Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?
The saying was spoken when opponents were trying to provoke Jesus to say or do something they could use to condemn him. They treated his Sabbath works of mercy and his teaching as grounds for accusation. By that time they had repeatedly tried to stone him, and they attempted it again on this occasion. He quietly withdrew from them so that they lost sight of him and could not seize him. His works and holy life showed that their charges were pretexts to silence him.
In answer he appealed to the law, where those to whom the word of God came are described as gods. He affirmed that Scripture cannot be broken or set aside. His reasoning was that if such language was legitimate there, it is not blasphemy for him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, to call himself the Son of God. He did not deny the divine significance of his claim, but intended the impression his words made. His works testify that the Father is in him and he is in the Father.
The saying was spoken when opponents were trying to provoke Jesus to say or do something they could use to condemn him. They treated his Sabbath works of mercy and his teaching as grounds for accusation. By that time they had repeatedly tried to stone him, and they attempted it again on this occasion. He quietly withdrew from them so that they lost sight of him and could not seize him. His works and holy life showed that their charges were pretexts to silence him.
In answer he appealed to the law, where those to whom the word of God came are described as gods. He affirmed that Scripture cannot be broken or set aside. His reasoning was that if such language was legitimate there, it is not blasphemy for him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, to call himself the Son of God. He did not deny the divine significance of his claim, but intended the impression his words made. His works testify that the Father is in him and he is in the Father.