The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. John
5. Toletus: “Ye, O ye Jews, being terrified by the voice of the angel’s trumpet, and by the fire that lightened on Sinai, asked that ye might not hear any more that terrible voice, nor see the dreadful fire, but that God might speak to you by Moses as a mediator. But you keep not the promise by which you bound yourselves. You accepted the stipulation that ye would hear the Prophet of your own nation whom He should send. But His word and compact abide not in you, because what ye promised ye are not willing to fulfil. For, behold, I am He whom He has sent, and ye neither believe Me, nor hear Me, as ye promised.”
The first meaning seems the best and most apposite.
Ver. 39. — Search (scrutamini) the Scriptures , &c. The word for Search in Greek, as well as Latin, may be taken either in the indicative , or the imperative mood. Cyril takes it in the indicative: “ Ye, O ye scribes, assiduously turn and search the Scriptures which bear testimony concerning Me, but ye do not care to understand them, because ye will not come unto Me.” But SS. Augustine and Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euthymius, and others, take it in the imperative : “ Search ye the Scriptures, and in them ye will find God the Father bearing witness to Me.”
Moreover, by the word Search , Christ, says S. Chrysostom, pressed upon the Jews not merely the bare reading of the Scriptures, but a thorough and diligent examination of them. He did not say, Read the Scriptures , but Search them. Dig out the hidden treasures which they contain concerning Me and Divine things, just as those who search for veins of gold and silver dig in the earth to find them. Thus the Beraeans to whom Paul preached (Acts xvii.) searched the Scriptures, with a sincere desire to know nothing but the truth. Therefore in the Scriptures they found Christ whom Paul preached to them.
Because in them, in understanding and believing them, ye think, &c. Because if any one believes and does what the Scriptures bid him, he will attain eternal life. From this it is plain that most of the Jews, and especially the Pharisees, believed in the immortality of the soul, and in an existence after death, in which God would give eternal life to the just, and death eternal to the unjust.
And (Vulg.), i.e., because , for the Hebrew vau, or and , often has a causative force, meaning because, for Christ now gives the reason why He said, Search the Scriptures: because they are they which testify of Me. Many parts do this literally, many more in an allegorical and mystical sense. For “Christ is the end of the Law” (Rom. x. 4). And as S. Peter says, “To Him give all the prophets witness, that all who believe in Him should receive remission of sins through His name.” Let therefore the reader of Holy Scripture, but especially interpreters, doctors, and preachers search the Scriptures, and they will find Christ in them all, either openly revealed, or else veiled in shadows and figures.
Ver. 40 . — And (yet), ye will not , &c. “ Ye do not wish to cleave to Me, to believe in Me, to receive My doctrine and My law.”
Ver. 41 . — I receive not brightness (Vulg. claritatem ), Greek δόξαν, i.e., glory, from men . There is an anticipation, “ Ye, O ye Scribes, suspect, and object that I preach such great things of Myself, and so carefully endeavour to prove My dignity and authority out of the desire of vain glory, that I may catch the breeze of popularity, being desirous of being taken to be the Son of God. I answer that I do not preach these things about Myself in order that I may get glory from men, but for your own sakes, that I may save you. For I am even athirst for your salvation. For I know that no one can be saved, and possess eternal life, but by Me, whom God has appointed the Saviour of the world.” So S. Cyril.
Ver. 42 . — But I know you , &c. “ I know and penetrate the inmost recesses of your hearts (for I, being God, am the Searcher of hearts), and I see in them nothing of Divine love, but that they are full of ambition, avarice, and pride. And this is the reason why ye will not receive those clear testimonies which I bring forward in My favour. The root from whence your unbelief and obstinacy spring is not ambition of glory in Me, but your own lack of charity. For if ye truly loved God, ye would indeed acknowledge that I have been sent by Him, and am clearly described in the Scriptures.” Thus even now the cause of heresy in many is a vitiated love, because indeed many love the liberty of the flesh which heresy teaches, and do not love God, who forbids it.
