Study Format:
1. Read passage aloud. What did you notice in the reading? What words or phrase caught your attention?
2. Read passage aloud a second time. What questions would you ask the text?
3. Read passage aloud a third time. What do you hear God calling you to do or be in response to this text?
Interesting Ideas to Consider:
• Despite the passage of time (from the Feast of Tabernacles in late September/early October to the Feast of Dedication in December), John 10:22-30 is clearly an extension of the conversation Jesus started in John 10:1-21 about the issue of Jesus’ identity.
• The urge to “tell us plainly” (v. 24), is in contrast to Jesus having “used this figure of speech with them” in v. 6.
• v. 30 “The Father and I are one.” It is important to read this verse through the lens of Johannine theology. In the complex, convoluted debates of Christological controversies and Trinitarian doctrine that came out of the second through fourth centuries, this statement by Jesus is both simpler and more profound than that. Jesus is saying that he and God are united in the work they do. “It is impossible to distinguish Jesus’ work from God’s work… His unity with God thus provides the answer to the Messiah question; Jesus is both more than and other than traditional expectations for the Messiah. His power is not that of a political liberator who will restore Israel; it is the very power of God. God shares with Jesus God’s eschatological power over life, death, and judgment” (O’Day 677).
Works Sourced:
O’Day, Gail. “The Gospel of John.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume IX. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995.
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