Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 5:38
And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not.
38. And ye have not his word ] ‘And hence it is that ye have no inner appropriation of the word’ seeing that ye have never received it either by hearing or vision. ‘His word’ is not a fresh testimony different from the ‘voice’ and ‘shape:’ all refer to the same thing, the testimony of Scripture to the Messiah.
for whom he hath sent ] Better, because whom He sent. This is the proof of the previous negation: one who had the word abiding in his heart could not reject Him to whom that word bears witness. Comp. 1Jn 2:14 ; 1Jn 2:24.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
His word abiding in you – His law does not abide in you – that is, you do not regard or obey it. This was the third thing that he charged them with.
- They had not obeyed the command of God.
- They had not regarded his manifestations, either in the times of the old dispensation, or now through the Messiah.
- They did not yield to what he had said in the revelation of the Old Testament.
For whom he hath sent – God had foretold that the Messiah would come. He had now given evidence that Jesus was he; but now they rejected him, and this was proof that they did not regard the word of God.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 38. Ye have not his word abiding in you] Though ye believe the Scriptures to be of God, yet ye do not let them take hold of your hearts-his word is in your mouth, but not in your mind. What a miserable lot! to read the Scriptures as the true sayings of God, and yet to get no salvation from them! Thy word, says David, (Ps 119:11,) have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. This, these Jews had not done. Reader, hast thou?
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Though they had heard the word of the Lord, their forefathers by the prophets, and in that generation by John the Baptist, (the messenger sent before Christs face), and now by Christ himself, whom the Father had sent; yet the word of the Lord had no place in their hearts, Joh 8:37; it was unto them as a tale told; they received the sound of it, but it was not graven in their hearts. And this appeared, because as of themselves they had no intimacy of communion with God to know his mind; so, when the Son was sent out of the bosom of the Father to reveal God unto them, yet they would not receive him, so as to give any steady, fixed assent to what he revealed, and to yield him any just and true obedience.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
38. not his word abiding inyoupassing now from the Witness to the testimonyborne by Him in “the lively oracles” (Ac7:38): both were alike strangers to their breasts, as wasevidenced by their rejecting Him to whom all that witness was borne.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And ye have not his word abiding in you,…. Which some understand of Christ himself, the Logos, or word: who, though he was now with them, being made flesh, and dwelling among them, yet would not long continue with them: though rather this designs the written word, or the Scriptures of truth; and especially that part of them, which contains prophecies concerning the Messiah, which did not dwell in them richly, nor they dwell in their meditation on them, as was requisite. Or rather, it may intend that word of God expressed in the testimony he bore to the sonship of Christ at his baptism, by a voice from heaven, which made no lasting impression upon the minds and hearts of the Jews that heard it; as appears by what follows:
for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not; meaning himself; for if they had had either a due regard to the sacred oracles, or to that voice from heaven at his baptism, they would have received and embraced him as the Messiah, and sent of God, and not have disbelieved and rejected him, as now they did.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
And (). “And yet” as in 1:10 and 5:40 below.
His word abiding in you ( ). But God’s word had come to them through the centuries by the prophets. For the phrase see John 10:35; John 15:3; John 17:6; 1John 1:10; 1John 2:14.
Him ye believe not ( ). “This one” (, dative case with ) in emphatic relation to preceding “he” (, God). Jesus has given them God’s word, but they reject both Jesus and God’s word (Joh 14:9).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
His word. Emphatic, commencing the sentence. Compare Joh 17:6 sqq.; 1Jo 1:10; 1Jo 2:14.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And ye have not his word abiding in you: (kai ton logon autou ouk echete en humin emnonta) “And you all have not his Word remaining or residing in you,” You receive it not, but let it “go in one ear and out the other,” and do not will or let it abide in your heart and memory, Joh 6:63-64.
2) “For whom he hath sent,” (hoti hon apesteilen ekeinos) “Because that one (he) whom he sent,” commissioned, or mandated to come to you all, and who has come and stands here before you, Joh 3:17.
