John 10:34Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Now, exposing the Jews because they wished to stone Him not for saying, "I and the Father are one," but without cause, He says: If, by calling Myself God, I seem to you a blasphemer, why, when the Father said in the Law to men, "You are gods," did you not condemn Him as blaspheming? He says this not to provoke them into saying anything against the Father, but to expose their ignorance of the Law and the God-inspired Scriptures. Since there is an exceedingly great distance between those called gods and God by nature, He teaches this distinction in the words cited. For if men "to whom the word of God came" are called "gods" and are illumined with the honor of the Godhead, because they received the Word of God to dwell in their soul, then can He fail to be God by nature, for whose sake they also are gods? For "the Word was God" (Jn 1:1), according to John, and He supplied this glory to others also. If the Word of God, through the Holy Spirit, raises to grace above humanity and adorns with divine honor those in whom He dwells, why, He asks, do you "say that I blaspheme" when I call Myself "the Son of God" and God? By the work entrusted to Me by Him, I have been testified to as God by nature. For "He who sanctified Me sent Me into the world" as "Savior of the world" (1 Jn 4:14). This belongs to God by nature alone, namely the power to save men from the devil, sin, and corruption.

But if divine Scripture says that the Son is sent by the Father, perhaps the heretic will at once make this saying food for his error. He may say: You who refuse to call the Son less than the Father, do you not see Him being sent by Him, as by someone greater and higher? What shall we answer except that the word "sending" most properly and fittingly belongs to the state of abasement? You hear Paul joining both together, Christ's equality with God and His abasement in the form of a servant. He says that the Son was sent by the Father when He appeared from a woman and under the Law as man with us, although He was Lawgiver and Lord (Gal 4:4). If, then, the Son is understood as appearing in the form of a servant, and afterward He is said to be sent by the Father, this does no harm at all to His being consubstantial with the Father, equal in honor, and in no way possessing anything less.

Our expressions, when they refer to God, require careful discernment. They must not be understood as we are accustomed to use them about ourselves, but as befits the divine and supreme Nature itself. What else can be done, if human language has no words sufficient to express divine glory? Therefore it is absurd, because of the weakness of human language and the poverty of expressions, to harm the dignity of the glory that surpasses all. Remember Solomon's words: "The glory of the Lord conceals a word" (Prov 25:2). When we subject the glory of the Lord to exact scrutiny, we resemble those who wish to measure heaven with the span of a hand (Is 40:12).

Therefore, when something is said of God in human form, it must be understood in a manner befitting God. Otherwise, what will you do when you hear David singing, "You who sit upon the cherubim, appear; stir up Your might and come for our salvation" (Ps 79:2-3)? Can the bodiless sit? From what place does he call the God of all to come to us, who says through the prophets, "Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord" (Jer 23:24). To what place will He who fills all things come to us? It is also written that some began to build a tower reaching to heaven, "and the Lord came down to see the city and the tower. And the Lord said, Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language" (Gen 11:5-7). Where did the Lord come down? Or how does the Holy Trinity urge Itself to descend? Tell me also, how did the Savior promise to send us the Comforter from heaven? To where, and from where, is He who fills all things sent? For "the Spirit of the Lord has filled the world," as it is written (Wis 1:7).

Therefore our expressions have meanings beyond us when they are used of God. You wish to understand something of these difficult matters, but your mind proves too weak to receive it. In that case, acknowledge your weakness. Do not be ashamed, man. Admit the infirmity of your nature. Remember the words: "Do not seek what is above your strength" (Sir 3:21). When you turn your bodily sight toward the disk of the sun, you immediately turn away, struck by the dazzling brightness of the light. Know, then, that the divine nature also dwells in unapproachable light, unapproachable precisely to the mind of those who pry. Therefore, when divine matters are expressed in human words, we must think nothing low. In the poverty of our expressions, as in a mirror, we must contemplate the riches of divine glory.

What, then, if the Son is sent by the Father? Will He therefore be less? When light is sent from the solar orb, does it have another nature different from it, and is it less than it? Is it not absurd even to think this? Therefore the Son, being the light of the Father, is sent to us as, for example, the sun sends forth its radiance. David prayed for this to happen in the words, "Send out Your light and Your truth" (Ps 42:3). If it is glory for the Father to have Light, how can you call less that in which He is glorified?

