John 10:25

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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(25) I told you, and ye believed not.—Better, and ye believe not, as all the best MSS. Here, as in John 8:25, where a similar direct question was put to Him, the answer is indirect. It could not be otherwise. Their misconception of the Messianic work had made the very word Messiah an impossible one for Him to utter to them. To have said He was the Messiah would have been to sanction their thought of Him as a temporal prince; to have said that He was not would have been to contradict the essential truth. He refers them, then, to His earlier words and deeds in proof of what He was. To inquirers of simpler hearts, as the woman of Samaria and the man born blind, He had used the word Messiah. To them He had again and again told the same truth, though the actual word had never crossed His lips while speaking to them.

The works that I do in my Father’s name.—Comp. Note on John 5:36. This appeal to His works, and the assertion that they were done in His Father’s name, is itself an answer in word and in deed that He was the Messiah.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:22-30 All who have any thing to say to Christ, may find him in the temple. Christ would make us to believe; we make ourselves doubt. The Jews understood his meaning, but could not form his words into a full charge against him. He described the gracious disposition and happy state of his sheep; they heard and believed his word, followed him as his faithful disciples, and none of them should perish; for the Son and the Father were one. Thus he was able to defend his sheep against all their enemies, which proves that he claimed Divine power and perfection equally with the Father.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I told you - It is not recorded that Jesus had told them in so many words that he was the Christ, but he had used expressions designed to convey the same truth, and which many of them understood as claiming to be the Messiah. See John 5:19; John 8:36, John 8:56; John 10:1. The expression "the Son of God" they understood to be equivalent to the Messiah. This he had often used of himself in a sense not to be mistaken.

The works - The miracles, such as restoring the blind, curing the sick, etc.

In my Father's name - By the power and command of God. Jesus was either the Messiah or an impostor. The Pharisees charged him with being the latter Matthew 26:60-61; Matthew 27:63; John 18:36; but God would not give such power to an impostor. The power of working miracles is an attestation of God to what is taught. See the notes at Matthew 4:24.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

25, 26. Jesus answered them, I told you—that is, in substance, what I am (for example Joh 7:37, 38; 8:12, 35, 36, 58).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I have in effect told it you more than once; I have told you that I am sent of the Father, &c., I have said enough for you to conclude it; but you will not understand, you will not receive it, you will not believe what I say. What need you any further witness of it, than those works which I do by Divine power; by virtue of my oneness with my Father, and of that power and authority which he hath committed to me, that by them I might confirm the doctrine which I have taught you?

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not,.... He had often said, what amounted to it, in his ministry and doctrine; as that God was his Father, and he was the light of the world, and the good shepherd, and the like; but they gave no heed nor credit to his words, even though he told them, that unless they believed he was such a person, they should die in their sins:

the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me; such as healing the sick, dispossessing devils, cleansing lepers, giving sight to the blind, causing the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak, and the lame to walk, and raising the dead to life; suggesting, that besides his words, his doctrine and ministry, they had his miracles before them, which plainly showed who he was; so that they need not have been in any doubt of mind, or suspense about him; nor had they any reason to complain of his hiding himself from them, or depriving them of the knowledge of him.

Geneva Study Bible

{8} 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.

(8) The doctrine of the gospel is proved from heaven by two witnesses: both by the purity of the doctrine and by miracles.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

John 10:25-26. Jesus had not only told them (on many occasions, if not always so directly as, for example, to the woman of Samaria, or the man born blind) that He was the Messiah, but had also testified to the fact by His Messianic works (v. 36). But they do not believe. The actual proof of their unbelief is first subjoined in the second clause: for ye belong not to my sheep; otherwise ye would stand in a totally different relation to me than that of unbelief; ye would hear my voice, and know me, and follow me, John 10:4; John 10:14; John 10:27.

ἐγὼ … ὑμεῖς] Reproachful antithesis.

