John 10 Study Notes

10:19-21 In ancient times insanity and demon possession were frequently linked. The reference to opening the eyes of the blind links the good shepherd discourse with the healing of the blind man in chap. 9. The charges of demon possession (which hark back to similar charges from earlier; see note at 7:20) and insanity were contradicted by OT teaching that it is the Lord who gives sight to the blind (Ps 146:8; cp. Ex 4:11).

10:22 The eight-day Festival of Dedication (also called Hanukkah and the Festival of Lights) celebrated the rededication of the Jewish temple in December of 164 BC after its desecration by the Seleucid ruler Antiochus Epiphanes in 167 BC (1Macc 1:59). It was winter refers to December. See note at 2:13.

10:23 Probably because of the cold winter weather, Jesus taught not out in the open but in the area called Solomon’s Colonnade. The structure was commonly (though erroneously) thought to date back to Solomon’s time. Later it became the gathering place for the early church (Ac 3:11; 5:12).

10:24-25 The demand, If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly, seems like double talk (Lk 22:67). If they had not understood Jesus’s claim to be the Messiah, why did they repeatedly try to kill him? (Jn 5:18; 7:25; 8:59). Indeed, Jesus responded that he did make this claim. On Jesus’s works testifying about him, see note at 5:31-47.

10:26-29 Snatch (vv. 28-29) denotes the use of force (see note at v. 1). The comment contrasts with the figure of the hired man in vv. 12-13 who abandoned the flock in times of danger, and recalls OT statements that no one can rob from God’s hand (Is 43:13).

10:30 Jesus’s claim that he and the Father are one (cp. vv. 33-38; 5:17-18) echoes the Shema, the basic confession of Judaism (Dt 6:4) and amounts to a claim to deity. Jesus’s unity with the Father is later said to be the basis on which Jesus’s followers are to be unified (Jn 17:22).

10:31 On the attempt to stone Jesus for blasphemy, see notes at 5:18; 8:59.

10:32 On Jesus’s works as a testimony to him, see note at 5:31-47.

10:33 The charge against Jesus appears to be grounded in Lv 24:16 (cp. Nm 15:30-31; Mk 14:61-64; see note at Jn 8:59).

10:34 Jesus’s point in quoting Ps 82:6 was that if human judges can in some sense be called “god” in the Scriptures, this designation is even more appropriate for himself.

10:35 Jesus’s statement that the Scripture cannot be broken is evidence for his belief in the inviolability of God’s written Word (in this case, the Hebrew Scriptures; cp. Mt 5:18). Jesus and many of his opponents upheld the authority of God’s Word.

10:36 The reference to Jesus being set apart for his mission echoes language used of appointed men such as Moses the lawgiver, Jeremiah the prophet, and the Aaronic priests.

10:37-38 On Jesus’s works testifying about him, see note at 5:31-47.

10:39 This was not the first attempt to arrest Jesus. See 7:30.

10:40-41 On the place where John was baptizing, see note at 1:28.