Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent (March 26, 2021) Joh 10:31-42

31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him.

John Gill

The Jews picked up stones again to stone him—As they had done before (see Gill on Joh 8:59).

So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” EXO 17:4

Rashi

Almost ready means, if I wait but a little more they will stone me.

32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?”

John Gill

Jesus answered them, “Many good works”—Such as healing the sick, and all manner of diseases; dispossessing devils, cleansing lepers, giving sight to the blind, causing the dumb to speak, the deaf to hear, and the lame to walk; which were not only works of power, but of mercy and beneficence; and therefore are called good works, as well as they were great and miraculous ones:

I have showed you . . . from the Father—Which Christ did in the name, and by the command and authority of the Father; who gave him them to do, and did them by him; and which were evident and notorious, and were done so openly and publicly, that they could not be denied:

For which of these works are you going to stone me?—Suggesting, that his public life had been a continued series of such kind actions to the sons of men, and it could be for nothing else surely, that they took up stones to stone him; wherefore the part they acted, was a most ungrateful, cruel, and barbarous one.

20 Then the Spirit of God clothed Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, and he stood above the people, and said to them, “Thus says God, ‘Why do you break the commandments of the Lord, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has forsaken you.’ ”

Rashi

Above the people—Higher than the people, in order to make his voice heard. In Eichah Rabbah, (Proem 23), it is interpreted as meaning that he relied on himself; he was a prince higher than all the people, a prophet and a priest, and it was the Day of Atonement, and he was the king’s son-in-law, and he was not afraid to say the prophecy. Concerning this incident, it was stated (Lam 2:20): “shall priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?”

21 But they conspired against him, and by command of the king they stoned him with stones in the court of the house of the Lord.

22 Thus Joash the king did not remember the kindness that Jehoiada, Zechariah’s father, had shown him, but killed his son. And when he was dying, he said, “May the Lord see and avenge!” 2CH 24:20-22

Rashi

And when he was dying, he said, “May the Lord see and avenge!”—For they have slain me only because I spoke as the Omnipresent’s medium, and since I have been slain for his sake, it is proper and fitting that he avenge my blood. And so it was: his blood was immediately requited, for “at the end of the year, etc.”

33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”

Bring out of the camp the one who cursed, and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him. LEV 24:14

Rashi

All who heard—“All” serves to include the judges also (Sifra, Emor, Chapter 19 1).

Who heard—This refers to the witnesses.

Lay their hands on his head—They said to him: your blood is on your head; we do not deserve punishment on account of your death, for it was you yourself who brought it about (Sifra, Emor, Chapter 19 2).

And let all the congregation stone him—(This means: the witnesses shall stone him), all the congregation standing by. From here we derive that a man’s agent is as himself, for only the witnesses are to stone him, but since they are acting as agents of all the congregation, Scripture considers it as if all the congregation is stoning him. (cf. Sifra, Emor, Chapter 19 23).

Sanhedrin 42b:1

MISHNA: When the trial has ended in a guilty verdict and the condemned man has been sentenced to be stoned, he is taken out to be stoned. The place of stoning was out of the court and a little beyond it, as it is stated with regard to the one who cursed: “Bring out of the camp him who has cursed, and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him” (Lev 24:14).

Sanhedrin 42b:5

The Gemara asks: From where is this matter derived that the stoning is carried out outside the three camps? As the Sages taught a baraita with regard to the verse: “Bring out of the camp the one who has cursed” (Lev 24:14). This means: Outside the three camps, i.e., even outside the camp of the Israelites. Do you say that he is taken outside the three camps, or is he perhaps taken outside only one camp? Proof is brought that he must be taken outside the three camps: It is stated here that the condemned man is taken “outside the camp” and it is stated with regard to the bulls brought as sin offerings that are burned that they must be burned “outside the camp” (Lev 4:12). Just as there, the bulls brought as sin offerings are burned when outside the three camps, so too here, the condemned man is taken outside the three camps.

