Review of Bart Ehrman’s ‘How Jesus Became God’ (part 4 – John 10:30)

This is installment number four of my responses to Bart Ehrman’s newest book on christology. I began with my previous post my examination of the third chapter entitled ‘Did Jesus Think He Was God?’

On page 124 Ehrman continues to build his argument which serves to contrast the christologies of the Synoptics with the Fourth Gospel. I was quite disappointed when he elected to deploy John 10:30 in order to make his case. John 10:30 has Jesus declaring, “I and the Father are one” (ἐγὼ καὶ ὁ πατὴρ ἕν ἐσμεν). Ehrman further elaborates on this passage on page 125 when he makes such statements as, “he is saying that he is equal with God,” “who was in fact equal with God,” etc.

The reason I say that this is disappointing is because even the most conservative scholars of Johannine literature don’t interpret John 10:30 as if Jesus is claiming coequality with God. In fact, that particular argument has for a long time been dropped from christological arguments over the content of the Fourth Gospel. This makes me question whether Ehrman even attempted to consult commentaries on the Gospel of John when he was researching for his current book. Here is what he might find, first from Raymond Brown, The Gospel According to John I-XII,

We note that vss. 28 and 29 make the same statement about Jesus and about the Father: no one can snatch the sheep from either’s hand. This leads us to an understanding of the unity that is expressed in 30: it is a unity of power and operation…in itself this description remains primarily functional – pp. 407-8

Another from Urban C. von Wahlde, The Gospel and Letters of John, vol. 2,

Jesus claims to have the same ability as the Father. In that sense, the Father and Jesus are “one.” Yet, in this context, the statement is not a metaphysical one. It is a statement of functional unity and in spite of its aptness for later Trinitarian debate, I would argue that its original meaning is not substantially different from that of 5:17-18. – p. 473

Or again in the 2nd edition of George R. Beasley-Murray’s John,

The setting of v 30 in relation to v 28-28 shows that a functional unity of the Son and the Father in their care for the sheep is in mind. From earliest times it has been observed that Jesus says, “I and the Father are en, not eis, i.e., one in action, not in person. -p. 174

The late F.F. Bruce makes similar comments in his The Gospel and Epistles of John,

Here we have a particular application of the statements in John 5:19-23. So responsive is the Son to the Father that he is one in mind, one in purpose, one in action with him. -pp. 232-3

James McGrath’s contribution to the SNTSMS entitled John’s Apologetic Christology likewise echoes the same point,

Nonetheless, the claim of the Son to carry out divine prerogatives is the key issue, and thus it is the idea that the Son and the Father are one in action that is in focus in the controversy described in the passage. -p. 119

Marianne Meye Thompson’s article on the Gospel of John in the Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels is quite informative,

When the Gospel speaks of the unity of the Father and Son, it points especially to their unity in work of revelation and salvation (8:16; 10:25-30; 14:10-11; 17:10). That is to say, the actions and words of Jesus were truly the actions and words of God. -p. 378

Warren Carter’s insightful work on John: Storyteller, Interpreter, Evangelist states,

This intimate reciprocal relationship is marked by unity in function and purpose: they are one (10:30) – p. 53

The commentary on John in the New Interpreter’s Bible, vol. IX, written by Gail R. O’Day, makes a lengthy observation,

It is critical that the contemporary interpreter read v. 30 in the context of Johannine theology and not through the lens of the christological controversies of the second through fourth centuries or of the trinitarian doctrine that developed out of these controversies. The Greek word “one” is neuter, not masculine, so that Jesus is not saying that he and God are one person, or even of one nature or essence. Rather, he is saying that he and God are united in the work that they do. It is impossible to distinguish Jesus’ work from God’s work, because Jesus shares fully in God’s work. -p. 677

I can multiply these quotes, but my aim was to demonstrate that the near consensus of modern scholarship on the Gospel of John understands John 10:30 as a unity in purpose, rather than a statement of coequality between the Father and the Son. The same unity, expressed by the neuter en, is spoken in reference to Christians united with God and Jesus in John 17:22, 24. It is surprising that Ehrman does not cite John 10:29 (“The Father is greater than all”), 14:28 (“The Father is greater than I”), or the powerful 17:3 (“You [Father] are the only true God”). These verses would show that Ehrman’s reconstruction of the Fourth Gospel’s christology has significant room for improvement.

Let this be a lesson to all of us. It does us no good to simply cherry-pick our favorite passages and ignore the ones which might hurt our case. Responsible reconstructions and interpretations require readers to take seriously all of the evidence in addition to honest interaction with what other scholars are writing/saying on that subject.