“Don’t think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, even Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote about me. But if you don’t believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
Parallel Translations
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“Don’t think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, even Moses, on whom you have set your hope.
For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote about me.
But if you don’t believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
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Doo not thinke that I wyll accuse you to my father. Ther is one that accuseth you even Moses in whom ye trust.
For had ye beleved Moses ye wold have beleved me: for he wrote of me.
But now ye beleve not his writinge: how shall ye beleve my wordes.
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Doe not thinke that I will accuse you to my Father: there is one that accuseth you, euen Moses, in whom ye trust.
For had ye beleeued Moses, ye would haue beleeued me: for he wrote of me.
But if ye beleeue not his writings, how shall ye beleeue my wordes?
Cross-references (34)
- Deuteronomy 18:15 (v46) Yahweh your God will raise up to you a prophet from among you, of your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him.
- Deuteronomy 18:18-19 (v46) I will raise them up a prophet from among their brothers, like you. I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I…
- John 1:45 (v46) Philip found Nathanael, and said to him, “We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, wrote: Jesus of Nazareth, the son…
- Luke 24:27 (v46) Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
- Numbers 24:17-18 (v46) I see him, but not now. I see him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob. A scepter will rise out of Israel, and shall strike through…
Show all 33 cross-references
- Genesis 49:10 (v46) The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs. To him will the…
- Acts 26:22 (v46) Having therefore obtained the help that is from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the…
- Genesis 22:18 (v46) All the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring, because you have obeyed my voice.’ ”
- Numbers 21:8-9 (v46) Yahweh said to Moses, “Make a venomous snake, and set it on a pole. It shall happen that everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall…
- Genesis 12:3 (v46) I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who treats you with contempt. All the families of the earth will be blessed through…
- Genesis 3:15 (v46) I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise…
- Hebrews 7:1-10 (v46) For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of God Most High, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to…
- Genesis 18:18 (v46) since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him?
- Galatians 4:21-31 (v46) Tell me, you that desire to be under the law, don’t you listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the servant,…
- Genesis 28:14 (v46) Your offspring will be as the dust of the earth, and you will spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the…
- Galatians 3:24 (v46) So that the law has become our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
- Romans 10:4 (v46) For Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
- Galatians 3:13 (v46) Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,”
- Galatians 3:10 (vv45–46) For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t continue in all things…
- Galatians 2:19 (v46) For I, through the law, died to the law, that I might live to God.
- Luke 16:31 (v47) “He said to him, ‘If they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rises from the dead.’ ”
- Romans 3:19-20 (v45) Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world…
- Luke 16:29 (v47) “But Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.’
- Romans 2:12 (v45) For as many as have sinned without the law will also perish without the law. As many as have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.
- 2 Corinthians 3:7-11 (v45) But if the service of death, written engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly on the…
- John 9:28-29 (v45) They insulted him and said, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses. But as for this…
- Romans 10:5-10 (v45) For Moses writes about the righteousness of the law, “The one who does them will live by them.” But the righteousness which is of faith…
- Matthew 19:7-8 (v45) They asked him, “Why then did Moses command us to give her a certificate of divorce, and divorce her?” He said to them, “Moses, because of…
- John 7:19 (v45) Didn’t Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill me?”
- Romans 2:17-29 (v45) Indeed you bear the name of a Jew, rest on the law, glory in God, know his will, and approve the things that are excellent, being…
- John 8:5-6 (v45) Now in our law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. What then do you say about her?” They said this testing him, that they might have…
- John 8:9 (v45) They, when they heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning from the oldest, even to the last. Jesus was…
- Romans 7:9-14 (v45) I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. The commandment which was for life, this I…
33 distinct cross-references across this passage (34 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (19 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv45–47 45. Think not that I shall accuse you to…
45. Think not that I shall accuse you to the Father. This is the way in which we ought to deal with obstinate and hardened persons, when they learn nothing by instruction and friendly warnings. They must be summoned to the judgment-seat of God. There are few persons, indeed, who openly mock God, but there are very many who, believing that God, whom they oppose as enemies, is gracious to them, amuse themselves at their ease with empty flatteries. Thus, in the present day, our Giants, though they wickedly trample under foot the whole doctrine of Christ, haughtily plume themselves on being the intimate friends of God. For who will persuade the Papists that Christianity exists anywhere else than among them? Such were the scribes, with whom Christ is here disputing. Though they were the greatest despisers of the Law, yet they boasted of Moses in lofty terms, so that they did not hesitate to make use of him as a shield in opposing Christ. If he had threatened that he would be a powerful and formidable adversary to them, he knew that this would have been treated with the utmost contempt; and, therefore, he threatens that an accusation, drawn up by Moses, will be preferred against them.