The Son Himself says of Himself, "whom the Father sanctified and sent." The word "sanctified" has varied usage in Scripture. Thus, what is dedicated to God is called sanctified, as He said to Moses, "Sanctify to Me every firstborn" (Ex 13:2). Again, what is appointed by God to accomplish some purpose of His is sanctified. Thus, when He wished to send Cyrus and the Medes to conquer the land of Babylon, He says of them: "Giants are coming to fulfill My wrath, rejoicing and at the same time causing grief; they are sanctified, and I lead them" (Is 13:3). Again, what partakes of the Holy Spirit is sanctified. Therefore the Son says that He is sanctified by the Father as one appointed by Him for the ordering of life for the world and for the destruction of enemies. Or again, because He was sent to be slaughtered for the salvation of the world, since what is appointed as a sacrifice to God is also called holy. We also call Him sanctified together with us, in a human manner, when He became flesh. His flesh was sanctified by receiving the Word united to it, though it was not holy by nature. But that through which this comes about is sanctified by the Father, for the Godhead of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is one.

Yet God is not in the Son as He is in each of the saints, sanctifying them by His indwelling. The Son Himself is the power and wisdom of the Father, sanctifying everything that partakes of Him in the Spirit. He Himself, again, is not holy by some participation, as we are, and is not called Son by grace. He is the eternal birth of the essence of the Father. Therefore He sets Himself against gods by adoption, clearly as Himself being by nature what is applied to them as grace. Therefore it is said of Him: "Who is like You among the gods, O Lord?" because He possesses this dignity not by adoption, but by nature. And again: "Who in the clouds shall be compared to the Lord, or who among the sons of God shall be likened to Him?" (Ps 85:8; 88:7). Here the Psalmist speaks very clearly. Neither among the prophets, whom he figuratively calls clouds, nor among those raised to sonship by grace can there be anyone equal to Him who is Son by nature. Of us it is written, "I said, You are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High; but you die like men" (Ps 81:6-7). Thus, if we do not use every effort to depart from evil, we can very easily lose what we received. We received by grace the name both of sons of God and of gods, which belongs to the Son by nature. Therefore the difference is great and immeasurable between us, who are called sons by grace, and the natural and true Son.

John calls the Son "Word," assigning this name to Him in the proper sense and as the special designation of His being. If, on the contrary, the name "Word" belonged to the Son not in the sense of nature and being, it would certainly have to express something else. In that case one must decide why He who is Son by nature is called Word, if this name does not indicate His being. For example, the name carpenter, stonecutter, or swift writer does not define what those designated by these names are by nature, but indicates what occupation they have. If, therefore, this name does not denote the Son's being, and the title "Word" does not present Him as what He is by nature, then we must say what occupation He has. Why, then, do we admire the Evangelist in vain? How could he be called "Son of thunder" as one who uttered something great and extraordinarily important, although divine Scripture calls the Son by many names? But when he said "Word," he uttered something wondrous and extraordinary, and added nothing else to this name, as we see with Paul: "Paul, an Apostle." The title "Word" was sufficient to express the being of the Son. Therefore He is the true Word of the Father, and no other besides Him. If Christ's opponents imagined for this reason that the Son is not consubstantial with the Father, because the Father is not the Word and the Word is not the Father. And supposed that the unity of nature is divided by the difference of names, let them tell us how the forefather Adam is consubstantial with his descendants, when he himself can never be Abel, nor Abel Adam. Difference of names does not remove identity of being. If this is so concerning originated and created nature, is it not impious to think this about the uncreated Nature, which surpasses everything made? Therefore, if He were of another essence, He would not be the true Word. Since He is consubstantial, He is the true Word.

We are sons by adoption, ascending to this dignity above nature by the will of Him who honored us with it. We receive the name of gods and sons because of Christ dwelling in us through the Holy Spirit.

