John 10:25Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Since it was madness to demand the testimony of words when His works proclaimed Him, hear how He answers them. Partly He shows that they ask this needlessly and not in order to learn. Partly He shows that He has already given an answer clearer than words, namely, an answer in deeds.

"I told you, and you do not believe," He says. "The works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me" (Jn 10:25).

Even the more moderate among them often said this among themselves: "How can a sinful man do such signs?" (Jn 9:16). Again, "A demon cannot open the eyes of the blind" (Jn 10:21). And also, "No one can do such signs unless God is with him" (Jn 3:2).

Therefore, exposing them for asking with evil intent, the Lord answers them: “I told you many times, and you do not believe.” And again: “Why do you pretend that you would obey a single plain word? You do not accept the works which I do, not as an adversary of God, but in the name of My Father. How then will you believe one plain word?” For works are certainly far more convincing than words. Even the more moderate among them said this: “A sinful man cannot do such miracles” (Jn 9:16).

Christ considered it needless to repeat the same thing to those who had often heard and did not believe. Each person must be judged by the quality of his deeds, not by his words.

He says that He performs "works in the name of the Father." He does not speak as one who has received power from above, like every saint. Nor does He, as God from God, consubstantial with the Father and the Father's Power, ascribe weakness to Himself.

Rather, assigning the power by which He performs His works to the divine glory, He says that He does the works in the Father's name. Yet He also refers the honor to the Father, so as not to give the Jews a pretext for attacking Him.

What is the Shepherd's voice? "That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem" (Lk 24:47). This is the Shepherd's voice. Watch yourself and follow, if you are a sheep.

What He answered them is still greater than this. They wanted to accuse Him as the son of David, but He answered that He is the Son of God. How? Listen: "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me. But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep" (Jn 10:25-26).

"Jesus answered them: I told you, and you do not believe."

Concerning the matter about which you ask Me, I have already spoken to you, not only by word but also by deeds, yet you do not believe. Therefore you ask Me so earnestly in vain.

"The works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me."

They bear witness that I am the Christ. Again Jesus Christ adds the words "in My Father's name," lest He seem to oppose God. Some have understood the word "name" here, ὄνομα, in the sense of Godhead. Others understand it as power, and others as omnipotence, since the Father is called God, almighty, omnipotent, and by other names. What belongs to the Father belongs also to the Son.

Knowing the heart of these people, the Lord answered that the cause of their perplexities lay not in Him, but in their unbelief. He also said that He had ceased to count them as His sheep. Having said this, He showed with particular force what He was ready to do for those who believe in Him and are faithful to Him. He said that no one would snatch them from His hands, or, what is the same, from the hands of His Father. Then He added: “I and the Father are one.”

Jesus Christ, of course, could not speak of Himself in the spirit of the Pharisees. Indeed, because they joined false notions and expectations to the name Messiah, He did not use this name for Himself before, nor does He now.

Yet to the question put to Him, whether He is the Christ, Jesus answers quite clearly and directly that He is the Messiah, the Christ, as He had always told them. At the same time, by recalling His discourse on the Good Shepherd, He exposes the unbelief of the Jews.

He says that He has borne such witness to Himself by His word, and that by His works He has confirmed this testimony about Himself. Therefore, if after all this they remain in unbelief, it means that they do not belong among those called to salvation.

An explanation of Jesus' consubstantiality with the Father.

Two months earlier, at the Feast of Tabernacles, the Pharisees had asked Jesus, "Where is Your Father?" and "Who are You?" (Jn 8:19, 25). If He did not answer these questions directly, still from His whole conversation with them they should have concluded this: if He calls Himself the Son of God, existing before Abraham, then He certainly acknowledges Himself as the Messiah, the Christ.

The Pharisees understood all this perfectly even then, and for that reason they wanted to stone Jesus. They could not have forgotten it so quickly. Therefore, if they now asked Jesus whether He was the Christ, it was certainly not from a desire to believe in Him, as some suppose.

But Christ foresaw their hidden thoughts. They had no need at all of the Messiah in His true, spiritual dignity. In the present condition of these supposed righteous men, such a Messiah would have been only a stern rebuke to them.

They needed a political Messiah who would overthrow the hated Romans and their appointees, the Herods. He would conquer the whole world and make these very Pharisees and scribes rulers over the nations.

Passionately desiring to see in Jesus an earthly national Messiah, they rejected with hatred the Son of God, the Savior of the world. That He was the Messiah in a more exalted and spiritual sense than they dreamed, He had often declared in clear words.

"Jesus answered them," and so forth. The resolute way in which the Jews approached the Lord placed Him, in this case, in an especially difficult position.

He could not say to them directly, "Yes, I am the Messiah," because the meaning they attached to the word Messiah had nothing in common with what He attached to it. Still less could He say, "No," for He truly was the Messiah promised to them by God, and in that sense He was the One whom they awaited.

To say directly, "I am the Messiah, but not in your sense; your notions of the Messiah are false," would have produced an outburst of desperate indignation in them. His life could then have been endangered.

Verses 24-28. "Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, How long do You hold our souls in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly."

Αἴρειν ψυχάς means to keep hearts raised, to trouble them with doubts. If the Jews had asked their question with pure intentions, in order to learn the truth, the Savior's answer would not have been what we read.

They sought a direct answer to the question whether He was the Messiah, so that they might bring His answer before the Sanhedrin and summon Jesus there also. Therefore their complaint about the agitation of their souls was a hypocritical complaint.

Why do you ask Me about what you yourselves know and understand very well? So says the Lord.

The works that I do bear the seal of My origin and significance. First, they are the works of God. Second, they are done by Me in the name of My Father.

When the Pharisees and scribes reviled the Lord as a man, they proved only an evil heart and the absence of every feeling for truth and goodness. But when they blasphemed the works performed by the Holy Spirit, they set themselves against God; cf. Athanasius the Great, Second Letter to Serapion, part 3. Their destruction became certain.