28

CHAPTER 28.

THE LAST WINTER.


AT THE FEAST OF DEDICATION.[1009]

Jesus returned to Jerusalem in time to attend the Feast of Dedication
during the last winter of His earthly life. This feast, like that of
Tabernacles, was one of national rejoicing, and was celebrated annually
for a period of eight days beginning on the 25th of Chislev,[1010] which
corresponds in part to our December. It was not one of the great feasts
prescribed by Mosaic statute, but had been established in 164 or 163
B.C. at the time of the rededication of the Temple of Zerubbabel
following the rehabilitation of the sacred structure after its profane
desecration by Antiochus Epiphanes, the pagan king of Syria.[1011] While
the festival was in progress, Jesus went to the temple and was seen
walking in the part of the enclosure known as Solomon's Porch.[1012] His
presence soon became known to the Jews, who came crowding about Him in
unfriendly spirit, ostensibly to ask questions. Their inquiry was: "How
long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us
plainly," The mere asking of such a question evidences the deep and
disturbing impression which the ministry of Christ had produced among
the official classes and the people generally; in their estimation, the
works he had wrought appeared as worthy of the Messiah.

The Lord's reply was indirect in form, though in substance and effect
incisive and unmistakable. He referred them to His former utterances and
to His continued works. "I told you," He said, "and ye believed not: the
works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. But ye
believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My
sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give
unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any
man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater
than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I
and my Father are one." The reference to what had been before told was a
reminder of His teachings on the occasion of an earlier sojourn among
them, when He had proclaimed Himself as the I AM, who was older and
greater than Abraham, and of His other proclamation of Himself as the
Good Shepherd.[1013]

He could not well answer their inquiry by a simple unqualified
affirmation, for by such He would have been understood as meaning that
He claimed to be the Messiah according to their conception, the earthly
king and conqueror for whom they professed to be looking. He was no such
Christ as they had in mind; yet was He verily Shepherd and King to all
who would hear His words and do His works; and to such He renewed the
promise of eternal life and the assurance that no man could pluck them
out of His own or the Father's hand. To this doctrine, both exalted and
profound in scope, the casuistical Jews could offer no refutation, nor
could they find therein the much desired excuse for open accusation; our
Lord's concluding sentence, however, stirred the hostile throng to
frenzy. "I and my Father are one" was His solemn declaration.[1014] In
their rage they scrambled for stones wherewith to crush Him. Owing to
the unfinished state of the temple buildings, there were probably many
blocks and broken fragments of rock at hand; and this was the second
murderous attempt upon our Lord's life within the purlieus of His
Father's House.[1015]

Fearless, and with the compelling calmness of more than human majesty,
Jesus said: "Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which
of those works do ye stone me?" They angrily retorted: "For a good work
we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a
man, makest thyself God."[1016] Plainly they had found no ambiguity in
His words. He then cited to them the scriptures, wherein even judges
empowered by divine authority are called gods,[1017] and asked: "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?" Then, reverting
to the first avouchment that His own commission was of the Father who is
greater than all, He added: "If I do not the works of my Father, believe
me not. 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."[1018]
Again the Jews sought to take Him, but were foiled by means not stated;
He passed from their reach and departed from the temple.


OUR LORD'S RETIREMENT IN PEREA.[1019]

The violent hostility of the Jews in Jerusalem, the headquarters of the
theocracy, was such that Jesus withdrew from the city and its
neighborhood. The day for His sacrifice had not yet come, and while His
enemies could not kill Him until He allowed Himself to be taken into
their hands, His work would be retarded by further hostile disturbances.
He retired to the place at which John the Baptist had begun his public
ministry, which is probably also the place of our Lord's baptism. The
exact location is not specified; it was certainly beyond Jordan and
therefore in Perea. We read that Jesus abode there, and from this we
gather that He remained in one general locality instead of traveling
from town to town as had been His custom. People resorted to Him even
there, however, and many believed on Him. The place was endeared to
those who had gone to hear John and to be baptized by him;[1020] and as
these recalled the impassioned call to repentance, the stirring
proclamation of the kingdom by the now murdered and lamented Baptist,
they remembered his affirmation of One mightier than himself, and saw in
Jesus the realization of that testimony. "John," they said, "did no
miracle: but all things that John spake of this man were true."

