THE STONING OF CHRIST

By A. Prentice

PART ONE

THE STONE GATHERERS

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Scripture references are to the King James

(Authorised) Version

ʻMany good works have I shewed you from my Father;

for which of these works do ye stone me?ʼ

– John 10: 32 –

Jewish temple JESUS SPOKE THESE words to the crowd of Jews confronting Him in Solomon's Porch. Some in the pack were pressing Him to state ʻplainlyʼ without parables or figures of speech that He was Messiah. Cloaking their motives, they set a trap for Him, so that the Jewish or Roman authorities might use His confession to act against Him.

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Our Lord customarily went to Jerusalem for the Jewish feasts, including this one, the Feast of Dedication, known also as Hanukkah or the Festival of Lights. (See John 10: 22; compare John 2: 13; 5: 1; 7: 2, 10.)

This particular gathering, held around the time corresponding to late December, celebrated Jewish nationalism and was a lesser feast in the Jewish calendar; it was not prescribed under Mosaic Law and attendance was not obligatory. It ran for eight days, and commemorated the repair and cleansing of the Temple sanctuary under the leadership of Judas Maccabee in 165 BC, during the Jewish rebellion against Seleucid rule. An account of the original event is found in 1 Macc. 4: 36-61; 2 Macc. 10: 1-9.

Sheltering In Plain Sight

John identifies the occasion of the festival and then observes ʻand it was winterʼ (10:22), perhaps a reference not to its place in the calendar a fact well known to the Jews but to the blustery weather which forced Jesus and many others to seek refuge within the colonnade of Solomon's Porch, situated in the east area of Herod's Temple. See Clarke on vs. 22, 23; compare Matt. 16: 3 [ʻfoul weatherʼ]; on Solomon's Porch, see Acts 3: 11; 5: 12.

It was here that the exchange recorded in John 10: 24-38 took place:

24 Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. 25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. 26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.

As we shall see, Jesus did not comply with their request for a straightforward declaration of His Messiahship. Rather, He appealed to the practical evidence of His ministry, citing the virtuous and useful deeds and miracles He had performed, proof sufficient to honest hearts that He was indeed the Anointed of God. But the surly crowd which stood before him were not as sincere or disinterested as they feigned to be.

On this dramatic scene, Matthew Henry observes:

They came about him, as it were, to lay siege to him: encompassed him about like bees. They came about him as if they had a joint and unanimous desire to be satisfied; came on as one man, pretending an impartial and importunate inquiry after truth, but intending a general assault upon our Lord Jesus; and they seemed to speak the sense of their nation as if they were the mouth of all the Jews; How long does thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us. . . . It was the effect of their infidelity and powerful prejudices, that after our Lord Jesus had so fully proved himself to be the Christ, they were still in doubt concerning it; this they willingly hesitated about when they might easily have been satisfied. The struggle was between their convictions, which told them he was Christ; and their corruptions, which said, No, because he was not such a Christ as they expected.

Igniting the Flame

And now the confrontation shifted from the verbal to the openly menacing, as Jesus continued:

30 I and my Father are one. 31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?

When Jesus said ʻI and my Father are oneʼ the crowd turned incandescent and reached for projectiles to hurl at Him. They did not need to look far for their ammunition. The Temple area resembled a building site, as its reconstruction under Herod had been under way for many years. The posse gathered stones and handy chunks of broken masonry anything hard, heavy and sharp with which to inflict punishment on this self-professed heretic.

On the face of it their action was consistent with the Law of Moses, which decreed death to blasphemers (Lev. 24: 15, 16 [ʻall the congregation shall certainly stone himʼ]. Nor was this the first time they had tried to kill Him, as we may infer from v. 31 and John's use of the word, ʻagainʼ. Compare John 7: 19; 8: 37, 40, 59.

That this Galilean a mere mortal had the audacity to associate himself in the same breath with the Most High, the Jews would rightly judge as grossly profane. ʻWe stone . . . thee for blasphemyʼ they cried (v. 33), ʻbecause that thou, being a man, makest thyself God [theos]ʼ. According to Vincent's Word Studies, Jesusʼ question ʻfor which of those works do ye stone me?ʼ means ʻwhat is the character of that particular work among all these for which you stone me. The me, closing the sentence, is emphatic.ʼ

Returning to v. 30: the literal Greek rendering of Jesusʼ statement omits my, and thus reads, ʻI and the Father are oneʼ.

What did that crowd standing there before Him think He meant? Certainly, Jesusʼ frequent and familial use of ʻFatherʼ with reference to the Almighty would not have been mirrored in traditional Jewish society. Such intimacy with the Most High would have seemed impertinent. Indeed, the Sacred Name was held in such awe that it was never spelled out or uttered.

In the Hebrew manuscripts it was rendered as YHVH, pronunciation unknown. By the addition of vowel points the speculative form YeHoVaH was arrived at, and from that the anglicised Jehovah. This latter derivation is dismissed in The New Standard Jewish Encylopedia as a ʻmisnomerʼ (p. 766 [1977 edition]). The Jewish practice was adopted in part by the translators of the King James Bible who in many instances throughout the Old Testament render God's name– the Tetragrammaton – by LORD, in block letters.

How Are Jesus and God One?

With few exceptions, Christian commentators, theologians and church-goers interpret ʻI and the Father are oneʼ in the same way as they assume the gaggle of enraged Jews took it: that Jesus had said I am God. If this is really what Jesus meant, He would certainly have exceeded the mob's demand to ʻspeak plainlyʼ, for they had asked Him only to state ʻif thou be the Christʼ (v. 24). And to this question, Jesus had replied ʻI [already] told you, and ye believed notʼ, reminding them that His good deeds had been done ʻin my Father's nameʼ and ʻthey bear witness of meʼ (v. 25). The implication is that a reasonable and open mind would have already drawn the conclusion that God was working through Him and that therefore He was truly the Christ.

But, Jesus says, you don't believe me, in spite of all this evidence, because you are not of my sheep (vs. 26, 27). The next instalment will address v. 28 onward and Jesusʼ relationship with His people, whom He designates His flock. For in this context lies an explanation for His assertion, ʻI and the Father are oneʼ.

Continues

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