καθὼς εἶπον ὑμῖν] belong, as both Lachmann and Tischendorf also punctuate, to what precedes (comp. John 1:33); but not, however, in such a way that Jesus merely makes a retrospective reference to the figure of the πρόβατα (Fritzsche: “ut similitudine utar, quam supra posui”), which would render this repulse very meaningless; but in such a way that Jesus recalls to their recollection the negative declaration itself as having been already uttered. It is true, indeed, that He had not given direct expression to the words ὅτι οὐκ ἐστὲ, etc. in the preceding allegory; indirectly, however, He had done so, namely, by a description of His sheep, which necessarily involved the denial that the Ἰουδαῖοι belonged to them. That this is the force of καθʼ εἶπ. ὑμ., He Himself declares by the exhibition of the relation of His sheep that follows. We are precluded from regarding it as an introduction to what follows (Curss., Cant., Corb., Arr., Euth. Zigabenus, Tholuck, Godet), in which case a comma ought to be placed before καθώς, and a colon after ὑμῖν, by the circumstance that Jesus nowhere else quotes and (in the form of a summary) repeats a longer discourse of His own. In keeping with the style of the Gospels, only a brief, sententious saying, such as John 13:33, would be fitted for such self-quotation. In this case, however, the quotation would embrace at least John 10:27-28.

The circumstance that Jesus should refer to this allegory about two months after the date of John 10:1-21, which has been erroneously used as an argument against the originality of the discourse (Strauss, Baur), may be simply accounted for by the assumption that during the interval He had had no further discussions with His hierarchical opponents,—a supposition which is justified by its accounting for the silence observed by John relatively to that period. The presupposition involved in the words καθὼς εἶπον ὑμῖν, that Jesus here has in the main the same persons before Him as during the delivery of His discourse regarding the shepherd, has nothing against it; and there is no necessity even for the assumption that John and Jesus conceived the discourses to be directed against the Ἰουδαῖοι as a whole (Brückner).

Expositor's Greek Testament

John 10:25. Therefore He replies: “I told you and ye believe not. The works which I do in my Father’s name, these witness concerning me.” These works tell you what I am. They are works done in my Father’s name, that is, wholly as His representative. These show what kind of Christ He sends you and that I am He.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

25. I told you, and ye believed not] The best authorities have, and ye believe not: their unbelief still continues. To some few, the woman at the well, the man born blind, and the Apostles, Jesus had explicitly declared Himself to be the Messiah; to all He had implicitly declared Himself by His works and teaching.

the works] in the widest sense, not miracles alone; His Messianic work generally. See on John 5:36. The pronouns are emphatically opposed; ‘the works which I do … they.… But ye believe not.

Bengel's Gnomen

John 10:25. Εἶπον ὑμῖν, I have told you) i.e. I am the Christ. A similar formula occurs, Matthew 26:64, “Tell us whether Thou be the Christ, the Son of God? Jesus saith, Thou hast said.” Moreover Jesus often said, even in this chapter, Jesus is the Christ. I told you (and ye believed not; I tell you) and ye believe not [πιστεύετε, not believed, as Engl. Vers.] Καὶ, and, for but. Comp. John 10:26, ἀλλά, but [ye believe not],—τὰ ἔργα, the works) which even might have convinced those who do not believe words.—περὶ ἐμοῦ, concerning Me) that I am the Christ.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 25. - Jesus answered them. The reply of Jesus is full of wisdom. If he had at once given an affirmative answer, they would have misunderstood him, because he was not the Christ of their expectations. If he had denied that he was the Messiah, he would have been untrue to his deepest consciousness of reality. The answer was: I spake with you - told you what I am - and ye believe not. To the woman in Samaria, to the Capernaites, to the blind man, to Peter and the other apostles, and in several emphatic forms, he had admitted his Messiahship. In John 8. he had claimed the highest honors and announced his [Divine commission, and appealed to his great Messianic works, but his endeavor to rectify their Messianic ideal had, through their obtuseness, failed of its purpose. So now once more he referred them to works done in his Father's name, which hitherto had failed to convince them: The works that I do in my Father's name (John 5:19, 36), they bear witness concerning me. John 10:25