John 7

¹After this Jesus went about in Galilee; he would not go about in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him. ²Now the Jews’ feast of Tabernacles was at hand. ³So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples may see the works you are doing. ⁴For no man works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” ⁵For even his brothers did not believe 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 of it that its works are evil. ⁸Go to the feast yourselves; I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” ⁹So saying, 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 taught. ¹⁵The Jews marveled at it, 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 any man’s will is to do his will, he shall know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. ¹⁸He who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but he who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. ¹⁹Did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?” ²⁰The people answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” ²¹Jesus answered them, “I did one deed, 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 upon 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.”

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? ²⁷Yet 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 sought to arrest him; but no one laid hands 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?”

³²The Pharisees heard the crowd thus muttering about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. ³³Jesus then said, “I shall be with you a little longer, and then I go 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 shall 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’?”

³⁷On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. ³⁸He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’ ” ³⁹Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

⁴⁰When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This is really 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 is descended from 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 went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” ⁴⁶The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this man!” ⁴⁷The Pharisees answered them, “Are you led astray, you also? ⁴⁸Have any of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? ⁴⁹But this crowd, who do not know the law, are accursed.” ⁵⁰Nicodeʹmus, 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 you will see that no prophet is to rise from Galilee.”