I and the Father are one.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
The Jews therefore again took stones that they might stone him.
The Lord has just told His hearers that His sheep are safe in His hand and in His Father's. He ended with the words "I and the Father are one." Their answer was not argument but stones. So what did they hear Him claim, and why could their hands not carry it out?
Stones are not an argument. Their reaction shows that His hearers understood the claim — and that the claim itself is what enraged them.
Hamilton SmithThe Jews correctly take the Lord's words as a claim to His Deity. It enraged them that One who was truly and clearly a Man should claim to be God, so they "picked up stones again to stone him."
The word behind "one" settles the sense. Agreement of purpose would not be enough to explain it.
William Kelly"We are one" — the word is neuter. It is not one in will or purpose only, for in the case of Jesus that could still be frustrated. Will and power come together in the person of the Speaker. In these verses the distinction of Persons and the unity of nature both come out… The Jews of His day understood the Lord's statement. Their descendants, and the "Unitarians," miss its meaning.
The word "again" points back. Stones had been raised against Him before, and this outbreak came after the Lord had given up reasoning with them.
W. W. FeredayIt was hopeless to reason with stubborn unbelief, so the Lord set them aside as clearly not of His sheep… But when He said "I and the Father are one," the Jews took up stones to stone Him, and not for the first time.
Their hands are now full of stones. His hands are full of sheep — and so are the Father's.
W. T. TurpinHe makes them as strong outside as inside. No weakness within could put them in danger, for what He gave was eternal life. No enemy outside could harm them, for He has the sheep in His hand. The hand that was nailed to the cross is the safe shelter and rest for all the sheep. What contrasts stir in the soul as we read those words, "My hand" — "My Father's hand!"
His words had already settled the question they came with. What follows is not debate, but stones — and hands too weak to throw them.
L. M. GrantThe Lord's words of living power, ending with "I and the Father are one," have fully proved, in answer to the Jews' question, that He is the Christ. But they react, not only in doubt, but in bitter hostility, taking up stones to stone Him. Yet they are powerless to carry out their base intentions. His word, calmly and simply spoken, has a power that holds them helpless. He had done many good works, He says, all of them coming from the Father. For which of these works did they mean to stone Him?
Their charge was that a man was making Himself God. Read from the other end, the same sentence becomes the gospel.
F. B. HoleThey did not understand the drift of His words. But they did see that in saying "I and the Father are one" He was claiming equality with God… To them it was terrible blasphemy — a man making himself God. We receive His words in the spirit of worship, for we know He was truly God, yet had made Himself Man. We reverse the terms of their accusation and find in it soul-saving truth.
This was more than a moment of anger. It marks the point where the Lord turned away from the nation.
J. N. DarbyAt the end of the chapter the Jews take up stones to stone Him, because He made Himself equal with God. The Lord does not try to prove to them the truth of what He is. He shows instead that by their own principles and the testimony of the Scriptures they were wrong in this case. He appeals again to His own words and works as proof that He was in the Father and the Father in Him. Again they take up stones, and Jesus finally leaves them. It was all over with Israel.
- Hands that grab. The stones prove they heard Him right. He was claiming to be God, and a Man saying that enraged them.
- Hands that hold. "One" means one nature, not just one purpose. So the same power holds the sheep in His hand and in the Father's.
- Hands that fail. They lift stones and cannot throw them. His calm word holds them helpless, and He asks which good work deserves stoning.
- Hands that were nailed. The hand they attacked is the hand that became the shelter of His people at the cross.
- Hands that let go. Their charge was a man making himself God. Read the other way, it is the truth that saves. They refused it, and He left them.