John 7:1-15

Context

The Feast of Tabernacles

7:1 After this¹ Jesus traveled throughout Galilee.² He³ stayed out of Judea⁴ because the Jewish leaders⁵ wanted⁶ to kill him. 7:2 Now the Jewish feast of Tabernacles⁷ was near.⁸ 7:3 So Jesus’ brothers⁹ advised him, “Leave here and go to Judea so your disciples may see your miracles that you are performing.¹⁰ 7:4 For no one who seeks to make a reputation for himself¹¹ does anything in secret.¹² If you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” 7:5 (For not even his own brothers believed in him.)¹³

7:6 So Jesus replied,¹⁴ “My time¹⁵ has not yet arrived,¹⁶ but you are ready at any opportunity!¹⁷ 7:7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I am testifying about it that its deeds are evil. 7:8 You go up¹⁸ to the feast yourselves. I am not going up to this feast¹⁹ because my time²⁰ has not yet fully arrived.”²¹ 7:9 When he had said this, he remained in Galilee.

7:10 But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, then Jesus²² himself also went up, not openly but in secret. 7:11 So the Jewish leaders²³ were looking for him at the feast, asking, “Where is he?”²⁴ 7:12 There was²⁵ a lot of grumbling²⁶ about him among the crowds.²⁷ Some were saying, “He is a good man,” but others, “He deceives the common people.”²⁸ 7:13 However, no one spoke openly about him for fear of the Jewish leaders.²⁹

Teaching in the Temple

7:14 When the feast was half over, Jesus went up to the temple courts³⁰ and began to teach.³¹ 7:15 Then the Jewish leaders³² were astonished³³ and said, “How does this man know so much when he has never had formal instruction?”³⁴

[7:1] ¹sn Again, the transition is indicated by the imprecise temporal indicator After this. Clearly, though, the author has left out much of the events of Jesus’ ministry, because chap. 6 took place near the Passover (6:4). This would have been the Passover between winter/spring of a.d. 32, just one year before Jesus’ crucifixion (assuming a date of a.d. 33 for the crucifixion), or the Passover of winter/spring a.d. 29, assuming a date of a.d. 30 for the crucifixion.

[7:1] ²tn Grk “Jesus was traveling around in Galilee.”

[7:1] ³tn Grk “For he.” Here γάρ (gar, “for”) has not been translated.

[7:1] ⁴tn Grk “he did not want to travel around in Judea.”

[7:1] ⁵tn Or “the Jewish authorities”; Grk “the Jews.” In NT usage the term ᾿Ιουδαῖοι (Ioudaioi) may refer to the entire Jewish people, the residents of Jerusalem and surrounding territory, the authorities in Jerusalem, or merely those who were hostile to Jesus. (For further information see R. G. Bratcher, “‘The Jews’ in the Gospel of John,” BT 26 [1975]: 401-9.) Here the phrase should be restricted to the Jewish authorities or leaders who were Jesus’ primary opponents.

[7:1] ⁶tn Grk “were seeking.”

[7:2] ⁷tn 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.

[7:2] ⁸sn 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.

[7:3] ⁹tn Grk “his brothers.”

[7:3] ¹⁰tn Grk “your deeds that you are doing.”

[7:4] ¹¹tn Or “seeks to be well known.”

[7:4] ¹²sn 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.)

[7:5] ¹³sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[7:6] ¹⁴tn Grk “Then Jesus said to them.”

[7:6] ¹⁵tn Or “my opportunity.”

[7:6] ¹⁶tn Or “is not yet here.”

[7:6] ¹⁷tn Grk “your time is always ready.”

[7:8] ¹⁸sn One always speaks of “going up” to Jerusalem in Jewish idiom, even though in western thought it is more common to speak of south as “down” (Jerusalem lies south of Galilee). The reason for the idiom is that Jerusalem was identified with Mount Zion in the OT, so that altitude was the issue.

[7:8] ¹⁹tc Most mss (Ì^66,75 B L T W Θ Ψ 070 0105 0250 Ë^1,13 Ï sa), including most of the better witnesses, have “not yet” (οὔπω, oupw) here. Those with the reading οὐκ are not as impressive (א D K 1241 al lat), but οὐκ is the more difficult reading here, especially because it stands in tension with v. 10. On the one hand, it is possible that οὐκ arose because of homoioarcton: A copyist who saw oupw wrote ouk. However, it is more likely that οὔπω was introduced early on to harmonize with what is said two verses later. As for Jesus’ refusal to go up to the feast in v. 8, the statement does not preclude action of a different kind at a later point. Jesus may simply have been refusing to accompany his brothers with the rest of the group of pilgrims, preferring to travel separately and “in secret” (v. 10) with his disciples.

[7:8] ²⁰tn Although the word is καιρός (kairos) here, it parallels John’s use of ὥρα (Jwra) elsewhere as a reference to the time appointed for Jesus by the Father – the time of his return to the Father, characterized by his death, resurrection, and ascension (glorification). In the Johannine literature, synonyms are often interchanged for no apparent reason other than stylistic variation.

[7:8] ²¹tn Or “my time has not yet come to an end” (a possible hint of Jesus’ death at Jerusalem); Grk “my time is not yet fulfilled.”

[7:10] ²²tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:11] ²³tn Or “the Jewish authorities”; Grk “the Jews.” Here the phrase refers to the Jewish authorities or leaders who were Jesus’ primary opponents. See the note on the phrase “the Jewish leaders” in v. 1.

[7:11] ²⁴tn Grk “Where is that one?”

[7:12] ²⁵tn Grk “And there was.”

[7:12] ²⁶tn Or “complaining.”

[7:12] ²⁷tn Or “among the common people” (as opposed to the religious authorities mentioned in the previous verse).

[7:12] ²⁸tn Or “the crowd.”

[7:13] ²⁹tn Or “the Jewish authorities”; Grk “the Jews.” Here the phrase refers to the Jewish authorities or leaders who were Jesus’ primary opponents. See also the note on the phrase “the Jewish leaders” in v. 1.

[7:14] ³⁰tn Grk “to the temple.”

[7:14] ³¹tn Or “started teaching.” An ingressive sense for the imperfect verb (“began to teach” or “started teaching”) fits well here, since the context implies that Jesus did not start his teaching at the beginning of the festival, but began when it was about half over.

[7:15] ³²tn Or “the Jewish authorities”; Grk “the Jews.” Here the phrase refers to the Jewish authorities or leaders who were Jesus’ primary opponents. See the note on the phrase “the Jewish leaders” in v. 1.

[7:15] ³³tn Or “began to be astonished.” This imperfect verb could also be translated ingressively (“began to be astonished”), but for English stylistic reasons it is rendered as a simple past.

[7:15] ³⁴tn Grk “How does this man know learning since he has not been taught?” The implication here is not that Jesus never went to school (in all probability he did attend a local synagogue school while a youth), but that he was not the disciple of a particular rabbi and had not had formal or advanced instruction under a recognized rabbi (compare Acts 4:13 where a similar charge is made against Peter and John; see also Paul’s comment in Acts 22:3).