The Only-begotten is the sanctifier also of everything else that, by participation in sanctification, ascends to holiness. Sacred Scripture speaks in various ways about the sanctification of something. Therefore He is sanctified, that is, appointed to be sent into the world in order to save those who live in it. Or understand sanctification as the setting apart of something for sacrifice. For "one died for all" (2 Cor 5:14) by the good pleasure of God and the Father. Or He is said to be sanctified because He made His own temple holy. His flesh was not holy by its own nature, but it was sanctified, receiving the holiness of the Word united to it. For this reason also, I think, He spoke in this way.

Do you see how most clearly He sets Himself against gods by status, as being by nature what is given to them as a gift? How can one allow that He who is God essentially does not wholly and completely escape being a creation, if the divine and incomprehensible nature is placed above createdness? If so, then He is not a thing made and not a creature.

He saw that they could not endure the radiance of truth, and He warmed them by His words: "Is it not written in your law," that is, in the law given to you, "I said: You are gods?" God said to men through the prophet in the psalm: "I said: You are gods" (Ps 81:6). Here the Lord called all the Scriptures generally "law," although elsewhere He particularly names the Law, distinguishing it from the Prophets, as here: "The Law and the Prophets were until John" (Lk 16:16). And again: "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets" (Mt 22:40). Sometimes He divided all the Scriptures into three parts when He said: everything written about Me in the Law, in the Prophets, and in the Psalms must be fulfilled; cf. Lk 24:44. But here He calls even the Psalms law, where it is written, "I said: You are gods."

There could be no adoption without the true Son, who says, "No one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him" (Mt 11:27). And how could deification have occurred without the Word and before Him, though He said to the Jewish brothers: "If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came"? If all who were called sons and gods, whether on earth or in heaven, were adopted and deified through the Word, and the Son Himself is the Word, then it is clear that all things are through Him. He is before all, and above all He alone is true Son and the only true God from true God. He did not receive this as a reward for His virtue, nor was He anything other than this. By nature, according to essence, He is such. For He is the offspring of the Father's essence. Therefore no one doubts that, in likeness to the immutable Father, the Word also is immutable. See Athanasius the Great, On the Incarnation 54. See Col 1:15; see also Orations 2.62. In this passage Athanasius considers participation in the Word to be deification, just as communion with the Son is adoption. He implies that the people of the Old Testament, since they are called "gods" and "sons," were participants in the divine Word and Son. In other words, they were endowed with the Spirit. He sets forth this teaching very clearly in Oration 4.22. Continuing, he also says that Christ received the Spirit at His baptism "in order to give Him to man" (Oration 4.47). There is no real contradiction in these statements. What was given in one way under the Law was given in another and fuller way under the Gospel.

Deliver the poor and the needy; rescue him from the hand of the wicked. They do not know, they do not understand; they walk in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. I said: You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High. But you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes" (Ps 81:1-7). The meaning of this psalm leaves no doubt that men called to render judgment and defend the weak from the encroachments of the strong are called gods in it. They are called gods because they must be organs of divine justice and bearers of God's righteousness. In the name of God Himself, they are told in what case they may be called sons of the Most High, as if gods. If they judge the poor and the orphan rightly, and show justice to every oppressed and needy person, they will be worthy sons of the Most High and will be called gods. If they deliver the poor and needy from oppression by the wicked, they will be so called. At the same time, those organs of divine authority who understand none of this and walk in darkness, so that all the foundations of the earth, all foundations of social life, are shaken by their evildoing, will all perish, though they are called gods. Having quoted this excerpt from the psalm, Christ said, as it were: "You certainly will not dare to accuse the psalmist of blasphemy. Therefore, if he called worthy bearers of divine authority gods, how can you accuse Me of blasphemy? I called Myself the Son of God and do works that only God can do."

For I am the true envoy and mediator between God and men, sanctified and sent by God as the fulfillment of all those mediators and types whom Scripture, without blasphemy, calls gods.

"In your law." The word law properly signifies the Pentateuch of Moses, in which the laws given by God through Moses are set forth.

Yet it is sometimes used also of the whole Old Testament, since all of it is the word of God, and the word of God is law for man; Jn 12:34; Jn 15:25; Rom 3:19; 1 Cor 14:23.

