John 10:30: What Does “I and the Father Are One” Mean?

In John 10:30John 10:30 · King James VersionI and my Father are one.John 10:30 · King James VersionOpen source Jesus says, “I and my Father are one.” The people listening pick up stones. They say he, a man, makes himself God. Jehovah’s Witnesses read the sentence as unity of action, and the study note in their New World Translation (Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible) says the Greek word is neuter, so it does not mean one person. Christians agree the Son is not the Father. The oneness the crowd named was deity. Jesus is God. The same Gospel’s “I am” at John 8:58 is the nearby claim, and Titus 2:13 is the verse their translation splits into two persons.

Key Points

• John 10:30John 10:30 · King James VersionI and my Father are one.John 10:30 · King James VersionOpen source (2) in the King James says, “I and my Father are one.”
• The New World Translation (Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible) of John 10:30John 10:30 · New World Translation (Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible)I and the Father are one.John 10:30 · New World Translation (Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible)Open source (1) says, “I and the Father are one.”
• John 10:31–33John 10:31 · King James VersionThen the Jews took up stones again to stone him.John 10:31 · King James VersionOpen source (3): they take up stones “for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.”
• Their study note says the Greek word for “one” is neuter, “denoting ‘one thing,’” and that Jesus and the Father are one in action and cooperation, not in person.
• The same note points to John 17:11John 17:11 · King James VersionAnd now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.John 17:11 · King James VersionOpen source, where Jesus prays that his followers “may be one just as we are one,” and treats the two verses as the same kind of oneness.
• Their rendering of the charge in John 10:33 is “make yourself a god.” The King James reads “God.”

What the Hearers Did

The sentence sits in a dispute about the sheep. Jesus has said that no one will snatch them out of his hand, and that the Father who gave them is greater than all, so that no one snatches them out of the Father’s hand. Then comes John 10:30John 10:30 · King James VersionI and my Father are one.John 10:30 · King James VersionOpen source. The next verse is not a request for a definition. John 10:31John 10:31 · King James VersionThen the Jews took up stones again to stone him.John 10:31 · King James VersionOpen source says the Jews took up stones again to stone him. He asks for which good work they stone him. John 10:33John 10:33 · King James VersionThe Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.John 10:33 · King James VersionOpen source answers: “For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.”

Their New World Translation (Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible) prints the same scene. Verse 30: “I and the Father are one.” Verse 31: “Once again the Jews picked up stones to stone him.” Verse 33: “We are stoning you, not for a fine work, but for blasphemy; for you, although being a man, make yourself a god.” The English “a god” is their translation of the charge. The King James prints “God” without the article’s indefinite sense in English. The crowd’s act is in both editions: stones, for blasphemy, because of what the “one” sentence claimed.

Later in the answer Jesus says they charge blasphemy “because I said, I am the Son of God” in the King James, and “because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’” in their Bible. John 10:38John 10:38 · King James VersionBut if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.John 10:38 · King James VersionOpen source in their edition says the Father is “in union with me and I am in union with the Father.” The added words “in union with” are their translation. The King James says “the Father is in me, and I in him.”

What the Study Note Says About “One”

The concession in the study note is real, and it should be stated in their words. The Greek adjective is εἷς, and in this verse the form is the neuter ἕν, not the masculine εἷς. The note says that fact rules out “one person.” Christians who confess the Trinity agree the Son is not the Father. One being is not one person. The note goes further, and that further step is the disagreement.

The study note says:

The Greek word here rendered “one” is, not in the masculine gender (denoting “one person”), but in the neuter gender (denoting “one thing”), supporting the thought that Jesus and his Father are “one” in action and cooperation, not in person.

It adds that Jesus “referred, not to an equality of godship, but to a oneness of purpose and action,” and that John 17 confirms the point because he prays that his followers “may be one just as we are one.” “So the kind of oneness referred to in chapter 10 as well as in chapter 17 would be the same.”

Neuter “one” can mean one thing, one work, one reality, rather than one male person. It does not by itself mean “one purpose and nothing more.” The crowd did not hear a team plan. They heard a man making himself God, and they said so. John 10:33John 10:33 · King James VersionThe Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.John 10:33 · King James VersionOpen source is the commentary written into the narrative.

John 17 and the Same Word

John 17:21John 17:21 · King James VersionThat they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.John 17:21 · King James VersionOpen source (4) is Jesus’ prayer that the disciples “may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.” John 17:22–23John 17:22–23 · King James Version^17:22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: ^17:23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.John 17:22–23 · King James VersionOpen source continues: the glory he has given them is so that they may be one as the Father and the Son are one, and that the world may know the Father sent him. Their study note is right that the prayer uses oneness for the disciples. It does not follow that chapter 10 is only a shared task.

The prayer asks that believers be brought into the oneness that already exists between the Father and the Son: “as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee.” The disciples become one because they are in the Son, not because the Son’s unity with the Father was never more than cooperation. A body can share the life of the one who is God without becoming that one. John 1:1John 1:1 · King James VersionIn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.John 1:1 · King James VersionOpen source (5) has already said the Word was God. The Trinity is the confession that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one God. What Is the Deity of Christ? stays with the passages that say the Son is God.

Their note also says the Father and the Son are “equally concerned about the sheep.” Concern for the sheep is in the paragraph. The stoning is about the status Jesus claimed when he put his hand and the Father’s hand together and said “one.”

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the Greek Say “One Person”?

The form in John 10:30John 10:30 · King James VersionI and my Father are one.John 10:30 · King James VersionOpen source is neuter, not masculine. Their study note is right about the gender. The sentence is not “I and the Father are one male.” The Christian claim is one being, three persons. The Son is not the Father.

Why Compare John 17?

Because their study note does. Jesus prays that the disciples may be one as he and the Father are one. The prayer includes “thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee.” That is more than a shared project. Believers are brought into a unity that is already his.

Why Does Their Bible Say “a God” in Verse 33?

That is how the New World Translation (Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible) renders the crowd’s charge. The King James says they stone him because he makes himself God. Both editions record the stones. The article on John 1:1 is where “a god” at the start of the Gospel is set beside the Greek.

Where Is the Verse on This Site?

The King James line, the Greek words, and the translation note are on John 10:30John 10:30 · King James VersionI and my Father are one.John 10:30 · King James VersionOpen source. The word εἷς has its own page.

Keep Reading

• John 10:30John 10:30 · King James VersionI and my Father are one.John 10:30 · King James VersionOpen source
• What Did Jesus Mean By “Before Abraham Was, I Am”?
• Is Jesus “Our Great God and Savior” in Titus 2:13?
• John 1:1 and the Word
• The Trinity
• What Is the Deity of Christ?