John 7 - Christian Standard Bible (CSB)

The Unbelief of Jesus’s Brothers

7 After this, Jesus traveled in Galilee,^(A) since he did not want to travel in Judea^(B) because the Jews^(C) were trying to kill him.^{(D) 2} The Jewish Festival of Shelters^[a](E) was near. ³ So his brothers^(F) said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples can see your works^(G) that you are doing. ⁴ For no one does anything in secret while he’s seeking public recognition. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” ⁵ (For not even his brothers believed in him.)

⁶ Jesus told them, “My time^(H) has not yet arrived, but your time is always at hand. ⁷ The world cannot hate^(I) you, but it does hate me because I testify about it—that its works are evil. ⁸ Go up to the festival yourselves. I’m not going up to this festival,^[b] because my time has not yet fully come.” ⁹ After he had said these things, he stayed in Galilee.

Jesus at the Festival of Shelters

¹⁰ After his brothers had gone up to the festival, then he also went up, not openly but secretly. ¹¹ The Jews were looking for him at the festival and saying, “Where is he?” ¹² And there was a lot of murmuring about him among the crowds. Some were saying, “He’s a good^(J) man.” Others were saying, “No, on the contrary, he’s deceiving^(K) the people.” ¹³ Still, nobody was talking publicly about him for fear of the Jews.

¹⁴ When the festival was already half over, Jesus went up into the temple^(L) and began to teach. ¹⁵ Then the Jews were amazed and said, “How is this man so learned,^(M) since he hasn’t been trained?”

¹⁶ Jesus answered them, “My teaching isn’t mine but is from the one who sent me.^{(N) 17} If anyone wants to do his will,^(O) he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own. ¹⁸ The one who speaks on his own seeks his own glory;^(P) but he who seeks the glory^(Q) of the one who sent him is true,^(R) and there is no unrighteousness in him.^{(S) 19} Didn’t Moses^(T) give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law.^(U) Why are you trying to kill me?”

²⁰ “You have a demon!” the crowd responded. “Who is trying to kill you?”

²¹ “I performed one work,^(V) and you are all amazed,” Jesus answered. ²² “This is why Moses has given you circumcision^(W) —not that it comes from Moses but from the fathers^(X) —and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath.^{(Y) 23} If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath^(Z) so that the law of Moses^(AA) won’t be broken, are you angry at me because I made a man entirely well on the Sabbath? ²⁴ Stop judging^(AB) according to outward appearances; rather judge according to righteous judgment.”

The Identity of the Messiah

²⁵ Some of the people of Jerusalem^(AC) were saying, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? ²⁶ Yet, look, he’s speaking publicly and they’re saying nothing to him. Can it be true that the authorities^(AD) know he is the Messiah?^{(AE) 27} But we know where this man is from.^(AF) When the Messiah comes, nobody will know where he is from.”

²⁸ As he was teaching in the temple,^(AG) Jesus cried out, “You know me and you know where I am from. Yet I have not come on my own, but the one who sent me^(AH) is true. You don’t know him;^{(AI) 29} I know him because I am from him, and he sent me.”^(AJ)

³⁰ Then they tried to seize him. Yet no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. ³¹ However, many from the crowd believed in him and said, “When the Messiah comes, he won’t perform more signs than this man has done,^(AK) will he?” ³² The Pharisees^(AL) heard the crowd murmuring these things about him, and so the chief priests^(AM) and the Pharisees sent servants^[c] to arrest him.

³³ Then Jesus said, “I am only with you for a short time.^(AN) Then I’m going to the one who sent me.^{(AO) 34} You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”^(AP)

³⁵ Then the Jews^(AQ) said to one another, “Where does he intend to go that we won’t find him? He doesn’t intend to go to the Jewish people dispersed^[d](AR) among the Greeks^(AS) and teach the Greeks, does he? ³⁶ What is this remark he made: ‘You will look for me, and you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come’^(AT)?”

The Promise of the Spirit

³⁷ On the last and most important day of the festival,^(AU) Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me^[e](AV) and drink.^{(AW) 38} The one who believes in me,^(AX) as the Scripture^(AY) has said, will have streams of living water^(AZ) flow^(BA) from deep within him.” ³⁹ He said this about the Spirit.^(BB) Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit,^(BC) for the Spirit^[f] had not yet been given^[g] because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

The People Are Divided over Jesus

⁴⁰ When some from the crowd heard these words, they said, “This truly is the Prophet.”^{(BD) 41} Others said, “This is the Messiah.” But some said, “Surely the Messiah doesn’t come from Galilee, does he? ⁴² Doesn’t the Scripture^(BE) say that the Messiah comes from David’s^(BF) offspring^[h] and from the town of Bethlehem,^(BG) where David lived?” ⁴³ So the crowd was divided^(BH) because of him. ⁴⁴ Some of them wanted to seize him,^(BI) but no one laid hands on him.

Debate over Jesus’s Claims

⁴⁵ Then the servants^(BJ) came to the chief priests^(BK) and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him?”

