John 7:2-5

7:2 Now the Jewish feast of Tabernacles ¹  was near. ²  7:3 So Jesus’ brothers ³  advised him, “Leave here and go to Judea so your disciples may see your miracles that you are performing. ⁴  7:4 For no one who seeks to make a reputation for himself ⁵  does anything in secret. ⁶  If you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” 7:5 (For not even his own brothers believed in him.) ⁷ 

¹ tn Or “feast of the Tents” (the feast where people lived in tents or shelters, which was celebrated in the autumn after harvest). John’s use of σκηνοπηγία (skhnophgia) for the feast of Tabernacles constitutes the only use of this term in the New Testament.

² sn Since the present verse places these incidents at the feast of Tabernacles (a.d. 29 or 32, depending on whether one dates the crucifixion in a.d. 30 or 33) there would have been a 6-month interval during which no events are recorded. The author is obviously selective in his approach; he is not recording an exhaustive history (as he will later tell the reader in John 21:25). After healing the paralytic on the Sabbath in Jerusalem (John 5:1-47), Jesus withdrew again to Galilee because of mounting opposition. In Galilee the feeding of the 5,000 took place, which marked the end of the Galilean ministry for all practical purposes. John 7:1-9 thus marks Jesus’ final departure from Galilee.

³ tn Grk “his brothers.”

⁴ tn Grk “your deeds that you are doing.”

⁵ tn Or “seeks to be well known.”

⁶ sn No one who seeks to make a reputation for himself does anything in secret means, in effect: “if you’re going to perform signs to authenticate yourself as Messiah, you should do them at Jerusalem.” (Jerusalem is where mainstream Jewish apocalyptic tradition held that Messiah would appear.)

⁷ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.