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Joh 5:39. Ἐρυνᾶτε, ye search) Hafenreffer, in his edition of the New Testament, Greek and Latin, translates, Ye inquire into [inquiritis] the Scriptures. He thereby has guarded against any one understanding search into [scrutamini] as an Imperative. Of the ancients, Athanasius also recognises it as an Indicative, Profecti in pagum, T. i., f. 989: and Nonnus. For which reason Cyril need not have been afraid of being left alone in giving, or being about to give, that explanation. Brentius says, that there are interpreters of great judgment, who decide for the Indicative: and the whole structure of the discourse certainly confirms it: comp. Joh 5:33, etc., and especially that clause, because ye think. Jesus approves of their search into the Scriptures, which they were not wanting in, inasmuch as at that very feast they read much of them in public; just as He approves of the embassy to John, Joh 5:33, and their high estimation of Moses, Joh 5:45; but He adds, that none of these are enough by themselves. Wherefore this explanation is attended with no loss to the sense: and they are usually, to say the least, equally diligent searchers of the Scriptures, who decide on the Indicative (which very lately has been adopted by Zeltner and Walchius), as those who decide on the Imperative. This clause, Ye search and ye will not come, Paul has rendered by synonymous expressions, 2Co 3:15-16, “Even to this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.” Some one has demanded, that similar instances of the second person plural indicative, closing a period, should be brought forward. See therefore ch. Joh 7:28, κἀμὲ οἴδατε, καὶ οἴδατε πόθεν εἰμί; Joh 12:19; Mat 22:29; Mat 24:6; Mat 27:65; 2Co 8:9; Jam 4:2-3. On the other hand, the imperative occurs with ὑμεῖς, ye, Mat 28:5, μὴ φοβεῖσθε ὑμεῖς; Mar 13:23. The imperative, Search ye, “Seek ye out of the book of the Lord and read,” Isa 34:16. The hearers of Jesus Christ (though they had not heard the testimony even of John, who was greater than the prophet, and though they had not read the Scriptures) might at that time have derived faith from the words alone of Jesus Christ.-τὰς γραφάς, the Scriptures) of Moses, Joh 5:46, “He wrote of Me;” and of the prophets.-ὑμεῖς, ye) This is joined rather with the word think than with search, and contains the proof, and is put as it were by Anaphora [repetition of the same word in the beginnings of clauses]: comp. the notes, Joh 5:33. So also ye, Joh 5:45, “Moses, in whom ye trust.”-δοκεῖτε ἔχειν, ye appear to have) In antithesis to ἵνα ἔχητε, that you may really have, Joh 5:40, “Ye will not come to Me, that ye may have life.” Akin to this is that clause, Joh 5:45, Ye have placed your trust in Moses.-ἐν αὐταῖς, in them) By the mere fact alone, that you search them, ye think that you have life.-ζωήν, life) Why dost thou deny, O Socinian, that there was known to the ancients the hope of eternal life?-καὶ ἐκεῖναι-καὶ οὐ θέλετε, and those-and ye will not) A double Epicrisis [an enunciation added to a sentence, to make the subject in hand the more clear]: the one, καὶ ἐκεῖναι εἰσιν αἱ μαρτυροῦσαι περὶ ἐμοῦ, approves of the search and trust of the Jews; the other, καὶ οὐ θέλετε ἐλθεῖν πρός με, etc., shows their defect. Ἐκεῖναι, those, subjoined to the αὐταῖς, in them, has in some measure the force of removing to a distance. Life is to be had more nigh at hand in Christ than in the Scriptures.