John 7
Berean Standard Bible · Compare translations · AD 29 · Life of Jesus · Tap a verse to copy, share or highlight ·
53 verses · 994 words · ~5 min read · ~7 min listen
Jesus Teaches at the Feast
1After this, Jesus traveled throughout Galilee. He did not want to travel in Judea, because the Jews there were trying to kill Him. 2However, the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near. 3So Jesusʼ brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go to Judea, so that Your disciples there may see the works You are doing. 4For no one who wants to be known publicly acts in secret. Since You are doing these things, show Yourself to the world.” 5For even His own brothers did not believe in Him.
6Therefore Jesus told them, “Although your time is always at hand, My time has not yet come. 7The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me, because I testify that its works are evil. 8Go up to the feast on your own. I am not going up to this feast, because My time has not yet come.”
9Having said this, Jesus remained in Galilee. 10But after His brothers had gone up to the feast, He also went—not publicly, but in secret.
11So the Jews were looking for Him at the feast and asking, “Where is He?”
12Many in the crowds were whispering about Him. Some said, “He is a good man.”
But others replied, “No, He deceives the people.”
13Yet no one would speak publicly about Him for fear of the Jews.
14About halfway through the feast, Jesus went up to the temple courts and began to teach. 15The Jews were amazed and asked, “How did this man attain such learning without having studied?”
16“My teaching is not My own,” Jesus replied. “It comes from Him who sent Me. 17If anyone desires to do His will, he will know whether My teaching is from God or whether I speak on My own. 18He who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is a man of truth; in Him there is no falsehood. 19Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps it. Why are you trying to kill Me?”
20“You have a demon,” the crowd replied. “Who is trying to kill You?”
21Jesus answered them, “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed. 22But because Moses gave you circumcision, you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath (not that it is from Moses, but from the patriarchs.) 23If a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses will not be broken, why are you angry with Me for making the whole man well on the Sabbath? 24Stop judging by outward appearances, and start judging justly.”
Is Jesus the Christ?
25Then some of the people of Jerusalem began to say, “Isnʼt this the man they are trying to kill? 26Yet here He is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying anything to Him. Have the rulers truly recognized that this is the Christ? 27But we know where this man is from. When the Christ comes, no one will know where He is from.”
28Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “You know Me, and you know where I am from. I have not come of My own accord, but He who sent Me is true. You do not know Him, 29but I know Him, because I am from Him and He sent Me.”
30So they tried to seize Him, but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come. 31Many in the crowd, however, believed in Him and said, “When the Christ comes, will He perform more signs than this man?”
32When the Pharisees heard the crowd whispering these things about Jesus, they and the chief priests sent officers to arrest Him. 33So Jesus said, “I am with you only a little while longer, and then I am going to the One who sent Me. 34You will look for Me, but you will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.”
35At this, the Jews said to one another, “Where does He intend to go that we will not find Him? Will He go where the Jews are dispersed among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? 36What does He mean by saying, ‘You will look for Me, but you will not find Me,’ and, ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”
Living Water
37On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and called out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. 38Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said: ‘Streams of living water will flow from within him.’” 39He was speaking about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. For the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
Division over Jesus
40On hearing these words, some of the people said, “This is truly the Prophet.”
41Others declared, “This is the Christ.”
But still others asked, “How can the Christ come from Galilee? 42Doesnʼt the Scripture say that the Christ will come from the line of David and from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?”
43So there was division in the crowd because of Jesus. 44Some of them wanted to seize Him, but no one laid a hand on Him.
The Unbelief of the Jewish Leaders
45Then the officers returned to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didnʼt you bring Him in?”
46“Never has anyone spoken like this man!” the officers answered.
47“Have you also been deceived?” replied the Pharisees. 48“Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in Him? 49But this crowd that does not know the law, they are under a curse.”
50Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who himself was one of them, asked, 51“Does our law convict a man without first hearing from him to determine what he has done?”
52“Arenʼt you also from Galilee?” they replied. “Look into it, and you will see that no prophet comes out of Galilee.”
53Then each went to his own home.
Footnotes (7)
- a v2 That is, Sukkot, the autumn feast of pilgrimage to Jerusalem; also translated as the Feast of Booths or the Feast of Shelters and originally called the Feast of Ingathering (see Exodus 23:16and Exodus 34:22).
- b v8 NE, WH, BYZ, and TR I am not yet
- c v14 Literally the temple; also in verse 28
- d v35 Literally Will He go to the Diaspora among the Greeks; the Jewish people living outside the land of Israel since the Babylonian exile were referred to as the Diaspora.
- e v39 Literally the Spirit was not yet; BYZ and TR the Holy Spirit was not yet
- f v42 See Micah 5:2.
- g v52 Some early manuscripts do not include John 7:53through John 8:11.
Study notes on this chapter · 3
Rivers of living water
At the Feast of Tabernacles Jesus cries out that whoever believes in him will have rivers of living water flowing from within, 'as Scripture has said'. No verse says exactly this, and John explains it as the Spirit to be given after Jesus was glorified. Which passage he has in mind is disputed, as is whose heart the water flows from.
When: Jesus at the Feast of Tabernacles, c. AD 29; the Feast itself recalled water from the rock and looked to the Lord's day in Zechariah 14.
Ways people read this (4)
- Ezekiel 47:1-12 and Zechariah 14:8: the river flowing from the temple.
- Isaiah 55:1 and 58:11: the thirsty invited to water, and a well-watered garden.
- Water from the rock in the wilderness (Exodus 17:6; Psalm 78:16), which Paul also links to Christ.
- The punctuation and grammar can be read so the water flows from Jesus himself or from the believer; manuscripts and translations differ.
Editorial note by BibleWay. Interpretations vary; dates are approximate scholarly estimates.
A ruler from Bethlehem
Micah names the small town of Bethlehem Ephrathah as the birthplace of a coming ruler of Israel 'whose coming forth is from of old'. When Herod asks the chief priests and scribes where the Messiah is to be born, they cite this passage.
When: Micah, c. 735–700 BC; fulfilled at Jesus' birth, c. 6–4 BC.
Editorial note by BibleWay. Interpretations vary; dates are approximate scholarly estimates.
The day the LORD comes and his feet stand on the Mount of Olives
Zechariah 14 describes the nations gathering against Jerusalem, the LORD going out to fight, his feet standing on the Mount of Olives which splits in two, living water flowing from Jerusalem, and all the survivors of the nations going up yearly to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. It is one of the most debated chapters in the Bible.
When: Zechariah 9–14 (c. 520–480 BC or later); proposed fulfillments range from the second temple period to the age to come.
Ways people read this (4)
- Literal events surrounding Christ's return to the Mount of Olives (premillennial, citing Acts 1:11-12).
- A symbolic picture of the victory of God and the new age, fulfilled in part at Christ's coming and completely at the end.
- An account of the AD 70 destruction of Jerusalem and the church's rescue (preterist).
- An ancient apocalyptic description of the fall and restoration of Jerusalem, without a historical referent.
Editorial note by BibleWay. Interpretations vary; dates are approximate scholarly estimates.