John 10:29
in John 10My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
My Father, who hath given them unto me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
KJV
My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
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This verse in John 10
Commentary
23 notes on this verseThe faithful also have the succour of Christ, the devil not being able to snatch them; and they who have an endless enjoyment of good things, remain in it, no one henceforth snatching them away from the bliss that is given to them into punishment or torments. For it is not possible that they who are in Christ's hand should be snatched away to be punished, because of Christ's great might; for "the hand," in the Divine Scripture, signifies "the power:" it cannot be doubted therefore that the hand of Christ is unconquerable and mighty to all things.
This site's exposition
My sheep listen to My voice
on John 10:27-29
Three things mark the flock: it listens, it is known, it follows. The gift is eternal life, and no one can snatch the sheep out of the hand that holds them. Two hands close over them, the Son's and the Father's.
This site's exposition
is greater than all
Cyril of Alexandria notes that the hand in Scripture signifies power. Albert Barnes reads greater than all as greater than men, angels and devils, everything that could try to take the sheep away. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown rest the believer's safety on the power of God, above his own fidelity.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers5 voices
He referred the cause of it all to the Father, in order to confirm his words as indisputable to the unbelievers. And since what he had said could appear to be quite weak, that is, "no one will snatch them out of my hand," for …
(Tract. xlviii) The Son, born from ever lasting of the Father, God from God, has not equality with the Father by growth, but by birth. This is that greater than all which the Father gave Himb; viz. to be His Word, to be His Only-Begotten Son, to be the brightness of His light. Wherefore no man taketh His sheep out of His hand, any more than from His Father's hand: And no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand. If by hand we understand power, the power of the Father and the Son is one, even as Their divinity is one. If we understand the Son, the Son is the hand of the Father, not in a bodily sense, as if God the Father had limbs, but as being He by Whom all things were made. Men often call other men hands, when they make use of them for any purpose. And sometimes a man's work is itself called his hand, because made by his hand; as when a man is said to know his own hand, when he recognises his own handwriting. In this place, however, hand signifies power. If we take it for Son, we shall be in danger of imagining that if the Father has a hand, and that hand is His Son, the Son must have a Son too.
"That which my Father gave me is greater than all." Give still greater heed to this. What did the Father give to the Son that was greater than all? To be His own only-begotten Son. In what sense, then, did He say "gave"? Was He to whom He gave previously existent, or gave He in the act of begetting? For if He previously existed to whom He gave the gift of Sonship, there was a time when He was, and was not the Son. Far be it from us to suppose that the Lord Christ ever was, and yet was not the Son. The Word of God was always with the Father, and always the Word; and because the Word, therefore the Son. So then, always the Son, and always equal. For it is not by growth but by birth that He is equal, who was always born, the Son of the Father, God of God, coeternal of the Eternal.
This is the speech of conscious power—this confession of free and irresistible energy that will allow no one to pluck his sheep from his hand. But more than this, not only does he have the nature of God but he would have us know that that nature is his by birth from God, and so he adds, "That which the Father has given me is greater than all." He does not conceal that his birth is from the Father, for what he received from the Father he says is greater than all. He received it in that he was born from him. He received it in the birth itself, not after it, and yet it came to him from Another, for he received it.
(de Trin. vii. c. 22) This is the speech of conscious power. Yet to show, that though of the Divine nature He hath His nativity from God, He adds, My Father which gave Me them is greater than all. He does not conceal His birth from the Father, but proclaims it. For that which He received from the Father, He received in that He was born from Him. He received it in the birth itself, not after it; though He was born when He received it. (vii. de Trin. c. 22) The hand of the Son is spoken of as the hand of the Father, to let thee see, by a bodily representation, that both have the same nature, that the nature and virtue of the Father is in the Son also.
