If Jesus did not say He was God, on what grounds did the Sanhedrin accuse him of blasphemy?
As was often the case with the Sanhedrin, they regularly accused Jesus of things of which he was not guilty.
With respect to their view that Jesus was claiming to be God (and/or equal to God - and this, because He said that God was His Father; John 5:18), this principally stemmed from the results of their own false humility.
They had the view that, by identifying Abraham as their Father (John 8:39, 53), this should, in turn, have caused Jesus (and the others listening on) to see them as being on an equality with Abraham - one deservng of equal respect and honor. This became evident with their response to Jesus' statement that God was His Father (John 5:18).
In other words, when Jesus said that God was his Father, it was then that their own hypocrisy was revealed, that is, by wrongly concluding that Jesus was also, by way of His own words, claiming an equality with God when, in fact, He was not. This would, no doubt, explain the many times at which Jesus spoke of His dependence upon His God and Father. For a few of the many examples, see: John 5:30; 7:28, 29; 8:28, 29; 8:42. Compare also: John 20:17; Revelation 3:2, 12.
Keep in mind, this kind of exposing of their hypocrisy was a regular consequence of their efforts to entrap Him - this point is often missed.
Just one more thing: Their hypocracy is further evident from the fact that, whereas they had such a problem with Jesus' statement that God was his Father, on the other hand, they too made the very same claim for themselves at John 8:41.
Agape, JohnOneOne.
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