Jesus now returned to develop a theme that He had introduced previously, namely the Father's testimony to the Son (vv. 19-20). Jesus proceeded to cite five witnesses to His identity, all of which came from the Father, since the Jews had questioned His authority.
5:30 This verse is transitional. It concludes Jesus' explanation of the Son's equality with the Father (vv. 19-29), and it introduces His clarification of the Father's testimony about the Son (vv. 31-47). Some translations consider it the conclusion of the preceding pericope (e.g., NIV), and others take it as the beginning of the next one (e.g., NASB).
Jesus' point was that He could not do anything independent of the Father because of His submission to Him. His judgment is the result of listening to His Father. His judgment is just because the desire for self-glory does not taint it. The Son's will is totally to advance the Father's will.
5:31-32 Jesus had said that the Son can do nothing independently of the Father (vv. 19, 30). That includes even bearing witness. Jesus did not mean that if He said anything about Himself it must be false, though apparently some of the Jews thought He meant that (cf. 8:13). He meant that the truthfulness of His claims about Himself did not rest on His own testimony exclusively. Jesus had said that He only said and did what the Father said and did. Therefore Jesus' witness about Himself must reflect the Father's witness about Him. The "another"that bore witness about Jesus was the Father. Jesus was not speaking of the Father's witness as essentially different from His own witness. He viewed His own witness as simply an extension of the Father's witness since He always faithfully represented the Father's will.232
Some students of John's Gospel have thought that Jesus contradicted what He said here in 8:14, but there He was speaking about His personal knowledge as the basis for His testimony about Himself. Here He was speaking about the Father's witness to His identity.
"The witness of the Father may not be acceptable to the Jews; it may not even be recognized by them. But it is enough for Jesus. He knows that this witness is true.' . . . It is the witness of the Father and nothing else that brings conviction to him."233
5:33 Jesus knew that His critics would not accept the Father's witness to His identity even though Jesus claimed that His words accurately represented the Father's will. He could not prove this claim to their satisfaction. Therefore He cited another human witness who testified about Jesus' identity, namely John the Baptist. John came into the world to bear witness to the light (1:7). Moreover he had borne witness about Jesus to the Jews who had come from Jerusalem to ask who He was (1:19-28). Furthermore he had identified Jesus publicly as the Lamb of God (1:29-34). John had truly testified that Jesus was the divine Messiah (cf. 1:40-41).
5:34 However, Jesus did not need and did not accept human testimony to establish His identity in His own mind. All the witness He needed was the Father's. He only mentioned John the Baptist's witness to establish His identity in His hearers' minds that they might believe on Him and obtain salvation.
5:35 Jesus again gave a brief evaluation of John the Baptist's ministry. Evidently John's public ministry had ended by this time since Jesus spoke of his witness as past. John was not the true light (Gr. phos, 1:8-9), but he was a lamp (Gr. lychnos) that bore witness (cf. Ps. 132:17; 2 Cor. 4:7). John's ministry had caused considerable messianic excitement. Unfortunately most of John's hearers only chose to follow his teaching temporarily (2:23-25). When Jesus appeared, they did not follow Him. Thus John's witness to Jesus' identity was true, but it had little continuing impact.
5:36 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. 10:25; 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 (vv. 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.
5:37-38 Another witness to Jesus' identity was the Father's witness apart from Jesus' works. The form that this witness took as Jesus thought of it is not clear. Perhaps He meant the witness that the Father had given at His baptism. However, John did not narrate that event in this Gospel, though he recorded John the Baptist's witness of it (cf. 1:32-34). Probably Jesus meant the Father's total witness to Jesus including Old Testament prophecies, prophetic events and institutions, including His witness at Jesus' baptism. He probably meant all of God's anticipatory revelation about Jesus (cf. Heb. 1:1).234Jesus probably did not mean the Father's witness through the Old Testament exclusively since He mentioned that later (v. 39). Another improbable meaning is the internal witness of the Spirit (6:45; 1 John 5:9-12). That idea seems too far removed from the present context.
