"You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and these are they which testify about me.
The study of Scripture had become an end in itself rather than a way of getting to know God better. Their failure to recognize Jesus as the Messiah testified to their lack of perceiving the true message of Scripture (cf. John 1:45; John 2:22; John 3:10; John 5:45-46; John 20:9; 2 Corinthians 3:15). Life comes through Jesus, not through Bible study (John 5:21; John 5:26; cf. John 1:4; Romans 10:4), even though it is through Bible study that one comes to know Jesus. As John the Baptist, the Old Testament pointed away from itself to Jesus.