John 5:39

You study the scriptures thoroughly ¹  because you think in them you possess eternal life, ²  and it is these same scriptures ³  that testify about me,

De 11:18-20; De 17:18,19; De 18:15,18; De 32:47; Jos 1:8; Ps 1:2; Ps 16:11; Ps 21:4; Ps 36:9; Ps 119:11,97-99; Ps 133:3; Pr 6:23; Pr 8:33,34; Isa 8:20; Isa 34:16; Jer 8:9; Da 12:2; Mt 19:16-20; Mt 22:29; Mr 12:10; Lu 10:25-29; Lu 16:29,31; Lu 24:27,44; Joh 1:45; Joh 5:32,36; Joh 5:46; Joh 7:52; Ac 8:32-35; Ac 17:11; Ac 26:22,23,27; Ro 1:2; Ro 3:2; Col 3:16; 2Ti 3:14-17; Heb 11:16,35; 1Pe 1:10,11; 2Pe 1:19-21; Re 19:10

¹ tn Or “Study the scriptures thoroughly” (an imperative). For the meaning of the verb see G. Delling, TDNT 2:655-57.

² sn In them you possess eternal life. Note the following examples from the rabbinic tractate Pirqe Avot (“The Sayings of the Fathers”): Pirqe Avot 2:8, “He who has acquired the words of the law has acquired for himself the life of the world to come”; Pirqe Avot 6:7, “Great is the law for it gives to those who practice it life in this world and in the world to come.”

³ tn The words “same scriptures” are not in the Greek text, but are supplied to clarify the referent (“these”).