The duration of this sojourn in Perea is nowhere recorded in our
scriptures. It could not have lasted more than a few weeks at most.
Possibly some of the discourses, instructions, and parables already
treated as following the Lord's departure from Jerusalem after the Feast
of Tabernacles in the preceding autumn, may chronologically belong to
this interval. From this retreat of comparative quiet, Jesus returned to
Judea in response to an earnest appeal from some whom He loved. He left
the Bethany of Perea for the Judean Bethany, where dwelt Martha and
Mary.[1021]


LAZARUS RESTORED TO LIFE.[1022]

Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, lay ill in the family home at
Bethany of Judea. His devoted sisters sent a messenger to Jesus, with
the simple announcement, in which, however, we cannot fail to recognize
a pitiful appeal: "Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick." When
Jesus received the message, He remarked: "This sickness is not unto
death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified
thereby." This was probably the word carried back to the sisters, whom
Jesus loved. Lazarus had died in the interval; indeed he must have
expired soon after the messenger had started with the tidings of the
young man's illness. The Lord knew that Lazarus was dead; yet He tarried
where He was for two days after receiving the word; then He surprized
the disciples by saying: "Let us go into Judea again." They sought to
dissuade the Master by reminding Him of the recent attempt upon His life
at Jerusalem, and asked wonderingly, "Goest thou thither again?" Jesus
made clear to them that He was not to be deterred from duty in the time
thereof, nor should others be; for as He illustrated, the working day is
twelve hours long; and during that period a man may walk without
stumbling, for he walks in the light, but if he let the hours pass and
then try to walk or work in darkness, he stumbles. It was then His day
to work, and He was making no mistake in returning to Judea.

He added: "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him
out of sleep." The simile between death and sleep was as common among
the Jews as with us;[1023] but the disciples construed the saying
literally, and remarked that if the sick man was sleeping it would be
well with him. Jesus set them right. "Lazarus is dead," He said, and
added, "And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent
ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him." It is evident that
Jesus had already decided to restore Lazarus to life; and, as we shall
see, the miracle was to be a testimony of our Lord's Messiahship,
convincing to all who would accept it. A return to Judea at that time
was viewed by at least some of the apostles with serious apprehension;
they feared for their Master's safety, and thought that their own lives
would be in peril; nevertheless they did not hesitate to go. Thomas
boldly said to the others: "Let us also go, that we may die with him."

Arriving on the outskirts of Bethany, Jesus found that Lazarus "had lain
in the grave four days already."[1024] The bereaved sisters were at
home, where had gathered, according to custom, friends to console them
in their grief. Among these were many prominent people, some of whom had
come from Jerusalem. Word of the Master's approach reached Martha first,
and she hastened to meet Him. Her first words were: "Lord, if thou hadst
been here, my brother had not died." It was an expression of anguish
combined with faith; but, lest it appear as lacking in trust, she
hastened to add: "But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of
God, God will give it thee." Then said Jesus in words of assuring
tenderness: "Thy brother shall rise again." Perhaps some of the Jews who
had come to comfort her had said as much, for they, the Sadducees
excepted, believed in a resurrection; and Martha failed to find in the
Lord's promise anything more than a general assurance that her departed
brother should be raised with the rest of the dead. In natural and
seemingly casual assent she remarked: "I know that he shall rise again
in the resurrection at the last day." Then said Jesus: "I am the
resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were
dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall
never die. Believest thou this?"

The sorrowing woman's faith had to be lifted and centered in the Lord of
Life with whom she was speaking. She had before confessed her conviction
that whatever Jesus asked of God would be granted; she had to learn that
unto Jesus had already been committed power over life and death. She was
hopefully expectant of some superhuman interposition by the Lord Jesus
in her behalf, yet she knew not what that might be. Apparently at this
time she had no well-defined thought or even hope that He would call her
brother from the tomb. To the Lord's question as to whether she believed
what He had just said, she answered with simple frankness; all of it she
was not able to understand; but she believed in the Speaker even while
unable to fully comprehend His words. "Yea, Lord," she said, "I believe
that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the
world."

