John 8:31

Abraham’s Children and the Devil’s Children

8:31 Then Jesus said to those Judeans ¹  who had believed him, “If you continue to follow my teaching, ²  you are really ³  my disciples

John 8:37

8:37 I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. ⁴  But you want ⁵  to kill me, because my teaching ⁶  makes no progress among you. ⁷ 

John 8:47

8:47 The one who belongs to ⁸  God listens and responds ⁹  to God’s words. You don’t listen and respond, ¹⁰  because you don’t belong to God.” ¹¹ 

John 10:34

10:34 Jesus answered, ¹²  “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’? ¹³ 

[8:31]  ¹ tn Grk “to the Jews.” In NT usage the term ᾿Ιουδαῖοι (Ioudaioi) may refer to the entire Jewish people, the residents of Jerusalem and surrounding territory (i.e., “Judeans”), the authorities in Jerusalem, or merely those who were hostile to Jesus. (For further information see R. G. Bratcher, “‘The Jews’ in the Gospel of John,” BT 26 [1975]: 401-9; also BDAG 479 s.v. ᾿Ιουδαῖος 2.e.) Here the phrase refers to the Jewish people in Jerusalem who had been listening to Jesus’ teaching in the temple and had believed his claim to be the Messiah, hence, “those Judeans who had believed him.” The term “Judeans” is preferred here to the more general “people” because the debate concerns descent from Abraham (v. 33).

[8:31]  ² tn Grk “If you continue in my word.”

[8:31]  ³ tn Or “truly.”

[8:37]  ⁴ tn Grk “seed” (an idiom).

[8:37]  ⁵ tn Grk “you are seeking.”

[8:37]  ⁶ tn Grk “my word.”

[8:37]  ⁷ tn Or “finds no place in you.” The basic idea seems to be something (in this case Jesus’ teaching) making headway or progress where resistance is involved. See BDAG 1094 s.v. χωρέω 2.

[8:47]  ⁷ tn Grk “who is of.”

[8:47]  ⁸ tn Grk “to God hears” (in the sense of listening to something and responding to it).

[8:47]  ⁹ tn Grk “you do not hear” (in the sense of listening to something and responding to it).

[8:47]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “you are not of God.”

[10:34]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “answered them.”

[10:34]  ¹¹ sn A quotation from Ps 82:6. Technically the Psalms are not part of the OT “law” (which usually referred to the five books of Moses), but occasionally the term “law” was applied to the entire OT, as here. The problem in this verse concerns the meaning of Jesus’ quotation from Ps 82:6. It is important to look at the OT context: The whole line reads “I say, you are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you.” Jesus will pick up on the term “sons of the Most High” in 10:36, where he refers to himself as the Son of God. The psalm was understood in rabbinic circles as an attack on unjust judges who, though they have been given the title “gods” because of their quasi-divine function of exercising judgment, are just as mortal as other men. What is the argument here? It is often thought to be as follows: If it was an OT practice to refer to men like the judges as gods, and not blasphemy, why did the Jewish authorities object when this term was applied to Jesus? This really doesn’t seem to fit the context, however, since if that were the case Jesus would not be making any claim for “divinity” for himself over and above any other human being – and therefore he would not be subject to the charge of blasphemy. Rather, this is evidently a case of arguing from the lesser to the greater, a common form of rabbinic argument. The reason the OT judges could be called gods is because they were vehicles of the word of God (cf. 10:35). But granting that premise, Jesus deserves much more than they to be called God. He is the Word incarnate, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world to save the world (10:36). In light of the prologue to the Gospel of John, it seems this interpretation would have been most natural for the author. If it is permissible to call men “gods” because they were the vehicles of the word of God, how much more permissible is it to use the word “God” of him who is the Word of God?