Text -- John 7:40-44 (NET)

Differing Opinions About Jesus

7:40 When they heard these words, some of the crowd began to say, “This really is the Prophet!” 7:41 Others said, “This is the Christ!” But still others said, “No, for the Christ doesn’t come from Galilee, does he? 7:42 Don’t the scriptures say that the Christ is a descendant of David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?” 7:43 So there was a division in the crowd because of Jesus. 7:44 Some of them were wanting to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Joh 7:40

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.

NET Notes: Joh 7:41

¹ tn Or “the Messiah” (Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “one who has been anointed”).

sn See the note on Christ in 1:20.

² tn An initial negative reply (“No”) is suggested by the causal or explanatory γάρ (gar) which begins the clause.

³ 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?”).

NET Notes: Joh 7:42

¹ tn Grk “is from the seed” (an idiom for human descent).

² sn An allusion to Ps 89:4.

³ sn An allusion to Mic 5:2.

map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.

⁴ tn Grk “the village where David was.”

NET Notes: Joh 7:43

¹ tn Or “among the common people” (as opposed to the religious authorities like the chief priests and Pharisees).

² tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

NET Notes: Joh 7:44

¹ sn Compare John 7:30 regarding the attempt to seize Jesus.