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Joh_5:18. Διὰ τοῦτο ] because He said this, and ὅτι as in Joh_5:16. “Apologiam ipsam in majus crimen vertunt,” Bengel.
μᾶλλον ] neither potius nor amplius (Bengel: “modo persequebantur, nunc amplius quaerunt occidere”); but, as according to its position it necessarily belongs to ἐζήτ ., magis, “they redoubled their endeavours.” It has a reference to ἐδίωκον in Joh_5:16, so far as this general expression includes the desire to kill. Comp. for the ζητεῖν ἀποκτεῖναι , Joh_7:1; Joh_7:19; Joh_7:25, Joh_8:37; Joh_8:40, Joh_11:53.
πατέρα ἴδιον , κ . τ . λ .] patrem proprium. Comp. Rom_8:32. They rightly interpreted ὁ πατήρ μου as signifying peculiar and personal fatherhood, and not what is true also with reference to others, “sed id misere pro blasphemia habuerunt,” Bengel. Comp. Joh_10:33.
ἴσον ἑαυτὸν , κ . τ . λ .] not an explanation, nor exactly (B. Crusius) a proof of what precedes, which the words themselves of Jesus, ὁ πατήρ μου , supply; but what Jesus says of God’s relation to Him ( πατέρα ἴδιον ), declares at the same time, as to the other side of the relationship, what He makes Himself out to be in His relation to God. We must translate: “since He (at the same time) puts Himself on the same level with God” i.e. by that κἀγὼ ἐργάζομαι of Joh_5:17, wherein He, as the Son, claims for Himself equality of right and freedom with the Father. Comp. also Hofmann, Schriftbeweis, I. p. 133. The thought of claiming equality of essence (Php_2:6), however, lies in the background as an indistinct notion in the minds of His opponents.