John 10:36

Joh 10:36. Ὃν ὁ Πατὴρ ἡγίασε, whom the Father hath sanctified) This sanctification is mentioned in such a way as to be prior in time to His being sent into the world (see by all means Joh 17:18, “As Thou hast sent Me into the world, so,” etc.: comp. Joh 10:19; Joh 10:17, “For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also,” etc. [sanctify = set apart as holy, and for a holy end]; “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth;” 1Pe 1:20, “Who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world”): and it implies, in conjunction with it, the inference of Christ’s Godhead, at an infinite interval before those to whom only the word of God came. Although as dignity is that on account of which they are called gods; so sanctity is that on account of which Christ is called the Son of God. Christ therefore is holy, as He is the Son of God;[290] He is sanctified, as ὁρισθείς, defined [declared and marked out] to be the Son of God, Rom 1:4; and σφραγισθείς, sealed, Joh 6:27, “Him hath God the Father sealed.” That is evident in this passage from the appellation, ὁ Πατήρ, which He applies to God, with the greatest force. He shows that there was no need that the word of God should at some particular time come to Him:[291] comp. Joh 10:30, “I and the Father are one.” We must understand to the whom, the word I [Him, namely I, whom], with which the verb I said [below], in the first person, is in connection.—ἀπέστειλεν, hath sent) This sending presupposes the Godhead of the Son, and so confirms it. [The Haphtara, or appointed portion of Scripture, for the Feast of Dedication contains (Joh 10:22) these words, Jehovah Sabaoth, the Lord God of hosts hath sent me unto you: Zec 6:15.—Not. Crit].

[290] Luk 1:35, “Therefore that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” Gabriel to the Virg. Mary.—E. and T.

[291] As to those alluded to in Psa 82:6. For the Word of God was always with Him, as being the Word.—E. and T.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

36. Whom the Father hath sanctified. There is a sanctification that is common to all believers. But here Christ claims for himself something far more excellent, namely, that he alone was separated from all others, that the power of the Spirit and the majesty of God might be displayed in him; as he formerly said, that him hath God the Father sealed, (John 6:27.) But this refers strictly to the person of Christ, so far as he is manifested in the flesh. Accordingly, these two things are joined, that he has been sanctified and sent into the world. But we must also understand for what reason and on what condition he was sent It was to bring salvation from God, and to prove and exhibit himself, in every possible way, to be the Son of God.

Do you say that I blaspheme? The Arians anciently tortured this passage to prove that Christ is not God by nature, but that he possesses a kind of borrowed Divinity. But this error is easily refuted, for Christ does not now argue what he is in himself, but what we ought to acknowledge him to be, from his miracles in human flesh. For we can never comprehend his eternal Divinity, unless we embrace him as a Redeemer, so far as the Father hath exhibited him to us. Besides, we ought to remember what I have formerly suggested, that Christ does not, in this passage, explain fully and distinctly what he is, as he would have done among his disciples; but that he rather dwells on refuting the slander of his enemies.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(36) Whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world.—Better, Whom the Father sanctified, and sent into the world. The tense refers to the time of His consecration to His Messianic work, and to the Incarnation, which was the commencement of it.

Because I said, I am the Son of God.—He had not said this in express words, but, as we have seen, it is directly implied in Joh_10:29-30, and the Jews had so understood what He said (Joh_10:33).

So far, then, the argument is simply a technical one, such as formed the staple of those customary in Rabbinic schools, and based on the letter of the Scriptures. The law (Psalm) applied the term “Elohim” (gods) to men representing God; no word of that Scripture could fail to hold good; how much more, therefore (a minori ad majus), could the term Son of God be applied to Him who was not a man consecrated to any earthly office, but consecrated by God, and sent into the world to represent God to man. (Comp. Note on Joh_1:18.) Their charge of blasphemy is, on their own principles, without the shadow of foundation. But in these words there is a deeper meaning than this technical one. When we speak of “men representing God,” we are already in thought foreshadowing the central truth of the Incarnation. Priests who offered sacrifices for sins, and kings who ruled God’s people, and prophets who told forth God’s will, were consecrated to their holy office because there was the divine in them which could truly be called “god.” Every holy life was in its degree a type of the Incarnate life of the Son of God. But He was the ideally true Priest sacrificing Himself for the world, the ideally true Prophet declaring God’s will in its fulness, the ideally true King ruling in righteousness. Every holy life was as a ray of the divine glory manifest in human flesh, but all these rays were centred in the nimbus of glory which rested as a crown on the head of Jesus Christ.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

