Jesus Christ · On the Scriptures
Moses Wrote of Me
Jesus does not wait for later theology to say the Old Testament is about him — he says it himself. To the Jerusalem authorities who prided themselves on Moses, he says plainly: he wrote of me. On the road to Emmaus, walking beside two grieving disciples who do not yet recognize him, he opens the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms — the whole Hebrew Bible, in its own three divisions — and shows that all of it points to him. And when he is accused of blasphemy for calling himself God’s Son, his defense rests on a single word from one psalm, because, as he says himself, “the scripture cannot be broken.”
The Text
— John 5:39, 46-47These words come at the end of a long defense. Jesus has just healed a man at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath (John 5:1-15), and the Jerusalem authorities are pursuing him — not only for breaking their Sabbath rules, but for calling God his own Father, “making himself equal with God” (John 5:18). Near the close of his answer, Jesus turns to the one authority his accusers trusted above every other: Moses.
You pore over the Scriptures because you presume that by them you possess eternal life. These are the very words that testify about Me,The command and the claim in one breath: search them, because they testify of me.
If you had believed Moses, you would believe Me, because he wrote about Me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?”Disbelieving Moses's writings and disbelieving Jesus's own words turn out to be the same failure.
Jesus does not say Moses predicted a Messiah in the abstract. He says he wrote of me— a direct, personal claim, made to men who had spent their lives studying Moses’s own books. If they will not believe what Moses wrote, Jesus says, no later word of his own stands a chance with them either.
Wherefore also John does appropriately relate that the Lord said to the Jews: "Ye search the Scriptures, in which ye think ye have eternal life; these are they which testify of me. And ye are not willing to come unto Me, that ye may have life." How therefore did the Scriptures testify of Him, unless they were from one and the same Father, instructing men beforehand as to the advent of His Son, and foretelling the salvation brought in by Him?
Irenaeus· Against Heresies, Book IV (202), on John 5:39
Search the Scriptures - A plain command to all men. In them ye are assured ye have eternal life - Ye know they show you the way to eternal life. And these very Scriptures testify of me.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), on John 5:39
How touching and gracious are these last words! Observe here (1) The honor which Christ gives to the Scriptures, as a record which all have a right and are bound to search--the reverse of which the Church of Rome teaches; (2) The opposite extreme is, resting in the mere Book without the living Christ, to direct the soul to whom is its main use and chiefest glory.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on John 5:39-42
But since the writings (literae) of Moses are the words of Christ, He does Himself declare to the Jews, as John has recorded in the Gospel: "If ye had believed Moses, ye would have believed Me: for he wrote of Me. But if ye believe not his writings, neither will ye believe My words." He thus indicates in the clearest manner that the writings of Moses are His words. If, then, [this be the case with regard] to Moses, so also, beyond a doubt, the words of the other prophets are His [words], as I have pointed out. And again, the Lord Himself exhibits Abraham as having said to the rich man, with reference to all those who were still alive: "If they do not obey Moses and the prophets, neither, if any one were to rise from the dead and go to them, will they believe him."
Irenaeus· Against Heresies, Book IV (202), on John 5:46-47
For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me also, for he wrote of Me. Moses, indeed, will refute you with the whole volume of the Law, ordained through angels, which he received by the hand of the Mediator. Enquire whether He, Who gave the Law, were not true God; for the Mediator was the Giver. And was it not to meet God that Moses led out the people to the Mount? Was it not God Who came down into the Mount? Or was it, perhaps, only by a fiction or an adoption, and not by right of nature, that He, Who did all this, bore the name of God? Mark the blare of the trumpets, the flashing of the torches, the clouds of smoke, as from a furnace, rolling over the mountain, the terror of conscious impotence on the part of man in the presence of God, the confession of the people, when they prayed Moses to be their spokesman, that at the voice of God they would die. Is He, in your judgment, not true God, when simple dread lest He should speak filled Israel with the fear of death? He Whose voice could not be borne by human weakness? In your eyes is He not God, because He addressed you through the weak faculties of a man, that you might hear, and live?
