John 7:37-52

On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.” He said this about the Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit, for the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified. When some from the crowd heard these words, they said, “This truly is the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Messiah.” But some said, “Surely the Messiah doesn’t come from Galilee, does he? Doesn’t the Scripture say that the Messiah comes from David’s offspring and from the town of Bethlehem, where David lived?” So the crowd was divided because of him. Some of them wanted to seize him, but no one laid hands on him. Then the servants came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him?” The servants answered, “No man ever spoke like this!” Then the Pharisees responded to them, “Are you fooled too? Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, which doesn’t know the law, is accursed.” Nicodemus  — the one who came to him previously and who was one of them — said to them, “Our law doesn’t judge a man before it hears from him and knows what he’s doing, does it?” “You aren’t from Galilee too, are you?” they replied. “Investigate and you will see that no prophet arises from Galilee.” [The earliest mss do not include 7:53–8:11.] [