# The rejected Christ and the evidence of works

Commentary on Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton.

On [CH02.P008](https://glosses.org/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH02.P008/#char=875,905): "for the world denied Christ's."

John supplies a particularly close biblical background, though this is not an identifiable quotation. In the King James Version, John 10:20 reports the accusation that Jesus is 'mad'; 10:33 reports the charge that a man is making himself God. John 1:10–12 describes the world's failure to recognize him while also acknowledging those who received him. Chesterton compresses this divided reception into 'the world.' [John 1:10–12; 10:19–38, KJV](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%201%3A10-12%3B%20John%2010%3A19-38&version=KJV).

The example works as a limited Christian argument: if Christ was rejected, rejection alone cannot disprove a claim to divinity. It does not follow that every rejected claimant has comparable grounds. The same Gospel makes that distinction available: John 10:25 and 37–38 appeals to Jesus' works as testimony, rather than treating rejection as its own credential. Reading the example alongside that context preserves Chesterton's point about a failed refutation while preventing its conversion into an argument that opposition proves divine identity. The KJV is the comparison witness; the wording here does not identify Chesterton's particular Bible translation.

## Sources

- [The Gospel according to John, King James Version](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%201%3A10-12%3B%20John%2010%3A19-38&version=KJV), John 1:10–12; 10:19–21, 25, 30–38
- [The King James Version of the Bible, Project Gutenberg #10](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10), The Gospel According to Saint John, chapters 1 and 10

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