John 7:41-43

7:41 Others said, “This is the Christ!” ¹  But still others said, “No, ²  for the Christ doesn’t come from Galilee, does he? ³  7:42 Don’t the scriptures say that the Christ is a descendant ⁴  of David ⁵  and comes from Bethlehem, ⁶  the village where David lived?” ⁷  7:43 So there was a division in the crowd ⁸  because of Jesus. ⁹ 

[7:41]  ¹ tn Or “the Messiah” (Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “one who has been anointed”).

[7:41]  ² tn An initial negative reply (“No”) is suggested by the causal or explanatory γάρ (gar) which begins the clause.

[7:41]  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?”).

[7:42]  ⁴ tn Grk “is from the seed” (an idiom for human descent).

[7:42]  ⁵ sn An allusion to Ps 89:4.

[7:42]  ⁶ sn An allusion to Mic 5:2.

[7:42]  ⁷ tn Grk “the village where David was.”

[7:43]  ⁷ tn Or “among the common people” (as opposed to the religious authorities like the chief priests and Pharisees).

[7:43]  ⁸ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.