Thomas Aquinas Commentary John 10:31-42

"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. They sought again to take him: and he went forth out of their hand. And he went away again beyond the Jordan into the place where John was at the first baptizing; and there be abode. And many came unto him; and they said, John indeed did no sign: but all things whatsoever John spake of this man were true. And many believed on him there." — John 10:31-42 (ASV)

1. We have seen the teaching of Christ, and now we see the effect this teaching has on the Jews. We observe three things:

   • First, Jesus reproves their fierceness.
   • Second, He defends Himself against the charge of blasphemy, starting at the phrase, the Jews answered him.
   • Third, He escapes from their violence, starting at the phrase, they sought therefore to take him.

2. Concerning the first point, two things happen. First, we see the violence of the Jews inciting them to stone Christ. The Evangelist says, the Jews then took up stones to stone him. They were hard of heart and unable to understand His profound message; and so, being like stones, they resorted to stones: when I spoke to them they fought against me without cause (Psalms 120:7).

3. Second, we see our Lord reprove their violence, saying, many good works I have shown you from my Father. In this, He first reminds them of the benefits given to them, and second, He reproves their violence.

   He recalls the benefits He granted in healing the sick, in teaching them, and in performing His miracles. Jesus answered them: many good works I have shown you, by healing, teaching, and working miracles: he has done all things well (Mark 7:37); from my Father, whose glory I have sought in all these things: I do not seek my own glory, but the glory of him who sent me (John 8:50).

   He then reproves their violence when He says, for which of these works do you stone me? This was like saying, “You should honor one who does good to you, not stone him.” Similarly, it is said: is evil a recompense for good? (Jeremiah 18:20).

4. Now our Lord defends Himself from the charge of blasphemy.

   • First, we see Him accused of blasphemy by the Jews.
   • Second, Christ proves His innocence, starting at the phrase, Jesus answered them: is it not written in your law?

5. With respect to the first point, the Evangelist says, the Jews answered him: we do not stone you for a good work but for blasphemy.

   There are five things to consider here:

   1. First is the apparent motive for their stoning Him: His blasphemy. For Leviticus commands that blasphemers be stoned: bring out of the camp him who has blasphemed; and let all who heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let the congregation stone him (Leviticus 24:14). Mentioning this motive, they say, we do not stone you for a good work but for blasphemy.
   2. Second, they specify His blasphemy. It is blasphemy not only to attribute to God what is not appropriate to Him, but also to attribute to another what belongs to God alone. So, it is blasphemy not only to say that God is a body, but also to say that a creature can create: it is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone? (Mark 2:7). Thus the Jews were saying that our Lord was a blasphemer not in the first way, but for usurping for Himself what is proper to God: because you, being a man, make yourself God.
   3. The third thing to consider is that the Jews understood the words of Christ, I and the Father are one (John 10:30), better than the Arians did. They were incensed because they understood that I and the Father are one (John 10:30) could only be said if the Father and Son are equal. This is what they mean when they say, you... make yourself God, claiming by your words that you are God, which is not true, since you are, as they say, being a man.
   4. The fourth point to consider is that the distance between God and man is so great that it was unbelievable to them that someone with a human nature could be God. So they significantly say, because you, being a man, make yourself God. Yet this unbelief could have been dispelled by what is read in the Psalm: what is man that you are mindful of him? Or the son of man that you visit him? (Psalms 8:4); and: for I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told (Habakkuk 1:5). This refers to the work of the Incarnation, which surpasses all understanding.
   5. The fifth thing to consider is that they do not agree with themselves. On the one hand, they say that Christ does good works, saying, we stone you for no good work; and on the other hand, they accuse Him of blasphemy for usurping for Himself the honor of God. These two claims conflict, for He could not accomplish miracles from God if He blasphemed God, because a sound tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit (Matthew 7:18). And this applied especially to Christ.

6. Here our Lord defends Himself against the charge of blasphemy.

   • First, He gives His defense.
   • Second, He shows them the truth, starting at the phrase, if I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me.

   He defends Himself by divine authority, and so:

   • First, He mentions the authority of Scripture.
   • Second, He explains its meaning.
   • Third, He draws His conclusion.

7. The Evangelist says, Jesus answered them: is it not written in your law, as we read in the Psalms, I said you are gods? (Psalms 82:6).

   Here we should note that ‘law’ is understood in three ways in Scripture. Sometimes it is taken in a general sense for the entire Old Testament, containing the five books of Moses, the prophets, and the hagiographa. This is how in your law is understood here, meaning in the Old Testament. This quotation is from the Psalms, which are referred to as the law because the entire Old Testament is considered to have the authority of law.

