Search the scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
All Commentaries on John 5:39 Go To John 5
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Search (scrutamini) the Scriptures, &c. The word for Search in Greek, as well as Latin, may be taken either in the indicative, or the imperative mood. Cyril takes it in the indicative: "Ye, 0 ye scribes, assiduously turn and search the Scriptures which bear testimony concerning Me, but ye do not care to understand them, because ye will not come unto Me." But SS. Augustine and Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euthymius, and others, take it in the imperative: "Search ye the Scriptures, and in them ye will find God the Father bearing witness to Me."
Moreover, by the word Search, Christ, says S. Chrysostom, pressed upon the Jews not merely the bare reading of the Scriptures, but a thorough and diligent examination of them. He did not say, Read the Scriptures, but Search them. Dig out the hidden treasures which they contain concerning Me and Divine things, just as those who search for veins of gold and silver dig in the earth to find them. Thus the Berans to whom Paul preached (Acts xvii.) searched the Scriptures, with a sincere desire to know nothing but the truth. Therefore in the Scriptures they found Christ whom Paul preached to them.
Because in them, i.e, in understanding and believing them, ye think, &c. Because if any one believes and does what the Scriptures bid him, he will attain eternal life. From this it is plain that most of the Jews, and especially the Pharisees, believed in the immortality of the soul, and in an existence after death, in which God would give eternal life to the just, and death eternal to the unjust.
And (Vulg.), i.e, because, for the Hebrew vau, or and, often has a causative force, meaning because, for Christ now gives the reason why He said, Search the Scriptures: because they are they which testify of Me. Many parts do this literally, many more in an allegorical and mystical sense. For "Christ is the end of the Law" (Rom. x4). And as S. Peter says, "To Him give all the prophets witness, that all who believe in Him should receive remission of sins through His name." Let therefore the reader of Holy Scripture, but especially interpreters, doctors, and preachers search the Scriptures, and they will find Christ in them all, either openly revealed, or else veiled in shadows and figures.
