Context No. 95 of 4322 · John
Context · Reflection
John 10:19-24: in context
19Therefore a division arose again among the Jews because of these words. 20Many of them said, “He has a demon and is insane! Why do you listen to him?” 21Others said, “These are not the sayings of one possessed by a demon. It isn’t possible for a demon to open the eyes of the blind, is it?” 22It was the Feast of the Dedication at Jerusalem. 23It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in Solomon’s porch. 24The Jews therefore came around him and said to him, “How long will you hold us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
Jesus has just called himself the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep, and this passage is the reaction. The crowd splits. Many say he has a demon and is out of his mind, so why listen. Others answer with an argument from evidence: these are not the words of a man with a demon, and can a demon open the eyes of the blind? They are pointing back to the man born blind, healed in the previous chapter.
Then John sets the scene with two details that matter. It was the Feast of the Dedication, and it was winter. That feast is Hanukkah, which commemorates the rededication of the temple after Judas Maccabeus drove out the Greeks and cleansed it, the events an earlier reading in this series covered from First Maccabees. Jesus is walking in Solomon's Portico, the covered colonnade along the east side of the temple, at the festival that celebrates the temple being made clean again.
The question they put to him is impatient and fair. How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly. He answers that he has told them and the works speak for him. Two groups have looked at the same healings and gone opposite directions. What evidence have I already decided the meaning of before looking at it again?
Sources
- John 9: the healing of the man born blind, the evidence the crowd argues over here
- John 10:22: the Feast of the Dedication, Hanukkah, commemorating the temple's rededication under Judas Maccabeus
- Solomon's Portico, the colonnade on the east side of the temple (also Acts 3:11, 5:12)