If Jesus had said He is God the Jews might have tolerated it because it would be a blatant lie and so obviously a lie, given what they knew about the Father, the LORD, so then they would treat Him nicely like they usual did with false teachers. Trouble for them was “Son of God” was believable because the Christ was expected. So the possibility of Him being believed by many in the crowds threatened them. It was as close to saying He is equal with God as He could say truthfully without the silliness of falsely trying to claim God’s individual identity.