   Sometimes ‘law’ is understood as distinct from the prophets, Psalms, and the hagiographa; this is the way Luke uses it in everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled (Luke 24:44). At other times, it is distinguished from the prophets. In this sense, the Psalms and the other books of the Old Testament, other than the Pentateuch, are included within the prophets, on the ground that the Old Testament was produced by a prophetic spirit. This is the way it is understood in Matthew: on these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets (Matthew 22:40). Therefore it is written: I said you are gods.

8. The word ‘god’ is also used in three senses. Sometimes it signifies the divine nature itself, and then it is used only in the singular: hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord (Deuteronomy 6:4). At other times it is taken in a denominative sense; in this way idols are called gods: all the gods of the peoples are idols (Psalms 96:5). And sometimes someone is called a god because of a certain participation in divinity, or in some sublime power divinely infused. In this way, even judges are called gods in Scripture: if the thief is not found, the owner of the house shall be brought to the gods, that is, to the judges (Exodus 22:8); you shall not speak ill of the gods, that is, of the rulers (Exodus 22:28). This is the way the word ‘god’ is taken here, when He says, I said you are gods, meaning, you share in some divine power superior to the human.

9. Then when He says, if he called them gods, to whom the word of God was spoken, and the Scripture is not able to be broken, He shows the meaning of the authority He cited. This was like saying: “He called them gods because they participated in something divine, insofar as they participated in God’s word, which was spoken to them.” For by God’s word a person obtains some participation in the divine power and purity: now you are clean by reason of the word, which I have spoken to you (John 15:3); and we read that the face of Moses shone when he heard the words of the Lord (Exodus 34).

   From what has been said, one might argue this way: it is clear that a person, by participating in the word of God, becomes a god by participation. But a thing does not become something by participation unless it participates in that which is that thing by its essence. For example, a thing does not become fire by participation unless it participates in what is fire by its essence. Therefore, one does not become a god by participation unless he participates in what is God by essence. It follows, then, that the Word of God—that is, the Son—by participation in whom we become gods, is God by essence. But our Lord, rather than argue so profoundly against the Jews, preferred to argue in a more human way. He says, and the Scripture is not able to be broken, in order to show the irrefutable truth of Scripture: O Lord, your word endures forever (Psalms 119:89).

10. Then, when He says, do you say of him whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world, He draws His conclusion. If, with Hilary, we refer this to Christ insofar as He has a human nature, the meaning is this: some people are called gods only because they participate in God’s word. How then can you say, you are blaspheming, that is, how can you consider it blasphemy, if that man who is united in person to the Word of God is called God? This is why He says, whom the Father has sanctified.

    For although God sanctifies all who are sanctified—sanctify them in truth (John 17:17)—He sanctified Christ in a special way. He sanctifies others to be adopted children—you have received the spirit of adoption (Romans 8:15)—but He sanctified Christ to be the Son of God by nature, united in person to the Word of God. These words, whom the Father has sanctified, show this in two ways. For if God sanctifies as Father, it is clear that He sanctifies Christ as His Son: he was predestined to be the Son of God by the Spirit of Sanctification (Romans 1:4). We can also see this by His saying, and sent into the world. For it is not fitting for a thing to be sent some place unless it existed before it was sent there. Therefore, He whom the Father sent into the world in a visible way is the Son of God, who existed before He was visible: for as we saw above, he was in the world, and through him the world was made (John 1:10); and God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world (John 3:17).

    Do you say of him whom the Father... sent into the world, you are blaspheming, because I said, I am the Son of God? This was like saying: “I, who am united in person to the Word, have much more reason to say this than those to whom the word of God was spoken.”

11. But how did the Jews realize that He was claiming to be the Son of God? Our Lord did not say this expressly.

    I answer that although our Lord did not say this expressly, yet from what He did say, I and the Father are one (John 10:30), and that which my Father has given to me is greater than all (John 10:29), they understood that He received His nature from the Father and was one in nature with Him. But to receive the same nature from another, and to be it, is to be a son.

12. But if, with Augustine, we refer whom the Father sanctified to Christ as God, then the meaning is this: whom the Father has sanctified is He whom He has begotten holy, or sanctified, from eternity. The other things which follow should be explained in the same way as Hilary does. Yet the better explanation is to refer everything to Christ as man.

13. Then when He says, if I do not do the works of my father, do not believe me, He proves the truth of the foregoing. This is like saying: “Although in your opinion I am only human, yet I am not blaspheming when I say that I am truly God, because I truly am.”

    He does two things concerning this:

    • First, He presents the argument of His works.
    • Second, He draws His conclusion, at that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.

