Joh 5:36 . “But I” in contrast to the of Joh 5:33 , , “have the witness which is greater,” i.e. , of greater weight as evidence than that of John. , “the works which the Father [or as modern editors read ] to Him” comprise all that He was commissioned to do, but with a more special reference to His miracles. Lcke well says, “He who looked at the miracles as separate and individual displays of supernatural power and did not view the entire manifestation of Christ in its solidarity, was bound to find the miracles without significance and the latter incomprehensible”. The are cited as evidence, chaps. Joh 10:25 ; Joh 10:38 , and Joh 14:11 ; evidence as here to the fact that the Father had sent Him.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

greater witness = the witness, greater.

to finish = in order that I should complete them.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

36. . ] Literally, I have my witness greater ( being probably a solcism like in ch. Joh 1:14, a nominative in concord with an accusative). , not [perhaps], than that of John;-but, than John himself. John was a testimony.

, not His miracles alone, although those principally; but the whole of His life and course of action, full as it was of holiness, in which, and as forming harmonious parts of which, His miracles were testimonies of His divine mission. His greatest work (ch. Joh 6:29) was the awakening of faith, the of which we have heard before, to which the miracles were but as means to an end.

. .] See ch. Joh 17:4 and note.

] The repetition is to shew that His life and working was an exact fulfilment of the Fathers will. The works which the Father hath given Me to do, those very works which I am doing,

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Joh 5:36. ) Greater, than that witness, which John gave me. The lamp does not lend light to the sun, when once he has arisen.-, that I should finish) that I should do, even to the , end.- , these very works) A suitable and emphatic repetition.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Joh 5:36

Joh 5:36

But the witness which I have is greater than that of John; for the works which the Father hath given me to accomplish, the very works that I do, bear witness of me,-The works that Jesus did attracted the attention of the world and made the best men believe on him. Nicodemus said, No one can do these signs that thou doest, except God be with him. (Joh 3:2). All that Jesus did and suffered in his mission on earth was what his Father had given him to do. The miracles he wrought, and his own triumph over death and resurrection from the dead, were the especial works that substantiated his claim to be the Son of God. He was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. The kingdom in its unorganized elements-the head, laws, and subjects-in embryo was among [the works he was to accomplish],

that the Father hath sent me.-The works that God did through Jesus testified that Jesus was of God, The object of miracles was to prove that the person who wrought the miracles was from God and spake by the power of God.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

I have: Joh 5:32, 1Jo 5:9, 1Jo 5:11, 1Jo 5:12

the works: Joh 3:2, Joh 9:30-33, Joh 10:25, Joh 10:37, Joh 10:38, Joh 11:37, Joh 14:10, Joh 14:11, Joh 15:24, Joh 17:4, Act 2:22, Mat 11:4

Reciprocal: Exo 4:5 – That they Num 16:28 – Hereby Zec 4:9 – and Mat 11:5 – blind Joh 4:34 – and Joh 5:39 – they which Joh 6:27 – for him Joh 9:4 – must Joh 9:16 – This man Joh 10:32 – Many Joh 10:36 – sent Joh 17:3 – and Jesus 2Pe 1:17 – God 1Jo 2:1 – Father 1Jo 4:14 – the Father

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

6

The works to which Jesus refers are those mentioned in chapter 20:30, 31. Had he been an impostor, he could not have performed these deeds.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Joh 5:36. But the witness that I have is greater than that of John. Our Lord does not say 1 have greater witness than that of John, as if He was about to specify additional testimony of greater weight than the Baptists. No, that testimony to the truth was good, was useful (Joh 5:33-34), but the witness which He hasthe only witness to which He appealsbelongs altogether to another order, not human, but Divine. Other witness may prepare the heart, external testimony may point the way, but there is only one evidence offered by Jesus Himself.

For the works that the Father hath given me to accomplish, the very works that I do, bear witness concerning me, that the Father hath sent me. The evidence is works that the Father hath given Him to accomplish; and these works are His evidence, not as external evidence merely, but because, as expressive of the Father in Him, they appeal to that inner light in men which ought to have led men to recognise the Father in the Son. Of these works miracles are one part, but not the whole. In two other passages our Lord uses similar language to this, speaking of the accomplishment of the work of the Father (chap. Joh 4:34) or of the work which the Father hath given Him to do (chap. Joh 17:4); and in both the work is more than miracles. True, we read in these of the work, not the works, but the difference is not essential: the many works are the many portions of the one work. Nor need we go beyond this discourse itself to see that the very widest meaning must be assigned to works. The keynote is struck by Joh 5:17, which speaks of the working of the Father and the Son; and in Joh 5:20 we read of the greater works which the Father will show unto the Son. The works then here denote all that has been referred to in earlier verses (Joh 5:20-30), whether present or future, the works of quickening, raising, judging, all that the Son does and will do until the purpose of the Father is accomplished and the redemptive work complete. These works, being manifestations of His own nature, are essentially different from all external testimony whatever.Such as they are, they have been given Him by the Father to accomplish: they are described not as a charge but as a gift (as in Joh 5:22; Joh 5:26-27): and they are the very works which He is now doing and habitually does. Special significance attaches to these added words, the very works that I do, for they show that the witness given by the Father to the Son is given in works now presented to their view. Every word and every deed of Jesus is, as a work, bearing testimony to the truth that the Father hath sent Him; for, where the heart of the beholder is prepared, every work reveals the presence of the Father, and is manifestly a work of God.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

