MPV Commentary

His Enemies Jesus Escapes beyond Jordan, Where Many Believe on Him.

22-23. The feast of dedication was celebrated about two months after the feast of tabernacles. It commemorated the purification of the temple from profanations by Antiochus Epiphanes in 165 B.C. and lasted for eight days, from December 25 to January 1. Jesus seems to have remained in the neighborhood of Jerusalem during this period.

It was winter, implying some inclemency. Therefore,

23. Jesus walked in Solomon's porch for shelter. This portico was on the east side of the temple and part of the original structure of Solomon.

24. Then came the Jewish rulers. They asked, "How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly." But when the plainest evidence of it was resisted, what weight could a mere assertion have?

25-26. Jesus answered them, "I told you that I am (for example, Joh 7:37, 38; 8:12, 35, 36, 58). You do not believe because you are not of my sheep, as I said."

27-30. My sheep hear my voice, and I give them eternal life. It is a present gift (Joh 3:36; Joh 5:24). This is a grand utterance, couched in the language of majestic authority.

28. I give unto them eternal life because they are given to me by my Father, who is greater than all with whom no adverse power can contend. None is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.

29. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all. This impossibility of true believers being lost does not consist in their fidelity and decision but is founded upon the power of God.

30. I and my Father are one. Our language admits not of the precision of the original in this great saying. "Are" is in the masculine gender, while "one" is neuter. Perhaps "one interest" expresses the purport of the saying.

31. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him for precisely the same thing as before (Joh 8:58, 59).

32. Many good works have I showed you, that is, works of pure benevolence. From my Father, not so much by His power but as directly commissioned by Him to do them.

33. For which of those works do ye stone me? You are stoning me for a blasphemy whose legal punishment was stoning (Le 24:11-16).

34-36. Is it not written in your law that you are gods, being the official representatives and commissioned agents of God? If he called them gods unto whom the word of God came, say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest.

35, 36. The comparison of Himself with mere men, divinely commissioned, is intended to show that the idea of a communication of the Divine Majesty to human nature was not foreign to the revelations of the Old Testament. There is also a contrast between Himself and all merely human representatives of God, who were "to whom the word of God came."

37-39. Though ye believe not me, believe the works. That ye may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in him, thus reiterating His claim to essential oneness with the Father.

39. Therefore they sought again to take Him, true to their original understanding of His words.

40-42. He escaped out of their hand and went away again beyond Jordan to the place where John at first baptized.

41. Many resorted to Him on whom the ministry of the Baptist had left permanent impressions. John did no miracle, but all things John spake of this man were true. And thus, many believed on Him there.