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Joh_5:45-47. In concluding, Jesus sweeps away from under their feet the entire ground and foundation upon which they based their hope, by representing Moses, their supposed saviour, as really their accuser, seeing that their unbelief implied unbelief in Moses, and this latter unbelief made it impossible for them to believe in Jesus. This last completely annihilating stroke at the unbelievers is not only in itself, but also in its implied reference to the cause of the hostility of the Jews (Joh_5:15), “maxime aptus ad conclusionem,” Bengel.
μὴ δοκεῖτε ] as you might perhaps believe from my previous denunciation.
κατηγορήσω ] not of the final judgment (Ewald and early writers), where certainly Christ is Judge; but in general, Jesus, by virtue of His permanent intercourse with the Father, might at any time have accused them before Him.
ἔστιν ὁ κατηγ . ὑμ .] The emphatic ἔστιν : there exists your accuser Moses—he as the representative of the law (not of the whole of the O. T., as Ewald thinks); therefore not again the future, but the present participle used as a substantive, expressing continuous accusation.
ὑμεῖς ] has tragic emphasis.
ἠλπίκατε ] ye have set your hope, and do hope; comp. Joh_3:18, and see on 2Co_1:10. As a reward for their zeal for the law, and their obedience (Rom_2:17 ff; Rom_9:31 f.), the Jews hoped for the salvation of the Messianic kingdom, towards the attainment of which Moses was accordingly their patron and mediator.