3) “Him ye believe not.” (touto humeis ou pisteute) ”This one you all do not believe or trust,” Joh 1:11-12; Joh 8:14, a thing you could hardly help doing, if you really compared this person and deeds with your prophetic Scriptures, Act 10:43, Joh 3:36.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
38. And you have not his word abiding in you. This is the true way of profiting, when the word of God takes root in us, so that, being impressed on our hearts, it has its fixed abode there. Christ affirms that the heavenly doctrine has no place among the Jews, because they do not receive the Son of God, on whom it everywhere bestows commendation. And justly does he bring this reproach against them; for it was not in vain that God spake by Moses and the Prophets. Moses had no other intention than to invite all men to go straight to Christ; and hence it is evident that they who reject Christ are not the disciples of Moses. Besides, how can that man have the word of life abiding in him who drives from him the life itself? How can that man keep the doctrine of the Law who destroys the soul of the Law, as far as lies in his power? For the Law without Christ is empty and has no solidity. Just in proportion, therefore, as any man knows Christ, is the proficiency which he has made in the word of God.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(38) Abiding in you.This striking thought of the word taking up its abode in the mind, and forming the mind in which it dwells, meets us only in St. John. (Comp. Joh. 15:7; 1Jn. 2:14; 1Jn. 2:24; 1Jn. 3:9; 1Jn. 3:17; and Note on Joh. 6:36.) They had, indeed, the word of God, but they had it not as a power ever living in them. They locked it up with sacred care in ark and synagogue, but it found no home in their inmost life, and had no real power on their practice. They could take it up and put it down. It was something outside themselves. Had it been in them, it would have produced in them a moral consciousness, which would have accepted, as of the same nature with itself, every fuller revelation from God. Their own spirits, moulded by the word of God dwelling in them, would have received the Word of God now among them. (Comp. Excursus A: Doctrine of the Word.) The fact that they believed not Him whom God sent (not hath sent) was itself the proof that they had not the abiding word.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3 . God’s testimony to Christ through the Holy Scripture, Joh 5:39-40.
The mention of voice has prepared a transition to the written word of the Old Testament.
38. His word His revealed truth; whether by work, by spirit, by testimony, or by Scripture.
Ye believe not The very fact that they accepted not Him to whom the word testified, proved that the word dwelt not in their heads or hearts.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Joh 5:38 . At the end of Joh 5:37 we must place only a comma. John might have continued: , . . .; instead of which he attaches the negation not to the particle, but to the verb ( , see on Joh 4:11 ), and thus the new thought comes in more independently: And ye have not His word abiding in you ; ye lack an inner and permanent appropriation of it; comp. 1Jn 2:14 . The is not “the inner revelation of God in the conscience” (Olshausen, Frommann), but, conformably with the context (Joh 5:37 ; Joh 5:39 ), what God has spoken in the O. T ., and this according to its purport . Had they given ear to this as, what it is in truth, the word of God (but they had no ear for God’s voice, Joh 5:37 ), had they discerned therein God’s manifestation of Himself (but they had no eye for God’s form, Joh 5:37 ), what God had spoken would have penetrated through the spiritual ear and eye into the heart, and would have become the abiding power of their inner life .
, . . .] demonstration of the fact. He who rejects the sent of God cannot have that word abiding in him, which witnesses to Him who is sent (Joh 5:37 ). “Quomodo mandata regis discet qui legatum excludit?” Grotius.
] observe the emphasis in the position of the words here.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
38 And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not.
Ver. 38. And you have not his word abiding in you ] As an “engrafted word,” Jas 1:21 : ye have heard it, but with your bodily ears only, with those gristles that grow upon your heads: ye have not drawn up the ears of your minds to the ears of your bodies, that one sound piercing both, ye might believe; ye have not mixed the word with faith in your hearts, as in a vessel, &c.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Joh 5:38 . you have not heard His voice as you have heard mine (Joh 5:25 ) and His word which you have heard, and which has been coming to you through all these centuries, you do not admit to an abiding and influential place within you. is God’s revelation, which the Jews were conscious they had received; but though the word of God had come to them, they did not have it “abiding in” them; cf. 1Jn 3:15 ; a phrase which in John denotes permanent possession and abiding influence. God’s message does no good until it inwardly possesses those to whom it comes. The proof that the Jews had not thus received it is: “whom God hath sent, Him ye believe not”. Had the revelation or word of God in law and prophets possessed them, they would inevitably have recognised Jesus as from the same source, and as the consummation of the message, the fulfilment of the promise. Not that the Jews held their Scriptures in no esteem, no, (Joh 5:39 ), ; the indicative is to be preferred, “Ye search the Scriptures”; the reason being , “because you suppose that in them you have life eternal” already it is hinted, by the emphatic implicitly opposed to a contrasted , and by the emphatic suggesting another source, that eternal life was not to be had in the Scriptures, but in something else. But it is of me these Scriptures themselves into which you search testify. . “They testify that in me is life eternal; and yet you will not come to me that you may have life.”
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
abiding. See note on Joh 1:32.
hath sent = sent.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Joh 5:38. , because) Therefore, those who believe, in hearing the Son, hear the Father; ch. Joh 6:45, Every man that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto Me; and in seeing the Son they see the Father; ch. Joh 14:9, [Jesus to Philip] He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? although previously they had not heard nor seen Him: No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him; and they have abiding in them the Word of the Father, which is the same as the Word of the Son.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 5:38
Joh 5:38
And ye have not his word abiding in you:-[Proof of this fact was they did believe the testimony of John whom he had sent.]
