Byzantique

John 7

3 notes
Text · John 7

The Unbelief of Jesus' Brothers

1After this Jesus went from place to place in Galilee, for he did not want to travel around in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him. 2Now the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near. 3So Jesus' brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea so that yoʋr disciples may see the works yoʋ are doing. 4For no one does anything in secret while seeking to be known publicly. If yoʋ are going to do these things, show yoʋrself to the world.” 5(For not even his brothers believed in him.) 6So Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always at hand. 7The world cannot hate you, but it does hate me because I testify that its works are evil. 8You go up to athis feast; I am not byet going up to this feast, for my time has not yet been fulfilled.” 9After saying this cto them, he remained in Galilee.

Jesus at the Festival of Booths

10However, after his brothers had gone up to the feast, Jesus also went up, not openly but in secret. 11Now the Jews were looking for him at the feast, saying, “Where is that man?” 12And there was much murmuring about him among the crowds. Some were saying, “He is a good man.” Others were saying, “No, he is deceiving the people.” 13No one, however, was speaking openly about him for fear of the Jews.

14Midway through the feast, Jesus went up to the temple courts and began to teach. 15The Jews were amazed, saying, “How does this man know so much, when he has never had any formal instruction?” 16Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not my own; it comes from him who sent me. 17If anyone wants to do God's will, he will know whether my teaching comes from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. 18He who speaks on his own authority 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. 19Did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why are you seeking to kill me?” 20The crowd answered, “Yoʋ have a demon! Who is seeking to kill yoʋ?” 21Jesus answered them, “I performed one miracle, and you are all amazed. 22Moses gave you circumcision (not that it came from Moses, but from the fathers), and that is why you circumcise a boy even on the Sabbath. 23If a boy can receive circumcision on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses will not be broken, why are you angry with me because I made a man entirely well on the Sabbath? 24Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with right judgment.”

Is Jesus the Christ?

25Now some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, “Is this not the man whom they are seeking to kill? 26And behold, he is speaking openly, and they are saying nothing to him. Could it be that the rulers indeed know that he is dtruly the Christ? 27Yet we know where this man is from, but when the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.” 28Then Jesus cried out as he taught in the temple courts, “You know me and you know where I am from. Yet I have not come on my own authority, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, 29but I know him, because I have come from him, and he is the one who sent me.” 30So they were trying to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. 31Still, many from among the crowd believed in him and said, “When the Christ comes, will he do more signs than this man has done?”

You Will Seek Me But Not Find Me

32The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things about Jesus, so the ePharisees and the chief priests sent officers to arrest him. 33Then Jesus fsaid, “I will be with you for only a little while longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. 34You will seek me, but you will not find me; and where I am going, you cannot come.” 35Then the Jews said to one another, “Where is this man about to go that we will not find him? Is he about to go to the Jews who are scattered among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? 36What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me, but you will not find me; and where I am going, you cannot come’?”

Rivers of Living Water

37On the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38Whoever believes in me, just as the Scripture has said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 39(He said this about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive, for the gHoly Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.)

Division over Jesus

40When they heard hthis, imany from among the crowd were saying, “Surely this man is the Prophet.” 41Others were saying, “He is the Christ.” But jothers were saying, “No, for the Christ does not come from Galilee, does he? 42Does not the Scripture say that the Christ will come from David's descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” 43So a division arose among the crowd because of Jesus. 44Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him.

The Unbelief of the Jewish Leaders

45Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him in?” 46The officers answered, “Never has anyone spoken like this kman.” 47The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? 48Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in him? 49No! But this crowd that is following him does not know the law; they are accursed.” 50Then Nicodemus, who had gone to lJesus mby night and who was one of the rulers, said, 51“Does our law condemn a man without first giving him a hearing and finding out what he is doing?” 52They answered him, “Are yoʋ also from Galilee? Search and see that no prophet nhas ever arisen from Galilee.”

The Woman Caught in Adultery

53oAnd peach went to his own house.

Textual notes
  • a7:8this ¦ the CT
  • b7:8yet ¦ — NA SBL
  • c7:9to them 87.6% ¦ — NA SBL TH 8.4%
  • d7:26truly ¦ — CT
  • e7:32Pharisees and the chief priests ¦ chief priests and the Pharisees CT
  • f7:33said ¦ said to them TR
  • g7:39Holy 96.9% ¦ — NA SBL WH 2%
  • h7:40this 𝔐578 53.2% • MSS 7.7% ¦ these words 𝔐276 18.3% • CT 5% ¦ what he said MSS 8.4%
  • i7:40many ¦ some CT
  • j7:41others ¦ some CT
  • k7:46man 96.9% ¦ — CT 1.1%
  • l7:50Jesus 95.7% ¦ Jesus before NA 2.8% • SBL TH WH 0.7%
  • m7:50by night 88.3% • MSS 8% ¦ — CT 0.7%
  • n7:52has ever arisen ¦ arises CT
  • o7:53{include 7:53–8:11} 78.7% ¦ {omit 7:53–8:11} SBL TH 16.8% {Note: ANT and NA enclose this text with double brackets. WH encloses this text with double brackets and places it in a separate section after chapter 21.}
  • p7:53each went μ3,5 [35.7%] • μ6,7 ANT HF PCK [45.2%] ¦ they went each μ1,2 NA WH [10.7%] • μ4 [7.6%]
Commentary
VerseJohn 7:2