The third testimony produced by Christ, to evidence and prove himself to be the promised Messias, and Saviour of the world, tis that of his miracles; which, by an omnipotent power, as God, he was enabled to work. Christ’s miracles were speaking testimonies of his unity with the Father, and of the divinity of his person. Not so the miracles of his apostles; for he wrought his miracles in his own name, and by his own power and authority: but the apostles expressly declared the contrary, Why look ye stedfastly on us, as if we by our own power had made this man whole? His name, through faith in his name, hath made this man strong. Act 3:12; Act 3:16

Learn hence, That the testimony of Christ’s own works, his miracles wrought in his own name, and by his own authority and power, is a clearer confirmation of his godhead, office, and doctrine, than the best of men’s testimonies; yea, than John Baptist’s own testimony, That he saw the Spirit descending on him.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Joh 5:36-38. But I have greater witness than that of John The testimony of one who has infinitely greater authority and power than he; for the works which the Father hath given me to finish The miracles which he hath commissioned me to perform; bear witness of me In a manner most convincing to every unprejudiced mind; that the Father hath sent me As his Ambassador to men, with full authority to reveal his will. And the Father himself hath borne witness of me And that in the most public manner, namely, at my baptism. Ye have neither heard his voice, &c. As if he had said, I speak not of my supposed father, Joseph. Ye are utter strangers to him of whom I speak. Or, You show yourselves to be as ignorant of him as men are of a person they never either saw or heard. Bishop Pearce considers the clause as a parenthesis, and thinks the sense, in connection with what precedes and follows, is, Not that my Father ever appeared visibly, or spake audibly to any of you; but he did it by the mouths of his prophets. To their testimony, however, he had lately added his own voice from heaven. But the sense in which Dr. Whitby takes the words, seems to connect them more naturally with the preceding verse: thus, Nor are you to expect that the Father should testify of me otherwise than by his works, for that which was granted to your fathers belongs not to you, namely, to see his glory and hear his voice out of the midst of the fire. And have not his word abiding in you You do not show a due regard even to those sacred oracles, which you acknowledge to be divine; either you do not cordially believe them, or they have not that influence upon your spirit and conduct which, in all reason, they ought to have. The scriptures of the Old Testament, if they had understood, believed, and laid them to heart as they ought to have done, would, doubtless, have disposed them to receive Christ. But this revelation of the divine will was not in them. It was among them, in their country, in their hands, but not in their hearts; they beheld it with their eyes, and it sounded in their ears; but it did not rule in their souls. But how did it appear that they had not the word of God abiding in them? it appeared by their not believing and receiving him whom God had sent. There was so much said in the Old Testament concerning Christ, to direct people when and where to look for him, and so to facilitate the discovery of him, that if they had duly considered those things, they could not have avoided the conviction that Jesus was the Christ, and that he was sent of God; so that their not believing in him, and receiving his doctrine, was a certain sign that the word of God did not abide in them. Observe, reader, 1st, The indwelling of the Word and Spirit, or grace of God in us, is best tried and known by the effects which it produces: particularly by our receiving whom and what he sends, the messengers, the commands, the threatenings, the promises, the providences, which he sends; and especially Christ whom he has sent. 2d, If his word abide in us, if we converse with it by frequent meditation, consult it upon every occasion, and conform to it in our conversation, we shall then readily receive the testimony of the Father concerning Christ, and therefore shall believe in and receive him in all the characters and offices which he sustains, and in which he is offered to us in the gospel.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Ver. 36. But I have the witness which is greater than [that of] John: for the works which the Father hath given me to accomplish, these very works that I do bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.

The passage relating to John the Baptist was only a remark thrown in in a passing way, an argument ad hominem; Jesus now develops the fact announced at first, Joh 5:32 : the testimony of the Father. The , I, is like that of Joh 5:34, the antithesis of you, Joh 5:33; it completes the preceding by adding the affirmation to the negation. For the article the, see on Joh 5:34 : the absolute witness, the only one to which I wish to appeal here.

