18. Propterea ergo magis 18. Hereupon therefore the quaerebant eum Iudaei Jews sought the more to kill interficere, quia non solum him, because he did not only solvebat sabbatum, sed et break the sabbath, but also patrem suum dicebat Deum, said God was his Father, aequalem se faciens Deo. making himself equal to God. Respondit itaque Iesus, et dixit eis: 18. They understand Him, so far at least as to see that He makes Himself equal to God; and as they now consider Him to be not merely a Sabbath‐ breaker, but also a blasphemer, they become more exasperated, and seek to kill Him. See Deut. xiii. 5. 19. Amen, amen dico vobis: non 19. Then Jesus answered and potest Filius a se facere said to them: Amen, amen, I quidquam, nisi quod viderit say unto you: the Son cannot Patrem facientem: quaecumque do anything of himself, but enim ille fecerit, haec et what he seeth the Father Filius similter facit. doing: for what things soever he doth, these the Son also doth in like manner. 19. The remainder of the chapter is taken up with Christ’s discourse, in which He asserts His Divinity, and proves it by various arguments. (1) By His own testimony (19‐30), which the Jews might be excused for rejecting, were it alone and unsupported (31); (2) by the testimony of the Baptist (32‐35); (3) by the testimony of His miracles (36); (4) by the testimony of His Father which is contained in the Sacred Scriptures (37‐39). The Jews had understood Him to make Himself equal to God, and He goes on not to withdraw, but to reiterate and expand what He had said. He declares His operation as God to be identical with that of the Father; in a word, His works to be the works of God. He had received, in His eternal generation, His Divine nature and operation identical with the Father’s, and as God He does nothing except what the Father does, and the Father does nothing except what He does. This inability to work of Himself, that is to say, alone, without the Father (_a seipso_), proceeds not from any defect of power, but from His inseparable union with the Father in nature and operation. The Son’s “seeing,” and the Father’s “showing” (v. 20), are both metaphorical expressions, and signify that the Son derives His divine nature and operation from the Father.(48) The Arians appealed to this verse to prove the inferiority of the Son to the Father, because, they said, Christ here declares Himself merely an imitator of the works of the Father, just as a pupil or apprentice imitates his master. But Christ’s words, “I and the Father are one” (x. 30), show that there can be no question here of inferiority; and, moreover, since _all_ things were made by the Son (i. 3), it was impossible for Him to copy from anything made beforehand.