Discovery BoxJohn 7:1-23
Context7:1 After this 1 Jesus traveled throughout Galilee. 2 He 3 stayed out of Judea 4 because the Jewish leaders 5 wanted 6 to kill him. 7:2 Now the Jewish feast of Tabernacles 7 was near. 8 7:3 So Jesus’ brothers 9 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 himself 11 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 time 15 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 up 18 to the feast yourselves. I am not going up to this feast 19 because my time 20 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 Jesus 22 himself also went up, not openly but in secret. 7:11 So the Jewish leaders 23 were looking for him at the feast, asking, “Where is he?” 24 7:12 There was 25 a lot of grumbling 26 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
7:14 When the feast was half over, Jesus went up to the temple courts 30 and began to teach. 31 7:15 Then the Jewish leaders 32 were astonished 33 and said, “How does this man know so much when he has never had formal instruction?” 34 7:16 So Jesus replied, 35 “My teaching is not from me, but from the one who sent me. 36 7:17 If anyone wants to do God’s will, 37 he will know about my teaching, whether it is from God or whether I speak from my own authority. 38 7:18 The person who speaks on his own authority 39 desires 40 to receive honor 41 for himself; the one who desires 42 the honor 43 of the one who sent him is a man of integrity, 44 and there is no unrighteousness in him. 7:19 Hasn’t Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps 45 the law! Why do you want 46 to kill me?”
7:20 The crowd 47 answered, “You’re possessed by a demon! 48 Who is trying to kill you?” 49 7:21 Jesus replied, 50 “I performed one miracle 51 and you are all amazed. 52 7:22 However, because Moses gave you the practice of circumcision 53 (not that it came from Moses, but from the forefathers), you circumcise a male child 54 on the Sabbath. 7:23 But if a male child 55 is circumcised 56 on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses is not broken, 57 why are you angry with me because I made a man completely well 58 on the Sabbath?
[7:1] 1 sn 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
[7:1] 2 tn Grk “Jesus was traveling around in Galilee.”
[7:1] 3 tn Grk “For he.” Here γάρ (gar, “for”) has not been translated.
[7:1] 4 tn Grk “he did not want to travel around in Judea.”
[7:1] 5 tn 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] 6 tn Grk “were seeking.”
[7:2] 7 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.
[7:2] 8 sn Since the present verse places these incidents at the feast of Tabernacles (
[7:3] 9 tn Grk “his brothers.”
[7:3] 10 tn Grk “your deeds that you are doing.”
[7:4] 11 tn Or “seeks to be well known.”
[7:4] 12 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.)
[7:5] 13 sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.
[7:6] 14 tn Grk “Then Jesus said to them.”
[7:6] 15 tn Or “my opportunity.”
[7:6] 16 tn Or “is not yet here.”
[7:6] 17 tn Grk “your time is always ready.”
[7:8] 18 sn 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] 19 tc Most
[7:8] 20 tn 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] 21 tn 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] 22 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[7:11] 23 tn 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] 24 tn Grk “Where is that one?”
[7:12] 25 tn Grk “And there was.”
[7:12] 26 tn Or “complaining.”
[7:12] 27 tn Or “among the common people” (as opposed to the religious authorities mentioned in the previous verse).
[7:13] 29 tn 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] 30 tn Grk “to the temple.”
[7:14] 31 tn 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] 32 tn 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] 33 tn 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] 34 tn 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).
[7:16] 35 tn Grk “So Jesus answered and said to them.”
[7:16] 36 tn The phrase “the one who sent me” refers to God.
[7:17] 38 tn Grk “or whether I speak from myself.”
[7:18] 39 tn Grk “who speaks from himself.”
[7:18] 41 tn Or “praise”; Grk “glory.”
[7:18] 43 tn Or “praise”; Grk “glory.”
[7:18] 44 tn Or “is truthful”; Grk “is true.”
[7:19] 45 tn Or “accomplishes”; Grk “does.”
[7:20] 47 tn Or “The common people” (as opposed to the religious authorities mentioned in 7:15).
[7:20] 48 tn Grk “You have a demon!”
[7:20] 49 tn Grk “Who is seeking to kill you?”
[7:21] 50 tn Grk “Jesus answered and said to them.”
[7:21] 51 tn Grk “I did one deed.”
[7:21] 52 sn The “one miracle” that caused them all to be amazed was the last previous public miracle in Jerusalem recorded by the author, the healing of the paralyzed man in John 5:1-9 on the Sabbath. (The synoptic gospels record other Sabbath healings, but John does not mention them.)
[7:22] 53 tn Grk “gave you circumcision.”
[7:22] 54 tn Grk “a man.” While the text literally reads “circumcise a man” in actual fact the practice of circumcising male infants on the eighth day after birth (see Phil 3:5) is primarily what is in view here.
[7:23] 55 tn Grk “a man.” See the note on “male child” in the previous verse.
[7:23] 56 tn Grk “receives circumcision.”
[7:23] 57 sn If a male child is circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses is not broken. The Rabbis counted 248 parts to a man’s body. In the Talmud (b. Yoma 85b) R. Eleazar ben Azariah (ca.
