The Feast of Tabernacles
- And Jesus was walking in Galilee after these events, for He wasn’t wanting to walk in Judea because the Jews there were seeking to kill Him.
- Now, the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near.
- So His brothers told Him: “Depart from here and go into Judea, so your disciples there will also see your works that you’re doing.
- “For no one does something in secret if he himself seeks to be known in public. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.”
- (For not even His brothers were believing in Him.)
- So Jesus tells them: “My time isn’t come yet, but your time is always ideal.
- “The world isn’t able to hate you, but it hates Me because I testify about it that its works are evil.
- “You go up to the feast; I’m not going up to this feast nowfn“now” added because of the phrase “My time isn’t come yet” in verse 6 because My time hasn’t been completed yet.”
- And having said these things to them, He remained in Galilee.
- But when His brothers went up to the feast, then He also went up. Not openly, but as in secret.
- Therefore, the Jews were seeking Him at the feast and were saying “Where is He?”
- And there was much grumbling about Him in the crowds. Indeed, some were saying: “He’s good.” But others were saying: “No, but He misleads the people.”
- Yet no one was speaking about Him openly for fear of the Jews.
Jesus teaching
- And it already being midway through the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and was teaching.
- Therefore the Jews were marveling, saying: “How does this man *know the scriptures, not having studied?”
- So Jesus answered and told them: “My teaching isn’t Mine, but from the One who sent Me.”
- “If someone wants to do His will, he will know about this teaching, whether it’s from God or if I speak from Myself.
- “The man speaking from himself seeks his own glory. But the One seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and unrighteousness isn’t in Him.fnquotation/allusion to Psalm 92:15
- “Hasn’t Moses given you the law, and not one of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill Me?”
- The crowd answered: “You have a demon; who seeks to kill you?”
- Jesus answered and told them: “I did one work and you all marvel.
- “Moses has given you circumcision because of this, and on the Sabbath you circumcise a manfnquotation/allusion to Leviticus 12:3 (not that it’s from Moses, but from the fathers.fnquotation/allusion to Genesis 17:9-14)
- “If a man receives circumcision on Sabbath so the law of Moses might not be broken, why are you angry with Me because I made the whole man healthy on the Sabbath?”
- “Don’t judge according to outward appearance, but judge with a righteous judgement.
The People’s reaction
- Therefore, some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem were saying: “Isn’t this the man whom they are seeking to kill?
- “And look, He speaks openly and they say nothing to Him, not ever. Have the rulers truly recognized that this is the Anointed?
- “But we *know where this man is from. But when the Anointed comes, no one knows where He is from.”
- So Jesus cried out in the temple, teaching and saying: “You *know Me and you *know where I’m from. And I haven’t come from Myself, but the One who sent Me is true, He whom you don’t *know.
- “I *know Him because I’m from Him, and He sent Me.”
- Therefore they were seeking to seize Him, and no one laid a hand on Him because His hour hadn’t come yet.
- And many of the crowd believed in Him and were saying: “When the Anointed comes, He won’t do more signs thanfn“than” is literally “than which” this man did, will He?”
- The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering these things about Him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers so they might seize Him.
- So Jesus said: “I’m still with you for a short time, and then I’m going to the One who sent Me.
- “You will seek Me and won’t find Me, and where I am going, you aren’t able to come.”
- So the Jews said to themselves: “Where is He about to go that we won’t find Him? He isn’t about to travel into the Dispersionfn“The Dispersion” refers to the Jews who were spread across – i.e. dispersed – throughout the Roman Empire. among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, is He?
- “What’s this word that He spoke: ‘You will seek Me and won’t find Me, and where I am going, you aren’t able to come’?”
The last day of the feast
- Now, on the last day — the great day of the feast — Jesus had stood and he cried out saying: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.
- “The man believing in Me will be just as the scripture said: “Streams of living water will flow out from his inner man.”fnquotation/allusion to Zechariah 14:8, and possibly Jeremiah 2:13 and Isaiah 55:1. “inner man” This Greek word literally refers to organs in the abdominal cavity, like the stomach and the womb. It metaphorically refers to the “inner man”
- (And He said this about the Spirit, whom the men who believed in Him were about to receive, for the Spirit wasn’t given yet, because Jesus wasn’t glorified yet.)
- So having heard these words, some from the crowd were saying: “This is truly the Prophet.”fnquotation/allusion to Deuteronomy 18:15-19
- Others were saying: “This is the Anointed.” And others were saying: “No, for can the Anointed come out of Galilee?
- “Didn’t the scripture say that the Anointed comes from the seed of Davidfnquotation/allusion to 2 Sam 7:12-16 and from Bethlehem, the town where David was from?”fnquotation/allusion to Micah 5:2
- Therefore, a schism happened in the crowd because of Him.
- And some of them were wanting to seize Him, but no one laid hands on Him.
- Therefore, the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to those officers: “Why didn’t you bring Him?”
- The officers answered: “A man never spoke like this, [not as this man speaks.]”
- So the Pharisees answered them: “Have you also been misled?
- “None of the rulers believed in Him, or any of the Pharisees, did they?
- “But this crowd not knowing the law is accursed.”
- Nicodemus – the man who formerly came to Him – being one of them, he says to them:
- “Our law doesn’t judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he’s doing, does it?”
- They answered and told him: “Aren’t you also from Galilee? Search the scriptures and see that the prophet isn’t raised out of Galilee.”
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Note: To read John 7:53-8:11 (the story of the woman caught in adultery, which most scholars believe wasn’t written by John) click here; link opens in new tab.