John 5:47Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

If He had anticipated them and explained it without questions from them, they would have rejected even the testimonies of the Scriptures. But now, if they were attentive to His words, they first ought to have asked about this and learned from Him. For this reason He especially expands not only His proofs against them, but also His rebukes and threats. At least through fear of the words spoken against them, He wished to bring them to understanding. Yet despite this, they are silent. Such is malice. Whatever is said and whatever is done, it is not moved. It remains stubborn, keeping its poison within itself. Therefore one must cast every malice out of the soul and never weave any plots. “The way of a corrupt man is perverse,” it is said, and, “the holy Spirit of wisdom will flee from deceit and depart from foolish thoughts” Prov 21:8; Wis 1:5. Nothing makes people so foolish as malice. Indeed, when a man is treacherous, ill-disposed, and ungrateful, these are forms of malice. When he is angered though not wronged, and when he lays snares, does he not prove his extreme madness? On the other hand, nothing makes people so wise as virtue. It makes them grateful, well-disposed, humane, quiet, meek, and humble. It usually gives birth to all other perfections as well. Who, then, can be wiser than a man with such dispositions? Truly, virtue is the source and root of wisdom, just as every vice takes its beginning from foolishness. Both the proud man and the angry man are carried away by these passions through lack of prudence. Therefore the prophet also said, “My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness” Ps 37:6. He shows that every sin receives its beginning from foolishness. By contrast, the virtuous man who has the fear of God within himself is wiser than all. For this reason a certain wise man says, “The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord” Prov 1:7. If fearing God means possessing wisdom, and the wicked man does not have this, then he is unquestionably deprived of wisdom. And one deprived of true wisdom is more senseless than all. Many admire wicked people because they can inflict injury and harm on others. But they do not understand that such people must be counted the most miserable of all. For while thinking that they harm others, they thrust the sword into themselves. This is the mark of extreme madness, when a man strikes himself and does not realize it. He thinks that he is harming another, while in fact he is slaughtering himself. Therefore Paul, knowing that when we strike others we kill ourselves, says, “Why do you not rather suffer wrong?” 1 Cor 6:7. In order not to be wronged, one must not wrong another. In order not to suffer evil, one must not do evil, though this may seem a riddle to ordinary people who do not wish to love wisdom. Knowing this, let us count as miserable and lament not those who are wronged and insulted, but those who wrong and insult others. These people suffer most of all, because they arm God against themselves. They open the mouths of a thousand accusers, acquire an evil reputation in this life, and bring great punishment upon themselves in the age to come. By contrast, those who are wronged and who bear everything magnanimously incline God toward mercy. They also move all people to compassion, praise, and good will toward them. Such people give the greatest proof of their love of wisdom. In this life they acquire great glory, and in the life to come they will receive eternal blessings. May we all be counted worthy to attain them, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ. With Him, to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

How could the writings of Moses be thought superior to the words of the Savior, when the former were types and shadows, while the words of Christ are truth?

It would perhaps not be difficult to compose a lengthy discourse on this subject. But I consider it needless to speak, whether well or poorly, about what is very clear.

Its proof comes not from outside, but from itself.

Why linger over such matters with elaborate speeches and exchange what presents no difficulty for untimely verbosity?

Therefore the saying of the Savior has this meaning.

If, He says, though you have the law written through Moses and devote every care to his writings, you count transgression against them as nothing, sinking what you often read into improper forgetfulness, what follows?

How could you be better disposed toward My words? How would you prove more ready and obedient to My sayings, when you do not often or constantly occupy yourselves with them?

You hear them, as it were, in passing and receive them with your ears only once.

Thus you may interpret the saying. Or examine it from some other side, for occupation with this inquiry is fruitful for instruction.

The writings of Moses contain a certain guidance and prefiguration of the mysteries of Christ. They are like certain first principles of knowledge concerning Him, traced in shadow in that law, as we have shown more fully in earlier discussions.

But the end of the lawful training was Christ, according to what is written: Christ is the end of the law (Rom 10:4), and Christ is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets; cf. Mt 5:17.

But they, He says, did not receive "the first principles of the oracles of God" (Heb 5:12). By their foolishness they pushed away the law that guided them by the clearest writing.

How, then, could they attain to more perfect knowledge?

Or could the greater thing be favorably received by them when no place was given to the small and lesser thing?

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.

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.”