7:40 When they heard these words, some of the crowd 1 began to say, “This really 2 is the Prophet!” 3 7:41 Others said, “This is the Christ!” 4 But still others said, “No, 5 for the Christ doesn’t come from Galilee, does he? 6 7:42 Don’t the scriptures say that the Christ is a descendant 7 of David 8 and comes from Bethlehem, 9 the village where David lived?” 10 7:43 So there was a division in the crowd 11 because of Jesus. 12 7:44 Some of them were wanting to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him. 13
1 tn Or “The common people” (as opposed to the religious authorities like the chief priests and Pharisees).
2 tn Or “truly.”
3 sn The Prophet is a reference to the “prophet like Moses” of Deut 18:15, by this time an eschatological figure in popular belief.
4 tn Or “the Messiah” (Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “one who has been anointed”).
5 tn An initial negative reply (“No”) is suggested by the causal or explanatory γάρ (gar) which begins the clause.
6 tn Questions prefaced with μή (mh) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end in English (here the tag is “does he?”).
7 tn Grk “is from the seed” (an idiom for human descent).
8 sn An allusion to Ps 89:4.
9 sn An allusion to Mic 5:2.
10 tn Grk “the village where David was.”
11 tn Or “among the common people” (as opposed to the religious authorities like the chief priests and Pharisees).
12 tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
13 sn Compare John 7:30 regarding the attempt to seize Jesus.