15 more voices on this verse
The Church Fathers3 voices
A commentator
Apostolic ConstitutionsConstitutions of the Holy Apostles Book 8 · Written before 380.
proposed
O our support, our powerful God, who dost not accept persons, be Thou the assister of this Thy people, which Thou hast redeemed with the precious blood of Thy Christ; be Thou their protector, aider, provider, and guardian, their strong wall of defence, their bulwark and security. For "none can snatch out of Thy hand:" for there is no other God like Thee; for on Thee is our reliance. "Sanctify them by Thy truth: for Thy word is truth." Thou who dost nothing for favour, Thou whom none can deceive, deliver them from every sickness, and every disease, and every offence, every injury and deceit, "from fear of the enemy, from the dart that flieth in the day, from the mischief that walketh about in darkness;" and vouchsafe them that everlasting life which is in Christ Thy only begotten Son, our God and Saviour...
"What then? Is it through the power of the Father that no man plucketh them away, and hast thou no strength, but art too weak to guard them?" By no means. And in order that thou mayest learn that the expression, "The Father which gave them to Me," is used on their account, that they might not again call Him an enemy of God, therefore, after asserting that, "No man plucketh them out of My hand," He proceedeth to show, that His hand and the Father's is One. Since had not this been so, it would have been natural for Him to say, "The Father which gave them to Me is greater than all, and no man can pluck them out of My hand." But He said not so, but, "out of My Father's hand." Then that thou mayest not suppose that He indeed is weak, but that the sheep are in safety through the power of the Father, He addeth, "I and the Father are One." As though He had said "I did not assert that on account of the Father no man plucketh them away, as though I were too weak to keep the sheep. For I and the Father are One." Speaking here with reference to Power, for concerning this was all His discourse; and if the power be the same, it is clear that the Essence is also. And when the Jews used ten thousand means, plotting and casting men out of their synagogues, He telleth them that all their contrivances are useless and vain; "For the sheep are in My Father's hand"; as the Prophet saith, "Upon My hand I have pictured thy walls." (Isa. xlix. 16.) Then to show that the hand is One, He sometimes saith that it is His own, sometimes the Father's. But when thou hearest the word "hand," do not understand anything material, but the power, the authority. […]
(Hom. lxi) Then that thou mayest not suppose that the Father's power protects the sheep, while He is Himself too weak to do so, He adds, I and My Father are one.
The Medieval Church4 voices
A commentator
BonaventureCollations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 9 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
The Father witnessed for the Son by voice, and the Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove, in order that the witnessing be most solid. For Jesus said: "What My Father has given Me is greater than all."
Here is noted the third point, namely the approval of that sign, for which a twofold reason is assigned. The first is as follows: what the Father has given Me is greater than all things; but what is greater than all things does not suffer …
He now proves what he had said above about the dignity of his sheep, namely, that no one can snatch them from his hand. His reason is this: No one can snatch what is in the hand of my Father; but the Father's hand and …
Why will they not perish? Because no one can "snatch them out of My hand; for My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them out of His hand," and therefore not out of My hand …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
My Father which gave them me,....
The Nineteenth Century7 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Which gave them me - See Joh 6:37. Is greater - Is more powerful. Than all - Than all others - men, angels, devils. The word includes everything - everything that could attempt to pluck them away from God; in other words, it means that God is supreme. It implies, further, that God will keep them, and will so control all other beings and things that they shall be safe. None is able - None has power to do it. In these two verses we are taught the following important truths:
OUR Savior did not hesitate to preach the deeper doctrines of the Gospel to the most miscellaneous assembly. When He began to preach where He was brought up, they all gathered with admiration about Him, until He preached the doctrine of election. And then, straightway, they were so angry that they would have destroyed Him. They could not bear to hear of the widows of Israel passed by and the woman of Sarepta chosen—nor of a heathen leper healed, while the many lepers of their own race were left to die.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
It is a general expression of an admitted truth, and what follows shows for what purpose it was uttered, "and none is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand." The impossibility of true believers being lost, in the midst of all the temptations which they may encounter, does not consist in their fidelity and decision, but is founded upon the power of God.
A commentator
J.C. Ryle1816–1900
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: John (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition) (1869)
proposed
Another sharp division took place among the Jewish authorities because of these words. Many of them were saying, "He is possessed by a demon and has lost his mind. Why do you listen to him?" Others said, "These are not the words of someone possessed by a demon. A demon cannot cause the blind to see, can it?" Then came the feast of the Dedication in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple area in Solomon’s Portico. The Jewish religious leaders surrounded him and said, "How long will you keep us in suspense?
