that He whose mission was confirmed by such evidence must have been the Son of God.
Let us thank God, as we turn from this passage, that Christianity has such abundant evidence that it is a religion from God. Whether we appeal to the internal evidence of the Bible, or to the lives of the first Christians, or to prophe- cy, or to miracles, or to histor}^, we get one and the same answer. All say with one voice, " Jesus is the Son of God, and believers have life through His name"
Notes. John X. 31—42.
81. — \Then the Jews took tip stones, etc.~] The conduct of the Jews is just the same as it was when our Lord said, " Before Abra- has was I am." (John viii. 59.) They regarded His words as blasphemy, and proceeded to take the law in their own hands, as they did in Stephen's case, and to inflict the punishment due to blasphemy. (See Lev. xxiv. 14—16.) " He that blasphem- eth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him." (So Num. xv. 36; 1 Kings xxi. 13.) The Jews of course had no power to put any man to death, being under the dominion of the Romans, and if they did stone any one it would have been a sudden tumultuary proceeding, or act of Lyneh-law.
Let it be noted that the Greek word for " took up " here, is not the same that is used at viii. 59. Here it rather means " they carried." Parkhurst thinks this implies the great size of the s.tones they brought. No doubt the stones used in stoning to death, were not pebbles, but large stones. Yet 1 rather incline to think that it shows that they had to carry stones from some little distance for their murderous purpose. We can hardly suppose there were suitable stones lying about within an old finished building like Solomon's porch, though there might be stones at a little distance on account of the repairs of the temple.
Augustine remarks: "Behold the Jews understood what Arians do not understand."
Maldonatus observes that " these stones cry out against the Arians."
82.— lJesus...ma7iy good works. ..shewed. ..Father, etc.~\ Our Lord here appeals to the many miracles He had publicly wrought before the Jews, in discharging His commission as sent by the Father to be the Messiah, all good and excellent works, in which none could find any fault, and lie asks whether they proposed to stone Him for any of them. They had often asked