29. Pater meus quod dedit 29. That which my Father hath mihi, maius omnibus est: et given me is greater than all: nemo potest rapere de manu and no one can snatch _them_ Patris mei. out of the hand of my Father. 30. Ego et Pater unum sumus. 30. I and the Father are one. 29, 30. He proves that no one shall snatch them from Him. No one shall snatch them from the Father (_who_ is greater and more powerful than all). But I and the Father are one in nature and power; therefore no one shall snatch them from Me. This is the argument in the more probable Greek reading, and is more natural than that afforded by the Vulgate. We would read then instead of the present Vulgate text in verse 29: “Pater meus _qui_ dedit mihi _major_ omnibus est,” &c.(74) Note that the unity with the Father to which Christ here lays claim is not a _moral_ union, but a unity of _nature and power_, else the proof of His statement that no one could snatch His sheep from His hands would not be valid. 31. Sustulerunt ergo lapides 31. The Jews then took up Iudaei, ut lapidarent eum. stones to stone him. 31. See above on viii. 59. 32. Respondit eis Iesus: Multa 32. Jesus answered them: Many bona opera ostendi vobis ex good works I have shewed you Patre meo, propter quod eorum from my Father; for which of opus me lapidatis? those works do you stone me? 32. *For which of those works do you stone me?* _i.e._, wish to stone Me.(75) 33. Responderunt ei Iudaei: De 33. The Jews answered him: For bono opere non lapidamus te, a good work we stone thee not, sed de blasphemia; et quia tu but for blasphemy; and because homo cum sis, facis teipsum that thou, being a man, makest Deum. thyself God? 34. Respondit eis Iesus: Nonne 34. Jesus answered them: Is it scriptum est in lege vestra not written in your law: _I quia: Ego dixi, dii estis? said you are gods_? 34. To the charge of blasphemy Christ replies, and His reply has been often urged by Arians and Unitarians to show that He did not claim to be the natural Son of God, but merely meant to call Himself God in some improper sense, analogous to that in which the Sacred Scriptures sometimes speak of judges, who were merely men, as gods. The sense of verse 34 is: men are called gods in your own law, the reference being to Psalm lxxxi. 6. 35. Si illos dixit deos, ad 35. If he called them gods, to quos sermo Dei factus est, et whom the word of God was non potest solvi scriptura: spoken, and the scripture cannot be broken; 36. Quem Pater sanctificavit, 36. Do you say of him, whom et misit in mundum, vos the Father hath sanctified and dicitis: Quia blasphemas, quia sent into the world: Thou dixi, Filius Dei sum. blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of God?