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Joh_10:31-32. The Jews understood the expression in Joh_10:30 to refer to essential unity, and in their tumultuous and angry excitement would even stone (Lev_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 Joh_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 ] Joh_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, Joh_5:20. Comp. Joh_2:18; Psa_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 Joh_10:37-38.
διὰ ποῖον , etc.] propter quale, etc. Not without the irony of profound indignation (comp. 2Co_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. Joh_5:18), i.e. a divine being (Joh_1:1), was a consequence of the mistaken view taken of Joh_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.”