Moses, in whom you trust. There are some who think, that Christ here points out the distinction between his own office and that of Moses, because it belongs to the Law to convict men of being unbelievers. But this is a mistake; for Christ did not intend that, but only intended to shake off the confidence of hypocrites, who falsely boasted of entertaining reverence for Moses; just as if a person in the present day, in order to foil the Papists with their own weapon, were to say, that they will find no enemies more decidedly opposed to them than the holy doctors of the Church, under whose authority they falsely and wickedly take shelter. Let us also learn from it, that we ought not to glory in the Scriptures without a good reason; for if we do not honor the Son of God by the true obedience of faith, all whom God hath raised up to be his witnesses will rise up against us as accusers at the last day. When he says, that they trust in Moses, he does not accuse them of superstition, as if they ascribed to Moses the cause of their salvation; but his meaning is, that they do wrong in relying on the protection of Moses, as if they had him to defend their wicked obstinacy.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v45 This denial doth not put away that which is…
This denial doth not put away that which is here said, but correcteth it, as if Christ said, the Jews shall have no sorer an accuser than Moses.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv45–47 45 Do not think that I will accuse you…
45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust.
Ver. 45. Do not think that I] That is, that I only.
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Even Moses] So your faithful ministers (whom men pretend to love and reverence, but obey not their doctrine), these shall judge you.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv45–47 There will be no need of my accusing you,…
There will be no need of my accusing you, you will need no other accuser than that Moses for whom you have so great a reverence, and for whose sake you contemn me. Joh 9:28,29, they said, We are Moses’s disciples. We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is. This Moses (saith our Saviour) will accuse you unto the Father.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On v45 Think not that I will accuse you; that is,…
Think not that I will accuse you; that is, that I only will accuse you to the Father; there is one that accuseth you, even Moses; that is, the writings of Moses, which you pretend to depend upon, and to trust to; for had you believed his writings, that is, the prophecies and types contained in his writings, you would have been led by them to believe in me; for they all pointed at me, and recieved their accomplishment in me; but if Moses cannot be heard by you, I must expect no authority with you.
Learn, 1. That the whole scope of Moses’s ceremonial law, was to point out and prefigure Jesus Christ; Christ was the sum of the law, as well as the substance of the gospel; he was Abraham’s promised seed, Moses’s great Prophet, Jacob’s Shilo, Esay’s Emanuel, Daniel’s Holy One, Zachary’s Branch, and Malachi’s Angel.
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2. That such as believed the ancient prophesies before Christ came, did see their accomplishment in him, when he was come.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv45–46 For had ye believed Moses,.... The doctrine of Moses,…
For had ye believed Moses,.... The doctrine of Moses, and what he says in his writings:
ye would have believed me; for there is an agreement between Moses and Christ; Christ is the end of the law of Moses, and in him is the accomplishment of his writings:
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for he wrote of me; in the books written by him, Christ is spoken of, as the seed of the woman, that should bruise the serpent's head; as the seed of Abraham, in whom all nations of the earth should be blessed; as the Shiloh, to whom the gathering of the people should be; and as that prophet, who should be like unto himself, to whom the people of Israel should hearken; and he wrote many things typically of Christ; and indeed, the whole Mosaic economy was typical of Christ, as the epistle to the Hebrews shows: and therefore disbelieving Christ, was disbelieving Moses; who therefore would be an accuser of them, and a witness against them.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv45–46 There is one that accuseth you - By his…
There is one that accuseth you - By his writings.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv45–47 Verse 45. Do not think that I will accuse…
Verse 45. Do not think that I will accuse you] You have accused me with a breach of the Sabbath, which accusation I have demonstrated to be false: I could, in return, accuse you, and substantiate the accusation, with the breach of the whole law; but this I need not do, for Moses, in whom ye trust, accuses you. You read his law, acknowledge you should obey it, and yet break it both in the letter and in the spirit. This law, therefore, accuses and condemns you. It was a maxim among the Jews that none could accuse them but Moses: the spirit of which seems to be, that only so pure and enlightened a legislator could find fault with such a noble and excellent people! For, notwithstanding their abominations, they supposed themselves the most excellent of mankind!
