What Does John 10:34 Mean?
What Does John 10:34 Mean?
"Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?" (John 10:34 KJV).
This verse seems to claim Jesus is calling the people gods and that he is invoking polytheism. So what is going on here? First, let us read the direct context. "30 I and my Father are one. 31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed(i.e. showed) you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? 33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God" (John 10:30-33 KJV).
In response to the Jews who desired to stone him, Jesus quoted the Psalm 82:6 KJV, which says, "I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High." In this psalm, it is speaking of judges who judge unjustly, they are not gods as the modern reader may believe. Elohim, "אלוהים," the word used for gods in this passage usually means God or spiritual beings, but as we see in Exodus 7:1, sometimes a human is called Elohim.
We know that this psalm isn't calling these people God as in Psalm 82:7 KJV, it says, " But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes."
He is saying that like the judges of the psalm they are acting unjustly by judging him. As the following verses say in John "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? 37 If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. 38 But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him" (John 10:36-38 KJV).
The point is that Jesus is showing himself to be higher than the Jewish leaders, that he will judge them as they have been unjust. As God judged the "gods" of Psalm, he will do the same with these men.