The Jewish rulers in the days of Jesus made their boast of Moses. That Moses against whom their fathers so often rebelled, had been exalted to the place of Deity. Professor Graetz says of this, in his History of the Jews:
His memory and name were endeared to all the Judeans within and beyond Palestine. They took oaths in the name of Moses, and bestowed that name on no other man. They carried their devotion to such an extreme that he who spoke against the name of Moses was treated as one who blasphemed God.
Yet Jesus said to these men: "There is one that accuses you, even Moses, in whom you trust. For had you believed Moses, you would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if you believe not his writings, how shall you believe my words?" (John 5:45-47)
They did not believe the very writings that they counted it blasphemy to speak against. Jesus showed that their profession of regard for Moses and also, on another occasion, for the prophets, was but a theological formula. Because they did not believe the Scriptures which they read through the traditions of the schools, they fulfilled them in condemning Christ.
There is a lesson in this for us. Not a theoretical belief that the Bible is from God, but a yielding of the heart and life to it is the essential thing. Multitudes, called Evangelical, are ready to fight higher critics for the inspiration of the Bible who nevertheless will not receive it, as God's voice, meaning just what He says, when the voice calls for practical reform in the life.
The Bible is talked of in all Christendom, but yet Christendom is swiftly running on in the very course of apostasy that the Bible marks out and warns against.--Present Truth, September 2, 1897--Timeline: III-10 (Rejection by the Sanhedrin)--John 5:45-47.