John 7
7
Jesus' Brothers Don't Have Faith in Him
1Jesus decided to leave Judea and to start going through Galilee because the leaders of the people wanted to kill him. 2#Lv 23.34; Dt 16.13-15. It was almost time for the Festival of Shelters, 3and Jesus' brothers said to him, “Why don't you go to Judea? Then your disciples can see what you are doing. 4No one does anything in secret, if they want others to know about them. So let the world know what you are doing!” 5Even Jesus' own brothers had not yet become his followers.
6Jesus answered, “My time hasn't yet come,#7.6 My time hasn't yet come: See the note at 2.4. but your time is always here. 7The people of this world cannot hate you. They hate me, because I tell them that they do evil things. 8Go on to the festival. My time hasn't yet come, and I am not going.” 9Jesus said this and stayed on in Galilee.
Jesus at the Festival of Shelters
10After Jesus' brothers had gone to the festival, he went secretly, without telling anyone.
11During the festival the leaders of the people looked for Jesus and asked, “Where is he?” 12The crowds even got into an argument about him. Some were saying, “Jesus is a good man,” while others were saying, “He is lying to everyone.” 13But the people were afraid of their leaders, and none of them talked in public about him.
14When the festival was about half over, Jesus went into the temple and started teaching. 15The leaders were surprised and said, “How does this man know so much? He has never been taught!”
16Jesus replied:
I am not teaching something I thought up. What I teach comes from the one who sent me. 17If you really want to obey God, you will know if what I teach comes from God or from me. 18If I wanted to bring honor to myself, I would speak for myself. But I want to honor the one who sent me. This is why I tell the truth and not a lie. 19Didn't Moses give you the Law? Yet none of you obey it! So why do you want to kill me?
20The crowd replied, “You're crazy! What makes you think someone wants to kill you?”
21Jesus answered:
I worked one miracle,#7.21 one miracle: The healing of the sick man (5.1-18; see also the note at 2.11). and it amazed you. 22#Lv 12.3; Gn 17.10,11. Moses commanded you to circumcise your sons. But it wasn't really Moses who gave you this command. It was your ancestors, and even on the Sabbath you circumcise your sons 23#Jn 5.9. in order to obey the Law of Moses. Why are you angry with me for making someone completely well on the Sabbath? 24Don't judge by appearances. Judge by what is right.
25Some of the people from Jerusalem were saying, “Isn't this the man they want to kill? 26Yet here he is, speaking for everyone to hear. And no one is arguing with him. Do you suppose the authorities know he is the Messiah? 27But how could that be? No one knows where the Messiah will come from, but we know where this man comes from.”
28As Jesus was teaching in the temple, he shouted, “Do you really think you know me and where I came from? I didn't come on my own! The one who sent me is truthful, and you don't know him. 29But I know the one who sent me, because I came from him.”
30Some of the people wanted to arrest Jesus right then. But no one even laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come.#7.30 his time had not yet come: See the note at 2.4. 31A lot of people in the crowd put their faith in him and said, “When the Messiah comes, he surely won't perform more miracles#7.31 miracles: See the note at 2.11. than this man has done!”
Officers Sent To Arrest Jesus
32When the Pharisees heard the crowd arguing about Jesus, they got together with the chief priests and sent some temple police to arrest him. 33But Jesus told them, “I will be with you a little while longer, and then I will return to the one who sent me. 34You will look for me, but you won't find me. You cannot go where I am going.”
35The people asked each other, “Where can he go to keep us from finding him? Is he going to some foreign country where our people live? Is he going there to teach the Greeks?#7.35 Greeks: Perhaps Gentiles or Jews who followed Greek customs. 36What did he mean by saying that we will look for him, but won't find him? Why can't we go where he is going?”
Streams of Life-Giving Water
37 #
Lv 23.36. On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and shouted, “If you are thirsty, come to me and drink! 38#Ez 47.1; Zec 14.8. Have faith in me, and you will have life-giving water flowing from deep inside you, just as the Scriptures say.” 39Jesus was talking about the Holy Spirit, who would be given to everyone that had faith in him. The Spirit had not yet been given to anyone, since Jesus had not yet been given his full glory.#7.39 had not yet been given his full glory: In the Gospel of John, Jesus is given his full glory both when he is nailed to the cross and when he is raised from death to sit beside his Father in heaven.
The People Take Sides
40When the crowd heard Jesus say this, some of them said, “He must be the Prophet!”#7.40 the Prophet: See the note at 1.21. 41Others said, “He is the Messiah!” Others even said, “Can the Messiah come from Galilee? 42#2 S 7.12; Mic 5.2. The Scriptures say that the Messiah will come from the family of King David. Doesn't this mean that he will be born in David's hometown of Bethlehem?” 43The people started taking sides against each other because of Jesus. 44Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him.
The Leaders Refuse To Have Faith in Jesus
45When the temple police returned to the chief priests and Pharisees, they were asked, “Why didn't you bring Jesus here?”
46They answered, “No one has ever spoken like this man!”
47The Pharisees said to them, “Have you also been fooled? 48Not one of the chief priests or the Pharisees has faith in him. 49And these people who don't know the Law are under God's curse anyway.”
