John 10:19-24
 
John 10:19 (KJB)
There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings.
 
Division - Schism, dissension, or split
 
Once again as Jesus speaks with the Jews, they have become divided. They can never come to an agreement about Jesus because some believe there was merit to the things He was saying while the prejudice of others had caused them to deny everything Jesus taught. There was always a split among them. It is no different today as there are many divergent views on any given passage of Scripture. People interpret the Bible according to their views instead of allowing the Bible to teach them.
 
John 10:20 (KJB)
And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?
 
The faction which was against Jesus accuses Him of being possessed by the devil because of the things He was teaching. This was the portion of the Jews who wanted Jesus captured and executed so they had to accuse Him of the worst thing they could. It is like Christians who accuse other Christians of being unsaved because they do not follow a specific teaching is really an affront to God who is the progenitor of salvation. (Luke 9:50 KJV) And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us. These Jews had tried to get the people to stop listening to Jesus so they accused Him of being possessed by the devil.
 
John 10:21 (KJB)
Others said, These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?
 
Then there was the other faction who gave some credence to the teachings of Jesus. They had enough wisdom to know that no one who is possessed by the devil will have the ability to open the eyes of the blind and also have such nice things to say about the Father. Satan is the outright enemy of God and would never bring glory to Him in any manner. Then the question is raised again can someone with demonic possession open the eyes of the blind? Once again the question was left unanswered by both sides. That question should have been the portal question to start an investigation into the claims of Jesus from the Scriptures.
 
John 10:22 (KJB)
And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter.
 
The Feast of Dedication was in memory of the cleansing of the Temple in 164 B.C. by Judas Maccabeus from the defilement by Syrian King, Antiochus Epiphanes. It was a feast of 8 days. Now this was in December.
 
John 10:23 (KJB)
And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch.
 
Since this was winter time, Jesus had walked in the part of the temple which would have had been enclosed from the outside elements. It had surrounded the east side of the Temple. This was not the original Solomon’s porch in his temple but it was built to imitate the original. They kept the name for identification purposes.
 
John 10:24 (KJB)
Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.
 
Now the Jews had encircled Jesus as if to intimidate Him. They demanded a plain answer as to whether he was the Messiah or not. If they extracted a direct answer of yes, then they would accuse Him of blasphemy. As long as Jesus had used parables and other figures of speech, the Jews had to try and figure out what He was saying and they could never trap Him via a direct answer. Jesus was not the one who was causing them doubt about who He was because all they had to do was weigh the evidence from the miracles and they would have known who He was. This they did not want to do because it would reduce their positions and wealth and they would not allow that to happen. Their own agendas prevented them from identifying who Jesus was.

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