Jesus answered them: Many good works I have shewed you from my Father. For which of those works do you stone me?
απεκριθη αυτοις ο ιησους πολλα καλα εργα εδειξα υμιν εκ του πατρος μου δια ποιον αυτων εργον λιθαζετε με
12 Church Fathers comment on this verse
The Lord exposes them and shows that they have no blessed reason for raging against Him, but are raging in vain. He reminds them of the miracles He had performed and says: “I have shown you many good works. For which of them do you want to stone Me?”
Yet in His mercy Christ began to restrain their irrational zeal. He did not say, "For what word that I spoke are you angry?" but "For what work that I did?" For if, He says, I had not performed many works proper to God, which reveal Me as God by nature. Then you would have grounds for indignation on hearing Me now say, "I and the Father are one." But I would not have said this if I had not proved it by all My works. He says the works are "from the Father," not "from Me," humbling Himself for our benefit, so that we may not be proud when we receive something from the Father. In saying that the works were shown from the Father, He also does not indicate that He Himself is alien to their accomplishment. Rather, He teaches that they are the works of the whole Godhead.
The Godhead is understood by us as one in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. For example, what the Father does is accomplished through the Son in the Holy Spirit. Again, what the Son does is said to be done also by the Father in the Spirit. Therefore He said of Himself: "I do nothing of Myself, but the Father who dwells in Me, He does the works" (Jn 8:28; Jn 14:10). For if these works of Mine did not confirm the words in which I spoke about Myself, that I am equal to the Father, then you could at once be indignant with Me for calling Myself God by nature. But all My works show Me to be God by nature. For if I blasphemed, He says, by calling Myself God, then it would be natural for you to think that by the works I have done I reveal Myself still more as God. It is precisely for this that you seek to kill Me.
Until this point the Jews could still endure Him. But they heard, “I and the Father are one,” and they could not bear it. Being hard-hearted, they rushed to stones according to their custom. They took up stones to stone Him. The Lord did not suffer the passions which He did not wish to accept. He suffered only those sufferings which He willed to suffer. Therefore He addressed those who were eager to stone Him.
“Jesus answered them: Many good works I have shown you from My Father,” works which show My equality with the Father. “For which of these works do you stone Me?” That is, for what work which does not show My equality with the Father? My works openly speak before all of My equality with the Father, even if I Myself were silent.
At these words, forgetting everything, the Jews again took up stones to stone Him as a blasphemer. But this time the Lord did not depart as before, but stopped them by His divine power. He explained to them that Scripture itself calls those to whom the word of God came gods. Therefore not everyone who says of himself that he is the Son of God is necessarily a blasphemer. One must pay attention to such a man and to the works by which he confirms his right to be called the Son of God. If you do not believe Me already, the Lord added, then at least believe My works. They show that I am in the Father and the Father in Me.
That the words of Jesus Christ, "I and the Father are one," must be understood in precisely this way, namely as the unity in essence of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, with God the Father, is confirmed by the fact that the Jews understood them in this way (v. 33). The Savior did not deny the correctness of their understanding. In His answer to the Jews' reproach, that He blasphemed by calling Himself God, the Lord Christ first removes this reproach (vv. 34-36). Then He proves that He is one with the Father and that He is the Son of God (vv. 37-38). The quotation from the Old Testament sacred books that Jesus Christ adduces as proof is found in Ps 81:6. There judges are called gods.
In other places of the Old Testament, judges and other men chosen by God are also called gods; see Ex 4:16; 7:1; 21:6; 22:8, 28; Zech 12:8. In the Old Testament, judges, kings, and prophets are called gods because, under the theocratic order of the Hebrew people, God Himself was the judge and king. From among men He chose organs for the revelation of His will to other men; cf. Ex 18:15; Deut 1:17; 19:17. Therefore judges, kings, and prophets were called gods and sons of the Most High insofar as the authority and power of God acted and were revealed in them. They were called so insofar as they revealed the will of God to men. Consequently, there is a certain likeness between them and Christ. In Him also God is revealed to the world, with whom He not only has communion but is one in essence. Thus the meaning of the proof is this. If ordinary men, because the word of God came to them, were called gods and sons of the Most High, and Scripture, being inspired by God, undoubtedly speaks truth in this case, then does He not have the right to call Himself the Son of God, whom God sent from heaven to earth? If they were called gods because they were in communion with God, then I have still greater right to be called the Son of God, for I am one with God. If they were both chosen and sanctified for sacred ministry, then I am the Sanctified One, chosen from among those sanctified and chosen. I am sanctified and chosen preeminently, for the Godhead is united to My humanity. Proofs of My unity with the Father have been given to you in My teaching and works. If you do not believe the former, then in any case you ought to believe the latter (cf. 5:31, 36), that the Father is in Me and I in Him, that I and the Father are one.
The Evangelist John relates that when the embittered Jews seized stones in order to kill Jesus with them, He did not expose Himself to the blows, but turned them aside, saying: "Many good works have I shown you from My Father; for which of them do you stone Me?" This meek question penetrated the hardened conscience of the Jews and had its effect: the stones fell from their hands. Thus the danger threatening Jesus, an evil, was turned aside. It was turned aside by resisting it, but not by evil; rather, by good. If Jesus Himself, who gave us the commandment not to resist evil, acted in this way, then it is clear that He did not understand this commandment literally. The Pharisees, armed with stones, had already raised them against Jesus. The savage punishment by Christ's embittered enemies would have begun if Jesus had not resisted it by saying: "Many good works have I shown you from My Father; for which of them do you stone Me?"
