John 7

The Unbelief of Jesus’s Brothers

1After this, Jesus traveled in Galilee,#Mt 17:22 since he did not want to travel in Judea#Lk 1:5 because the Jews#Jn 11:36 were trying to kill him.#Jn 5:18 2The Jewish Festival of Shelters#7:2 Or Tabernacles, or Booths#Ex 23:16 was near. 3So his brothers#Mk 3:21,31–35; 6:3; Lk 8:19 said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples can see your works#Mk 6:28; Jn 5:36; Heb 3:9; Rv 15:3 that you are doing. 4For no one does anything in secret while he’s seeking public recognition. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” 5(For not even his brothers believed in him.)

6Jesus told them, “My time#Ps 37:39; Lk 20:10; Jn 7:8 has not yet arrived, but your time is always at hand. 7The world cannot hate#Lk 6:27; 19:14 you, but it does hate me because I testify about it — that its works are evil. 8Go up to the festival yourselves. I’m not going up to this festival,#7:8 Other mss add yet because my time has not yet fully come.” 9After he had said these things, he stayed in Galilee.

Jesus at the Festival of Shelters

10After his brothers had gone up to the festival, then he also went up, not openly but secretly. 11The Jews were looking for him at the festival and saying, “Where is he?” 12And there was a lot of murmuring about him among the crowds. Some were saying, “He’s a good#Gn 1:31 man.” Others were saying, “No, on the contrary, he’s deceiving#Rv 20:10 the people.” 13Still, nobody was talking publicly about him for fear of the Jews.

14When the festival was already half over, Jesus went up into the temple#Ac 21:26 and began to teach. 15Then the Jews were amazed and said, “How is this man so learned,#Mt 26:54 since he hasn’t been trained?”

16Jesus answered them, “My teaching isn’t mine but is from the one who sent me.#Jn 5:19,30 17If anyone wants to do his will,#Rm 8:27; Eph 1:9 he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own. 18The one who speaks on his own seeks his own glory;#Php 3:19 but he who seeks the glory#Lk 9:32; Jn 17:24; 2Co 3:18; 1Pt 5:4; 2Pt 3:18 of the one who sent him is true,#Jn 8:14; 1Jn 5:20 and there is no unrighteousness in him.#1Jn 3:5 19Didn’t Moses#Ps 77:20; Mt 8:4; Heb 3:2 give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law.#Rm 2:12–29; 3:9–10,20–23,27–28 Why are you trying to kill me?”

20“You have a demon!” the crowd responded. “Who is trying to kill you?”

21 “I performed one work, # Jn 5:36; Heb 3:9; Rv 15:3 and you are all amazed,” Jesus answered. 22“This is why Moses has given you circumcision#Ac 15:1; Gl 6:15 — not that it comes from Moses but from the fathers#Gn 17:9–14; Lv 12:3 — and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath.#Mk 2:23 23If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath#Lk 13:10 so that the law of Moses#Lk 2:22 won’t be broken, are you angry at me because I made a man entirely well on the Sabbath? 24Stop judging#Lk 6:37; Heb 9:27 according to outward appearances; rather judge according to righteous judgment.”

The Identity of the Messiah

25Some of the people of Jerusalem#Mt 23:37 were saying, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? 26Yet, look, he’s speaking publicly and they’re saying nothing to him. Can it be true that the authorities#Lk 8:41; 12:58 know he is the Messiah?#Mt 1:17; Eph 5:2 27But we know where this man is from.#Mt 13:55; 21:11; Lk 4:22; Jn 6:42 When the Messiah comes, nobody will know where he is from.”

