John 7:19 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Did not Moses give you the law,— There is a remarkable beauty in this sudden turn of the sentiment. Some of the Jews called Jesus a false prophet, because he had healed the paralytic at Bethesda on the sabbath-day, see John 7:21 pretending that it was a gross violation of the law of Moses, which no good man, much less a prophet, would be guilty of. In answer to these evil surmises, he told them plainly, that, however much they pretended to reverence the authority of Moses in the law, they made no scruple to violate the most sacred of his precepts. They had formed a resolution of murdering him, directlycontrary to every law of God and man; and for the same end were laying secret plots against his life. This reproof came in with singular propriety and force immediately after Jesus had proved his divine commission by the most convincing arguments.