Moses gave you the Law, didn’t he? is stated in such a way as to expect a positive answer. In languages in which a rhetorical question may be misleading (especially when there is no immediate answer), a strong declarative statement may be used, for example, “Moses certainly gave you the Law” or “You will all agree, Moses gave you the Law.”

Obeys the Law is literally “keeps the Law,” a frequent Semitic expression. Moffatt translates “none of you honestly obeys the Law”; New English Bible “you all break it.” Obeys the Law may be expressed as “does what the Law says” or “lives as the Law commands you” or “follows the laws in what you do.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .