Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 John 2:14 I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are s…
Deuteronomy 6:6-9 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
John 12:44-48 Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me.
Proverbs 7:1-2 My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.
Isaiah 53:1-3 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
James 1:21-22 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your…
Joshua 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do accord…
Proverbs 2:1-2 My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on John 5:31–end
In these verses our Lord Jesus proves and confirms the commission he had produced, and makes it out that he was sent of God to be the Messiah.
I. He sets aside his own testimony of himself (Joh 5:31): "If I bear witness of myself, though it is infallibly true (Joh 8:14), yet, according to the common rule of judgment among men, you will not admit it as legal proof, nor allow it to be given in evidence." Now, 1. This reflects reproach upon the sons of men, and their veracity and integrity. Surely we may say deliberately, what David said in haste, All men are liars, else it would never have been such a received maxim that a man's testimony of himself is suspicious, and not to be relied on; it i…
not his word abiding in you--passing now from the Witness to the testimony borne by Him in "the lively oracles" (Act 7:38): both were alike strangers to their breasts, as was evidenced by their rejecting Him to whom all that witness was borne.
Adam Clarke on John 5:38
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, (Psa 119:11), have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. This, these Jews had not done. Reader, hast thou?
John Gill on John 5:38
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…
The Church Fathers
For it is not by the carnal ear, but by the spiritual understanding, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, that God is heard. And they did not hear the spiritual voice, because they did not love or obey Him, nor saw they His shape; inasmuch as that is not to be seen by the outward eye, but by faith and love.
"But why," He saith, "name I these things? Not only have ye 'neither heard His voice nor seen His shape,' but it is not even in your power to assert that of which you most boast and of which you are all most fully assured, namely, that ye have received and keep His commandments." Wherefore He addeth, "And ye have not His word abiding in you." That is, the ordinances, the commandments, the Law, and the Prophets. For even if God ordained these, still they are not with you, since ye believe not on Me. Because, if the Scriptures everywhere say that it is necessary to give heed to Me, and yet ye believe not, it is quite clear that His word is removed from you. Wherefore again He addeth, "For whom He hath sent, Him ye believe not."
It is most appropriate that he joins the "Word" to the "form" here to show that the Word of God is himself the image and expression and form of his Father. The Jews who did not receive the one who spoke to them thus did not receive the Word, which is the form of God. This too was who the patriarch Jacob saw when he received a blessing from him and the name of Israel instead of Jacob. … And this is he who said, "He who has seen me has seen the Father," and "I in the Father and the Father in me" and "I and the Father are one." For in this way God is one and so is the faith in the Father and the Son. For even though the Word is God, the Lord our God is one Lord.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Unbelief · 5:12-14; — 5:12-14;
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John 5:37-40
37. And the Father who hath sent me, himself hath testified concerning me; you have never heard his voice, or seen his shape. 38. And you have not his word abiding in you; for whom he hath sent, him you believe not. 39. Search the Scriptures; for you think that you have eternal life in them: and they are they which testify concerning me. 40. And you will not come to me, that you may have life.
37. And the Father who hath sent me. To limit this statement, as some have done, [108] to the voice which was heard at his baptism, (Matthew 3:17,) is a mistake; for he says in the past tense, that the Father (memartureke) testified, in order to show that he did not come forward as an un…
