John 5:46Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Yet since the Scriptures did not greatly frighten them, He turns His word to the person of Moses. He presents the lawgiver himself as their accuser, and in this way produces far greater fear in them.

He also refutes everything they had said.

Observe this: they said that they persecuted Him out of love for God. He shows that they do this because they do not love God.

They said that they held to Moses. He shows that they act this way because they do not trust Moses.

If they were zealous for the law, they ought to have received Him who fulfilled the law. If they loved God, they should have obeyed Him who was drawing them to God.

Perhaps, after explaining the meaning of the saying set before us, we should again turn to the next Gospel saying. We might leave the truly studious to investigate the types of Christ in the Law of Moses.

His writings are full of these types, and much is said there concerning this matter. Yet it presents great difficulty for understanding and abounds in very subtle and hidden contemplations.

But lest we seem to give ourselves over to laziness, and to avoid so venerable a labor without sufficient reason, merely appealing to the difficulty of the Mosaic writings, let us turn to this investigation also. We know what is written: “The Lord will give the word to those who preach the good tidings with great power” (Ps 67:12).

Since, as we have said, the all-wise Moses says very much about this, and the mystery of Christ is indicated beforehand by him through many types, we shall not think it right to heap an immeasurable multitude upon the readers. Choosing one from all, we shall try to give clear proof that the word of our Savior to the Jews was true: “If you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote of Me.”

Concerning the fact that Moses pointed to the coming of the Savior. From Deuteronomy concerning Christ:

“The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet from your brethren, like me. Him you shall hear. This is according to all that you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying: Let us not continue to hear the voice of the Lord our God, and let us not see this great fire any more, lest we die. And the Lord said to me: All that they have spoken is right. I will raise up for them a Prophet from among their brethren, like you, and I will put My word in His mouth. He shall speak to them all that I command Him. And the man who will not listen to what that Prophet shall speak in My name, I will require it of him” (Deut 18:15-19).

Deuteronomy presents a kind of repetition and exposition of the chief contents of the Mosaic books. Therefore the passage taken from it cannot be called a type or foreshadowing from the worship under the Law.

Nevertheless, since we are accustomed to leave nothing unexplained, understanding all things rightly for Christ’s sake, we shall unfold for the readers the meaning of the cited saying.

Here again the mystery concerning Christ is declared to us without concealment. By hidden contemplation it is skillfully typified through the likeness to Moses. “The Lord your God,” he says, “will raise up for you a Prophet from your brethren, like me.”

Immediately explaining what contemplation is introduced by the likeness to him, Moses clearly adds: “According to all that you asked of the Lord your God on Mount Sinai on the day of the assembly. Saying: Let us not continue to hear the voice of the Lord our God, and let us not look any more upon this great fire, lest we die.”

He affirms about himself that he was then appointed mediator. The assembly of the Jews was no longer able to receive the supernatural revelation. Therefore they prudently refused what exceeded their strength.

This was plainly the vision of God, striking the sight with unusual appearances, and the excessive trumpet sounds unbearable to the hearers. Thus the mediation of Moses, who conveyed the divine ordinances to the assembly, was a help to the weakness of those then present.

Now change the type again into the truth. Through this you will understand Christ, the Mediator between God and men. Through a human voice, when for our sake He was born of a Woman, He conveys to the obedient the ineffable will of God and the Father. This will is known to Him, and to Him alone, since He is understood as Son from Him and as Wisdom. He knows all things, even “the depths of God” (1 Cor 2:10).

It was impossible to behold with bodily eyes the pure, most perfect, divine, and ineffable glory of the Essence that surpasses all. For God says, “No one shall see My face and live” (Ex 33:20).

Therefore the Only-begotten Word of God necessarily conformed Himself to us. By the ineffable ways of Providence He clothed Himself in this human body. He makes manifest to us the will from above, that is, the will of God and the Father.

He says: “All that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you” (Jn 15:15). Again: “I have not spoken from Myself, but the Father who sent Me, He Himself gave Me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak” (Jn 12:49).

Therefore, according to the form of mediation, the ancient Moses, who faithfully conveyed the divine decrees to the sons of Israel, may be understood as a type of Christ. But the mediation of Moses is ministerial. The mediation of Christ is free and most mysterious. By nature it touches the parties mediated and reaches both, I mean the humanity mediated and God the Father.

Indeed, the Only-begotten from God is God by nature, since He is inseparable from the essence of the Begetter and co-natural with it, for He is understood as from it. Yet He was also man, since He became flesh, making Himself like us. Through Him what was by nature far separated from God might be united with God.

Therefore, when Moses says, “The Lord will raise up for you a Prophet like me,” understand it only in the way of which we have just spoken, that is, according to His humanity. God Himself confirms that this is the speech, saying: “All that they have spoken is right. I will raise up for them a Prophet like you, and I will put My words upon Him. He shall speak to them according to all that I command Him.”

For the Son “upholds all things by the word of His power” (Heb 1:3), as Paul says. He proclaims to us the words of the Father as the Mediator appointed by Him. This is sung as from Christ Himself in the Psalms: “I have been established as king by Him over Zion, His holy mountain, proclaiming the decree of the Lord” (Ps 2:6-7).

If anyone wishes to investigate the likeness between Moses and Christ by other arguments, he may see in the words “like me” a reference to Christ as Lawgiver. To prove this he may cite the saying: “It was said to those of old, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, You shall not desire” (Mt 5:27-28).