But His untroubled majesty disarmed them. "Many good works have I shown you from My Father," He said. "For which of them do you stone Me?" "We do not stone You for a good work," they answered, "but for blasphemy, and because You, being a man, make Yourself God." In justifying Himself, the Savior referred to Holy Scripture, where even those generally illumined by God are called "gods" (Ps 81:6). Still more, then, does He have the right to call Himself the "Son of God," who proved by His teaching and works His right to such a name.
"Jesus answered them." On this occasion the Lord does not withdraw from them, as before (Jn 8:59) and later (Jn 10:39). Instead, He strikes them with such a question that the stones fall from their hands. Against their will, they are restrained and humbled before the power of His word and before His expressed consciousness of His own righteousness and their unrighteousness. "Good works." The Greek word signifies not only good, kind, beneficent works, but also glorious, majestic, astonishing works, and at the same time morally beautiful and holy works. This indicates chiefly extraordinary, miraculous works, as in all similar cases; see v. 25 and parallels. "Many." John mentions two astonishing miracles done by the Lord in Jerusalem: the healing of the paralytic at Bethesda (ch.
5) and the healing of the man born blind (ch. 9). Of others John simply notes that many, seeing the signs He did, believed in Him (Jn 2:23). Yet undoubtedly reports had reached Jerusalem also about the Lord's glorious miracles in Galilee. His fame as a wonderworker had filled all Palestine and even the surrounding lands, as is clear from all the Gospels. Therefore by many glorious works here one may understand the miracles He had performed in general up to this time. "From My Father," that is, by the power of My Father. This expression may have been deliberately used by the Lord to indicate that He was not a deceiver of the people (v. 25 and note). Nor did He work miracles by the power of Beelzebul, as the Pharisees spread abroad in rumor; Mt 12:24 and following, with parallels. "For which of them," and so on. In the question one hears profound sorrowful irony; cf. 2 Cor 12:13. The Lord knew that they did not in fact wish to stone Him for good works. Yet He also knew that they did not acknowledge His good works as good, that they explained them otherwise, and thereby deceived their own conscience. By His question He discloses to them the true state of the matter. He indicates that by His works He deserved something entirely different from being stoned.
Verses 31-36. As before, the Jews took up stones to throw at Jesus for supposed blasphemy, Jn 8:57. "Many good works have I shown you from My Father; for which of them do you stone Me?" the Lord said to them. "Good works" are works of love, 1 Tim 6:18; Gen 44:4. They include the healing of various sick persons and the feeding of the hungry. The people bore witness of Him: "He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak" (Mk 7:37). "I have shown from the Father" means by the power of the Father abiding in the Son. To show works is a Hebrew expression meaning to perform works, Ps 4:6; Ps 70:20; Ps 83:8. I have done many good works for you. For which of them do you wish to kill Me? What bitter lament, and what astonishing meekness, are in this question!
Jehovah likewise lamented through the mouth of the prophet, Mic 6:3. The apostles also preached: "Him who went about doing good and healing the sick, you killed" (Acts 10:38-39). "The Jews said, We want to stone You because You, being a man, make Yourself God." If the Jews thought that Jesus presented Himself only as a divine man, they would not have said, "You, being a man, make Yourself God." It is clear that, in their understanding, Jesus acknowledged Himself to be the true Son of God. For this they accuse Him of blasphemy. The accusation is unjust. The general claim is unjust, namely that a man cannot be called god without allowing blasphemy. The Savior points to Ps 81:6. There it is said: "I said: You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High." "I said" when and where? In Moses, Ex 21:6; Ex 22:8, 9, 28. Some, Gesenius and De Wette, insist that in Moses Elohim does not refer to judges. But this contradicts the words of Moses. In Moses, as in the psalm, the judges are called gods. Some thought that the psalmist meant pagan kings, or the kings of Israel. But this is arbitrary. Nowhere in Scripture were kings called sons of God. The exception applied only to David and Solomon, and only as types of the King Messiah. The Savior says to His enemies: If, in your opinion, the honor is too high for Me when I call Myself God, will it seem a high honor to you if I call you gods, honored judges, in the words of Holy Scripture? "Your law" means the same as Holy Scripture, as in Jn 12:34 and Jn 15:25. "The Scripture cannot be broken" means that it cannot remain without effect, as in Jn 5:18; Jn 7:23; Sir 28:2. In what sense is it said of Christ, "whom the Father sanctified"? Since His sending as Son is spoken of here, the sanctification undoubtedly refers to His human nature and His ministry as Messiah. In usage, to sanctify means to set apart for a special ministry, such as the ministry of a prophet or a king, Sir 45:4; Sir 49:7; Jer 1:6; Gal 1:15. The Messiah is preeminently the Holy One of God, Mk 1:24, foreordained before the foundation of the world, 1 Pet 1:20. The miracles that occurred at the birth of Jesus, and the descent of the Holy Spirit at His baptism, served as proof that Jesus was an unheard-of messenger of God.
The gentle voice of the God-man asks them according to His humanity for which of the good works they wish to stone Him. The Lord wishes to bring them to understanding and restore to them at least the human reason and image which they had lost in their fury. And the Lord accomplishes this, for although they listen with their former malice, they do listen to His further words. Yet even in this exhortation the Lord reminds them that the works manifested by Him were manifested from the Father, that is, they are the works of God. Cf. above Jn 5:17, 19, 30; Jn 8:28, 29.
By saying, “We are one, I and the Father,” He shows that there are Two whom He makes equal and joins together. Moreover, He added that He had shown many good works from the Father, for none of which He deserved to be stoned.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 18 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS