For had ye believed Moses. — The present incredulity springs from that of the past. If they had really believed Moses, they would have seen in the whole spirit of the Pentateuch a manifestation of God, which would have led them to the fuller manifestation in Christ. Worship, and sacrifice, and offering, and priesthood, were all meant to teach. Their very name for “law” (Thorah) meant “instruction.” But they accepted what the senses could know, and never went down beneath this surface to its true significance — i.e., they never believed Moses. We have here, in another form, the thought of John 5:39-40.
For he wrote of me. — See the marginal references; but the thought is not to be confined to these passages.