The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God. We have a law - In Leviticus 24:14-16, we find that blasphemers of God were to be put to death; and the chief priests having charged Jesus with blasphemy, they therefore voted that he deserved to die. See Matthew 26:65, Matthew 26:66. They might refer also to the law against false prophets, Deuteronomy 18:20.
The Son of God - It is certain that the Jews understood this in a very peculiar sense. When Christ called himself the Son of God, they understood it to imply positive equality to the Supreme Being: and, if they were wrong, our Lord never attempted to correct them.