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v45 Joh 5:45. Do not think that I only will…
Joh 5:45. Do not think that I only will accuse you to the Father — Our Lord proceeds to caution them against supposing, “that in rejecting him they sinned against no person but him, and that he alone would accuse them to the Father for their infidelity; for that Moses, in whose laws they trusted to have salvation, was likewise dishonoured by it, inasmuch as he wrote of him, namely, under the names of the Seed of Abraham; Shiloh; and a Prophet like to himself whom God would raise up unto them from among their brethren, and whom he commanded them to hear. Wherefore, seeing they refused to believe in him, Moses would accuse them as guilty of disbelieving his writings.” “This,” says Dr. Doddridge, “is one of the most expressive passages that can be imagined, in which Moses, their great lawgiver, is represented as looking down with indignation upon these elders, who gloried in being the most distinguished of his disciples; and seeing how injuriously they treated Jesus, the great Prophet, turning himself to God with a severe accusation against them, and urging his own predictions as an aggravation of their inexcusable infidelity.” For had ye believed Moses — Had ye believed his writings, which are daily read in your synagogues; you would have believed me — For these writings describe me not by types and figures only, but by particular and direct prophecies. See the margin. But if ye believe not his writings — Which it is plain from your conduct that you do not, though they are daily in your hands, and you strenuously assert their divine authority; how shall ye believe my words — I have no reason to be surprised that you do not credit me upon my own testimony. Thus Jesus asserted his own personal dignity, as the Son of God and Judge of the world, at the same time that he proposed the evidences of his mission from God with such strength of reason, perspicuity, and brevity, as are unequalled.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv45, 47 Do not think that I will accuse you -…
Do not think that I will accuse you - Do not suppose that I intend to follow your example. They had accused Jesus of breaking the law of God, Joh 5:16. He says that he will not imitate their example, though he implies that he might accuse them.
To the Father - To God.
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There is one that accuseth you - Moses might be said to accuse or reprove them. He wrote of the Messiah, clearly foretold his coming, and commanded them to hear him. As they did not do it, it might be said that they had disregarded his command; and as Moses was divinely commissioned and had a right to be obeyed, so his command reproved them: they were disobedient and rebellious.
He wrote of me - He wrote of the Messiah, and I am the Messiah, Gen 3:15; Gen 12:3; compare Joh 8:56; Gen 49:10; Deu 18:15.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv45–47 Do not think I will accuse you to the…
Do not think I will accuse you to the Father--"My errand hither is not to collect evidence to condemn you at God's bar."
one that accuseth you, even Moses, &c.--"Alas! that will be too well done by another, and him the object of all your religious boastings--Moses," here put for "the Law," the basis of the Old Testament Scriptures.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv45–47 Who is their accuser?—not Christ, but their own Moses,…
Who is their accuser?—not Christ, but their own Moses, Joh_5:45-47.
