John 10:22–39 contains the most direct confrontation in the Gospels over the nature of Christ’s divinity. When Jesus declares “I and the Father are one,” the Jewish authorities take up stones to kill him for blasphemy. His response is extraordinary: he quotes Psalm 82:6 — “I said, you are gods” — and asks why it is blasphemy for him to call himself the Son of God when scripture itself calls human beings gods.
This passage became the single most contested text in the theosis debate. The orthodox reading holds that Christ claims a unique divine status; the “you are gods” quotation is rhetorical, showing the lesser-to-greater logic: if scripture can call mere mortals “gods,” how much more justified is the title for the one whom the Father sanctified and sent. The Gnostic and later mystical readings took the Psalm quotation at face value: if scripture says “you are gods,” then divinity is not exclusive. The Church Fathers who championed theosis (Athanasius, the Cappadocians, Maximus the Confessor) found themselves navigating between these poles.
The Greek is from Codex Sinaiticus.
ἐγένετο τότε τὰ ἐνκαίνια ἐν τοῖς Ἱεροσολύμοις · χειμὼν ἦν · καὶ περιεπάτει ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ ἐν τῇ στοᾷ τοῦ Σολομῶνος · ἐκύκλωσαν οὖν αὐτὸν οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι καὶ ἔλεγον αὐτῷ · ἕως πότε τὴν ψυχὴν ἡμῶν αἴρεις · εἰ σὺ εἶ ὁ Χριστός · εἰπὲ ἡμῖν παρρησίᾳ ·
Then came the Festival of Dedication in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the Portico of Solomon. The Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in the name of my Father, these testify concerning me. But you do not believe, because you are not among my sheep.”
τὰ πρόβατα τὰ ἐμὰ τῆς φωνῆς μου ἀκούουσιν · κἀγὼ γινώσκω αὐτὰ καὶ ἀκολουθοῦσιν μοι · κἀγὼ δίδωμι αὐτοῖς ζωὴν αἰώνιον · καὶ οὐ μὴ ἀπόλωνται εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα · καὶ οὐχ ἁρπάσει τις αὐτὰ ἐκ τῆς χειρός μου · ὁ πατήρ μου ὃ δέδωκέν μοι πάντων μεῖζόν ἐστιν · καὶ οὐδεὶς δύναται ἁρπάζειν ἐκ τῆς χειρὸς τοῦ πατρός · ἐγὼ καὶ ὁ πατὴρ ἕν ἐσμεν ·
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the hand of the Father. I and the Father are one.”
ἐβάστασαν πάλιν λίθους οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι ἵνα λιθάσωσιν αὐτόν · ἀπεκρίθη αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς · πολλὰ ἔργα καλὰ ἔδειξα ὑμῖν ἐκ τοῦ πατρός · διὰ ποῖον αὐτῶν ἔργον ἐμὲ λιθάζετε · ἀπεκρίθησαν αὐτῷ οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι · περὶ καλοῦ ἔργου οὐ λιθάζομέν σε ἀλλὰ περὶ βλασφημίας · καὶ ὅτι σὺ ἄνθρωπος ὢν ποιεῖς σεαυτὸν θεόν · ἀπεκρίθη αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς · οὐκ ἔστιν γεγραμμένον ἐν τῷ νόμῳ ὑμῶν · ἐγὼ εἶπα θεοί ἐστε · εἰ ἐκείνους εἶπεν θεοὺς πρὸς οὓς ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ ἐγένετο · καὶ οὐ δύναται λυθῆναι ἡ γραφή · ὃν ὁ πατὴρ ἡγίασεν καὶ ἀπέστειλεν εἰς τὸν κόσμον · ὑμεῖς λέγετε ὅτι βλασφημεῖς · ὅτι εἶπον υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ εἰμι ·
The Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these works are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”
Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came — and scripture cannot be broken — do you say of the one whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?”
εἰ οὐ ποιῶ τὰ ἔργα τοῦ πατρός μου · μὴ πιστεύετέ μοι · εἰ δὲ ποιῶ · κἂν ἐμοὶ μὴ πιστεύητε · τοῖς ἔργοις πιστεύετε · ἵνα γνῶτε καὶ γινώσκητε ὅτι ἐν ἐμοὶ ὁ πατὴρ κἀγὼ ἐν τῷ πατρί · ἐζήτουν οὖν αὐτὸν πάλιν πιάσαι · καὶ ἐξῆλθεν ἐκ τῆς χειρὸς αὐτῶν ·
“If I am not doing the works of my Father, do not believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” They tried again to seize him, but he escaped from their hands.