For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me.
Parallel translations
- WEB For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote about me.
- KJV For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.
- BSB If you had believed Moses, you would believe Me, because he wrote about Me.
- NKJV For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me.
- NLT If you really believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
If they truly believed Moses, they would believe Jesus, for Moses wrote about him. The writings of Moses point to Christ.
Overview
Jesus declares that Moses wrote concerning him, so genuine faith in Moses would lead to faith in Jesus. This affirms that the law and the Pentateuch testify to the coming Messiah. It underscores the unity of Scripture, all of it bearing witness to Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 20
- Deut 18:15Yahweh your God will raise up to you a prophet from among you, of your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him.
- Deut 18:18–19I will raise them up a prophet from among their brothers, like you. I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him.
- John 1:45Philip found Nathanael, and said to him, “We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, wrote: Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
- Luke 24:27Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
- Num 24:17–18I see him, but not now. I see him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob. A scepter will rise out of Israel, and shall strike through the corners of Moab, and break down all the sons of Sheth.
- Acts 26:22Having therefore obtained the help that is from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would happen,
- Gen 49:10The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs. To him will the obedience of the peoples be.
- Gen 22:18All the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring, because you have obeyed my voice.”
- Num 21:8–9Yahweh said to Moses, “Make a venomous snake, and set it on a pole. It shall happen, that everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”
- Gen 12:3I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”
- Gen 3:15I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.”
- Heb 7:1–10For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of God Most High, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,
- Gen 18:18since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him?
- Gal 4:21–31Tell me, you that desire to be under the law, don’t you listen to the law?
- Gal 3:24So that the law has become our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
- Gen 28:14Your offspring will be as the dust of the earth, and you will spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south. In you and in your offspring will all the families of the earth be blessed.
- Rom 10:4For Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
- Gal 3:13Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,”
- Gal 3:10For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t continue in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them.”
- Gal 2:19For I, through the law, died to the law, that I might live to God.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
John declares him plainly: the eternal Word made flesh, the Lamb of God, the great 'I AM' — bread, light, door, shepherd, way, truth, life, resurrection — that you may believe and have life in his name.
How John 5:46 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.