His enemies did so, and alleged that He claimed to be Divine in the strictest sense of that word; accordingly they attempted to stone Him, and in the end put Him to death on the very ground that He was a blasphemer.  “Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?  Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I AM.”  “I and my Father are one.  Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.  Jesus answered them.  Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?  The 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.”  “If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.  But 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.  Therefore they sought again to take him:  but he escaped out of their hand.”  “The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die,[A] because he made himself the Son of God.”  “And the high priest arose, and said unto him, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee?  But Jesus held his peace.  And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God.  Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said:  nevertheless, I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.  Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying. He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy.  What think ye?  They answered and said, He is guilty of death.  Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him; and others smote him with the palms of their hands.”

[Footnote A:  “And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put, to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him:  as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall be put to death.”—­LEV. xxiv. 16.]

Nor did the friends of Jesus endeavour to undeceive His accusers.  They did not say, “You have misunderstood His meaning!  He is not guilty of such blasphemy!  He is a man like us, and does not claim to be one with God, as you understand Him to do.”  Instead of this, they too recognised His claims as divine, and worshipped, loved, served, and preached Him accordingly.  I will return to this part of the subject afterwards.  I remind only the reader of it in passing.

But before the force of such teaching as this of our Lord’s can in any degree be appreciated, two things should be borne in mind:  one is, the previous training of the Jewish nation with reference to the being and character of God; and the other is, the moral character of Jesus.