Then she returned to the home, and with precaution of secrecy on account
of the presence of some whom she knew to be unfriendly to Jesus, said to
Mary: "The Master is come, and calleth for thee." Mary left the house in
haste. The Jews who had been with her thought that she had been impelled
by a fresh resurgence of grief to go again to the grave, and they
followed her. When she reached the Master, she knelt at His feet, and
gave expression to her consuming sorrow in the very words Martha had
used: "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." We
cannot doubt that the conviction so voiced had been the burden of
comment and lamentation between the two sisters--if only Jesus had been
with them they would not have been bereft of their brother.

The sight of the two women so overcome by grief, and of the people
wailing with them, caused Jesus to sorrow, so that He groaned in spirit
and was deeply troubled. "Where have ye laid him?" He asked; and Jesus
wept. As the sorrowing company went toward the tomb, some of the Jews,
observing the Lord's emotion and tears, said: "Behold how he loved him!"
but others, less sympathetic because of their prejudice against Christ,
asked critically and reproachfully: "Could not this man, which opened
the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have
died?" The miracle by which a man blind from birth had been made to see
was very generally known, largely because of the official investigation
that had followed the healing.[1025] The Jews had been compelled to
admit the actuality of the astounding occurrence; and the question now
raised as to whether or why One who could accomplish such a wonder could
not have preserved from death a man stricken with an ordinary illness,
and that man one whom He seemed to have dearly loved, was an innuendo
that the power possessed by Jesus was after all limited, and of
uncertain or capricious operation. This manifestation of malignant
unbelief caused Jesus again to groan with sorrow if not
indignation.[1026]

The body of Lazarus had been interred in a cave, the entrance to which
was closed by a great block of stone. Such burial-places were common in
that country, natural caves or vaults hewn in the solid rock being used
as sepulchres by the better classes of people. Jesus directed that the
tomb be opened. Martha, still unprepared for what was to follow,
ventured to remonstrate, reminding Jesus that the corpse had been four
days immured, and that decomposition must have already set in.[1027]
Jesus thus met her objection: "Said I not unto thee, that, if thou
wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?" This may have
had reference both to His promise spoken to Martha in person--that her
brother should rise again--and to the message sent from Perea--that the
illness of Lazarus was not unto final death at that time, but for the
glory of God and that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.

The stone was removed. Standing before the open portal of the tomb,
Jesus looked upward and prayed: "Father, I thank thee that thou hast
heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the
people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast
sent me." He did not ask the Father for power or authority; such had
already been given Him; but He gave thanks, and in the hearing of all
who stood by acknowledged the Father and expressed the oneness of His
own and the Father's purposes. Then, with a loud voice He cried:
"Lazarus, come forth." The dead man heard that voice of authoritative
command; the spirit straightway reentered the tabernacle of flesh, the
physical processes of life were resumed; and Lazarus, again alive, came
forth. His freedom of motion was limited, for the grave clothes hampered
his movements, and his face was still bound by the napkin by which the
lifeless jaw had been held in place. To those who stood near, Jesus
said: "Loose him, and let him go."

The procedure throughout was characterized by deep solemnity and by the
entire absence of every element of unnecessary display. Jesus, who when
miles away and without any ordinary means of receiving the information
knew that Lazarus was dead, doubtless could have found the tomb; yet He
inquired: "Where have ye laid him?" He who could still the waves of the
sea by a word could have miraculously effected the removal of the stone
that sealed the mouth of the sepulchre; yet He said: "Take ye away the
stone." He who could reunite spirit and body could have loosened without
hands the cerements by which the reanimated Lazarus was bound; yet He
said: "Loose him, and let him go." All that human agency could do was
left to man. In no instance do we find that Christ used unnecessarily
the superhuman powers of His Godship; the divine energy was never
wasted; even the material creation resulting from its exercize was
conserved, as witness His instructions regarding the gathering up of the
fragments of bread and fish after the multitudes had been miraculously
fed.[1028]