36. Say ye] ‘Ye’ with great emphasis, ‘Do ye, in opposition to the Scripture, say?’

of him, whom the Father hath sanctified] Omit ‘hath;’ both verbs are aorists. This also is emphatic, in opposition to ‘them unto whom the word of God came.’ Men on whom God’s word has conferred a fragment of delegated authority may be called ‘gods’ (Elohim) without scruple; He, Whom the Father Himself sanctified and sent, may not be called Son of God (no article before ‘Son’) without blasphemy! By ‘sanctified’ is meant something analogous to the consecration of Jeremiah before his birth for the work of a Prophet. (Jer_1:5). When the Son was sent into the world He was consecrated for the work of the Messiah, and endowed with the fulness of grace and truth (see on Joh_1:14), the fulness of power (Joh_3:35), the fulness of life (Joh_5:26). In virtue of this Divine sanctification He becomes ‘the Holy One of God’ (Joh_6:69; Luk_4:34). See on Joh_17:17; Joh_17:19, the only other passages in S. John’s writings where the word occurs.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

If I do not the works of my Father,.... Not only what the Father had given him to finish, and which he wrought by him as man, but such as were as great as the Father had done, and were equal to them; and which could not be done by any, but by the Father, or by one that is equal with him:

believe me not: Christ appeals to his miracles as proofs of his deity, sonship, and Messiahship, and desires no other credit than what they demand; see Mat 11:3.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

36 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?

Ver. 36. Hath sanctified and sent] Sanctified, that is, anointed, and that in both his natures, as whole Christ. For his anointing imported, 1. His consecration or ordination to the office of a Mediator, and so the Godhead also was anointed. 2. Qualification or effusion of fulness of graces; as the holy oil was compounded of divers spices, so the manhood, and that without measure, as far as a finite nature was capable of.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Suppose I were no more than a mere man, yet being sanctified, that is, set apart of God for the special work of man’s redemption, and sent of God into the world with commission both to reveal and to do his will, yet dare you say that I blaspheme,

because I said, I am the Son of God? In the place {viz. Psa 82:6} where God said of magistrates, Ye are gods, he also added, all of you are children of the Most High; you have therefore no reason to rage at me, though I did say I was the Son of God; being one whom the Father hath in his eternal counsels set apart for this great and special work, and actually by his providence sent into the world for the finishing and despatching of it. But we must take heed that we do not understand our Saviour here, as if he in another sense assumed to him the title of the Son of God; it was enough for him at present to assert, that the title well enough belonged to him, if he indeed had been no more than the Son of man, as they said.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

36. Father hath sanctified—Hath set apart, has devoted to a holy use. It is the visible man, who by the incarnation is thus set apart and sent into the world, that is touched by the argument thus far. Jesus applies thus his argument to his humanity in order to meet their phrase being a man. A man may be included in the divine name and dignity.

Son of God—For Son of God he may be in a higher sense than magistrates are gods.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

If it be so, Say ye of him whom the Father sanctified (or, consecrated), and sent into the world. The order of these words requires us to conceive of this consecration as occurring previously to the incarnation of the eternal Son. Before his birth into the world he entered into relations with the Father to undertake a work of indescribable importance. He was destined, or designated, or appointed, and then sent to do this sublime deed of redemption. Unlike those to whom the eternal Loges came, conferring thereby honorific titles, and calling them to occasional and alas! His discharged duties, he was the eternal Word himself, and he was moreover (as those old judges (lid) "to die like men," to lay down that life in order that he might take it again; consequently, he asks, with sublime self-consciousness, "Say ye of him, thus consecrated, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am Son of God?" It is remarkable that Christ should, instead of repeating the phrase, "I and the Father are oneone as we have seen, in power and purpose and attribute imply that in that former saying he had but told them he was "Son of God," in a sense to which the old Hebrew kings, notwithstanding their theocratic symbolism and mysterious names of honor, could not aspire. This is clearly a bold utterance of the Messianic dignity. (cf. Joh_1:49 Joh_5:19, Joh_5:20) The fact that he continually treated the two ideas of Father and Son as correlative (Joh_8:19; of. Joh_9:35-37 Joh_14:7-13, etc.) makes the one assertion an equivalent of the other. This is a much greater claim than that yielded to the judges of old, and it is a new revelation of the Father and of the Son. Moreover, he showed them that there were many anticipations, foreshadowings of the incarnation of God in their own Scripture. We have an argument from the less to the greater, but one which, while it technically freed him from the charges of blasphemy, revealed the age-long preparation that had been made for the union between the Infinite and finite, between the Creator and creature, between the Father and his child, which was effected in himself. Some may have supposed that in the leveling up of the theocratic adumbrations of the Incarnation, he was virtually relinquishing the uniqueness of his own; but the following words, and the interpretation put on them by his hearers, answer such a charge.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world - This sanctification (whereby he is essentially the Holy One of God) is mentioned as prior to his mission, and together with it implies, Christ was God in the highest sense, infinitely superior to that wherein those Judges were so called.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

world

kosmos = mankind. (See Scofield "Mat 4:8").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