Cyril connects this verse with what precedes, thus, — “ I have not proclaimed these great things about Myself for the sake of glory, that I may gain human praise, but that ye may learn (as I know) that the love of God is not in you, deprived of which, how can ye come to Me who am the Son of God ? ”
Differently also Maldonatus and Toletus : “ I preach that I am Messiah, and the Son of God, not because I seek the vain glory of men, but because I know that ye have not that love of God which leads to eternal life, so that I may lead you to this love by faith, by which ye may believe in Me.”
Ver. 43. — I am come, &c., in My Father’s name, as the Son sent by God the Father, that by His authority I may fulfil those things which He has promised to you concerning Messiah, to His alone praise and glory, so that through Him there may be showered upon you the knowledge of God, grace, salvation, and eternal life. This I have clearly proved to you by the many testimonies which the Father hath given Me. Yet ye do not receive Me, but treat Me as a false prophet. Wherefore by the just judgment of God it shall come to pass, that if another, who is really a false prophet, shall come to you, one who is not sent by God, but who shall come in his own name, i.e ., in his own authority, falsely boasting himself to be the Messiah, such an one ye will receive. Another therefore will be that Antichrist whom the Jews will receive, though they rejected Christ. To this apply the words of Paul (2 Thes. ii. 10), “Therefore God shall send upon them the working of error, that they may believe a lie, that all may be judged, who have not believed the truth, but have consented to iniquity.” So SS. Chrysostom, Cyril, Augustine, and the ancient writers, passim. Again, another may mean any false prophet, pretending to be Christ, and therefore a forerunner of Antichrist , like that Egyptian, shortly after the time of Christ, who led thousands of men to destruction (see Jos . Bell. Jud. lib. 2, c. 12).
Ver. 44. — How can ye believe, &c. “ Ye love human glory, brief and poor : wherefore ye contemn Me, who despise human glory, and teach that it ought to be contemned ; and that the Divine and eternal glory ought to be aimed at, which God will begin in the saints on earth, and bring to perfection in Heaven.”
Ver. 45. — Think not, &c. Listen to Cyril, “ He declares that there was no need of any other accuser, for that although all others were silent, the law of Moses by itself was sufficient for the condemnation of the Jews who did not believe in Him.” He names Moses because the Jews placed all their faith and trust in him. As they said, “ We know that God spake unto Moses : as for this fellow, we know not from whence He is” (John ix. 28).
Ver. 46. — For if ye had believed Moses , perchance (Vulg.) ye would also have believed Me. Perchance; so the Vulgate often translates the Greek, ἄν: but it is here used in the sense of assuredly . It is an expression of confirmation, not of doubt. “ Assuredly ye would have believed Me.” Hence some copies omit the word perchance.
For he wrote of Me; both in Leviticus, and the whole Pentateuch ; for all his ceremonies and narrations prefigured Me. Also he clearly and expressly wrote of Me (Deut. xviii. 15, 18), saying, “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me ; unto him ye shall hearken ; I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth ; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.”
Again Moses wrote of Christ (Gen. xlix. 10), when he speaks of the time at which Messiah was to come. “The sceptre shall not be taken away from Judah, nor a leader from his thigh, until He that is to be sent shall come : and the same shall be the expectation of the nations” (Vulg.)
For already the sceptre had failed from Jacob, and had been transferred to Herod. Therefore it was the time of Messiah's Advent.
Ver. 47. — But if &c. This is an argument ad hominem. For the Jews preferred Moses to Christ. Wherefore He rightly reasons against them thus : “ If ye do not believe the writings of Moses (of whom ye make the highest account) which he wrote concerning Me, far less will ye believe My own words. In vain therefore do I bring so many testimonies, since I see you confirmed and obstinate in your hatred and rebellion against Me. Therefore I conclude My discourse. I will keep silence and depart.”