Though in all these misdoings he is their Admonisher, (in order to be their Saviour, as he must be their final Judge,) he is not their Accuser. Their true accuser is their own Moses. Christ is the gospel, and Moses is the law, and the law condemns. Their own Old Testament is the indictment. Through its representative, Moses, it charges them with rejecting the true Messiah. And as in rejecting the Messiah they reject the propitiation for sin, so they stand exposed to the indictment from Moses as wholly guilty before the Father.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv45–47 45. Do not think] As you might be disposed…
45. Do not think] As you might be disposed to do after hearing these reproaches.
that I will accuse you] If this refers to the day of judgment (and the future tense seems to point to that), there are two reasons why Christ will not act as accuser (1) because it would be needless; there is another accuser ready; (2) because He will be acting as Judge.
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there is one] Your accuser exists already; he is there with his charge. Note the change from future to present: Christ will not be, because Moses is, their accuser.
in whom ye trust] Literally, on whom ye have set your hope.
45–47. Do not appeal to Moses; his writings condemn you.
Thus the whole basis of their confidence is cut away. Moses on whom they trust as a defender is their accuser.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv45–47 (45) Do not think that I will accuse you…
(45) Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father.—His words were words of direct accusation, which must have cut to the very quick. He had come from the Father, and it might have seemed to follow from what He said, that He would accuse them to the Father. He guards against this misinterpretation. Love cannot accuse; He cannot be an accuser. He is ever a judge, only because love must judge hatred, and light must judge darkness, by revealing it. (Comp. Note on Joh_3:19.) And yet the very revelation of love and light condemns hatred and darkness. The heart, then, needs no accuser, for it accuses itself; it needs no sentence, for it condemns itself. There is no penalty so fearful as that of the soul which is awakened to its own sin, and cannot itself forgive that sin, and, therefore, cannot receive the forgiveness of the Infinite Love, which always forgives. Their accusation was their rejection of light and love in the past, and Moses was their accuser. This is the thought of the following verses.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv45–46 Think not, he added, with one concluding and sweeping…
Think not, he added, with one concluding and sweeping exposition of their relation to the old covenant and to himselfThink not, as ye might be disposed to do, that I will accuse you to (before; see Syriac kdom) the Father (not referring to the judgment day, where he will appear as Judge, but now), as One in intimate and awful relation with the Father, or as One whose words have set up a standard which is much loftier or severer than that which you are prepared to allow. He has charged them already with having missed the deepest teaching of their own Scriptures, with fastening on the letter rather than on the spirit of the Divine Word; that, though the prima article of t heir creed was the doctrine of "the only God," they had no love of God, no appreciation of God as the only Source of worthy glory, and therefore neither faith nor knowledge. They were snapping up worthless pretenders, and drinking the flattery of men rather than the approval of God. They were blind to the glory and deaf to the voice of the Father, and so would not come to him for life. These sad facts need not be, will not be, pressed against them, seeing that there is a primary accusation already laid. He that (or, there is one that) accuseth you, Moses, on whom ye have set your hope; (cf. 2Co_1:10) Moses himself, in that very Law which you are now making the ground of the rejection of my claims Moses is your accuser; Moses appears against you. "This," says Lange, "is the last and mightiest stroke." "Elenchus maxime aptus ad conclusionem" (Bengel); i.e. "The spirit of Moses is my vindication, the teaching of Moses is typical of mine, the institutions of Moses were symbolic of my coming and work. The predictions of Moses pointed out my coming. The mighty words of Moses will not save you, unless you penetrate to their inner meaning."
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v45 Do not think that I will accuse you to…
Joh_5:45-47
Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust.
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The day of judgment is likened to a trial, and we learn that with every verdict there will be given reasons which shall satisfy the intelligent creation. When we read of books and witnesses, we may be sure there will be evidence we shall not be able to contradict.
1. Conscience will probably be the great accuser. This may now be torpid; but circumstances constantly occur to show that it is not dead.
2. Conscience now awakens with memory, and so it will be then; and so memory will reproduce every action, and conscience will determine its character. Addressing Himself to Jews, our Lord, notwithstanding the testimony of His miracles, avers that He will not accuse them for their infidelity. There were such clear attestations in the writings of Moses to Himself, that it would be sufficient only to produce them. And what a forgetfulness of the element of their religion, and what a stifling of conscience must there have been ere they could profess to trust in a lawgiver whose laws they set at nought!
