John 10:24

The Jews therefore came round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou hold us in suspense? If thou art the Christ, tell us plainly.

The Jews ... as used by John is void of any anti-Semitism, the people in view always being the religious hierarchy. The noble Jews in great numbers accepted Christianity, but in doing so, lost their identity as Jews; and thus the very name gradually came to mean the enemies of the gospel; but it is clear that John always used "the Jews" to mean the priestly class in Jerusalem. John himself was a Jew, as was our Lord, and most of the apostles.

How long dost thou hold us in suspense ... On the surface, this almost sounds like a fair question; and there is a temptation to wonder why Jesus did not speak right up and say, "Yes, of course, I am the Christ." Jesus' repeated declarations earlier that he was "the good shepherd" certainly meant that he was the Christ, God come in the flesh; but he had not used that word, "Christ," because the Jewish conception of what that word meant was totally incorrect. And, if Jesus had used this word here, they would have made their incorrect notion of what it meant the basis of a charge of sedition before the Romans. The Pharisees by this time had figured out what Jesus meant by calling himself the Good Shepherd; and here they were only trying to trick him into using a word they could pervert into a charge of sedition. At a time of his own choice, Jesus would testify that he was "the Christ" (Mark 14:62); but his refusal to use that word here was righteous and holy.