"I said, You are gods." The passage indicated is found in Ps 81:6.

Special and extraordinary instruments of the divine will are called gods by God Himself in particular and exceptional cases.

When He sends Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh, God says to Moses concerning Aaron: "He shall be your mouth," since Moses was slow of speech, "and you shall be to him as God," in the original, "God"; Ex 4:16.

The Lord said to Moses: "See, I have made you God to Pharaoh"; Ex 7:1.

Therefore other immediate instruments of God in relation to the people, for example judges, were called gods, of course not in the strict and proper sense; cf. Ex 21:6; Ex 22:28.

Likewise kings were so called (Zech 12:8), and prophets also, as is clear from the words of God to the prophet Moses quoted above.

Thus, as instruments of the will of God and mediators between God and the people, reconciling the righteous God with the injustices of the people, they were generally types of the one true mediator and reconciler, the Messiah.

As special partakers of the divine life, they were called gods, as images and types of God.

In them and through them the whole Old Testament goes, as it were, to meet the one true Mediator and Reconciler. He is their goal and fulfillment.

In the Psalm mentioned, the Psalmist calls by this name, gods, the judges of Israel. They were mediators between God and the people in the matter most important for the people, judgment.

They were instruments of God's righteousness among His people.

The sacred poet presents the true God, Jehovah, as standing in the assembly of these gods, in their midst, and pronouncing His judgment upon them themselves (Ps 81:1).

For they themselves had lost sight of the ideal of true judges, as instruments of divine judgment, and had become unrighteous judges (Ps 81:2-5).

Therefore, as though with regret, God says to them: "I said, You are gods." That is, in your ideal dignity, as instruments of divine righteousness.

But you have betrayed the righteousness of God and will yourselves undergo judgment (Ps 81:6-7).

From these words the Lord draws the conclusion that if Scripture does not blaspheme by calling such men gods, then all the more He does not blaspheme when He calls Himself the Son of God, since He truly is such.

The turn of speech is the same as in Jn 7:23.

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.

But the Lord had earlier said to the Jews in Jn 5 that the Father had given all judgment to the Son. He told them that He is the true great Judge of the world. Therefore, if those were called gods "to whom the word of God came," how will the Jews deny the name Son of God to Him whom "the Father sanctified and sent into the world"? Here the Lord plainly has in view the final words of Psalm 81, which prophesy precisely concerning Him to whom "the Father has given all judgment." These words are: "Arise, O God, judge the earth, for Thou shalt inherit all nations." This prophecy revealed in the Old Testament the future greatness of Christianity, which would embrace all nations. It would acknowledge in the incarnate God the Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, the one Judge of all. The Jews dared to call blasphemy the revelation given them of the Son of God, because they "could never receive the words of God" (Jn 8:37), because of malice. Therefore the Lord also said, "For this reason the Wisdom of God said: I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute" (Lk 11:49). The Lord reminds the Jews that those to whom the word of God was addressed themselves become gods. By receiving it, they are sanctified and raised up, becoming "God's own" (Eph 2). He then passes to the most important moment in the life of mankind, when the Word of God was incarnate and Himself speaks to the world. The Father sanctifies not God the Word, but the man Jesus. Yet Jesus is God, speaking to men through the veil of the flesh, according to the expression of Gregory the Theologian. The Jews do not wish to acknowledge this man, sanctified by God, as the Son of God, and they call this blasphemy. The Lord knows that they cannot receive the mystery of the tri-hypostatic Godhead. He knows that they see in Him only a man. Yet He closes their mouths with the words of the law when they dare to call blasphemy His calling Himself the Son of God. For He did the works of God, Jn 5:20, 36 and elsewhere, and spoke the words of God, Jn 3:34; Jn 6:63; Jn 8 and elsewhere. They themselves admitted this, Jn 3:2. So spoke the better among them; cf. Jn 9:16. St. John Chrysostom also says on this passage, vv. 35-36: "These words mean this: if those who received this name, sons of God, by grace are not accused when they call themselves gods, how can He justly be subject to reproach who has this, the essence of God, by nature?"