law (through the idea of prescriptive usage) · noun — dative singular masculine
I
ἐγὼegō
G1473
I · personal pronoun — 1st person nominative singular
said
εἶπα·eipa
G2036
to speak or say (by word or writing) · verb — second aorist active indicative, 1st person singular
Ye are
ἐστέesté
G2075
ye are
gods
θεοίtheoi
G2316
figuratively · noun — nominative plural masculine
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 82:6-7 I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.
Exodus 7:1 And the LORD said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.
Psalms 82:1 God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods.
Exodus 4:16 And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instea…
Psalms 138:1 I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee.
Exodus 22:28 Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people.
John 8:17 It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true.
John 12:34 The people answered him, We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth for ever: and how sayest thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? w…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on John 10:22-38
We have here another rencounter between Christ and the Jews in the temple, in which it is hard to say which is more strange, the gracious words that came out of his mouth or the spiteful ones that came out of theirs.
I. We have here the time when this conference was: It was at the feast of dedication, and it was winter, a feast that was annually observed by consent, in remembrance of the dedication of a new altar and the purging of the temple, by Judas Maccabaeus, after the temple had been profaned and the altar defiled; we have the story of it at large in the history of the Maccabees (lib. 1, cap. 4); we have the prophecy of it, Dan 8:13, Dan 8:14. See more of the feast, 2 Macc. 1:18. The r…
Is it not written in your law--in Psa 82:6, respecting judges or magistrates.
Ye are gods--being the official representatives and commissioned agents of God.
Adam Clarke on John 10:34
Is it not written in your law - The words which our Lord quotes are taken from Psa 82:6, which shows that, under the word law, our Lord comprised the Jewish sacred writings in general. See also Joh 12:34; Joh 15:25.
Ye are gods? - That is, judges, who are called אלהים elohim. That judges are here meant appears from Psa 82:2, etc., and also from what follows here. And this is probably the only place where the word אלהים is applied to any but the true God. See Parkhurst under the root אלה.
John Gill on John 10:34
Jesus answered them, is it not written in your law,.... In the law which was given unto them, of which they boasted, and pretended to understand, and interpret, even in Psalm 82:6; for the law includes not only the Pentateuch, but all the books of the Old Testament: it is an observation of one of the Jewish doctors (t), that
"with the wise men of blessed memory, it is found in many places that the word law comprehends the Prophets and the Hagiographa.''
Among which last stands the book of Psalms; and this may be confirmed by a passage out of the Talmud (u); it is asked,
"from whence does the resurrection of the dead appear, , "out of the law?"''
It is answered,
"as it is said in Psalm…
The Church Fathers
(Hom. lxi. 2) Our Lord did not correct the Jews, as if they misunderstood His speech, but confirmed and defended it, in the very sense in which they had taken it. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?
This Spirit, (according to the apostle's showing, ) meant not that the service of these gifts should be in the body, nor did He place them in the human body); and on the subject of the superiority of love above all these gifts, He even taught the apostle that it was the chief commandment, just as Christ has shown it to be: "Thou shalt love the Lord with all thine heart and soul, with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbour as thine own self." When he mentions the fact that "it is written in the law," how that the Creator would speak with other tongues and other lips, whilst confirming indeed the gift of tongues by such a mention, he yet cannot be thought to have affirmed that the gift was that of another god by his reference to the Creator's prediction.
But see what answer the Lord gave to their dull apprehension. He saw that they could not bear the brilliance of the truth, and He tempered it with words. "Is it not written in your law," that is, as given to you, "that I said, Ye are gods?" And the Lord called all the Scriptures generally, the law. "If He calleth them gods, to whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken: say ye of Him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world. Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?" If the word of God came to men, that they might be called gods, how can the very Word of God, who is with God, be otherwise than God? If by the word of God men become gods, if by fellowship they become gods, can He by whom they have fellowship not be God? If lights which are lit are gods, is the light which enlighteneth not God? If through being warmed in a way by saving fire they are constituted gods, is He who gives them the warmth other than God?
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
John, Gospel of — The genuineness of this Gospel, i.e., the fact that the apostle John was its author, is beyond all reasonable doubt. In recent times, from about 1820, many attempts have been made to impugn its…
Law — A rule of action. (1.) The Law of Nature is the will of God as to human conduct, founded on the moral difference of things, and discoverable by natural light (Rom. 1:20; 2:14, 15). This law binds all…
Son of God — The plural, “sons of God,” is used (Gen. 6:2, 4) to denote the pious descendants of Seth. In Job 1:6; 38:7 this name is applied to the angels. Hosea uses the phrase (1:10) to designate the gracious…
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John 10:31-36
31. Then the Jews again took up stones to stone him. 32. Jesus answered them, Many good works I have shown you from my Father. For which of those works do you stone me? 33. The Jews answered him, We stone thee not for the sake of a good work, but for blasphemy, and, because thou, being a man, makest thyself God. 34. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your Law, I said, You are gods? 35. If it called them gods, to whom the word of God was addressed, and Scripture cannot, be broken, 36. Do you say that I, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, blaspheme, because I said, I am the Son of God?
31. Then the Jews again took up stones. As true religion, in maintain…
I say, you are gods! If the word god could be applied to people other than the Lord, then Jesus was not breaking the law by referring to himself in this way. Yet Jesus is not just any son of God; he is the Son of God who was sent . . . into the world.