The raising of Lazarus stands as the third recorded instance of
restoration to life by Jesus.[1029] In each the miracle resulted in a
resumption of mortal existence, and was in no sense a resurrection from
death to immortality. In the raising of the daughter of Jairus, the
spirit was recalled to its tenement within the hour of its quitting; the
raising of the widow's son is an instance of restoration when the corpse
was ready for the grave; the crowning miracle of the three was the
calling of a spirit to reenter its body days after death, and when, by
natural processes the corpse would be already in the early stages of
decomposition. Lazarus was raised from the dead, not simply to assuage
the grief of mourning relatives; myriads have had to mourn over death,
and so myriads more shall have to do. One of the Lord's purposes was
that of demonstrating the actuality of the power of God as shown forth
in the works of Jesus the Christ, and Lazarus was the accepted subject
of the manifestation; just as the man afflicted with congenital
blindness had been chosen to be the one through whom "the works of God
should be made manifest."[1030]

That the Lord's act of restoring Lazarus to life was of effect in
testifying to His Messiahship is explicitly stated.[1031] All the
circumstances leading up to final culmination in the miracle contributed
to its attestation. No question as to the actual death of Lazarus could
be raised, for his demise had been witnessed, his body had been prepared
and buried in the usual way, and he had lain in the grave four days. At
the tomb, when he was called forth, there were many witnesses, some of
them prominent Jews, many of whom were unfriendly to Jesus and who would
have readily denied the miracle had they been able. God was glorified
and the divinity of the Son of Man was vindicated in the result.


THE HIERARCHY GREATLY AGITATED OVER THE MIRACLE.[1032]

As in connection with most of our Lord's public acts--while some of
those who heard and saw were brought to believe in Him, others rejected
the proffered lesson and reviled the Master--so with this mighty
work--some were stirred to faith and others went their ways each with
mind darkened and spirit more malignant than ever. Some of those who had
seen the dead man raised to life went immediately and reported the
matter to the rulers, whom they knew to be intensely hostile toward
Jesus. In the parable we have recently studied, the spirit of the rich
man pleaded from his place of anguish that Lazarus, the once pitiable
beggar, be sent from paradise to earth, to warn others of the fate
awaiting the wicked, to which appeal Abraham replied: "If they hear not
Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose
from the dead."[1033] Now a Lazarus had been in reality raised from the
dead, and many of the Jews rejected the testimony of his return and
refused to believe in Christ through whom alone death is overcome. The
Jews tried to get Lazarus into their power that they might kill him and,
as they hoped, silence forever his testimony of the Lord's power over
death.[1034]

The chief priests, who were mostly Sadducees, and the Pharisees with
them assembled in council to consider the situation created by this
latest of our Lord's great works. The question they discussed was: "What
do we? for this man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all
men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both
our place and nation." As stated by themselves, there was no denying the
fact of the many miracles wrought by Jesus; but instead of earnestly and
prayerfully investigating as to whether these mighty works were not
among the predicted characteristics of the Messiah, they thought only of
the possible effect of Christ's influence in alienating the people from
the established theocracy, and of the fear that the Romans, taking
advantage of the situation, would deprive the hierarchs of their "place"
and take from the nation what little semblance of distinct autonomy it
still possessed. Caiaphas, the high priest,[1035] cut short the
discussion by saying: "Ye know nothing at all." This sweeping assertion
of ignorance was most likely addressed to the Pharisees of the
Sanhedrin; Caiaphas was a Sadducee. His next utterance was of greater
significance than he realized: "Nor consider that it is expedient for
us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation
perish not." John solemnly avers that Caiaphas spake not of himself, but
by the spirit of prophecy, which, in spite of his implied unworthiness,
came upon him by virtue of his office, and that thus: "He prophesied
that Jesus should die for that nation; and not for that nation only, but
that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were
scattered abroad." But a few years after Christ had been put to death,
for the salvation of the Jews and of all other nations, the very
calamities which Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin had hoped to avert befell in
full measure; the hierarchy was overthrown, the temple destroyed,
Jerusalem demolished and the nation disrupted. From the day of that
memorable session of the Sanhedrin, the rulers increased their efforts
to bring about the death of Jesus, by whatever means they might find
available. They issued a mandate that whosoever knew of His whereabouts
should give the information to the officials, that they might promptly
take Him into custody.[1036]