A commentator
J.C. Ryle1816–1900
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: John (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition) (1869)
proposed
Another sharp division took place among the Jewish authorities because of these words. Many of them were saying, "He is possessed by a demon and has lost his mind. Why do you listen to him?" Others said, "These are not the words of someone possessed by a demon. A demon cannot cause the blind to see, can it?" Then came the feast of the Dedication in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple area in Solomon’s Portico. The Jewish religious leaders surrounded him and said, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly." Jesus replied, "I told you and you do not believe. The deeds I do in my Father’s name testify about me. But you refuse to believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one will snatch them from my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one can snatch them from my Father’s hand. The Father and I are one." We should notice, first, in this passage, what strifes and controversies our Lord occasioned when He was on earth. We read that "there was a division among the Jews for His sayings"—and that "many of them said He has a devil, and is mad," while others took an opposite view. It may seem strange, at first sight, that He who came to preach peace between God and man should be the cause of contention. But herein were His own words literally fulfilled—"I came not to send peace, but a sword." (Matt. 10:34.) The fault was not in Christ or His doctrine, but in the carnal mind of His Jewish hearers. Let us never be surprised if we see the same thing in our own day. Human nature never changes. So long as the heart of man is without grace, so long we must expect to see it dislike the Gospel of Christ.
OUR Savior did not hesitate to preach the deeper doctrines of the Gospel to the most miscellaneous assembly. When He began to preach where He was brought up, they all gathered with admiration about Him, until He preached the doctrine of election. And then, straightway, they were so angry that they would have destroyed Him. They could not bear to hear of the widows of Israel passed by and the woman of Sarepta chosen—nor of a heathen leper healed, while the many lepers of their own race were left to die. Election seems to heat the blood and fire the wrath of many. Not that they care to be chosen of God themselves. But, like the dog in the manger, they would keep other people out of the privilege. Not even to prevent these displays of bad temper did our Lord keep back the discriminating Truths of the Word. Here, when addressing the Jews, he did not hesitate to speak, even to a rude rabble, concerning that glorious doctrine. He says, "You believe not, because you are not of My sheep, as I said unto you." He does not lower the standard of the doctrine. But He holds His ground and carries the war into the enemy's camp. The notion that certain truths are not fit to be preached to a general assembly but are to be kept for the special gathering of the saints, is, I believe, horribly mischievous. Christ has not commanded us to keep a part of our teaching reserved from the common folk and set aside for the priests alone. He is for openly proclaiming all the Truths of God. "What I tell you in darkness, that speak you in light: and what you hear in the ear, that preach you upon the housetops." There is no Truth of God that we need be ashamed of and there is no Truth of God that will do any harm. We grant you that every truth can be twisted—but even this would be a less evil than the concealment of it.
My Father - is greater than all - More powerful than all the united energies of men and demons. He who loves God must be happy; and he who fears him need fear nothing on this side eternity.
How the passage was read
On John 10:22-39On John 10:22-39
The feast Jesus was keeping
“The Feast of Dedication” is the festival modern Jews call Hanukkah: an eight-day winter feast, beginning on the 25th of the month Kislev (falling in December), that remembers the cleansing and rededication of the Temple in 164 BC. Antiochus IV, the Greek-Syrian king, had defiled the altar; Judas Maccabeus and his brothers retook Jerusalem, rebuilt the altar, and ordained the annual celebration (1 Maccabees 4:36–59). Today it is kept by lighting one more candle each night on a nine-branched lampstand, which is why it is also called the Festival of Lights; the lamp-lighting custom is discussed in the Talmud (Shabbat 21b).
Two things follow for the reader. This feast is not commanded anywhere in the Law of Moses: it was instituted between the Testaments, and John records Jesus walking in the Temple courts during it without a word of censure. And the setting is loaded: at the feast that celebrates the Temple's rescue from a ruler who claimed divine honors, the crowd asks Jesus plainly whether He is the Messiah (John 10:24).