14. He does two things concerning the first point. In the first place, He says that in the absence of His works they would have an excuse. He says, if I do not do the works of my Father, that is, the same ones that He does, and with the same might and power, do not believe me. Whatever he, the Father, does, these the Son also does in like manner (John 5:19).

    Second, He says that they are convicted by His very works: but if I do them, the same works the Father does, then even though you do not want to believe me, who appears as a son of man, believe the works. That is, these works show that I am the Son of God: if I had not done among them the works that no other man has done, they would not have sin (John 15:24).

15. Now He draws His conclusion, saying, that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Father. The clearest indication of a thing’s nature is taken from its works. Therefore, from the fact that He does the works of God, it can be clearly known and believed that Christ is God. Accordingly, He says: I will argue from my works themselves, that you may know and believe what you cannot see with your own eyes, that is, that the Father is in me, and I in the Father. This has the same meaning as I am in the Father and the Father in me (John 14:10), by a unity of essence. The statements The Father is in me, and I in the Father and I and the Father are one (John 10:30) have the same meaning.

    Hilary explains this well by saying that there is this difference between God and man: man, being a composite, is not his own nature; but God, being entirely simple, is His own existence and His own nature. Therefore, in whomever the nature of God is, there God is. And so, since the Father is God and the Son is God, where the nature of the Father is, there the Father is, and where the nature of the Son is, there the Son is. Therefore, since the nature of the Father is in the Son, and vice versa, the Father is in the Son, and vice versa.

    But as Augustine remarks, although God is in man and man is in God—he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him (1 John 4:16)—this does not mean that they are one in essence. Rather, man is in God, that is, under the divine care and protection, and God is in man by the likeness of His grace. However, the only Son is in the Father and the Father is in Him as equals.

16. Now our Lord turns away from the obstinacy of the Jews.

    • First, the Evangelist shows they were obstinate.
    • Second, we see that Christ turns away from this.
    • Third, we see what effect this had.

17. The Evangelist shows their inflexibility by the fact that after so many confirmations of the truth, after the evidence of so many miracles and wonders, they still persist in their evil. So they sought therefore to take him, to apprehend Him, not in order to believe and understand, but in their rage to do Him harm. They were even more enraged because He had more clearly expressed His equality with the Father: they hold fast to deceit, they refuse to return (Jeremiah 8:5).

18. But our Lord turns away from their rage, and so the Evangelist says, and he escaped out of their hands.

    Here we see, first, that He left them by escaping from their hands. He did this for two reasons. First, to show that He could not be restrained unless He willed: passing through the midst of them he went away (Luke 4:30); no man takes it away from me, but I lay it down of myself (John 10:18). Second, to give us the example of turning away from persecution when this can be done without endangering the faith: do not make your stand against one who can injure you .

    We see, second, where He went when the Evangelist says, he went again beyond the Jordan, into that place where John was baptizing first. The mystical reason for this is that at some time, through the apostles, Jesus would go to convert the Gentiles.

    The literal reason is twofold. First, this place was near Jerusalem, and since His passion was near, He did not wish to be too far away. Second, He wanted to recall the witness which John had given there, when he said, behold, the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), as well as the Father’s testimony to His Son, Christ, at the time of His baptism.

19. The effect of this turning away was that many were converted to the faith. Three points are made about this conversion. First, many imitated His works; so he says, and many came to him, namely, by imitating His works: come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).

    Second, many professed Him in word, and they said: John indeed did no sign. By this they profess Christ’s superiority to John. The reason for this was that John was sent as a witness to Christ; thus he should show that he was worthy to be believed and his testimony would be shown to be true. This is fittingly done by holiness of life. On the other hand, Christ came as God; consequently, it was fitting that He show the signs of divine power. And so John stood out by the sanctity of his life; Christ, however, in addition to this, performed works which manifested His divine power. This was in accord with the practice of the rulers of antiquity that when in the presence of a higher power, a lesser power did not display the insignia of its power. Thus, in the presence of the dictator, the consuls took down their insignia. So it was not fitting that John, who possessed less power because he was a precursor and witness, should employ the insignia of divine power; only Christ should have done this. They profess the truth of John’s witness to Christ, saying, but all things whatsoever John said about this man, Christ, were true. They were saying: “Although John did no sign, he nevertheless said all things truthfully about Christ.”

    Third, he reveals the faith in their hearts, saying, and many believed in him. As Augustine remarks, they grasped Christ remaining, whom the Jews wanted to seize waning, because through the lamp they had come to the Day. For John was that lamp and gave testimony to the Day.