John 7:19

7:14-24 Every faithful minister may humbly adopt Christ's words. His doctrine is not his own finding out, but is from God's word, through the teaching of his Spirit. And amidst the disputes which disturb the world, if any man, of any nation, seeks to do the will of God, he shall know whether the doctrine is of God, or whether men speak of themselves. Only those who hate the truth shall be given up to errors which will be fatal. Surely it was as agreeable to the design of the sabbath to restore health to the afflicted, as to administer an outward rite. Jesus told them to decide on his conduct according to the spiritual import of the Divine law. We must not judge concerning any by their outward appearance, but by their worth, and by the gifts and graces of God's Spirit in them.

John 7:19-20 . Did not Moses give you the law — As if he had said, But you are unrighteous; for you violate the very law for which you profess so much zeal. There is a remarkable beauty in this sudden turn of the sentiment. Some of the Jews called Jesus a false prophet: because on the sabbath day he had healed the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda, ( John 5:9 ,) pretending that it was a gross violation of the law of Moses, such as no good man, far less a prophet, would be guilty of. In answer to these evil surmises, he told them plainly, that however much they pretended to reverence the authority of Moses in his law, they made no scruple to violate the most sacred of his precepts; having entered into a resolution of murdering him, directly contrary to every Law of God and man; and being now employed in laying secret plots against his life: a reproof this, which came in with singular propriety and force, immediately after Jesus had, by the most convincing arguments, proved his mission from God. The people answered, Thou hast a devil — Either thou art mad, or thou art actuated by the malice of the devil, or by a lying spirit; who goeth about to kill thee? — Probably these, who spake thus, came from distant parts of the country, and did not know the design of the priests and rulers.

John 7:19 . οὐ Μωσῆς … ἀποκτεῖναι . The connection is not obvious, but seems to be this: You reject my teaching, but that is not surprising, for you reject Moses’ also ( cf. John 5:39 ; John 5:45-47 ). “Did not Moses give you the law?” or, “Hath not Moses given you the law?” [the point of interrogation should be after the first νόμον ; none after the second]. “Yet none of you keeps it. If you did you would not seek to kill me.” Was there not a former revelation of God which should have prevented you from thus violently rejecting my teaching?

Did - give (δέδωκεν) Some texts read the aorist tense ἔδωκεν, in which case this rendering is correct. If with others we read the perfect, we should render hath not Moses given you the law, which you still profess to observe. Keepeth (ποιεῖ) Rev., rightly, doeth. Compare do in John 7:17. Go ye about (ζητεῖτε) Properly, seek ye. So Rev.

Moses was God’s instrument in delivering his law to the people, Exodus 24:3 Deu 33:4 ; a law which none of them exactly kept, but daily broke. Why do you (saith our Saviour) make it such a capital crime (suppose you were not in an error, but I had in this one point of the sabbath violated the law) in me to break the law, that you for it would have my blood? How cometh it to be a more heinous offence in me to break the law in one thing, than it is in you, who violate it in so many things? Or, do not you think it a capital crime maliciously to go about to destroy an innocent person? Is not that a greater breach, think you, of the sixth commandment, than what I have done is of the fourth? Supposing that had been any breach of the law at all, which indeed it was not.

19 . Did not Moses give you the law? ] Here the question should probably end: and none of you doeth the law should be a simple statement in contrast to the question preceding. The argument is similar to John 5:45 ; Moses in whom they trust condemns them. Moreover it is an argumentum ad hominem: ‘ye are all breakers of the law, and yet would put Me to death as a breaker of it.’

John 7:19 . Μωσῆς , Moses ) whom ye believe.— ὑμῖν , to you ) not to me .— τὸν νόμον , the law ) There is much mention of the Law made here; John 7:23 ; John 7:49 ; John 7:51 ; appropriately so: for שמחת תורה , the joy of the law, completed in the public reading of it, is on the day following the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles.[182] The eighth day, according to the different points of view, in which it was regarded, was either part of the Feast of Tabernacles, or a distinct feast. The former is the view of it, which holds good in John: and in the same feast, every seventh year, the Law used to be read: Deuteronomy 31:10 , “At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in he Feast of Tabernacles, thou shalt read this law before all Israel, in their hearing.”— οὐδείς , none ) Ye assail Me as guilty of violating the law, John 7:21 , etc. But yet ye all violate it.— τί με , why me ) as though I had violated the Sabbath.— ζητεῖτε , ye seek ) Ye seek to kill Me. Therefore ye fulfil not the law. Therefore ye do not the will of God. Therefore ye cannot reach the knowledge of My doctrine, because ye are altogether unlike Me, and hate Me. [182] This name, “The Joy of the Law,” was given to the festival celebrated on the day after the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles. See Vitringa Synag. Vet. p. 1003. Comp. Nehem. John 8:17-18 . On the feast of tabernacles “there was very great gladness .

(19) Did not Moses . . .? —The note of interrogation should be placed at the end of the first clause. The verse would then read, Did not Moses give you the Law? and none of you doeth the Law. Why seek ye to kill Me? So far from the will to do God’s will, without which they could not know His teaching, they had the Law, which they all professed to accept, and yet no one kept it ( John 5:45-47 ). This thought follows naturally on John 7:17-18 , and, like the whole of this teaching, grows out of the truths of John 5; but it may be that this reference to Moses and the Law has a special fitness, as suggested by the feast. Moses had commanded that the Law should be read in every Sabbatical year at this very festival ( Deuteronomy 31:10 ); and there is good reason for believing that the current year was a Sabbatical year. The first portion of the Law which it was customary to read was Deuteronomy 1:1 to Deuteronomy 6:3 . Within this section ( John 5:17 ) came the command, “Thou shalt not kill.” They were, then, in their persecution of Him ( John 5:18 ), breaking the Law, of which their presence at the feast was a professed obedience.

Did not Moses give you the law? - This they admitted, and on this they prided themselves. Every violation of that law they considered as deserving of death. They had accused Jesus of violating it because he had healed a man on the Sabbath, and for that they had sought his life, John 5:10-16 . He here recalls that charge to their recollection, and shows them that, though they pretended great reverence for that law, yet they were really its violators in having sought his life. None of you ... - None of you Jews. They had sought to kill him. This was a pointed and severe charge, and shows the great faithfulness with which he was accustomed to proclaim the truth. Why go ye about to kill me? - Why do ye seek to kill me? See John 5:16.