36. δν ὁ π. ἡγ. Of Him whom the Father sanctified: in emphatic opposition to ‘them unto whom the word of God came.’ Men on whom God’s word has conferred a fragment of delegated authority may be called ‘gods’ (Elohim) without scruple; He, whom the Father Himself sanctified and sent, may not be called Son of God (no article before ‘Son’) without blasphemy. By ‘sanctified’ is meant something analogous to the consecration of Jeremiah before his birth for the work of a Prophet (Jer 1:5). Comp. Sir 45:4 (Moses), Sir 49:7 (Jeremiah); 1Ma 1:25 (the Chosen People). When the Son was sent into the world He was consecrated for the work of the Messiah, and endowed with the fulness of grace and truth (see on Joh 1:14), the fulness of power (Joh 3:35), the fulness of life (Joh 5:26). In virtue of this Divine sanctification He becomes ‘the Holy One of God’ (Joh 6:69; Luk 4:34). see on Joh 17:17; Joh 17:19, the only other passages in S. John’s writings where the word occurs.

ὑμεῖς λέγετε. Ὑμεῖς, with great emphasis; ‘Do ye, in opposition to the Scripture, dare to say?’

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

36.] The argument is à minori ad majus. If in any sense they could be called gods,—how much more properly He, whom &c. They were only officially so called, only λεγόμενοι θεοί—but He, the only One, sealed and hallowed by the Father, and sent into the world (the aorists refer to the time of the Incarnation), is essentially θεός inasmuch as He is υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ.

The deeper aim of this argument is, to shew them that the idea of man and God being one, was not alien from their O.T. spirit, but set forth there in types and shadows of Him, the real God-Man.

Observe ὑμεῖς, set in emphatic contrast to the authority of Scripture,—as ὃν ὁ πατὴρ ἡγίασεν … is to ἐκείνους above.

37,

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

36. ὃν ὁ πατὴρ ἡγίασεν. ἁγιάζειν is a Biblical word, connoting primarily the idea of setting apart for a holy purpose. Thus it is used of Yahweh hallowing the Sabbath (Exo 20:11), and of the consecration of an altar (Lev 16:19). It is applied to men who are set apart for important work or high office, e.g. to Jeremiah as prophet (Jer 1:5), to the priests (2Ch 26:18), to Moses (Ecclus. 45:4), to the fathers of Israel (2 Macc. 1:25). In the N.T. οἱ ἡγιασμένοι are the Christian believers (Act 20:32, Act 20:26:18, 1Co 1:2, Heb 2:11, Heb 2:10:10, 2Ti 2:21), a form of expression which we have in Joh 17:19, where Jesus prays that the apostles may be ἡγιασμένοι ἐν ἀληθείᾳ., In that passage (where see note) He declares ἑγὼ ἁγιάζω ἐμαυτόν, but here the Agent of His consecration is the Father. In virtue of this hallowing, Jesus is ὁ ἅγιος τοῦ θεοῦ (6:69, where see note). That He was set apart for His mission by the Father, who sent Him into the world, is the constant doctrine of the Fourth Gospel.

καὶ ἀπέστειλεν εἰς τὸν κόσμον. Cf. 17:18; and see on 3:17.

ὑμεῖς λέγετε ὅτι κτλ., “Do you say …”; ὑμεῖς being emphatic.

ὅτι εἶπον, υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ εἰμί. This He had repeatedly said, by implication, if not explicitly (cf. especially v. 30; and see 5:18, 19:7). It was involved in the claim that He made when He spoke of God as “my Father”: see on 2:16.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Sanctified [ηγιασεν] . Better, as Rev., in margin, consecrated. The fundamental idea of the word is separation and consecration to the service of Deity. See note on Act 26:10, on the kindred adjective agiov, holy or consecrated.

The Son of God. There is no article. Its absence directs us to the character rather than to the person of Jesus. The judges, to whom the quotation in ver. 35 refers, were called gods, as being representatives of God. See Exo 21:6; Exo 22:8, where the word rendered judges is elohim, gods. In Exo 22:28, gods appears in the A. V. 35 Jesus ' course of reasoning is, if these judges could be called gods, how do I blaspheme in calling myself Son of God, since the Father has consecrated me and sent me on a special mission to the world ?

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.