John 7:40-42

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?” 10 


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

tn Or “truly.”

sn The Prophet is a reference to the “prophet like Moses” of Deut 18:15, by this time an eschatological figure in popular belief.

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

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

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?”).

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

sn An allusion to Ps 89:4.

sn An allusion to Mic 5:2.

10 tn Grk “the village where David was.”