Room 3 of 20
John 10:30
I and the Father are one
Verse
I and my Father are one.
Why they use it
They say “I and the Father are one” proves one essence — the later Trinity.
Why they are wrong
Jesus says He and the Father are one the same way He prays the Twelve can be one.
Translation note
Greek: hen (ἕν) — neuter, not heis (masculine ‘one person’)
one thing / one purpose — not ‘one being’
If John meant one person he had a word for that. He used the neuter. FAIR flags this as the verse the later controversies hijacked.
The room (aka the context)
- Who wrote it
- John.
- Who is in the room
- Judeans about to pick up stones.
- Who is speaking
- Jesus, in the temple, after saying no one can snatch the sheep from His hand or the Father’s.
- What is going on
- He is talking about keeping sheep, not writing a metaphysics. The next verse they try to stone Him for making Himself God — which we also confess. The fight is what “one” means.
- What they already believe
- The Messiah speaks for the Father and does the Father’s works. They do not have the Nicene glossary.
- How they would hear these words
- One in work and will — the same “one” He later prays the disciples into. If “one” means one being, He is praying the Twelve into the Trinity.
Clarifying verse
John 17:21–22
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us… that they may be one, even as we are one.
Same Gospel, same writer, same word. The oneness of John 10 is the oneness of John 17: unity, not later essence. FAIR’s page on John 10:30 walks this.
Gal1:8 topic →Mark it
Tap when you can say the verse out loud.