I. Our Lord makes it A NECESSARY CONSEQUENCE ON MENS BELIEVING MOSES, THAT THEY SHOULD BELIEVE IN HIM.
1. The law and the gospel, therefore, must be parts of the same system.
(1) If you consider the law as a system of types, and compare it with the gospel as the antitype, it seems impossible to avoid being struck by the correspondence.
(2) The gospel furnishes us with the character in which the law is written, and thus enables us to decipher its hieroglyphics.
2. How can we account for this? Not by chance; for there is not here and there an accidental resemblance. But when it is the business of a lifetime to find out all the reciprocities, and the impossibility of a lifetime to detect one disagreement, we are compelled to believe that, whoever constructed the gospel, formed it for the purpose of adapting it to the law.
3. Let us see how the argument stands.
(1) The founders of Christianity must, if impostors, have laboured to give plausibility to their system by assimilating it to the law; but in order to success, they must have had unbounded familiarity with the Mosaic institution and unbounded ingenuity in giving substance to shadows.
(2) Had the apostles been learned rabbis, they would not have been equal to this; but they were unlearned peasants.
(3) The only theory on which we can account for this mutual adaptation, is that both come from God.
4. Consequently, to reject one is to reject both. The Jews, indeed, had no such acquaintance with the gospel as we have; but they had abundant opportunity of noting the correspondence of Christ with the Messianic prophecies. They rejected the former, and hence the latter also.
5. To follow the same line of thought further. The Bible, though composed in different ages and by different writers, is an uniform book, presenting throughout the same truths, though with a great variety of exhibition and marked by a surprising similarity of style. This is convincing alike of the unity and Divinity of its authorship, and to believe one part of it is to believe the whole.
II. THE FORCE OF THE REASONING THAT IF MOSES WERE NOT BELIEVED NEITHER WOULD CHRIST BE.
1. We are wont to think that were Christ to speak and work now as He did eighteen hundred years ago, that His ministry would result in widespread conviction of unbelievers and conversion of sinners. But if the fact that the Jews resisted the writings of Moses proved that there was no hope of them being overcome by the words of Christ, we might infer that those who reject the preaching of Christs ministers would reject Christ Himself. The amount of necessary resistance would not be greater in the one case than the other, except that the Jews had an incomplete, but Christians have a perfect Bible. But would not Divine eloquence and miracles be more powerful than the written Word? No.
(1) Because the Holy Spirit is the Agent of conversion in either case.
(2) Because there being no respect of persons with God, one generation is dealt with by the same laws as another; and we have no right to believe that in handling a miracle the Spirit would apply a greater effort than in handling the Word.
(3) In resisting the writings of Moses the Jews had resisted the Holy Spirit speaking in those writings, and henceforward, in resisting the word of Christ, they were to resist the Spirit speaking in those words. And so now the Spirit turns upon us sufficient evidence to convince, but not to compel.
(4) To think that we should be converted by miracle who are unconverted by Scripture is to apologize for infidelity by throwing the blame upon God. It holds good to-day, If we will not hear Moses and the prophets, neither shall we be persuaded though one rose from the dead. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Christs testimony to the Bible
There is much controversy about the Book. It will be interesting, amid the din and tumult, to find out what Christ thought of it. If He makes it out to be a good Book, I shall continue my faith in it. If He is hesitant or doubtful, I shall not hesitate to give it up.
I. IN REGARD TO OTHERS.
1. He commended it as an object of study.
(1) Without one word of caution. He points to it as you would point your child to a garden, where you give him liberty to roam where and eat what it may. If there was a pit there, or a poisonous serpent, and your child came to harm, you would be to blame. So Christ sends us to the Bible, and takes the entire responsibility.
(2) Authoritatively; not with a polite wish, but with a command. We want to do away with the imperative mood, and are inviting people to be courteous enough to let the sunlight into their chambers. If you have any doubt about your Bible, then go like a crouching dog and ask people to kindly listen to your tale. But if it be in your heart as the life of your life, then speak it boldly and lovingly.
