John 7

7 ¹After this, Jesus traveled around Galilee, not wanting to go into Judea because Jewish leaders there were looking for a chance to kill him. ²But the Jewish Festival of Booths was near. ^a a v2 The Feast of Tabernacles (Booths) was a week-long autumn festival when Israel lived in temporary shelters, remembering the wilderness years. ³His brothers told him, "Leave here and go to Judea, so your disciples can also see the works you do. ⁴No one seeking public attention hides what he does. If you're doing these things, show yourself to the world." ⁵For not even his brothers believed in him.

⁶So Jesus told them, "My time has not yet come, but for you any time is right.

⁷"The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I testify that its works are evil. ⁸You yourselves go up to the festival; I'm not going up to this festival, since my time hasn't yet fully come."

⁹After saying this, he stayed in Galilee. ¹⁰After his brothers went up to the festival, he too went up—not openly, but secretly.

¹¹So the Jewish leaders were looking for him at the festival and asking, "Where is he?" ¹²Much murmuring about him spread among the crowds: some said, "He's good," others, "No, he misleads the crowd." ¹³Yet no one spoke about him openly, for fear of the Jewish leaders. ¹⁴About the middle of the festival, Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach.

¹⁵The Jewish leaders were amazed and asked, "How does this man know so much without training?"

¹⁶Jesus answered them, "My teaching isn't mine—it's from the one who sent me. ¹⁷Whoever wants to do our Father's will knows if my teaching is from my Father or I speak on my own. ¹⁸Whoever speaks on his own seeks his own glory, but whoever seeks the sender's glory is true, with no falsehood in him. ¹⁹Didn't Moses give you the law? Yet none of you obeys the law. Why are you trying to kill me?"

²⁰The crowd answered, "You have a demon! Who is trying to kill you?"

²¹Jesus replied, "I did one work, and you are all amazed.

²²"Moses gave you circumcision—not from Moses, but the patriarchs—and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. ²³If a man is circumcised on the Sabbath so the law of Moses isn't broken, why are you angry at me for making a whole man well on the Sabbath? ²⁴Stop judging by appearances, and judge with right judgment."

Where Is He From?

²⁵Then some Jerusalemites said, "Isn't this the man they want to kill? ²⁶Yet he speaks openly, and they say nothing to him. Can the rulers truly know this is the Christ? ²⁷But we know this man's origin. When the Christ comes, no one will know his origin."

²⁸Then Jesus, teaching in the temple, cried out: "You know me, and know where I'm from. Yet I didn't come on my own—the one who sent me is true, and you don't know him. ²⁹I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me."

³⁰So they tried to grab him, but no one touched him, because his hour had not yet come. ³¹But many in the crowd believed in him, asking, "When the Christ comes, will he do more signs than this man did?" ³²The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things about him, so the chief priests and Pharisees sent temple guards to seize him.

³³So Jesus said, "I'm with you a little while longer, and then I go to the one who sent me. ³⁴You will search for me and not find me; you cannot come where I am."

³⁵So the Jewish leaders asked each other, "Where does he intend to go that we won't find him? Does he intend to go to our people dispersed among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? ³⁶What does he mean: 'You will look for me, but you will not find me,' and 'Where I am, you cannot come'?"

³⁷On the last, great day of the festival, Jesus stood and called out, "Whoever is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. ³⁸Whoever believes in me, as Scripture said, rivers of living water will flow from his heart."

³⁹He said this about the Holy Spirit, whom believers in him were to receive; the Spirit had not yet been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

⁴⁰When they heard these words, some of the crowd said, "This really is the Prophet." ⁴¹Others said, "This is the Christ." But others asked, "How can the Christ come from Galilee? ⁴²Doesn't Scripture say the Christ comes from David's line and from Bethlehem, David's village?" ⁴³So the crowd was divided over him. ⁴⁴Some of them wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.

⁴⁵So the temple guards returned to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked, "Why didn't you bring him?"

⁴⁶The guards answered, "No one ever spoke the way this man does."

⁴⁷"Have you also been deceived?" the Pharisees answered. ⁴⁸"Has any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? ⁴⁹But this crowd, who knows nothing of the law—they are under a curse."

⁵⁰Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and was one of their own number, asked them, ⁵¹"Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him and finding out what he does?"

⁵²They replied, "Are you from Galilee too? Search, and see: no prophet arises from Galilee."

⁵³Then they all went home. ^b b v53 This account is not in the earliest manuscripts of John, and later copies place it at several different points. It is printed here, where the tradition settled, as in most modern Bibles.