John 10:39Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

After Christ proclaims something great and lofty, He immediately withdraws, yielding to the anger of the Jews, so that by His absence He may tame and quiet their passion. He acted in this way at that time also.

They seek to seize the Lord, unable to endure His lofty testimony about Himself, for they could not bear His surpassing theology. But He withdraws, yielding to their anger and ordering matters so that, through His withdrawal, the passion of their anger might subside. He withdraws against their will, in order to show what we have often said: that He would not have been taken even to the Cross if He had not voluntarily given Himself up. Note that Christ’s withdrawal also takes place in a spiritual sense. He withdraws from Jerusalem, that is, from the Jewish people.

The evangelist tells both of the cruelty of the Jews and of the power of the Savior. In response to such good words they were not softened, but sought to seize Him and kill Him. Yet, being God by nature, He escaped from His frenzied enemies, though He was directly in their hands.

The evangelist said this as though in amazement. By it he shows that He who, while standing in the midst of those seeking His blood, easily escapes without any danger, could never be seized except voluntarily.

Oh, if only they had wished to seize Him in order to believe and understand Him, and not in order to show hatred toward Him and kill Him! Indeed, my brothers, I who speak of such things, weak of great things, small of mighty things, fragile of unshakable things, and you, who belong to the same material as I who speak with you, all of us wish to seize Christ.

What does it mean to seize? If you have understood, you have seized. But not as the Jews did. You have seized Him in order to possess Him. They wished to seize Him in order not to possess Him.

When Jesus Christ performed some great miracle, He withdrew, avoiding the praise and approval of the people. When He said something great about Himself, He withdrew, avoiding the wrath and envy of the Jews, so that in His absence they might have an opportunity to calm down.

Their zeal cooled. Nevertheless, they still sought to seize Him, in order to bring Him before the Sanhedrin. But the Lord escaped from them. He went to the other side of the Jordan and wished to spend the last few days in the place where His Forerunner had first acted, and where perhaps He Himself had been pointed out by him (Jn 1:28). The effect of John’s preaching in that place had not yet been effaced. Though late, it bore its fruits. There many believed in Jesus.

The listeners correctly understand the last words of Jesus Christ, “The Father is in Me, and I in Him,” in the same sense as the words, “I and the Father are one.” Consequently, among those surrounding Christ there is again an outburst of indignation against Him, as though against a blasphemer, and again they want to seize Him. But Jesus Christ escaped from their hands.

His departure beyond the Jordan. Hearing this, the Pharisees again wanted to seize Jesus, but He escaped from their hands and went beyond the Jordan. How Christ escaped, the Evangelist does not say. Probably it was as at the Feast of Tabernacles, that is, He passed through the midst of them, and no one dared to touch Him.

The proof was irresistible. They did not dare to stone Him. But since He was alone and defenseless among them, they tried to seize Him. Yet they could not do even this. His appearance frightened them. They parted before Him and, with faces burning from hatred, watched Him withdraw from their midst.

“They sought to seize Him”: although the form of speech in which the Lord, in the last words, indicated His essential divinity was milder than before, His enemies nevertheless understood the meaning of His speech. Again, considering it blasphemy, they attempted to seize Him, perhaps to carry out their threat to stone Him or to bring Him before the judgment of the Sanhedrin. “But He escaped”: see the note on Jn 8:59.

Jn 10:39-42. "He went out of their hands." The evangelist does not say how Christ Jesus was saved from the hands of His enemies. But if they were so enraged that they took up stones, then without a special miracle He could scarcely have escaped from their hands.

The Savior withdraws from the Jerusalem Jews in order to give the agitated time to come to themselves. He chooses as His place of stay the Bethany of Perea, where the Baptist had preached (Jn 1:28).

Besides the fact that this secluded place was suited for rest and quiet conversations, the very sight of the place of John's preaching revived in the disciples the Forerunner's testimonies concerning Jesus.

But how did the Jews answer the Lord then? Again they “sought to seize Him.” What do the present unbelievers do? They sit and weave falsehood upon falsehood, in order to “seize” not the Lord, for this is beyond their power, but those who are simple in faith and cannot unravel their cunning intricacies.

The Lord makes a distinction between faith in Him and faith in the works that He performs. The first kind of faith is the higher. It is complete trust in the Lord, love for Him kindled by grace, and complete submission to the will of God, with perfect renunciation of oneself and one's own will (Mt 16:24).

The second kind of faith is cruder, but it can lead to a higher stage of moral development. In His mercy, the Lord, "who desires all men to be saved" (1 Tim 2:4), wishes to lead even these embittered Jews onto the path by which they may come to Him.