John 10:39

Therefore they sought again to take him: but he escaped out of their hand,

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(39) Therefore they sought again to take him.—He has removed all ground for the charge of blasphemy, and they have abandoned the attempt to stone Him, though He here repeats the very truth which led to that attempt before (John 10:30-31). The word “again” refers to previous attempts to take Him (John 7:30; John 7:32; John 7:44).

But he escaped out of their hand.—Nothing is said of the manner, and there is no reason to suppose anything more than, while they were plotting how they might take Him, He passed out of the Temple. (Comp. John 8:59.)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:39-42 No weapon formed against our Lord Jesus shall prosper. He escaped, not because he was afraid to suffer, but because his hour was not come. And He who knew how to deliver himself, knows how to deliver the godly our of their temptations, and to make a way for them to escape. Persecutors may drive Christ and his gospel our of their own city or country, but they cannot drive him or it out of the world. When we know Christ by faith in our hearts, we find all that the Scripture saith of him is true.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Sought again to take him - They evidently understood him as still claiming equality with God, and under this impression Jesus left them. Nor can it be doubted that he intended to leave them with this impression; and if so, then he is divine.

He escaped - See John 8:59.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

39. Therefore they sought again to take him—true to their original understanding of His words, for they saw perfectly well that He meant to "make Himself God" throughout all this dialogue.

he escaped out of their hand—(See on [1826]Lu 4:30; Joh 8:59).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Therefore they sought again to take him; because he said, that the Father was in him, and he in the Father; by which they well enough understood, that he asserted a union with the Father. They did not again go about to stone him, as they did before; he had sufficiently stopped their mouths as to their imputation of blasphemy; but they seek to apprehend him, with a design (no doubt) to carry him before the sanhedrim, their great court, which had cognizance of those things. But as he had once and again before, so he now again escapeth out of their hands; whether by darkening the air before their eyes, or (as some would have it) making his body invisible, by his Divine power, or what other way, the Scripture tells us not, and it is great rashness to determine.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Therefore they sought again to take him,.... Not to take away his life by stoning him, as before, in the manner the furious zealots did, and was the part they were about to act just now; but to lay hold upon him and bring him before the sanhedrim, as they had done in John 5:18, he being so far from clearing himself from the charge of blasphemy, they had brought against him, that in their opinion he had greatly strengthened it; and they thought they had now sufficient proof and evidence to convict him as a blasphemer, in their high court of judicature; and therefore attempted to lay hands on him, and bring him thither:

but he escaped out of their hands; either by withdrawing from them in some private way; or by open force, exerting his power, and obliging them on every side to fall back, and give way to him; or by rendering himself invisible to them; and this he did, not through fear of death, but because his time was not yet come, and he had other work to do, before he suffered and died.

Geneva Study Bible

{11} Therefore they sought again to take him: but he escaped out of their hand,

(11) Christ flees danger, not because of mistrust, nor for fear of death, nor that he would be lazy, but to gather a Church in another place.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

John 10:39. Ἐζήτουν … αὐτῶν. His words so far convinced them that they dropped the stones, but they sought to arrest Him. The πάλιν refers to John 7:30; John 7:44. But He escaped out of their hand, and departed again beyond Jordan to the place where John at first was baptising, i.e., Bethany. Cf. John 1:28, also John 4:1. Holtzmann considers that the πρῶτον is intended to differentiate the earlier from the later ministry of the Baptist. It might rather seem to point to the beginning of the ministry of Jesus, especially as following πάλιν.—καὶ ἔμεινεν ἐκεῖ, “and He remained there” until John 11:7, that is, for a little more than three months.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

39–42. Opposite Results of the Discourse

39. Therefore they sought again] ‘Therefore’ is of rather doubtful authenticity; some important witnesses omit ‘again’ also. ‘Again’ refers us back to John 7:30; John 7:32; John 7:44, and shews that ‘to take Him’ means, not, take Him and stone Him (John 10:31), but, arrest Him for the Sanhedrin.

he escaped] Literally, went forth. There being nothing in the text to shew that His departure was miraculous, it is safest (as in John 8:59, where the same word is used for ‘went forth’) to suppose that there was no miracle. He withdrew through the less hostile among those who encircled Him, while the others were making up their minds how to apprehend Him. The majesty of innocence suffices to protect Him, His hour not having come.

Bengel's Gnomen

John 10:39. Ἐξῆλθεν, He went forth) without any difficulty.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 39. - (Therefore) they sought (again) to seize him, and he escaped out of their hands. This appeal roused their animosity, and, though they dropped their stones, they were preparing to lay violent hands on him. The πάλιν points back to John 7:30, 32, 44. His escape was facilitated by the strange moral power he could exert to render their assaults upon him vain. They stretched out hands which dropped harmlessly at their side - another confirmation of the solemn statement of ver. 18. There is no need to suppose a miracle, still less to justify the preposterous notion that the body of Jesus was, in John's Gospel, docetic merely (cf. John 8:59; Luke 4:30; Mark 11:18). John 10:39

Vincent's Word Studies

Again

Pointing back to John 7:30, John 7:32, John 7:44, where the word πιάσαι, to seize, is found.

Escaped out of (ἐξῆλθεν ἐκ)

Rev., literally, went forth out of. The phrase occurs only here.