Hilary of Poitiers· On the Trinity 5.23 (367), on John 5:46-47
The Reach Ledger
— John 5:46 · Luke 24:27 · Luke 24:44 — the same claim, said three times, each time wider“He wrote of me”
to the Jerusalem authorities, defending himself after healing at Bethesda
Torah
Nevi'im
Ketuvim
“beginning at Moses and all the prophets”
on the road to Emmaus, to two disciples who do not yet recognize him
Torah
Nevi'im
Ketuvim
“the Law of Moses, and the Prophets, and the Psalms”
in the upper room, on the day of his ascension
Torah
Nevi'im
Ketuvim
The seal on all three: “Scripture cannot be broken”
John 10:34-36 →The Emmaus Walk
— Luke 24:13-35 — the method in actionTwo disciples are walking from Jerusalem to the village of Emmaus, talking over everything that has just happened — Jesus crucified three days before, and now a strange report from the women that his tomb is empty. A stranger joins them on the road. It is Jesus himself, “but their eyes were holden that they should not know him” (Luke 24:16). He asks what they are discussing, and they pour out their grief and confusion: “we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel” (24:21).
Jesus’s answer is not a private word of comfort. It is a Bible study. He gently rebukes their slowness to believe, and then, Luke says, “beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” Later, days after this, he does it again for the whole group of disciples, this time naming all three divisions of the Hebrew Bible outright.
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was written in all the Scriptures about Himself.Not a single proof text — the whole span of Moses and the prophets, applied to himself.
Jesus said to them, “These are the words I spoke to you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.” Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.Law, Prophets, and Psalms named outright — the Tanakh's own three divisions, all claimed at once.
Why three names cover the whole Hebrew Biblethe Tanakh's own division
Jesus’s contemporaries organized their Scriptures into three parts: the Torah (the five books of Moses), the Nevi’im (the Prophets, both the history-telling “former prophets” and the preaching “latter prophets”), and the Ketuvim (the Writings — Psalms, Proverbs, Job, and the rest), of which the Psalms stood as the lead book and could stand for the whole group. Naming “the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms” in one breath is Jesus’s own contemporaries’ way of saying “the entire Hebrew Bible” — not one part of it.
Beginning at Moses, etc. - What a sermon this must have been, where all the prophecies relative to the incarnation, birth, teaching, miracles, sufferings, death, and resurrection of the blessed Jesus were all adduced, illustrated, and applied to himself, by an appeal to the well known facts which had taken place during his life! We are almost irresistibly impelled to exclaim, What a pity this discourse had not been preserved! No wonder their hearts burned within them, while hearing such a sermon, from such a preacher. The law and the prophets had all borne testimony, either directly or indirectly, to Christ; and we may naturally suppose that these prophecies and references were those which our Lord at this time explained and applied to himself.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), on Luke 24:27
In this discourse the Lord shows that the law was necessary to make ready the way and the ministry of the prophets to prepare people for faith in this marvelous act, so that when the resurrection really took place, those who were troubled at its greatness might remember what was said of old and be induced to believe. He brings forward, therefore, Moses and the prophets, interpreting their hidden meaning and making plain to the worthy what to the unworthy was obscure.