Festival of Booths

The festival of Booths / Tabernacles / Shelters (i.e., Sukkot; also known as "the Feast of Lights") in first-century, second temple Judaism was a eight-day harvest festival that included petitions for rain and sunlight (for better crop growth), which were connected ritually with practices such as libations of water and lighting menorahs / lamps in the Temple.1

By New Testament times the Festival of Shelters had become the occasion for prayers for rain. The feast was celebrated at the end of September or early October; if rain came at that time, it was taken as a guarantee that there would be sufficient rain for the crops. The prayer for rain was symbolized in dramatic fashion on each of the seven days of the festival. A procession would go down to the Gihon spring on the southeast side of the Temple hill. There a priest would fill a golden pitcher with water, and the choir would repeat the words of Isaiah 12:3, "With joy you will draw water from the well of salvation" (RSV). Then the procession would go up to the Temple through the water gate. When the crowd reached the altar in front of the Temple, they would go around waving the lulab with their right hands and the ethrog with their left hands. The lulab consisted of willow twigs and myrtle tied together with palm, and the ethrog could be either a lemon or a citron. As a climax, the priest would go up the ramp to the altar and pour the water into a silver funnel, through which it would flow to the ground.2

  • 1Leviticus 23:33-36.
  • 2Barclay Moon Newman and Eugene Albert Nida, (A Handbook on the Gospel of John*, UBS Handbook Series (New York: United Bible Societies, 1993), 244.
RangeJohn 7:37–39

Water and light

In the beginning of John 7, Jesus went to Jerusalem to attend the Festival of Booths. On the last "great" day of the festival, when Jesus cried out about anyone thirsty coming to Him, Jesus is connecting Himself to the rainwater being prayed for in the harvest festival, and in 8:12 when He calls Himself "the light of the world," He is connecting Himself to the sunlight being prayed for.1 In essence, John is using the water/light themes of the festival to point to Jesus as the true source of life/growth/harvest.

In the light of this aspect of the Festival of Shelters, the words of Jesus have great significance. On the most important day of the festival, Jesus stands and exclaims, Whoever is thirsty should come to me and drink. The author of the Gospel points out for his readers that the living water to which Jesus referred was actually God's Spirit, which came after Jesus was glorified (7:39).2

Cf. note on 8:12 for more on the theme of light.

  • 1I don't take 7:53–8:11 as originally in this location, in which case Jesus hadn't yet left the festival and Temple when he uttered his claim in 8:12 (he entered the Temple in 7:14 and left in 8:59). Cf. note on the pericope adulterae.
  • 2Barclay Moon Newman and Eugene Albert Nida, A Handbook on the Gospel of John, UBS Handbook Series (New York: United Bible Societies, 1993), 244.
RangeJohn 7:53–8:11

Pericope Adulterae

The pericope adulterae (7:53–8:11) is the interpolated story of the woman caught in adultery. Most scholars agree it was not part of the original text of John: it is absent from our earliest and best Greek manuscripts, appears in different places in later manuscripts (sometimes in Luke), and its vocabulary and style differ from St. John's usual patterns.1 For that reason, many modern Bibles bracket it or footnote it as a later addition. It may have been part of the (now-lost) Gospel according to the Hebrews.2

At the same time, the story itself is very early and was widely known in the Church. Patristic and later Christian writers treat it as a true and fitting story about Jesus, consistent with his character and teaching and it is part of the 1904 Patriarchal Greek New Testament of the Ecumenical Patriarchate (GRCBYZ), but is enclosed in brackets.

In the standard post-Pascha lectionary, the Gospel of John jumps from 7:37–52 to 8:12 on Pentecost, skipping John 7:53–8:11 in the continuous reading (but it may be appointed in the lectionary for specific saints).

  • 1Bruce Manning Metzger, United Bible Societies, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, Second Edition: A Companion Volume to the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament (4th Rev. Ed.) (London; New York: United Bible Societies, 1994), 187–189.
  • 2Cf. Eusebius. The Ecclesiastical History. Edited by T. E. Page, E. Capps, W. H. D. Rouse, L. A. Post, and E. H. Warmington. Translated by Kirsopp Lake and J. E. L. Oulton. Vol. 1. The Loeb Classical Library (London; New York; Cambridge, MA: William Heinemann; G. P. Putnam's Sons; Harvard University Press, 1926–1932). 3.39.17: 299.
Referenced elsewhere

New Testament text: Text-Critical English New Testament (TCENT) — © Robert Adam Boyd, CC BY 4.0. Texts & Translations →