Likewise, the expression “like me” may indicate Christ as a kind of guide and teacher. He leads us to understand the will of the Father and the things through which the path to the Kingdom of Heaven becomes easily accessible.

In this way, beyond doubt, blessed Moses was a teacher of education according to the Law for those of old. Everywhere he added to his own words: “That you may live many days, and the Lord your God will bring you into the land concerning which He swore to your fathers” (cf. Deut 4:1, 5:16, 6:10, 30, and elsewhere).

Since he added to what was said, “And the man who will not listen to all that the Prophet shall speak in My name, I will require it of him,” let the senseless Jews and those who hardened their souls to utter disobedience see at last that they willingly bring destruction upon their own heads.

They will be subject to divine wrath. As payment for their frenzy against Christ, they will receive the complete loss of all good things. For if they had believed Moses, they would have believed Christ, for he wrote of Him.

But if you search Scripture without hindrance, it itself will convict you before God. Moses, in whom you hope, wrote directly of Me, and he, not I, will accuse you before My Father."

The Evangelist tells us nothing here about the consequences of this discourse.

But from what follows we see that at the next Passover the Lord could not go to Jerusalem. Even one and a half years after this discourse, the Jerusalem Pharisees still remembered it and sought Jesus' life.

Jn 7:21-23 speaks directly about one work: the healing of the whole man on the Sabbath, that is, both in body and soul; 5:14.

Thus from this time the Jerusalem Pharisees began to persecute Jesus as their most dangerous enemy. From this one may conclude that soon after that discourse the Lord was compelled to leave Jerusalem, which was hostile to Him.

Yet the seed of divine teaching undoubtedly did not remain wholly without fruit even then.

The more attentive and impartial hearers of the Lord, such as Nicodemus, received in these instructions new light for understanding the divine person of the Savior.

You claim that, because of faith in Moses, you allow yourselves such actions against Me. Again I explain to you that by this very thing you especially prove your unbelief in Moses.

For I am so far from intending to oppose the law that your accuser will be no other than the very one who gave you the law" (Chrysostom).

Jesus is the preacher of God's goodness. Moses is the preacher of God's righteousness. Therefore it is not Christ, but Moses, who will call God's righteousness to vengeance against the Jews for all their unrighteousness.

"For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote of Me."

The clearest and most direct prophecy of Moses about the Messiah is his prediction of the great prophet; Deut 32:15, 18.

This meaning of the prophecy was preserved by Jewish tradition and was also shown in the new revelation; Acts 3:22-23, Acts 7:37.

By not believing in Jesus, the Jews went against this prophecy.

They do not believe in Moses' history of the fall of mankind either. Otherwise they would reverently have received Him who appeared to crush the head of the serpent.

They do not believe the promises given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They do not believe Israel's prophecy concerning Judah; Gen 49:10.

Otherwise they would have received with joy the One awaited by the nations.

"But if you do not believe his writings, how will you have faith in My words?"

Prejudices darken the true meaning of Moses' writings in the mind of the Jews. In their view there is no true Moses at all. They have their own Moses.

When the true Moses is shown to them, they reject him because of their prejudices.

In such a state, it is natural that they also reject Jesus, proclaimed by Moses, and do not wish to listen to Him with reverence.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,” the Lord said to them, “for you are like whitewashed tombs” Mt 23:27; Lk 11:44. If the teachers of Israel had studied Moses, in whom they claimed to trust, with a sense of faith, could they have failed to recognize in the Lord “the expectation of the nations”? Is 42:1-3; Gen 49:10. Was He not, according to the books of Moses, “the seed of the woman” Gen 3:15? Was He not the joyful day awaited by Abraham, Jn 8:56; Gen 17:7; 22:16-18? Was He not the Reconciler who was to arise from the seed of Judah, to whom the nations owed obedience, Gen 49:10? And finally, did not Moses point directly to Him, Deut 18:18, when he foretold to the people the Prophet whom God would raise up, who would speak the words of God? “For he wrote of Me,” says the Lord to the Jews. Beginning with the most ancient promises, Moses and the prophets spoke of the salvation of mankind in general. The particular condition of the people at a given moment in their historical life was only a secondary subject of exhortations and prophecies. The chief purpose of the sacred books of the Old Testament was the religious development of Israel. They prepared Israel to receive Him who, when He came to His own, was not received by them, Jn 1:11. But the stiff-necked people were led along a false path by their leaders. These leaders did not understand, and did not wish to understand, the moral side and purpose of the law. The Lord’s final words in this teaching strike them like thunder and leave them without reply: “If you do not believe Moses’ writings, how will you believe My words?” They could not fail to recognize that the Lord had read complete unbelief in their hearts, and the loss of the very capacity to believe. They answered nothing. But from that moment the thought of killing the Lord matures in them more and more. This thought already appears immediately after the healing of the sick man on the Sabbath, Jn 5:16. Then they enter into dispute with the Lord, and His words to them are recorded in this fifth chapter. But the thought of murder had so ripened that in chapter 7 it is said that the Lord walked in Galilee. He did not wish to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him, and “His hour had not yet come” Jn 7:30. But as the Lord said in Lk 13:32-35: “Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I shall be perfected.” “Nevertheless I must journey today and tomorrow and the day following. For it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside Jerusalem.” “O Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to you, how often I desired to gather your children, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not.” “Behold, your house is left to you desolate. I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say: Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”