JESUS IN RETIREMENT AT EPHRAIM.[1037]

The hostility of the ecclesiastical rulers became so great that Jesus
once more sought retirement in a region sufficiently far from Jerusalem
to afford Him security from the watchful and malignant eyes of His
powerful and openly avowed enemies. But a few weeks of mortal life
remained to Him, and the greater part of this brief period had to be
devoted to the further instruction of the apostles. He prudently
withdrew from the vicinity of Bethany and "went thence unto a country
near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there continued
with his disciples." Thus did our Lord spend the rest of the winter and
probably the early days of the succeeding spring. That His retreat was
private if not practically secret is suggested by John's statement that
"Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews"; and further
indication is found in the fact that although the chief priests and
Pharisees had virtually set a price upon His head, no man gave
information as to His whereabouts. The place of this last retirement is
not definitely known; it is generally thought to be the locality
elsewhere called Ephrain and Ephron,[1038] which lay a little less than
twenty miles northerly from Jerusalem. Equally uncertain is the duration
of our Lord's abode there. When He emerged again into public notice, it
was to enter upon His solemn march toward Jerusalem and the cross.


NOTES TO CHAPTER 28.

1. Origin of the Feast of Dedication.--Concerning the second temple,
known as the Temple of Zerubbabel, the author has written elsewhere: "Of
the later history of this temple the biblical record gives but few
details; but from other sources we learn of its vicissitudes. In
connection with the Maccabean persecution the House of the Lord was
profaned. A Syrian king, Antiochus Epiphanes, captured Jerusalem (168 to
165 B.C.) and perpetrated blasphemous outrage against the religion of
the people. He plundered the temple and carried away its golden
candlestick, its golden altar of incense, its table of shewbread, and
even tore down the sacred veils, which were of fine linen and scarlet.
His malignity was carried so far that he purposely desecrated the altar
of sacrifice by offering swine thereon, and erected a heathen altar
within the sacred enclosure. Not content with the violation of the
temple, this wicked monarch had altars erected in the towns, and ordered
the offering of unclean beasts upon them. The rite of circumcision was
forbidden on pain of death, and the worship of Jehovah was declared a
crime. As a result of this persecution many of the Jews apostatized, and
declared that they belonged to the Medes and Persians--the nations from
whose dominion they had been delivered by the power of God.... Then in
the year 163 B.C. the House was rededicated; and the occasion was
remembered in annual festival thereafter under the name of the Feast of
Dedication."--_The House of the Lord_, pp. 51-53. According to Josephus
(Ant. xii, 7:7) the festival came to be known as The Lights; and
brilliant illumination both of the temple and of dwellings, was a
feature of the celebration. Traditional accounts say that eight days had
been set as the duration of the feast, in commemoration of a legendary
miracle by which the consecrated oil in the only jar found intact, and
bearing the unbroken seal of the high priest, had been made to serve for
temple purposes through eight days, which time was required for the
ceremonial preparation of a new supply.

2. Solomon's Porch.--This name had been applied to the eastern colonnade
or row of porticoes within the temple enclosure, in recognition of a
tradition that the porch covered and included a portion of the original
wall belonging to the Temple of Solomon. See _The House of the Lord_,
pp. 55-57.

3. The Oneness of Christ and the Father.--The revised version gives for
John 10:30: "I and the Father are one" instead of "I and my Father are
one." By "the Father" the Jews rightly understood the Eternal Father,
God. In the original Greek "one" appears in the neuter gender, and
therefore expresses oneness in attributes, power, or purpose, and not a
oneness of personality which would have required the masculine form. For
treatment of the unity of the Godhead, and the separate personality of
each Member, see _Articles of Faith_, ii, 20-24.