28As he was teaching in the temple,#Ac 21:26 Jesus cried out, “You know me and you know where I am from. Yet I have not come on my own, but the one who sent me#Jn 5:19 is true. You don’t know him;#Jn 1:26–33; 5:13; 8:14,19,55; 9:29–30; 12:35; 13:7; 14:5; 15:15,21; 20:14; Gl 4:8; 1Th 4:5; 2Th 1:8; Ti 1:16 29I know him because I am from him, and he sent me.”#Mk 9:37; Lk 10:22; Jn 1:6; 9:16

30Then they tried to seize him. Yet no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. 31However, many from the crowd believed in him and said, “When the Messiah comes, he won’t perform more signs than this man has done,#Jn 15:24 will he?” 32The Pharisees#Mk 7:3 heard the crowd murmuring these things about him, and so the chief priests#Mt 2:4 and the Pharisees sent servants#7:32 Or temple police, or officers, also in vv. 45,46 to arrest him.

33Then Jesus said, “I am only with you for a short time.#Jn 12:35; 14:19; 16:5,16 Then I’m going to the one who sent me.#Jn 14:12; 16:5,10,17,28 34You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”#Jn 8:21; 13:33

35Then the Jews#Jn 11:36 said to one another, “Where does he intend to go that we won’t find him? He doesn’t intend to go to the Jewish people dispersed#7:35 Gk diaspora; Jewish people scattered throughout Gentile lands#Jms 1:1; 1Pt 1:1 among the Greeks#Gl 2:3 and teach the Greeks, does he? 36What is this remark he made: ‘You will look for me, and you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come’#Jn 8:21?”

The Promise of the Spirit

37On the last and most important day of the festival,#Lv 23:34–36; Nm 29:35; Dt 16:13–14; Neh 8:18; Jn 5:1 Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me#7:37 Other mss omit to me#Lk 14:26 and drink.#Is 55:1; Rv 22:17 38The one who believes in me, #Jn 6:35 as the Scripture#Mt 26:54 has said, will have streams of living water#Jn 4:10–14 flow#Ex 17:1–6; Ps 78:15–16; 105:40–41; Pr 18:4; Is 12:3; Ezk 47:1–11; Zch 14:8; Rv 22:1–2 from deep within him.” 39He said this about the Spirit.#Ps 51:11; Jn 1:33; Ac 2:4; 8:15; Rm 8:9; Gl 5:25; Ti 3:5; Rv 3:22 Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit,#Ac 2:33 for the Spirit#7:39 Other mss read Holy Spirit had not yet been given#7:39 Lit the Spirit was not yet because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

The People Are Divided over Jesus

40When some from the crowd heard these words, they said, “This truly is the Prophet.”#Jn 6:14 41Others said, “This is the Messiah.” But some said, “Surely the Messiah doesn’t come from Galilee, does he? 42Doesn’t the Scripture#2Pt 1:20 say that the Messiah comes from David’s#Lk 1:27 offspring#7:42 Lit seed and from the town of Bethlehem,#Gn 35:19 where David lived?” 43So the crowd was divided#Jn 9:16; 1Co 1:10 because of him. 44Some of them wanted to seize him,#Jn 10:39 but no one laid hands on him.

Debate over Jesus’s Claims

45Then the servants#Jn 18:18 came to the chief priests#Mt 2:4 and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him?”

46The servants answered, “No man ever spoke like this!” #7:46 Other mss read like this man#Mt 7:28–29

47Then the Pharisees responded to them, “Are you fooled#Rv 20:10 too? 48Have any of the rulers#Lk 8:41 or Pharisees believed in him? 49But this crowd, which doesn’t know the law, is accursed.”

50Nicodemus#Jn 3:1; 19:39 — the one who came to him previously and who was one of them — said to them, 51“Our law doesn’t judge a man before it hears from him and knows what he’s doing, does it?” #Dt 1:16; 17:6; 19:15

52“You aren’t from Galilee#Mt 17:22 too, are you?” they replied. “Investigate and you will see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”#2Kg 14:25

[The earliest mss do not include 7:53–8:11.]

[ 53Then each one went to his house.#7:53–8:11 Other mss include all or some of the passage after Jn 7:36,44,52; 21:25; or Lk 21:38.

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John 7: CSB

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