Cyril of Alexandria· Commentary on Luke, Chapter 24 (444), on Luke 24:27
These are the words - Or this is the fulfillment of what I before told you respecting my death. See Luk 18:33; Mar 10:33. While I was yet with you - Before my death. While I was with you as a teacher and guide. In the law of Moses - The five books of Moses - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Among the Jews this was the first division of the Old Testament, and was called the law. The prophets - This was the second and largest part of the Hebrew Scriptures. It comprehended the books of Joshua, Judges, 1st and 2nd Samuel, 1st and 2nd Kings, which were called the former prophets; and Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve smaller books from Daniel, to Malachi, which were called the latter prophets. The psalms - The word here used probably means what were comprehended under the name of Hagiographa, or holy writings. This consisted of the Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, and the two books of Chronicles. This division of the Old Testament was in use long before the time of Christ, and was what he referred to here; and he meant to say that in each of these divisions of the Old Testament there were prophecies respecting himself.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869), on Luke 24:44
Then opened he their understanding - Διηνοιξεν, He fully opened. They had a measure of light before, so that they discerned the Scriptures to be the true word of God, and to speak of the Messiah; but they had not light sufficient to enable them to apply these Scriptures to their Lord and Master; but now, by the influence of Christ, they see, not only, the prophecies which pointed out the Messiah, but also the Messiah who was pointed out by these prophecies. The book of God may be received in general as a Divine revelation, but the proper meaning, reference, and application of the Scriptures can only be discerned by the light of Christ.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), on Luke 24:45
Scripture Cannot Be Broken
— John 10:34-36At the Feast of Dedication, Jesus is accused of blasphemy for calling himself God’s Son. His defense is not a sweeping claim but a narrow, careful one: a single word, “gods,” from a single verse of a single psalm (Psalm 82:6). If Scripture can call mere men “gods” without breaking, he argues, how much more may the one the Father himself sanctified and sent call himself Son of God. The phrase he drops into the middle of that argument — “the scripture cannot be broken” — may be the single most direct sentence Jesus ever speaks about Scripture’s own authority. He does not teach it as a topic. He assumes it, the way a person assumes the ground will hold while they are busy walking on it.
Jesus replied, “Is it not written in your Law: ‘I have said you are gods’? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and the Scripture cannot be broken— then what about the One whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world? How then can you accuse Me of blasphemy for stating that I am the Son of God?One word of one psalm carries the whole weight of his argument — because, he says, Scripture cannot be broken.
The psalm he quotes is itself read two ways by careful scholars — the “gods” as human judges, or as members of a heavenly court under judgment — and the hub above names both readings honestly rather than picking one. Jesus’s own argument works either way, which is part of the point: the case he is making does not hang on settling that question. It hangs on the reliability of the word itself, down to a single term in a single psalm — the same Law, Prophets, and Psalms he claims, in Luke 24, are entirely about him.
But see what answer the Lord gave to their dull apprehension. He saw that they could not bear the brilliance of the truth, and He tempered it with words. "Is it not written in your law," that is, as given to you, "that I said, Ye are gods?" And the Lord called all the Scriptures generally, the law. "If He calleth them gods, to whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken: say ye of Him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world. Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?" If the word of God came to men, that they might be called gods, how can the very Word of God, who is with God, be otherwise than God? If by the word of God men become gods, if by fellowship they become gods, can He by whom they have fellowship not be God?
Augustine of Hippo· Tractates on John 48 (430), on John 10:34-36
Is it not written in your law - The words which our Lord quotes are taken from Psa 82:6, which shows that, under the word law, our Lord comprised the Jewish sacred writings in general.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), on John 10:34
He begins by exposing the absurdity, as well as the insolence, of such a charge as that of making himself God, though he was only a man. The law had conferred the title on holy people. The word of God, from which there is no appeal, had given its sanction to the public use of the name. What blasphemy, then, could there be in the assumption of the title of Son of God by him whom the Father had sanctified and sent into the world?… The law gives the name of gods to those who are confessedly mortals. And so, if other people may use this name without blasphemy, there can obviously be no blasphemy in its use by the man whom the Father has sanctified.
Hilary of Poitiers· On the Trinity 7.24 (367), on John 10:36
Where It Points
— the same claim, carried the rest of the way“He wrote of me” is a claim about the whole Old Testament’s subject, not one verse of it. Two places on the site carry that claim the rest of the way: how the Prophets themselves named him ahead of time, and how the Law itself pictured him before it ever named him in words.
Closing
Three times, in three settings, Jesus makes the same claim about the same book, reaching a little further each time — Moses alone, then Moses and the prophets, then the whole of it, Law and Prophets and Psalms together. And underneath all three stands the one sentence that makes the claim worth trusting in the first place: whatever this book says, on however small a point, holds. The scripture cannot be broken.