11.02.29 Jn. 10:19-21
JEWS STILL DIVIDED
19 Again a division took place among the Jews because of these words. 20 Many of them were saying, “He has a demon and He’s crazy! Why do you listen to Him?”
21 Others were saying, “These aren’t the words of someone demon-possessed. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”
Again John recorded that many Jewish people accepted the argument of the scribes and leading Pharisees, that Jesus used demonic powers to perform miracles. How could they have drawn such a conclusion?
- One problem was that whatever concepts they had of the messiah, and various groups had a variety of ideas,[1] Jesus did not match any of them.
- The idea that Jesus could be God was simply an unacceptable idea. It not only violated their understanding of the Torah, but also reminded them of the horrors that Antiochus IV Epiphanies, who claimed to be god, inflicted upon them in the second century B.C.
- A number of persons had claimed to be the messiah,[2] all were proven to be false prophets, and Jesus, although quite different, was said to be one of them.
- At this point Jesus was at times teaching in parables, often leaving His critics in bewilderment and confusion
- The leading Pharisees said there was no explanation for the profound miracles that Jesus performed, other than His use of demonic powers. They refused to believe anything else.
[1]. See 12.03.01.Q1 “What ‘Messianic problems’ did the Jewish leaders have with Jesus?” and 12.03.01.A “Chart of Key Points of the Messianic Problems.” See also 02.03.09 “Messianic Expectations”; 05.04.02.Q1 “What were the Jewish expectations of the Messiah?” and Appendix 25: “False Prophets, Rebels, Significant Events, and Rebellions that Impacted the First Century Jewish World.”
[2]. For a partial listing of false prophets and false messiahs, see Appendix 25: “False Prophets, Rebels, Significant Events, And Rebellions That Impacted The First Century Jewish World.”