for whom he sent, him ye believe not.-[The preaching of John bore witness of him.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
ye have: Joh 5:42, Joh 5:46, Joh 5:47, Joh 8:37, Joh 8:46, Joh 8:47, Joh 15:7, Deu 6:6-9, Jos 1:8, Psa 119:11, Pro 2:1, Pro 2:2, Pro 7:1, Pro 7:2, Col 3:16, Jam 1:21, Jam 1:22, 1Jo 2:14
for: Joh 5:43, Joh 1:11, Joh 3:18-21, Joh 12:44-48, Isa 49:7, Isa 53:1-3
Reciprocal: Isa 26:10 – and will not Joh 6:45 – Every Joh 14:24 – and 1Jo 5:10 – hath made
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
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The gist of this verse, is that all who will nourish the word of God in their hearts, will signify it by accepting that of His Son, whom he hath sent into the world in the form of human flesh.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joh 5:38. And ye have not his word abiding in you; because whom he sent, him ye believe not. Word here must not be understood as directly signifying the Scriptures of the Old Testament: it is rather the substance of Gods whole revelation of Himself, however and wherever made. This revelation received into a believing heart becomes Gods word in the man, and to this word answers The Word, in whom God has perfectly revealed Himself (compare Heb 1:1-2). By all previous teaching concerning Himself God has prepared the way for mans reception of His Son. He who did not recognise the Son as the Sent of God, showed by this very sign that the preparatory work had not been effected in him,that he had not Gods word abiding in his heart. So in the next chapter Jesus teaches that every one that hath heard from the Father, and hath learned, cometh unto Him (chap. Joh 6:45). The refusal therefore of the Jews to believe Him, that is, to accept His claims, is of itself a proof that they have had no spiritual aptitude for discerning the presence and the revelation of God. It will be seen that, as in the first clause of Joh 5:37 we cannot accept the view that a new witness is introduced, different from the works, so here we cannot believe that the voice, form, and word are to be limited to the manifestation of God in the Scriptures of the Old Testament. No doubt this is the most prominent and important part of our Lords meaning, but we must not exclude Gods revelation of Himself in providence and in the heart of man, for in all things He had pointed to His Son.
It should be mentioned that some have supposed the clause never have ye heard a voice of Him to refer to the voice of God at the Baptism of our Lord. But such an interpretation is surely impossible. The tone of the two verses here is one of reproach; but that voice was not intended for the ears of the Jews, and their failure to hear it was no matter of rebuke. This explanation, too, would not diminish but increase the difficulty of the words or seen a form of Him, words startling to every Israelite (compare Deu 4:12), and, we believe, only to be accounted for when regarded as closely connected with and suggested by the words and deeds of Jesus.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Vv. 38-40. And his word ye have not abiding in you, for ye believe not him whom he hath sent. 39. Ye search the Scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of me. 40. And ye will not come to me that ye may have life.
The written word might have supplied the place of the personal revelation; they have had it in their hands and on their lips, but not in the heart. They have studied the letter, but have not appropriated to themselves the contents, the thought, the spirit. Thus it has not become a light lighted within them to guide them, a power to bear sway over them. Jesus gives a proof of this inward factit is their unbelief towards Him, the divine messenger. Undoubtedly, there is no argument here; for the reality of His divine mission was precisely the point in question. It is a judgment which Jesus pronounces, and which has its point of support, like the entire discourse, in the miracle which He had wrought.
The 39th verse may be regarded as a concession: No doubt, you study the Scriptures with care. But we must rather see herein the indication of a fact which Jesus is about to contrast with another. You search the Scriptures with so much care; you scrutinize the externals of them with the most scrupulous exactness, hoping to make eternal life spring forth from this minute study; and at the same time you obstinately reject the one to whom they bear testimony! We take the verb , therefore, as an indicative: you search; as do Cyril, Erasmus, Bengel, Lucke, Westcott, and now also Luthardt. A large number of commentators and translators (Chrysostom, Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Stier, Hofmann, Keil, Ostervald,) make this verb an imperative: Search. Jesus would exhort them to a profound study of the Scriptures. But, in that case, He should not have said, because you believe you have in them…, but because you will have in them; or at least because you yourselves think you have in them. And then He should have continued, in order to give a ground for the exhortation, by saying: For these are they. The verb , search, is very suitable as characterizing the Rabbinical study of the Scriptures, the dissection of the letter. , they, still with the emphatic and exclusive meaning which this pronoun has in John: and it is precisely they.
The copula , and, in Joh 5:40, sets forth, as so often in John, the moral contradiction between the two things which unbelief succeeds in causing to move on together: to study the Scriptures which testify of Christ, and, at the same time, not to come to Christ! They seek life, and they reject Him who brings it! The words: ye will not, mark the voluntary side of unbelief, the moral antipathy which is the real cause of it. We find again in this passage the sorrowful tone of that saying preserved in the Synoptics: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I…. But ye would not! This passage clearly shows how Jesus recognized Himself in the Old Testament. He beheld there so fully His own figure, that it seemed to Him impossible to have sincerely studied that book and not come to Him immediately.
But whence arises, then, the not willing pointed out in Joh 5:40, and what will be its result? These are the two questions which Jesus answers in the words which close the discourse, and which are, as it were, the practical application of it.