A brother arming himself to encounter denominational people in foreign missionary work asks a question about the Jehovah’s Witnesses misuse of John 10:34, where that group claims Jesus denied his Deity. The verse and some of those around it read:
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. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto 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? (John 10:33-36)
The immediate context and the larger biblical context reveal the meaning and intent of what Jesus said, and he did not renounce his Deity. The James Burton Coffman Commentary records for John 10:34:
This is the passage to which Jesus referred: God standeth in the congregation of God; He judgeth among the gods. How long will ye judge unjustly, And respect the persons of the wicked? …I said, Ye are gods, And all of you sons of the Most High (Psa. 82:1,2,6). The unjust judges of Israel were the subject of these verses, God calling them “gods” in order to stimulate and encourage them to render just judgments. Of course, those men were “sons of the Most High” in the sense ordinary; but the use of such words in the Holy Scriptures were proof absolute that it was not blasphemy for a man to call himself “son of God” in that same sense. Jesus did not imply by this appeal that he claimed to be “Son of God” in the ordinary sense; for both he and his enemies knew that it was in the unique sense of being “the only begotten Son of God” that Jesus used the title. Nevertheless, it was sinful and illegal for those Pharisees to make what Jesus meant the basis for a charge of blasphemy. He had not pinpointed the unique phase of his claim (at that point); and he cited the Psalm which he quoted as a complete and adequate defense of what he had actually said. In the divine plan, Jesus would eventually testify under oath to the uniqueness of his Sonship, but that would come before the historic court of the chosen people, and not in the presence of a vicious mob like that which confronted him.
Another commentator also observes:
In Psalms 82:6 God is speaking through the psalmist of impending judgment upon those whom He had appointed judges by Divine commission. These judges and magistrates God called “gods.” They administered justice as direct representatives of God Himself and the Word of God had come to them–thus God called them “gods.” Jesus reminds them that their highly cherished “torah” called men “gods” and they had never protested that! Furthermore, the Scripture cannot be broken! That which had been written must be accepted as authoritative–the Scriptures themselves had spoken of some men as gods, How then could the Jews have the right to accuse Jesus of blasphemy when He says, “I am the Son of God.”… (Butler 127)
Jesus Christ did not deny his Deity. He simply used enough biblical evidence (which his accusers claimed to believe) to dispel the unfounded charge of blasphemy, for which those Jews proposed to stone him. Later in the ministry of Jesus Christ, he plainly declared his Deity as the Son of God rather than a son of God.
Hundreds of prophecies and myriads of additional statements in both testaments avow that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God. The spotty misuse of Scripture such as with John 10:34 hardly proves the groundless assertion of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Works Cited
Butler, Paul T. The Gospel of John, Vol. II. CD-ROM. Joplin: College Press, 1965.
Coffman, James Burton. James Burton Coffman Commentary. CD-ROM. Seattle: Biblesoft, 1989.