The absence of the article before is explained thus: the true testimony, which is a testimony greater than. In the genitive , of John, is ordinarily found the abbreviated form of comparison: greater thanthat of John. May it not be explained more literally: greater than John, that is to say, than John testifying in my favor: John identified with his testimony. Meyer, Weiss, Keil, Reuss, etc., understand by the , the works of which Jesus speaks, His whole activity in general, and not only His miracles. Weiss alleges for this meaning the whole passage Joh 5:20-27 on the spiritual resurrection of humanity. But the spiritual works of Jesus do not come under the perception of the senses; in order to believe them, they must have been experienced; they are not, therefore, a testimony for the unbeliever. Moreover, at the moment when Jesus was speaking, they were still to come.

Finally, we must not forget the starting-point of this whole discourse, which is a miracle properly so called. Jesus certainly alludes to the healing of the impotent man and to all the similar works which He is accomplishing every day. Meyer concedes this explanation in the passages Joh 7:3; Joh 7:21 and elsewhere; but the context demands it here as well as there. The miracles are designated, on the one side, as gifts of the Father to Jesus; on the other, as works of Jesus Himself. And it is, in fact, by this double right, that they are a testimony of God. If the Son did them by His own force, they would not be a declaration of God on His behalf; and if God performed them directly, without passing through the Son as an organ, the latter could not derive from them a personal legitimation.We may hesitate between the readings and , both of which are compatible with the following . The object of this verbhath given is: the works; God makes a gift to Jesus of His miracles. Then this object is developed by these words: (literally) that I may accomplish them. For these miracles are not given to Him in the form of works done, but of works to be done. This is brought out forcibly by the repetition of the subject in the words: these very works which I () do. The expression give in order that includes both permission and power. As it is from this double character of the miracle, as a gift of God and a work of Jesus, that the testimony results, it is necessary to keep in the text the word , I, before , which is rejected by some Alexandrian authorities, and which well sets forth the second of these two characteristics. But this testimony of the miracles is still indirect, as compared with another which is altogether personal (Joh 5:37):

Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

Verse 36

To finish; to accomplish.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

er. 36.-But I have greater witness, &c.: i.e., than John’s witness; greater in the sense of surer, more efficacious, that I am Messiah, the Son of God. This greater testimony is My works, My miracles which the Father hath given Me, that by them I may show that He Hath sent Me. “For one might find fault with John’s testimony, as if it were given out of favour,” says Euthymius; “but the works being free from all suspicion stop the mouths of the contentious,” says S. Chrysostom. “For the works might convince even the insane.”

The works (the miracles) which I do, &c., such as the recent healing of the paralytic. I speak of My supernatural works, which could not be effected by any natural cause, but are peculiar to God alone. Wherefore they are as it were the seal of God, by which He bears testimony to Me, and seals and confirms My doctrine. So S. Chrysostom and others.

From this it follows that the Jews both could and ought to have known of a certainty that Jesus was the Messiah, or the Christ, and the Son of God, by the miracles which He wrought. 1. Because He did them with this end and object, that by them He might prove that He was Christ and God. 2. Because Jesus did all the miracles which the prophets had foretold would be done by Christ. 3. Because although certain of the prophets and holy men had done some miracles, they had done neither so many nor so great as Jesus had done. Again, the prophets had wrought miracles, not by their own power, but through invoking God; but Christ did them by His own power, and His own authority, as being the Lord. Whence it was easy to discern that He was the Messiah and God.

In two special ways therefore the miracles of Jesus prove that He is God. First, by the way in which He wrought them, as I have said; because He employed that most mighty power, peculiar to Himself, in working miracles. Then He reserved some miracles to Himself, which by their very nature prove beyond possibility of doubt that He was God. Of this sort was His birth of a Virgin, His knowing the secrets of the heart, and what was in man, and all things. This last was the reason which the apostles gave for believing that He came forth from God. Of like nature was His foretelling all things which were about to happen in His Passion, death, and resurrection, according to the Scriptures. Also that when He willed He laid down His life upon the cross, and resumed it on the third day; that He ascended into heaven; that He sent the Holy Ghost; lastly, that He transmitted that marvellous power of working miracles to His apostles and seventy-two disciples. This also was peculiar to Christ of which I am about to speak,-the force and the power at all times and in all places, ready and at hand, wholly unrestricted, of working such great, such incredible miracles, and so wholly beyond the power of nature; so full and perfect, so salutary, so true, so sure and glorious, so Divine, and so in accordance with the character of the Son of God; among which stands pre-eminent that salutary and instantaneous power of healing every kind of disease in all who in all places and at all times approached Him for the sake of recovering their health. This absolute power, and ever-abiding virtue, belongs to Christ alone. Neither Elijah, nor Eliseus, nor even Moses, nor any angel, had it in the time of the Old Testament; for all these only wrought miracles at intervals, as appears from perusing their histories. Moreover, their miracles are summed up in a definite number; the miracles of Christ were continuous and incessant, and could not be numbered. So S. Augustine and others. Add to all this the results of the death of Christ, the conversion of the whole world by twelve fishermen, the fervour of the faithful in the primitive Church, the unconquerable strength of innumerable martyrs, yea, the exultation in their torments of even boys, virgins, and women. All these things proclaim aloud that Christ is to be worshipped, loved, and adored as the Son of God, for He alone could work such Divine works peculiarly belonging to God.