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Sources: 1 Maccabees 4:36–59 (the feast's institution; studied on this site) · Shabbat 21b (Babylonian Talmud, the lamp-lighting custom) · The Maccabean Revolt (this site's study of the history)
The words behind it
18 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ὁ | ho | The | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| πατήρ | pater | Father | G3962 → | 410 times |
| μου | mou | of Mine | G3165 → | 1936 times |
| ὃ | ho | which | G3739 → | 1405 times |
| δέδωκέν | dedoken | has given [them] | G1325 → | 412 times |
| μοι | moi | to Me | G3165 → | 1936 times |
| πάντων | panton | [than] all | G3956 → | 1235 times |
| μεῖζόν | meizon | greater | G3173 → | 243 times |
| ἐστιν, | estin | is, | G1510 → | 2333 times |
| καὶ | kai | and | G2532 → | 9120 times |
| οὐδεὶς | oudeis | no [one] | G3762 → | 232 times |
| δύναται | dunatai | is able | G1410 → | 207 times |
| ἁρπάζειν | harpazein | to seize [them] | G726 → | 14 times |
| ἐκ | ek | out of | G1537 → | 911 times |
| τῆς | tes | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| χειρὸς | cheiros | hand | G5495 → | 175 times |
| τοῦ | tou | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| πατρός | patros | Father | G3962 → | 410 times |
ὁThe
hoG3588 →19766 times
πατήρFather
paterG3962 →410 times
μουof Mine
mouG3165 →1936 times
ὃwhich
hoG3739 →1405 times
δέδωκένhas given [them]
dedokenG1325 →412 times
μοιto Me
moiG3165 →1936 times
πάντων[than] all
pantonG3956 →1235 times
μεῖζόνgreater
meizonG3173 →243 times
ἐστιν,is,
estinG1510 →2333 times
καὶand
kaiG2532 →9120 times
οὐδεὶςno [one]
oudeisG3762 →232 times
δύναταιis able
dunataiG1410 →207 times
ἁρπάζεινto seize [them]
harpazeinG726 →14 times
ἐκout of
ekG1537 →911 times
τῆςthe
tesG3588 →19766 times
χειρὸςhand
cheirosG5495 →175 times
τοῦthe
touG3588 →19766 times
πατρόςFather
patrosG3962 →410 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
John 6:37Everyone the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never drive away.
it leads to
- John 6:39
And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of those He has given Me, but raise them up at the last day.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- John 10:28–29
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Matthew 11:28
Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
- John 17:24
Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, that they may see the glory You gave Me because You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
- John 6:39
Through
John 17:9I ask on their behalf. I do not ask on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those You have given Me; for they are Yours.
it leads to
- John 17:2
For You granted Him authority over all people, so that He may give eternal life to all those You have given Him.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Hebrews 9:24
For Christ did not enter a man-made copy of the true sanctuary, but He entered heaven itself, now to appear on our behalf in the presence of God.
- John 17:2
Through
John 17:2For You granted Him authority over all people, so that He may give eternal life to all those You have given Him.
it leads to
- John 6:37
Everyone the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never drive away.
- Daniel 7:14
And He was given dominion, glory, and kingship, that the people of every nation and language should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is…
- John 6:37
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies35
On this verse
On this chapter
- The Animal Apocalypse
- Hanukkah: the Feast the Revolt Made
- The Apocrypha
- The Major Prophets
- David
- The Divine Council
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- Eternal Life
- Eternal Security, and the Five Warnings of Hebrews
- The Fall Feasts
- The Words Tov and Agathosyne
- Hearing God
- Jesus on Himself
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Show the next 6 titles
About John
This page draws on 21 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Apostolic Constitutions, Constitutions of the Holy Apostles Book 8; Augustine of Hippo, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Augustine of Hippo, Tractates on John 48; Bonaventure, Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 9; Bonaventure, Commentary on John, Chapter 10; Charles Spurgeon, The Gospel of the Kingdom; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2120: “The Security Of Believers—Or, Sheep Who Shall Never Perish” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book 7; Hilary of Poitiers, ON THE TRINITY 7.22; Hilary of Poitiers, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: John (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, Homily on the Gospel of John 61; John Chrysostom, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Theodore of Mopsuestia, COMMENTARY ON JOHN 4.10.28-29; Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on John and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on John.