John 7

The Unbelief of Jesus’s Brothers

¹After this, Jesus traveled in Galilee, since he did not want to travel in Judea because the Jews were trying to kill him.²³The Jewish Festival of Shelters was near.⁴⁵So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples can see your works that you are doing.⁶⁷For no one does anything in secret while he’s seeking public recognition. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.”⁸⁹(For not even his brothers believed in him.)¹⁰

¹¹Jesus told them, “My time has not yet arrived, but your time is always at hand.¹²¹³The world cannot hate you, but it does hate me because I testify about it — that its works are evil.¹⁴¹⁵Go up to the festival yourselves. I’m not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.”¹⁶¹⁷After he had said these things, he stayed in Galilee.¹⁸

Jesus at the Festival of Shelters

¹⁹After his brothers had gone up to the festival, then he also went up, not openly but secretly.²⁰²¹The Jews were looking for him at the festival and saying, “Where is he?”²²²³And there was a lot of murmuring about him among the crowds. Some were saying, “He’s a good man.” Others were saying, “No, on the contrary, he’s deceiving the people.”²⁴²⁵Still, nobody was talking publicly about him for fear of the Jews.²⁶

²⁷When the festival was already half over, Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach.²⁸²⁹Then the Jews were amazed and said, “How is this man so learned, since he hasn’t been trained?”³⁰

³¹Jesus answered them, “My teaching isn’t mine but is from the one who sent me.³²³³If anyone wants to do his will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own.³⁴³⁵The one who speaks on his own seeks his own glory; but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is true, and there is no unrighteousness in him.³⁶³⁷Didn’t Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”³⁸

³⁹“You have a demon!” the crowd responded. “Who is trying to kill you?”⁴⁰

⁴¹“I performed one work, and you are all amazed,” Jesus answered.⁴²⁴³“This is why Moses has given you circumcision — not that it comes from Moses but from the fathers — and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath.⁴⁴⁴⁵If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses won’t be broken, are you angry at me because I made a man entirely well on the Sabbath?⁴⁶⁴⁷Stop judging according to outward appearances; rather judge according to righteous judgment.”⁴⁸

The Identity of the Messiah

⁴⁹Some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill?⁵⁰⁵¹Yet, look, he’s speaking publicly and they’re saying nothing to him. Can it be true that the authorities know he is the Messiah?⁵²⁵³But we know where this man is from. When the Messiah comes, nobody will know where he is from.”⁵⁴

⁵⁵As he was teaching in the temple, 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 is true. You don’t know him;⁵⁶⁵⁷I know him because I am from him, and he sent me.”⁵⁸

⁵⁹Then they tried to seize him. Yet no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come.⁶⁰⁶¹However, many from the crowd believed in him and said, “When the Messiah comes, he won’t perform more signs than this man has done, will he?”⁶²⁶³The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things about him, and so the chief priests and the Pharisees sent servants to arrest him.⁶⁴

⁶⁵Then Jesus said, “I am only with you for a short time. Then I’m going to the one who sent me.⁶⁶⁶⁷You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”⁶⁸

⁶⁹Then the Jews 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 among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, does he?⁷⁰⁷¹What is this remark he made: ‘You will look for me, and you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come’?”⁷²

The Promise of the Spirit

⁷³On 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.⁷⁴⁷⁵The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.”⁷⁶⁷⁷He 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.⁷⁸

The People Are Divided over Jesus

⁷⁹When some from the crowd heard these words, they said, “This truly is the Prophet.”⁸⁰⁸¹Others said, “This is the Messiah.” But some said, “Surely the Messiah doesn’t come from Galilee, does he?⁸²⁸³Doesn’t the Scripture say that the Messiah comes from David’s offspring and from the town of Bethlehem, where David lived?”⁸⁴⁸⁵So the crowd was divided because of him.⁸⁶⁸⁷Some of them wanted to seize him, but no one laid hands on him.⁸⁸

Debate over Jesus’s Claims

⁸⁹Then the servants came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him?”⁹⁰

⁹¹The servants answered, “No man ever spoke like this!”⁹²

⁹³Then the Pharisees responded to them, “Are you fooled too?⁹⁴⁹⁵Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in him?⁹⁶⁹⁷But this crowd, which doesn’t know the law, is accursed.”⁹⁸

⁹⁹Nicodemus — the one who came to him previously and who was one of them — said to them,¹⁰⁰¹⁰¹“Our law doesn’t judge a man before it hears from him and knows what he’s doing, does it?”¹⁰²

¹⁰³“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.] [¹⁰⁴¹⁰⁵Then each one went to his house.¹⁰⁶