John Calvin Commentary John 7:19

"Did not Moses give you the law, and [yet] none of you doeth the law? Why seek ye to kill me?" — John 7:19 (ASV)

Did not Moses give you the Law? The Evangelist does not provide a full and connected narrative of the sermon Christ delivered, but only a brief selection of the principal topics, which contain the substance of what was spoken. The scribes mortally hated him, and the priests had been inflamed with rage against him, because he had cured a paralytic; and they professed that this arose from their zeal for the Law.

To refute their hypocrisy, he reasons, not from the subject, but from the person. Since all of them had freely indulged in their vices, as if they had never known any law, he infers from this that they are not moved by any love or zeal for the Law. True, this defense by itself would not have been sufficient to prove the point.

Granting that — under a false pretense — they concealed their wicked and unjust hatred, it still does not follow that Christ acted rightly if he did anything contrary to the command of the Law; for we must not attempt to lessen our own blame by the sins of others.

But Christ connects two lines of argument here. In the first, he addresses the consciences of his enemies. Since they proudly boasted of being defenders of the Law, he tears this mask from them, for he brings this charge against them: that they allow themselves to violate the Law as often as they please and, therefore, care nothing about the Law. Next, he comes to the main issue, as we will see later, so that the defense is satisfactory and complete in all its parts.

Consequently, the substance of this first point is that no zeal for the Law exists in those who despise it. Therefore, Christ infers that something else has provoked the Jews to such great rage that they seek to put him to death.

In this way, we should drag the wicked from their concealments whenever they fight against God and sound doctrine, and pretend to do so from pious motives.

Those who, in our own time, are the fiercest enemies of the Gospel and the most strenuous defenders of Popery, have nothing more plausible to claim in their defense than that they are motivated by fervent zeal. But if their lives are closely examined, they are all filled with base crimes and openly mock God.

Who does not know that the Pope’s court is filled with Epicureans? As for Bishops and Abbots, do they have enough modesty to conceal their baseness, so that some appearance of religion might be observed in them? Again, as for monks and other brawlers, are they not abandoned to all wickedness, to uncleanness, covetousness, and every kind of shocking crime, so that their lives cry aloud that they have completely forgotten God?

And now that they are not ashamed to boast of their zeal for God and the Church, should we not refute them with this reply of Christ?