John 7:19

Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(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.

Benson Commentary

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.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

19, 20. Did not Moses, &c.—that is, In opposing Me ye pretend zeal for Moses, but to the spirit and end of that law which he gave ye are total strangers, and in "going about to kill Me" ye are its greatest enemies.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

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.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Did not Moses give you the law,.... After Christ had vindicated himself and his doctrine, he proceeds to reprove the Jews for their breaking the law, which contained the will of God: by which it appeared, that they were no proper judges of his doctrine, though they cavilled at it: the question he puts could not be denied by them; for though, properly speaking, God was the lawgiver, yet inasmuch as it was delivered by Moses, it is ascribed to him, and said to come by him; and it was put into his hands, to be delivered by him, peculiarly to the people of Israel; and being given to the Jewish fathers, not only for themselves, but for their posterity in ages to come, is said to be given to the then present generation; and may be understood, either of the whole system of laws, moral, ceremonial, and, judicial, belonging to that people; or else of the particular law, concerning the keeping of the sabbath, which was a peculiar law of Moses, and proper to the children of Israel only:

and yet none of you keepeth the law; though they boasted of it as a singular privilege, and rested in it, and their obedience to it for life and salvation, yet daily broke it in various instances, in thought, word, or deed; yea, those that sat in Moses's chair, and taught it, did not observe and do what they taught; nor could the most holy and righteous man among them perfectly keep it: and many of them, who were most forward to censure others, for the violation of it, paid the least regard to it; and particularly to the law of the sabbath, which both priests and people transgressed, in one point or another, every sabbath day: wherefore our Lord reasons with them,

why go ye about to kill me? an harmless and innocent man, who never injured you in your persons and properties; and which is a proof of their not keeping that body of laws Moses gave them, since "thou shalt not kill" is one of them: though rather this may refer to the law of the sabbath, and the sense he, that since Moses had given them the law of the sabbath, and they did not keep it themselves, why should they seek to take away his life, for what they pretended was a breach of it? for our Lord here, as appears by what follows, refers to what they sought to do, above a year and a half ago, and still continued to seek after; namely, to kill him, because he had healed a man on the sabbath day, John 5:16.

Geneva Study Bible

{7} Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me?

(7) None boast more confidently that they themselves are the defenders of the law of God than they that break it most impudently.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

John 7:19. There is no ground for supposing that some unrecorded words on the part of the Jews (Kuinoel and many others), or some act (Olshausen), intervened between John 7:18-19. The chain of thought is this: Jesus in John 7:16-18 completely answered the question of the Jews, John 7:15. But now He Himself assumes the offensive, putting before them the real and malicious ground of all their assaults and oppression, namely, their purpose to bring about His death; and He shows them how utterly unjustifiable, on their part, this purpose is.

The note of interrogation ought to be placed (so also Lachm. Tisch.) after the first τὸν νόμον; and then the declaration of their contradictory behaviour is emphatically introduced by the simple καὶ. In like manner John 6:70.

οὐ Μωϋσῆς, κ.τ.λ.] The emphasis is upon Μωϋσ. as the great and highly esteemed authority, which had so strong a claim on their obedience.

τὸν νόμον] without limitation; therefore neither the commandment forbidding murder merely (Nonnus, Storr, Paulus), nor that against Sabbath-breaking simply (Kuinoel, Klee. So once Luther also, but in his Commentary he refers to Romans 8 : “what the law could not do,” etc., which, indeed, has no bearing here), which, according to Godet, Jesus is said to have already in view.

καὶ οὐδεὶς ὑμ. ποιεῖ τ. νόμον] so that you, all of yon, are liable to the condemnation of the law; and instead of seeking to destroy me as a law-breaker, you must confess yourselves to be guilty.

τί] why? i.e. with what right? The emphasis cannot be upon the enclitic με (against Godet).

Expositor's Greek Testament

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?

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

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.’

Bengel's Gnomen

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. And day by day, from the first day to the last day, he read in the book of the law of God. And they kept the feast seven days: and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly according unto the manner.—E. and T.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 19. - Jesus was not unaware that serious charges were brought against his interpretation of the sabbatic law; that the Jews sought to kill him for his identification of his own mind and working with the Father's mind and working. On this account for a considerable time he had confined his ministry to Galilee. The old story of the sabbath healing was now rife once more, doubtless augmented with the rumors of the healing of the man with the withered hand, and other actions profoundly in harmony with the deep meaning of the sabbath rest. To the mind of the fourth evangelist; the explanation given by Christ to the authorities in Jerusalem was of prime significance in the whole sabbatic controversy; and he has recorded the defence Jesus made of his doctrine which placed him at once on the platform of the men with whom he was now beginning a life-and-death conflict. He used their methods, and, so far as the adequate grounds of connection were concerned, he was triumphant, Did not Moses give you the Law? - the whole revealed Law of God concerning moral conduct and daily ritual, a violation of the real spirit of which would be ἀδικία, and of which you accuse me - and (yet) none of you doeth the Law? Does he here call attention to the universal disobedience of mankind? Is he forestalling the declaration that "all have sinned, and come short;" that "in many things all offend"? Certainly not. He is about to show at greater length that the charge of ἀδικία stands equally against the justifiable transposition of the letter of the lower law by the incidence of a higher law. They must all know the innumerable occasions in which the letter of the law of the sabbath gave way to the law of mercy, to the law of hunger, to the exigencies of the temple services. "None of you doeth the Law," i.e. in the sense in which you are (from other motives) expecting me to do it. He said enough to strike their consciences and charge home their cherished if secret purpose. Why do ye seek to kill me? With what right, since this is the case, do ye vent your malice against me? Meyer and Godet here differ as to the emphasis laid upon the "me." The position of the enclitic με before ζητεῖτε gives it a prominence not to be overlooked. The interpretation of many - that the intention or desire to kill Jesus is the inward proof that the conscience of the Jews would admit that they were not keeping the Law which said, "Thou shalt not kill" - is very far-fetched, and weak in its force, although, according to the entire old covenant, there was much killing which was not murder. Such a reference would not correspond with the profoundly Hebrew response made by our Lord. Calvin here makes this reply of Christ a text on which to denounce, in his own day, the corruption of the papal court. John 7:19

Vincent's Word Studies

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.