Yochanan 10:33

33 In reply, those of Yehudah said to him, For a ma’aseh tov we do not stone you, but for Chillul Hashem and because you, being a man, make yourself G-d. [VAYIKRA 24:16]

Yochanan 10:33 Meaning and Commentary

John 10:33

The Jews answered him, saying
As follows;

for a good work we stone thee not:
they could not deny, that he had done many good works; this was too barefaced to be contradicted; yet they cared not to own them; and though they industriously concealed their resentment at them, yet they were very much gravelled and made uneasy by them, but chose to give another reason for their stoning him:

but for blasphemy;
which required death by stoning, according to ( Leviticus 24:16 ) , and according to the Jews' oral law ^F17:

and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God;
which they concluded very rightly, from his saying, ( John 10:30 ) , that God was his Father, and that he and his Father were one; that is, in nature and essence, and therefore he must be God; but then this was no blasphemy, but a real truth, as is hereafter made to appear; nor is there any contradiction between his being man, and being God; he is truly and really man, but then he is not a mere man, as the Jews suggested; but is truly God, as well as man, and is both God and man in one person, the divine and human nature being united in him, of which they were ignorant: two mistakes they seem to be guilty of in this account; one that Christ was a mere man, the other that he made himself God, or assumed deity to himself, which did not belong to him, and therefore must be guilty of blasphemy; neither of which were true: the phrase is used by the Jews, of others who have taken upon them the name and title of God; as of Hiram king of Tyre, of whom they say, (hwla wmue hvev) , "that he made himself God" ^F18; the same they say of Nebuchadnezzar; and the modern Jews still continue the same charge against Jesus, as their ancestors did, and express it in the same language, and say of him, that he was a man, and set himself up for God ^F19.

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FOOTNOTES:

F17 Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 7. sect. 4.
F18 Bereshit Rabba, sect. 96. fol. 83. 4. & Tzeror Hammor, fol. 134. 4.
F19 Aben Ezra in Gen. xxvii. 39. & Abarbinel Mashmia Jeshua, fol. 5. 1.

Yochanan 10:33 In-Context

31 Again those of Yehudah took up stones that they might stone him.

32 In reply, Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach said to them, Many ma’asim tovim I showed you from HaAv. Because of which ma’aseh do you stone me?

33 In reply, those of Yehudah said to him, For a ma’aseh tov we do not stone you, but for Chillul Hashem and because you, being a man, make yourself G-d. [VAYIKRA 24:16]

34 In reply, Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach answered them, Has it not been written in your Torah, ANI AMARTI ELOHIM ATEM (I said you are g-ds.) [TEHILLIM 82:6] [SHEMOT 7:1; 22:27 TARGUM HASHIVIM]

35 If those ones he called g-ds, to whom the Dvar Hashem came and lo tufar Kitvei Hakodesh (and the Kitvei Hakodesh cannot be broken, TEHILLIM 119:89,142)