In spite of the Father's witness Jesus' hearers had not heard it because of their unbelief. Unlike Moses and Jacob they had neither heard God's voice nor seen Him (Exod. 33:11; Gen. 32:30-31) even though Jesus' words were the Father's words and those who saw Jesus had virtually seen God (3:34; 14:9-10; 17:8). Furthermore God's word did not abide in them, as it had in Joshua and the psalmist (cf. Josh. 1:8-9; Ps. 119:11). Jesus was the living Word of God, and these Jews had little time for Him. The Jewish authorities had not grasped the significance of God's previous testimony concerning the Son, which Jesus summarized here as threefold evidence. Jesus may have been implying that His critics were not true Israelites. They had not done what their forefather had done even though Jesus was a clearer revelation of God than the patriarchs had.
5:39-40 Even though the Jews diligently sought God in the pages of their Scriptures they failed to recognize Jesus for who He was. The Greek verb translated "search"could be an imperative (AV) or an indicative (NASB, NIV). The context favors the indicative mood. The Jewish leaders of Jesus' day were serious students of the Old Testament, but they studied it for the wrong reason, namely to earn eternal life through their effort (cf. Rom. 7:10; Gal. 3:21).
"After the destruction of the temple of Solomon in 586 B.C., the Jewish scholars of the Exile substituted the study of the Law for the observance of the temple ritual and sacrifices. They pored over the OT, endeavoring to extract the fullest possible meaning from its words, because they believed that the very study itself would bring them life."235
The study of Scripture had become an end in itself rather than a way of getting to know God better. Their failure to recognize Jesus as the Messiah testified to their lack of perceiving the true message of Scripture (cf. 1:45; 2:22; 3:10; 5:45-46; 20:9; 2 Cor. 3:15). Life comes through Jesus, not through Bible study (vv. 21, 26; cf. 1:4; Rom. 10:4). As John the Baptist, the Old Testament pointed away from itself to Jesus.
5:41-42 Jesus did not appeal to the testimony of humans to determine His own identity (v. 35) nor did he receive the praise (Gr. doxa) of people for this purpose. Jesus' criticisms of His hearers did not arise from wounded pride. He said what He did to win the Father's praise, not man's. Jesus' critics, in contrast, behaved to receive praise from one another (cf. v. 44). Jesus knew them well, but they did not know Him. Love for God did not motivate them as it did Him.
"The Jews worked out their pattern of religion and tried to fit God into it. They did not seek first the way of God and then try to model their religious practices on it. They succumbed to the perennial temptation of religious people."236
5:43 These critics failed to come to Jesus for life (v. 40) also because they refused to acknowledge that He had come from the Father. In rejecting Jesus they had rejected the Father's ambassador who had come in His name and, therefore, the Father Himself. If they had known and loved the Father, they would have recognized Jesus' similarity to the Father. Having rejected the true Messiah the religious leaders would follow false messiahs. Rejection of what is true always makes one susceptible to counterfeits (cf. Luke 23:18-23).
5:44 Jesus' critics could not believe on Him because they preferred the praise of men to the praise of God. They consistently chose what was popular over what was true. In contrast, Jesus lived solely for God's glory and did not pander to the praise of people (cf. Rom. 2:29).
5:45-46 These critics' most severe indictment would not come from Jesus but from Moses whom they so strongly professed to follow but did not. Moses never taught that the Law was an end in itself. He pointed the people to the coming Prophet and urged them to listen to Him (Deut. 18:15-19). They had refused to do this. Moreover these Jews had broken the law that Moses had urged them to follow. Furthermore Jesus' primary function was to save, not to judge (3:17). The Jews typically hoped that they could earn salvation by keeping the Law and believed that their relationship to it as Jews gave them a special advantage with God. They had set their hope on Moses in that respect. They foolishly hoped in Moses rather than in the One to whom Moses pointed. If they had paid attention to Moses, they would have felt conviction for their sin and would have been eager to receive the Savior. If they had really believed Moses, they would also have believed Jesus.
5:47 Jesus' critics did not believe Moses' writings or they would have accepted Jesus. Since they rejected Moses' writings it was natural that they would reject Jesus' words. Both men spoke the words of God who was their authority. The Jews rejection of Moses' writings was essentially a rejection of God's Word.
This discourse constituted a condemnation of Jesus' critics and an invitation to believe on Him. Jesus cited much testimony that God the Father had given that identified Jesus as the divine Messiah. These witnesses were, beside God the Father, John the Baptist, all of Jesus' works, all that the Father had previously revealed that pointed to Jesus, the Old Testament, and specifically the witness of Moses in the Torah (Pentateuch).