(3) Completely. He does not say, When you come upon anything that taxes your fancy, put that into the waste-paper basket, and go on; when you meet with a difficulty, pass it by, and accept what you can accept; when something appears incredible, reject it, and pass on to what you can accept. Had there been anything wrong there I know, because I know His truth and nobleness, that He would have told me of it.
2. He declared its absolute integrity, and exactly as a truth-speaking man would do. Persons came to Him with a difficulty, and in His answer there is this parenthesis: The Scriptures cannot be broken. This was not special pleading. The subject had no reference to Scripture. The remark is casual and unstudied, and one on which those who examine witnesses place great reliance. He had the opportunity of making annotations, of saying, I now refer to the moral parts, or I am speaking eclectically; but His whole assumption, on the contrary, broadens out into an infinite confidence in the integrity of the Scriptures.
3. He taught that it contains the great answers to all the great questions of the soul
(1) As regards duty. A man came to Him, asking, What shall I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus instantly replied, What is written in the law? and showed that that great question had been answered from the beginning.
(2) As regards destiny. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus He showed that the men of olden time did not go down to hell without warning. If they hear not Moses, etc.
II. IN REGARD TO HIMSELF. He was not a mere lecturer about the Bible.
1. He fled Himself to it in the time of His temptation and agony. It is written. In His great crisis He goes to the Bible; He has it in His heart; He quotes it as if He had written it.
2. Coming out of the wilderness into society, we find Him even quoting it in self-vindication. Again and again He said to learned men, Have ye never read? To His own disciples, How is it that ye do not understand? And when He began to read, their hearts began to burn. They had been reading the Scriptures, and yet had made nothing of them, like many today. Read it with Christ, and you will find His person, claims, promises, vindicated everywhere.
3. Christ found Himself in the whole Bible. Had ye believed Moses, etc. Beginning at Moses, etc. And what is the Old Testament testimony to Him? That He is Creator, Preserver, Redeemer, Sovereign, Friend; the same to-day, yesterday, and for ever. Then search the Scriptures; read them through.
1. This alone will qualify you for criticizing it.
2. This alone will give you solid comfort and eternal life. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The unity of the Bible an argument for its Divinity
In reading the Bible I seem always to hear the same voice: whether the volume is informing me how the unshapen chaos resolved itself at the Creators bidding into symmetry and life--or men, who, familiar with the scenes, are gathering centuries into sentences; or the lawgiver is arranging the ceremonies of the mystic volume; or historians are discoursing of battles and captivities; or evangelists describing the institutions, and apostles unfolding the doctrines of Christianity--I seem always to hear the same voice, as though the words of John, the exile in Patmos, were the echo of those of Moses, the leader of Israel. There is vast difference in the subjects successively, touched on; but, notwithstanding, there is a tone which I always recognize, and which always impresses the feeling that I am hearkening to the same speaker. There seems no change in the instrument, though continual change in the sound; as if at one time the whirlwind swept the chords, that I may be astonished with the utterance of wrath and devastation, and at another they were touched by an angels hand, that I might be soothed by the melody of mercy. There is the same scheme carried on by the wanderings of patriarchs, the sacrifices of priests, the ambition of kings, and the sufferings of martyrs. The same style is preserved by the poet in his hymns, by the prophet in his visions, the lawgiver in his codes, the historian in his annals; so that, as though the Author never died, but appeared at one time in one character, and another in another, the Bible comes to me as the dictate of one mind, and the writing of one pen. Inspiration only accounts for this; but we cannot imagine any other solution. And if (for it is on this our text bids us fasten) there be such a sameness between the Jewish and Christian dispensations, that all the types in the one find exact antitypes in the other, and thus the two have such a relationship, that they compose one uniform system, we must receive both or reject both. If we believe Moses we must believe Christ, and if we believe Christ we must believe Moses; and this serves to vindicate what might otherwise seem difficult, that no Jew can truly believe his own religion and yet deny the Christian religion. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me; for he wrote of Me. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
The impossibility of inventing the correspondence between Moses testimony and Christs work
