reply refers to Himself as man, since the Son of God is also the Son of man.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Or, "sanctified" means that in begetting Him, the Father gave Him holiness; He begat Him as holy. If men to whom the word of God came were called "gods," how much more is the Word of God Himself God. If men, by partaking of the word of God, were made "gods," how much more is the Word of which they partake, God.

Theophylact of Ohrid: Or, "sanctified" means set apart to be sacrificed for the world, which is a proof that He was God in a higher sense than others. To save the world is a divine work, not the work of a man made divine by grace.

St. John Chrysostom: Alternatively, we must consider this a statement of humility, made to conciliate them. After this, He leads them to higher things: If I do not the works of My Father, do not believe Me. This is to say that He is not inferior to the Father.

Since they could not see His substance, He directs them to His works, which are like and equal to the Father’s. For the equality of their works proved the equality of their power.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: What place, then, is there for adoption or a mere title, that we should not believe Him to be the Son of God by nature? He tells us to believe He is the Son of God precisely because the Father’s nature revealed itself in Him through His works. A creature is not equal and like God; no other nature has power comparable to the divine.

He declares that He is carrying on not His own work, but the Father’s, so that the nativity of His nature is not forgotten in the greatness of the works. And since the Son of God was not discerned under the sacrament of the assumption of a human body in the womb of Mary, this truth must be gathered from His work: But if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works.

Why does the sacrament of a human birth hinder the understanding of the divine, when the divine birth accomplishes all its work by means of the human? Then He tells them what they should gather from His works: That you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him. This is the same declaration again: "I am the Son of God," and "I and the Father are one."

St. Augustine of Hippo: The Son does not say, "The Father is in Me, and I in Him," in the sense that righteous men might say something similar, meaning that they partake of God’s grace and are enlightened by His Spirit. The only-begotten Son of God is in the Father, and the Father in Him, as an equal in an equal.