The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.”
Parallel translations
- KJV The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.
- BSB “We have a law,” answered the Jews, “and according to that law He must die, because He declared Himself to be the Son of God.”
- NKJV The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God.”
- NASB The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and by that law He ought to die, because He made Himself out to be the Son of God!”
- NLT The Jewish leaders replied, “By our law he ought to die because he called himself the Son of God.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The Jewish leaders reveal their real charge: Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. By their law that was blasphemy deserving death.
Overview
Unable to make a political charge stick, the leaders appeal to the Mosaic law against blasphemy (Leviticus 24:16), citing Jesus' claim to be the Son of God. The irony is that the charge is true in a sense they reject: Jesus truly is God's Son. Thus the very confession that condemns him in their eyes is the heart of the gospel they refuse to believe.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Lev 24:16He who blasphemes Yahweh’s name, he shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him. The foreigner as well as the native-born, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.
- John 5:18For this cause therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
- Matt 26:63–66But Jesus held his peace. The high priest answered him, “I adjure you by the living God, that you tell us whether you are the Christ, the Son of God.”
- Rom 1:4who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,
- Mark 15:39When the centurion, who stood by opposite him, saw that he cried out like this and breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
- Mark 14:61–64But he stayed quiet, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?”
- Matt 27:42–43“He saved others, but he can’t save himself. If he is the King of Israel, let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him.
- John 10:36–38do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You blaspheme,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God?’
- John 10:30–33I and the Father are one.”
- Deut 18:20But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.”
- John 8:58–59Jesus said to them, “Most certainly, I tell you, before Abraham came into existence, I AM. ”
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John declares him plainly: the eternal Word made flesh, the Lamb of God, the great 'I AM' — bread, light, door, shepherd, way, truth, life, resurrection — that you may believe and have life in his name.
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Original language
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