John 10:34 - Exposition

The justification of Jesus which follows is often supposed to be a retraction of the claim—a repudiation of the inference which the Jews drew from the words recorded in John 10:30 . On the contrary, our Lord took up one illustration from among many in Holy Scripture, that the union between man and God lay at the heart of their ( νόμος ) Law. True, he quoted from Psalms 82:6 with reference to the high official title given by the Holy Spirit to the false and tyrannical judges of the old covenant. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your Law? The Psalms are here spoken of as "the Law," showing that they did form part of the revelation and law of the Divine kingdom ( John 7:49 ; John 12:34 ; John 15:25 ). Jesus does not imply that the Law was theirs and not his . There is not a shadow of disrespect cast on the Law by the pronoun, but such an identification of it with his hearers that they ought, by its aid, to have been saved from utterly misconceiving his words I said, Ye are gods ( elohim , θεοί ). To stand in close relation with the theocracy was to be covered with its glory. He seems to force upon them thus a host of similar blendings of the Divine and human in the age-long preparation for himself, and to free all these from the suspicion of blasphemy. The Hebrew thought was really calculated to prepare the world for this high intercommunion, not to abolish it. Judaism, rabbinism, had widened the chasm between God and man. Christ came to fill up the chasm; nay more, to show the Divine and human in living, indissoluble union.