50 #
Jn 3.1,2. Nicodemus was there at the time. He was a member of the council, and was the same one who had earlier come to see Jesus.#7.50 who had earlier come to see Jesus: See 3.1-21. He said, 51“Our Law doesn't let us condemn people before we hear what they have to say. We cannot judge them before we know what they have done.”
52Then they said, “Nicodemus, you must be from Galilee! Read the Scriptures, and you will find that no prophet is to come from Galilee.”
A Woman Caught in Sin
53Everyone else went home,
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John 7: CEVDCI
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
John 7
7
1And Jesus was walking after these things in Galilee, for he did not wish to walk in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him,
2and the feast of the Jews was nigh — that of tabernacles —
3his brethren, therefore, said unto him, ‘Remove hence, and go away to Judea, that thy disciples also may behold thy works that thou dost;
4for no one in secret doth anything, and himself seeketh to be in public; if thou dost these things — manifest thyself to the world;’
5for not even were his brethren believing in him.
6Jesus, therefore, saith to them, ‘My time is not yet present, but your time is always ready;
7the world is not able to hate you, but me it doth hate, because I testify concerning it that its works are evil.
8Ye — go ye up to this feast; I do not yet go up to this feast, because my time hath not yet been fulfilled;’
9and saying these things to them, he remained in Galilee.
10And when his brethren went up, then also he himself went up to the feast, not manifestly, but as in secret;
11the Jews, therefore, were seeking him, in the feast, and said, ‘Where is that one?’
12and there was much murmuring about him among the multitudes, some indeed said — ‘He is good;’ and others said, ‘No, but he leadeth astray the multitude;’
13no one, however, was speaking freely about him, through fear of the Jews.
14And it being now the middle of the feast, Jesus went up to the temple, and he was teaching,
15and the Jews were wondering, saying, ‘How hath this one known letters — not having learned?’
16Jesus answered them and said, ‘My teaching is not mine, but His who sent me;
17if any one may will to do His will, he shall know concerning the teaching, whether it is of God, or — I do speak from myself.
18‘He who is speaking from himself his own glory doth seek, but he who is seeking the glory of him who sent him, this one is true, and unrighteousness is not in him;
19hath not Moses given you the law? and none of you doth the law; why me do ye seek to kill?’
20The multitude answered and said, ‘Thou hast a demon, who doth seek to kill thee?’
21Jesus answered and said to them, ‘One work I did, and ye all wonder,
22because of this, Moses hath given you the circumcision — not that it is of Moses, but of the fathers — and on a sabbath ye circumcise a man;
23if a man doth receive circumcision on a sabbath that the law of Moses may not be broken, are ye wroth with me that I made a man all whole on a sabbath?
24judge not according to appearance, but the righteous judgment judge.’
25Certain, therefore, of the Jerusalemites said, ‘Is not this he whom they are seeking to kill?
26and, lo, he doth speak freely, and they say nothing to him; did the rulers at all know truly that this is truly the Christ?
27but this one — we have known whence he is; and the Christ, when he doth come, no one doth know whence he is.’
28Jesus cried, therefore, in the temple, teaching and saying, ‘Ye have both known me, and ye have known whence I am; and I have not come of myself, but He who sent me is true, whom ye have not known;
29and I have known Him, because I am from Him, and He did send me.’
30They were seeking, therefore, to seize him, and no one laid the hand on him, because his hour had not yet come,
31and many out of the multitude did believe in him, and said — ‘The Christ — when he may come — will he do more signs than these that this one did?’
32The Pharisees heard the multitude murmuring these things concerning him, and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers that they may take him;
33Jesus, therefore, said to them, ‘Yet a little time I am with you, and I go away unto Him who sent me;
34ye will seek me, and ye shall not find; and where I am, ye are not able to come.’
35The Jews, therefore, said among themselves, ‘Whither is this one about to go that we shall not find him? — to the dispersion of the Greeks is he about to go? and to teach the Greeks;
36what is this word that he said, Ye will seek me, and ye shall not find? and, Where I am, ye are not able to come?’
37And in the last, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, ‘If any one doth thirst, let him come unto me and drink;
38he who is believing in me, according as the Writing said, Rivers out of his belly shall flow of living water;’
39and this he said of the Spirit, which those believing in him were about to receive; for not yet was the Holy Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
40Many, therefore out of the multitude, having heard the word, said, ‘This is truly the Prophet;’
41others said, ‘This is the Christ;’ and others said, ‘Why, out of Galilee doth the Christ come?
42Did not the Writing say, that out of the seed of David, and from Bethlehem — the village where David was — the Christ doth come?’
43A division, therefore, arose among the multitude because of him.
44And certain of them were willing to seize him, but no one laid hands on him;
45the officers came, therefore, unto the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them, ‘Wherefore did ye not bring him?’
46The officers answered, ‘Never so spake man — as this man.’
47The Pharisees, therefore, answered them, ‘Have ye also been led astray?
48did any one out of the rulers believe in him? or out of the Pharisees?
49but this multitude, that is not knowing the law, is accursed.’
50Nicodemus saith unto them — he who came by night unto him — being one of them,
51‘Doth our law judge the man, if it may not hear from him first, and know what he doth?’
52They answered and said to him, ‘Art thou also out of Galilee? search and see, that a prophet out of Galilee hath not risen;’
53and each one went on to his house, but Jesus went on to the mount of the Olives.
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