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"Moses in the law commanded us that she should be stoned; but what sayest Thou?"
(8: 5).
"Then they reviled Him, and said, Thou art his disciple, but we are Moses' disciples.
We know that God spake unto Moses; as for this fellow, we know not from whence he
is" (9: 28, 29).
Let the reader trace the story of these references. First we have the distinction "law"
and "grace", and then the finding of the Messiah, the Subject of prophecy. The very
gospel message of John 3: 16 finds its foreshadowing in the act of Moses, even as the
True Bread was typified by the Manna. So far, the references, with one exception, have
been an expansion of John 1: 17. The exception was the warning of John 5: 45, 46.
The remaining references indicate the growing opposition of the blind disciples of
Moses which culminates in chapter 9: At the close of this chapter we find much that
makes us think of John 1: 5. The darkness comprehended it not, or did not grasp, the
Light.
"And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not
might see: and that they which see may made be made blind. And some of the Pharisees
which were with Him heard these words, and said unto Him, Are we blind also? Jesus
said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see:
therefore your sin remaineth" (John 9: 39-41).
In this chapter He Who was the Word made flesh is called by His enemies "a sinner",
"a fellow", a "man not of God", but by the man born blind He is first of all called: "a
man that is called Jesus", then "a Prophet" and, at last "The Son of God" and "Lord".
Moses therefore is given his rightful place in John's Gospel. Like John the Baptist, he
was but a voice, a lamp, a lifted finger. It is Christ Who is the Word, the Light, and the
Lamb of God.
We have now stepped through this most wonderful prologue, with the exception of
verse 18, to which we must devote a separate article. We shall then be ready to listen to
the testimony given by John of those things which, if believed, give "life", and by
"abiding" in them lead to a fellowship and a glory not found in the message to the
circumcision.