We should like to see a company of acute and scientific reasoners, but ignorant of Christianity, sit down to the study of the books of Leviticus and Exodus; they shall be told, These books are full of types, and emblems, and figures, and ceremonies, and you must strive to devise a simple religious system, which shall give significance to every item of this symbolic array; there are mysterious intimations, we will tell them, in every page, couched in parabolic language, or under sacrificial institutions, and your endeavour must be to invent a scheme of theology which shall afford a plausible and rational explanation of all that is thus obscure. Now do you honestly think that our company of ingenious and intelligent writers would make much way with their task? Can you believe that, as the result of their joint labours, there would be sent into the world any scheme of religion which should fix the plain meaning, or at least afford a clue, to all the mysteries of the books of Exodus and Leviticus? Yet this is precisely what is done by the system of Christianity; done with so unvarying a carefulness, that you cannot find a point to which there is nothing corresponding. The men, moreover, who effected this were ignorant and illiterate; so that the books were compiled when there was none of those human appliances which at best would but ensure the most limited success. What alternative, then, have we but that of admitting a supernatural interference, and ascribing to God the whole system of Christianity? (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Christ in the Old Testament and in the New
Christ was in the faith of the patriarchs like corn in the ear; in the faith of the law like corn grown into flower; but since the Incarnation He is in our faith completely as when corn is made into bread. (Bernard.)
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THE HISTORICAL CONNECTION BETWEEN CHAPTERS 5. AND 6.--Our Lord is in Galilee. It has been, perhaps, a year since the healing at Bethesda. His ministry in Galilee has gone forward, as described by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, including many miracles, the Sermon on the Mount, the early parables, and the mission of the twelve. Returning from this mission, on which they went two and two throughout Galilee, teaching and healing, the twelve were weary and worn, as Jesus Himself had been when He reclined beside Jacobs well. So He compassionately said to them (Mar_6:31), Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest awhile. That project led to his feeding the five thousand. This is the first narrative in which John has been parallel to all three of the other Gospels (Mat_14:13-33; Mar_6:31-52; Luk_9:10-17), and it will not be so again until the triumphal entry. Johns chief object is to present the Saviours discourses, and he probably gives this one Galilean event in common with the other Gospels only by way of introducing the great discourse on the Bread of life. (J. A. Broadus, D. D.)
The moral connection between Chapters 5 and 6.
The record of a critical scene in Christs work in Galilee follows the record of the critical scene at Jerusalem. At Jerusalem Christ revealed Himself as the Giver of life; here He reveals Himself as the Support and Guide of life. In the former case the central teaching was upon the relation of the Son to the Father; in this case it is in the relation of Christ to the believer. The episode contains the whole essence of the Galilean ministry. It places in decisive contrast the true and false conceptions of the Messianic kingship, the one universal and spiritual, the other local and material. (Bp. Westcott.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On v45 45–47. There is one that accuseth you. Moses, whose…
45–47. There is one that accuseth you. Moses, whose testimony they failed to accept. If they rejected the testimony of Moses, whom they professed to reverence, how could they believe him of whom Moses spoke?
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v45 The one who accuses you is Moses, in whom…
The one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have put your hope
"Moses" here is a metonym here that stands for the law itself. AT: "Moses accuses you in the Law, the very Law in which you have put your hopes" (See: Metonymy)
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your hope
"your confidence" or "your trust"
If you do not believe his writings, how are you going to believe my words?
This remark appears in the form of a question to provide emphasis. AT: "You do not believe his writings, so you will never believe my words!" (See: Rhetorical Question)
my words
"what I say"
translationWords
accuse
Moses
hope
believe
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v45 5:45-46 Jesus’ fifth and final witness was Moses, the…
5:45-46 Jesus’ fifth and final witness was Moses, the founding father of Judaism. John had already compared Jesus with Moses (1:17; see also 6:14-15). The Jewish leaders were ignoring Moses’ clear words about the Messiah (e.g., Deut 18:15).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.