Ver. 37.-The Father, &c. . . . hath borne witness, as at My baptism. Again, He hath borne witness concerning Me, through the Scriptures by Moses and the prophets.

Observe, Christ in this place, besides the testimony of John, adduces three other and greater witnesses to show that He is the Messiah: 1. By His miracles (ver. 36); 2. By the Father’s voice at His baptism; 3. By the Scriptures (ver. 39).

Ver. 38.-Ye have not His word abiding (Arabic, made strong) in you, &c. The connection and subsequent argument of these words is obscure, which different writers explain in different ways.

1. You may explain them as a sort of concession, thus. “You, 0 ye scribes, when I allege the testimony of God My Father concerning Me, make objection that ye have not heard it, that ye have neither seen His face, nor His appearance, as Moses saw, whom ye profess to believe. I grant what you say, but I add that no one, not even Moses, heard God’s own voice, nor saw His appearance, nor His face. They only beheld that immense fire by which God was concealed, and heard a sound formed in the air by an angel, instead of God’s voice. For I alone, who am the Son of God by nature, have heard His real voice, and seen His appearance, or His Divine face, which I see continually. Nevertheless I urge upon you that ye have beard the voice of God giving attestation to Me, when at My baptism the Father publicly declared, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Again, ye have heard the word of God concerning Me in the Holy Scriptures, Moses and the prophets, who bear witness that I am the Messiah. But ye, although ye have heard this word and testimony of God concerning Me, yet have it not abiding in you, because ye receive not in your minds, nor understand, nor believe it, inasmuch as ye do not believe in Me, as sent by God. In this ye gravely err and sin. For if ye have heard the word of an angel in God’s stead speaking with Moses as His servant, and believe him, much more ought ye to believe the Word of God bearing witness to Me that I am His Son, especially since Moses bears witness to Me, and bids you to hearken unto Me, as follows. So Euthymius. This meaning seems clear, plain, and true.

2. However, S. Hilary (lib. 9, de Trin.) thus connects and expounds this whole passage. “This is why ye have not heard His voice, nor seen His appearance, neither doth His word abide in you, because ye do not believe in Me.” As though it were said, “If ye would believe in Me, ye would hear the Father’s voice, and see His appearance. For he that seeth Me seeth the Father also. In like manner, he that heareth Me heareth the Father also, and the word of the Father abideth in him.”

3. SS. Cyril and Chrysostom think that these words were spoken to confound the Jews, who boasted that they had heard and seen God promulging the Decalogue on Sinai. “Ye boast falsely, 0 ye Jews, that ye have seen and heard God on Sinai, for God is a pure Spirit. Wherefore that voice which ye heard, and that appearance of fire which ye saw on Sinai, was neither the voice nor the true appearance of God, but only a corporeal symbol and figure, shadowing forth to you who are fleshly and ignorant the invisible Godhead.”

4. S. Athanasius (lib. 4, cont. Arian.) by the Word, Greek, , understands Christ the Son of God, who is the Word of the Father. This he asserts is aptly joined with the appearance and form of God, because He is the character, and the lively image of the Father. And the meaning is, “Ye have not heard the voice of God, nor seen His form; and when there remained for you one only way to do this, by believing in Me, who am the Word of the Father, and the image of His Substance (or Person), whom whosoever seeth sees also the Father, ye despise this way, and will not believe Me. Wherefore ye know not the Father, and are deprived of Divine knowledge.”

5. Toletus: “Ye, 0 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, 0 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 Berans 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, i.e., 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, , i.e., glory, from men. There is an anticipation, “Ye, 0 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” (Joh 9:28).

Ver. 46.-For if ye had believed Moses, perchance (Vulg.) ye would also have believed Me. Perchance; so the Vulgate often translates the Greek, : 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 (Deu 18:15-18), 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 49:10), 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.”

Fuente: Cornelius Lapide Commentary

Jesus had weightier evidence of His identity than John’s witness. It came from His Father and took several forms. The first of these forms was the works (Gr. erga, not "work," NIV) that Jesus performed (cf. Joh 10:25; Joh 14:11). These works included all of Jesus’ activities, including His miracles, His life of perfect obedience, and His work of redemption on the cross. Miracles alone did not prove Jesus’ deity since Moses, Elijah, and Elisha had done miracles too. All that Jesus did was simply an extension of the Father’s work (Joh 5:19-30). Once we understand the Father Son relationship we can see that all that Jesus said and did was what the Father said and did.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)