4. The Place of our Lord's Retirement.--Jesus went "beyond Jordan into
the place where John at first baptized" (John 10:40). This was probably
Bethabara (1:28), which is called Bethany in some of the earliest
manuscripts and is so designated in the latest revised version. Care
must be taken not to confuse this Perean Bethany with the Bethany in
Judea, the home of Martha and Mary, which was within two miles of
Jerusalem.

5. Lazarus in the Tomb Four Days.--On the very probable assumption that
the journey from Bethany in Judea to the place where Jesus was, in
Perea, would require one day, Lazarus must have died on the day of the
messenger's departure; for this day and the two days that elapsed before
Jesus started toward Judea, and the day required for the return, would
no more than cover the four days specified. It was and still is the
custom in Palestine as in other oriental countries to bury on the day of
death.

It was the popular belief that on the fourth day after death the spirit
had finally departed from the vicinity of the corpse, and that
thereafter decomposition proceeded unhindered. This may explain Martha's
impulsive though gentle objection to having the tomb of her brother
opened four days after his death (John 11:39). It is possible that the
consent of the next of kin was required for the lawful opening of a
grave. Both Martha and Mary were present, and in the presence of many
witnesses assented to the opening of the tomb in which their brother
lay.

6. Jesus Groaned in Spirit.--The marginal readings for "he groaned in
the spirit" (John 11:33) and "again groaning in himself" (v. 38), as
given in the revised version, are "was moved with indignation in the
spirit" and "being moved with indignation in himself." All philological
authorities agree that the words in the original Greek express sorrowful
indignation, or as some aver, anger, and not alone a sympathetic emotion
of grief. Any indignation the Lord may have felt, as intimated in verse
33, may be attributed to disapproval of the customary wailing over
death, which as vented by the Jews on this occasion, profaned the real
and soulful grief of Martha and Mary; and His indignation, expressed by
groaning as mentioned in verse 38, may have been due to the carping
criticism uttered by some of the Jews as recorded in verse 37.

7. Caiaphas, High Priest that Year.--John's statement that Caiaphas was
high priest "that same year" must not be construed as meaning that the
office of high priest was of a single year's tenure. Under Jewish law
the presiding priest, who was known as the high priest, would remain in
office indefinitely; but the Roman government had arrogated to itself
the appointive power as applying to this office; and frequent changes
were made. This Caiaphas, whose full name was Josephus Caiaphas, was
high priest under Roman appointment during a period of eleven years. To
such appointments the Jews had to submit, though they often recognized
as the high priest under their law, some other than the "civil high
priest" appointed by Roman authority. Thus we find both Annas and
Caiaphas exercizing the authority of the office at the time of our
Lord's arrest and later. (John 18:13, 24; Acts 4:6; compare Luke 3:2.)
Farrar (p. 484, note) says: "Some have seen an open irony in the
expression of St. John (11:49) that Caiaphas was high priest 'that same
year,' as though the Jews had got into this contemptuous way of speaking
during the rapid succession of priests--mere phantoms set up and
displaced by the Roman fiat--who had in recent years succeeded each
other. There must have been at least five living high priests, and
ex-high priests at this council--Annas, Ismael Ben Phabi, Eleazar Ben
Haman, Simon Ben Kamhith, and Caiaphas, who had gained his elevation by
bribery."

8. Divinely Appointed Judges Called "gods."--In Psalm 82:6, judges
invested by divine appointment are called "gods." To this scripture the
Savior referred in His reply to the Jews in Solomon's Porch. Judges so
authorized officiated as the representatives of God and are honored by
the exalted title "gods." Compare the similar appellation applied to
Moses (Exo. 4:16; 7:1). Jesus Christ possessed divine authorization, not
through the word of God transmitted to Him by man, but as an inherent
attribute. The inconsistency of calling human judges "gods," and of
ascribing blasphemy to the Christ who called Himself the Son of God,
would have been apparent to the Jews but for their sin-darkened minds.