John 10:31

Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(31) Then the Jews took up stones again.—Better, The Jews therefore . . . Their action follows as an effect caused by His words. The word “again” reminds us that they had done this two months before, at the Feast of Tabernacles (8:59). The words for “took up” are not the same. There the sense is, “they lifted up stones,” and we are told that Jesus hid Himself; here the meaning is, “they carried stones,” there being none in the cloister where they were. During this process their first burst of anger expended itself, and our Lord further disarms it with a question.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:31-38 Christ's works of power and mercy proclaim him to be over all, God blessed for evermore, that all may know and believe He is in the Father, and the Father in Him. Whom the Father sends, he sanctifies. The holy God will reward, and therefore will employ, none but such as he makes holy. The Father was in the Son, so that by Divine power he wrought his miracles; the Son was so in the Father, that he knew the whole of His mind. This we cannot by searching find out to perfection, but we may know and believe these declarations of Christ.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The Jews took up stones - Stoning was the punishment of a blasphemer, Leviticus 24:14-16. They considered him guilty of blasphemy because he made himself equal with God, John 10:33.

Again - They had before plotted against his life John 5:16, John 5:18, and once at least they had taken up stones to destroy him, John 8:59.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

31. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him—and for precisely the same thing as before (Joh 8:58, 59).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Tumultuously, as we read they did once before, John 8:59. From whence we may learn with what design they came to Christ, John 10:24, plainly to tell them whether he were the Christ. By the law of God the false prophet was to be stoned; but he was first to be judicially tried and judged. This was but a tumultuous action of an enraged multitude.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. As they had done before; see Gill on John 8:59;

Geneva Study Bible

{10} Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.

(10) Christ proves his dignity by divine works.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

John 10:31-32. The Jews understood the expression in John 10:30 to refer to essential unity, and in their tumultuous and angry excitement would even stone (Leviticus 24:10 f.) the blasphemer; the overawing impression, however, produced by Christ’s reply was powerful enough to restrain them.

ἐβάστασαν] sustulerunt (Vulgate), ἀνηέρταζον (Nonnus) they lifted up stones, with the intention of throwing them at Him. The word is more characteristic than αἴρειν in John 8:59, though on account of πάλιν the two must have the same import; hence the interpretation: they fetched (Hengstenberg, Godet, and others), is less exact. Compare Hom. Od. λ. 594; Soph. Aj. 814; Polyb. 15. 26. 3.

πάλιν] John 8:59.

καλὰ ἔργα] not specially: works of love (Kuinoel, B. Crusius), but in general: praeclara opera, distinguished works.[66]

ἔδειξα ὑμῖν] have I showed you, John 5:20. Comp. John 2:18; Psalm 78:11; Plat. Crat. p. 430 E: τὸ δεῖξαι λέγω εἰς τὴν τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν αἴσθησιν καταστῆσαι.

ἘΚ ΤΟῦ ΠΑΤΡΌς ΜΟΥ] from my Father, who is in me, and from whom, therefore, they go out through me. Compare John 10:37-38.

διὰ ποῖον, etc.] propter quale, etc. Not without the irony of profound indignation (comp. 2 Corinthians 12:13) does Jesus ask, What, then, is the character of that one of His works, on account of which they are about to stone Him? (λιθάζετε, see Bernhardy, p. 370; Buttm. Neut. Gr. p. 178 [E. T. p. 205]). Not as though He did not know why they were intending to stone Him, but probably in the consciousness of having actually shown Himself by His works to be something totally different from a blasphemer.

περὶ βλασφημ. καὶ ὅτι] for blasphemy, and, indeed, because. The reproach: “thou makest thyself God” (comp. John 5:18), i.e. a divine being (John 1:1), was a consequence of the mistaken view taken of John 10:30, which they had interpreted of essential unity. Καί connects with the general charge a more exact definition of that on which it was based.

[66] Jesus was the more able thus to designate His acts, because He characterized them as works of God performed through Him. The explanation of Luthardt says too little: “Works with which no fault can be found.”

Expositor's Greek Testament

John 10:31. Ἐβάστασαν οὖν … αὐτόν. In chap. John 8:59, ἦραν λίθους, so now once more, πάλιν, they lifted stones to stone Him.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

31. Then the Jews] Better, Therefore the Jews: their picking up stones was a direct consequence of His words. But ‘therefore’ should perhaps be omitted. They prepare to act on Leviticus 24:16 (Comp. 1 Kings 21:10). ‘Again’ refers us back to John 8:59. The word for ‘took up’ is not the same in each case; the word used here is stronger, implying more effort; ‘lifted up, bore.’ But ‘again’ shews that it refers to raising up from the ground rather than carrying from a distance.

Bengel's Gnomen

John 10:31. Ἐβάστασαν, they bare) They were therefore large pieces of rock.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 31-39. -

(3) Resented and challenged, but vindicated by word and sign. Verse 31. - That the Jews supposed him to speak of an essential unity is obvious from what follows. The Jews (then) took up - should rather be carried or bore in their hands - stones again, huge pieces of marble lying around in the public works then proceeding. There is an increase of malice over and above what was involved in simply lifting stones from the pavement (cf. John 8:59), and the alteration of the word is another hint of the eye-witness. The word "again" reminds the reader that this was a second and more desperate attack upon the life of Jesus. John 10:31

Vincent's Word Studies

Took up - again (ἐβάστασαν - πάλιν)

Again refers to John 8:59. It seems as though a different verb is purposely chosen here (compare ἦραν took up, in John 8:59), since the interview took place in Solomon's porch, where stones would not be at hand. The verb here may mean to take up. So Ajax says:

"Send some one as a messenger to bear

The evil news to Teucros, that he first

May lift (βαστάσῃ) my corpse by this sharp sword transfixed."

Sophocles, "Ajax," 827.

Its more usual meaning in the New Testament, however, is to bear or carry. So of the cross (John 19:17; Luke 14:27). Here it might very properly be rendered brought, perhaps from the works which were then going on at the temple. See further on John 12:6.