JohnChapter 7

Tap any verse to comment or suggest a better wording.

¹After this, Jesus traveled around Galilee. He didn't want to travel in Judea, because the Jewish leaders there were trying to kill him.a ²But the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near.b ³So Jesus' brothers said to him, "Leave here and go to Judea. Then your disciples there can see the works you are doing. ⁴No one who wants to be known does things in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world." ⁵Even his own brothers did not believe in him. ⁶So Jesus told them, "My time has not come yet. But for you, any time is right. ⁷The world can't hate you. But it hates me, because I tell it that the things it does are evil. ⁸You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, because my time has not come yet."c ⁹After he said this, Jesus stayed in Galilee. ¹⁰But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, he went too. He did not go openly. He went in secret. ¹¹The Jewish leaders were looking for him at the feast. They kept asking, "Where is he?" ¹²Many people in the crowds were whispering about him. Some said, "He is a good man." But others answered, "No, he fools the people." ¹³But no one would talk about him openly, because they were afraid of the Jews. ¹⁴When the feast was about half over, Jesus went up to the temple courts and began to teach. ¹⁵The Jewish leaders were amazed. They asked, "How did this man learn so much? He never went to school."d ¹⁶"What I teach is not my own," Jesus answered. "It comes from the one who sent me. ¹⁷If anyone wants to do God's will, he will know where my teaching comes from. He will know if it is from God or if I speak on my own. ¹⁸The one who speaks on his own is looking for glory for himself. But the one who looks for glory for the one who sent him is a man of truth. There is nothing false in him. ¹⁹Didn't Moses give you the law? Yet not one of you keeps it. Why are you trying to kill me?" ²⁰"You have a demon," the crowd answered. "Who is trying to kill you?" ²¹Jesus answered them, "I did one miracle, and you are all amazed. ²²But Moses gave you circumcision, so you circumcise a boy even on the Sabbath. (It really didn't start with Moses. It started with the patriarchs.) ²³If a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses won't be broken, why are you angry with me? I made a whole man well on the Sabbath. ²⁴Stop judging by how things look on the outside. Start judging fairly." ²⁵Then some of the people of Jerusalem began to say, "Isn't this the man they are trying to kill? ²⁶But here he is, speaking openly. And they aren't saying anything to him. Have the rulers really come to know that he is the Messiah? ²⁷But we know where this man is from. When the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from." ²⁸Jesus was still teaching in the temple courts. He called out, "You know me, and you know where I am from. But I have not come on my own. The one who sent me is true. You do not know him, ²⁹but I know him, because I am from him and he sent me." ³⁰So they tried to grab him. But no one laid a hand on him, because his time had not come yet.e ³¹But many in the crowd believed in him. They said, "When the Messiah comes, will he do more signs than this man has done?" ³²The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering these things about Jesus. So they and the chief priests sent temple guards to arrest him.f ³³So Jesus said, "I am with you for only a little while longer. Then I am going to the one who sent me. ³⁴You will look for me, but you will not find me. You cannot come where I am." ³⁵Then the Jewish leaders said to each other, "Where is he planning to go that we won't find him? Will he go to the Jews who are scattered among the Greeks? Will he teach the Greeks? ³⁶What does he mean when he says, 'You will look for me, but you will not find me'? And what does he mean by, 'You cannot come where I am'?" ³⁷It was the last and greatest day of the feast. Jesus stood up and called out in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. ³⁸Whoever believes in me, just as the Scripture says, 'Rivers of living water will flow from inside him.'" ³⁹He was talking about the Spirit. The people who believed in him would receive the Spirit later. The Spirit had not been given yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified. ⁴⁰When some of the people heard these words, they said, "This man really is the Prophet." ⁴¹Others said, "He is the Messiah." But others asked, "How can the Messiah come from Galilee? ⁴²Doesn't the Scripture say the Messiah will come from David's family? Doesn't it say he will come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?" ⁴³So the crowd was divided because of Jesus. ⁴⁴Some of them wanted to grab him, but no one laid a hand on him. ⁴⁵Then the temple guards went back to the chief priests and Pharisees. The leaders asked them, "Why didn't you bring him in?" ⁴⁶"No one has ever spoken like this man!" the guards answered. ⁴⁷"Have you been fooled too?" the Pharisees answered. ⁴⁸"Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in him? ⁴⁹But this crowd doesn't know the law. They are under a curse." ⁵⁰Nicodemus was one of the Pharisees. He was the one who had gone to Jesus before. He asked them, ⁵¹"Does our law judge a man guilty before it hears from him? Doesn't it first find out what he has done?" ⁵²"Are you from Galilee too?" they answered. "Look into it. You will see that no prophet comes from Galilee." ⁵³[Then each of them went to his own home.g