John 7

Jesus at the Feast of Booths

¹After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him.²Now the Jews' Feast of Booths was at hand.³So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing.⁴For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.”⁵For not even his brothers believed in him.⁶Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here.⁷The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil.⁸You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.”⁹After saying this, he remained in Galilee.

¹⁰But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private.¹¹The Jews were looking for him at the feast, and saying, “Where is he?”¹²And there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said, “He is a good man,” others said, “No, he is leading the people astray.”¹³Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him.

¹⁴About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching.¹⁵The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?”¹⁶So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.¹⁷If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.¹⁸The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.¹⁹Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?”²⁰The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?”²¹Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it.²²Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath.²³If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man's whole body well?²⁴Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”

Can This Be the Christ?

²⁵Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill?²⁶And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ?²⁷But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.”²⁸So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know.²⁹I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.”³⁰So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.³¹Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”

Officers Sent to Arrest Jesus

³²The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.³³Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me.³⁴You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.”³⁵The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks?³⁶What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?”

Rivers of Living Water

³⁷On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.³⁸Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”³⁹Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Division Among the People

⁴⁰When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.”⁴¹Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee?⁴²Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?”⁴³So there was a division among the people over him.⁴⁴Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

⁴⁵The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?”⁴⁶The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!”⁴⁷The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived?⁴⁸Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?⁴⁹But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.”⁵⁰Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them,⁵¹“Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?”⁵²They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”

[The earliest manuscripts do not include 7:53–8:11.]

The Woman Caught in Adultery

⁵³[[They went each to his own house,