John 5:45

Even Moses. For the Jews the Law of Moses was the basis of religion, and indeed, of life as a whole. Now Jesus points His hearers to the startling fact that if they had rightly understood that Law, they would have seen Him revealed in it. Thus they stood condemned by their greatest prophet.

In a manuscript of an apocryphal gospel from the 2d century A.D., a passage appears much like this verse. It reads: “Do not think that I come to accuse you before my Father; your accuser is Moses, in whom you have put your hope” (Egerton Papyrus 2 [see on John 5:39], lines 10-14). For the significance of this and other passages from this document that parallel John see on v. 39.

Trust. Gr. elpizo, “to hope.” The Jews placed their hope for eternal life in a conformity to the Law of Moses as traditionally interpreted (see on v. 39).