Sanhedrin 43a:5

Rav Ashi said: The location of the place of stoning can be directly derived from the verse discussing the one who cursed but in a slightly different manner. Where was Moses sitting when the matter of the one who cursed was brought before him? In the Levite camp. And the Merciful One said to him: “Bring out the one who has cursed” (Lev 24:14), indicating that he should be taken out of the Levite camp into the Israelite camp. And God continued in that verse: “Out of the camp,” which is an additional command that he should be removed even further, to out of the Israelite camp. And the later verse, which says: “And they brought the one who had cursed out of the camp . . . thus the people of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses” (Lev 24:23), teaches us about the implementation of God’s instructions, i.e., that the people of Israel did in fact carry out his command.

34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’?

35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken—

John Gill

If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—The Syriac version reads, “because the word of God came to them”; either the divine “logos,” the essential word, the Son of God, who appeared to Moses, and made him a God to Pharaoh, and who appointed rulers and magistrates among the Jews; and who is the King of kings and Lord of lords, from whom all receive their power and dominion: this sense is favoured by the Ethiopic version, which renders it, “if he called them gods to whom God appeared, the word of God was with them”: or else the commission from God, authorizing them to act in the capacity of rulers and governors, is here meant; or rather the word of God, which, in the passage of Scripture cited, calls them so, as it certainly does.

And Scripture cannot be broken—Or be made null and void; whatever that says is true, there is no contradicting it, or objecting to it: it is a Jewish way of speaking, much used in the Talmud; when one doctor has produced an argument, or instance, in any point of debate, another says, “it may be broken”; or objected to, in such and such a manner, and be refuted: but the Scripture cannot be broken, that is not to be objected to, there can be no confutation of that.

36 do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?

Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples,

a leader and commander for the peoples. ISA 55:4

Rashi

A witness to the peoples—A prince and a superior over them, and one who will reprove and testify of their ways to their faces. (Mss., however, read: One who reproaches them for their ways to their faces.)

37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me;

38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”

John Gill

But if I do—Works, which none but God can do:

Though you do not believe me—What Christ said in his doctrine and ministry, though they paid no regard to that, and did not receive his testimony, on the credit of him the testifier, as they ought to have done:

Believe the works—Not only that they are true and real, and not imaginary and delusory; but for the sake of them believe the above assertion, that Christ is the Son of God, he and his Father being one; or take such notice of these works and miracles, consider the nature, evidence, and importance of them, and the divine power that attends them,

That you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father—The Vulgate Latin, Persic, and Ethiopic versions read, or “in my Father,” as read the Syriac and Arabic versions; that they are one in nature, distinct in person, equal in power, and have a mutual inhabitation and communion in the divine essence; all which is manifest, by doing the same works, and which are out of the reach and power of any mere creature.

39 Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.

40 He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained.

41 And many came to him. And they said, “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.”

John Gill

And many came to him—From all the parts adjacent, having heard of his being there, and of the fame of him; and many of them doubtless personally knew him; these came to him, some very likely to be healed by him, others to see his person and miracles, and others to hear him preach:

And they said, “John did no sign”—Though it was now three years ago, yet the name, ministry, and baptism of John, were fresh in the memory of men in those parts; and what they say one to another, was not to lessen the character of John, but to exalt Jesus Christ, and to give a reason why they should receive and embrace him; for if John, who did no miracle, who only taught and baptized, and directed men to the Messiah, was justly reckoned a very great person, and his doctrine was received, and his baptism was submitted to, then much more should this illustrious person be attended to; who, besides his divine doctrine, did such great and amazing miracles; to which they add, though John did no miracle to confirm his mission, ministry, and baptism,

But everything that John said about this man was true—As that he was greater than he, was the Lamb of God, yea, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, and true Messiah, who should baptize men with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

42 And many believed in him there.