⁴⁶ The servants answered, “No man ever spoke like this!” ^[i](BL)

⁴⁷ Then the Pharisees responded to them, “Are you fooled^(BM) too? ⁴⁸ Have any of the rulers^(BN) or Pharisees believed in him? ⁴⁹ But this crowd, which doesn’t know the law, is accursed.”

⁵⁰ Nicodemus^(BO)—the one who came to him previously and who was one of them—said to them, ⁵¹ “Our law doesn’t judge a man before it hears from him and knows what he’s doing, does it?” ^(BP)

⁵² “You aren’t from Galilee^(BQ) too, are you?” they replied. “Investigate and you will see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”^(BR)

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

[⁵³ Then each one went to his house.^[j]

Footnotes

1. 7:2 Or Tabernacles, or Booths
2. 7:8 Other mss add yet
3. 7:32 Or temple police, or officers, also in vv. 45,46
4. 7:35 Gk diaspora; Jewish people scattered throughout Gentile lands
5. 7:37 Other mss omit to me
6. 7:39 Other mss read Holy Spirit
7. 7:39 Lit the Spirit was not yet
8. 7:42 Lit seed
9. 7:46 Other mss read like this man
10. 7:53–8:11 Other mss include all or some of the passage after Jn 7:36,44,52; 21:25; or Lk 21:38.

Cross references

1. 7:1 : Mt 17:22
2. 7:1 : Lk 1:5
3. 7:1 : Jn 11:36
4. 7:1 : Jn 5:18
5. 7:2 : Ex 23:16
6. 7:3 : Mk 3:21,31–35; 6:3; Lk 8:19
7. 7:3 : Mk 6:28; Jn 5:36; Heb 3:9; Rv 15:3
8. 7:6 : Ps 37:39; Lk 20:10; Jn 7:8
9. 7:7 : Lk 6:27; 19:14
10. 7:12 : Gn 1:31
11. 7:12 : Rv 20:10
12. 7:14 : Ac 21:26
13. 7:15 : Mt 26:54
14. 7:16 : Jn 5:19,30
15. 7:17 : Rm 8:27; Eph 1:9
16. 7:18 : Php 3:19
17. 7:18 : Lk 9:32; Jn 17:24; 2Co 3:18; 1Pt 5:4; 2Pt 3:18
18. 7:18 : Jn 8:14; 1Jn 5:20
19. 7:18 : 1Jn 3:5
20. 7:19 : Ps 77:20; Mt 8:4; Heb 3:2
21. 7:19 : Rm 2:12–29; 3:9–10,20–23,27–28
22. 7:21 : Jn 5:36; Heb 3:9; Rv 15:3
23. 7:22 : Ac 15:1; Gl 6:15
24. 7:22 : Gn 17:9–14; Lv 12:3
25. 7:22 : Mk 2:23
26. 7:23 : Lk 13:10
27. 7:23 : Lk 2:22
28. 7:24 : Lk 6:37; Heb 9:27
29. 7:25 : Mt 23:37
30. 7:26 : Lk 8:41; 12:58
31. 7:26 : Mt 1:17; Eph 5:2
32. 7:27 : Mt 13:55; 21:11; Lk 4:22; Jn 6:42
33. 7:28 : Ac 21:26
34. 7:28 : Jn 5:19
35. 7:28 : Jn 1:26–33; 5:13; 8:14,19,55; 9:29–30; 12:35; 13:7; 14:5; 15:15,21; 20:14; Gl 4:8; 1Th 4:5; 2Th 1:8; Ti 1:16
36. 7:29 : Mk 9:37; Lk 10:22; Jn 1:6; 9:16
37. 7:31 : Jn 15:24
38. 7:32 : Mk 7:3
39. 7:32 : Mt 2:4
40. 7:33 : Jn 12:35; 14:19; 16:5,16
41. 7:33 : Jn 14:12; 16:5,10,17,28
42. 7:34 : Jn 8:21; 13:33
43. 7:35 : Jn 11:36
44. 7:35 : Jms 1:1; 1Pt 1:1
45. 7:35 : Gl 2:3
46. 7:36 : Jn 8:21
47. 7:37 : Lv 23:34–36; Nm 29:35; Dt 16:13–14; Neh 8:18; Jn 5:1
48. 7:37 : Lk 14:26
49. 7:37 : Is 55:1; Rv 22:17
50. 7:38 : Jn 6:35
51. 7:38 : Mt 26:54
52. 7:38 : Jn 4:10–14
53. 7:38 : Ex 17:1–6; Ps 78:15–16; 105:40–41; Pr 18:4; Is 12:3; Ezk 47:1–11; Zch 14:8; Rv 22:1–2
54. 7:39 : Ps 51:11; Jn 1:33; Ac 2:4; 8:15; Rm 8:9; Gl 5:25; Ti 3:5; Rv 3:22
55. 7:39 : Ac 2:33
56. 7:40 : Jn 6:14
57. 7:42 : 2Pt 1:20
58. 7:42 : Lk 1:27
59. 7:42 : Gn 35:19
60. 7:43 : Jn 9:16; 1Co 1:10
61. 7:44 : Jn 10:39
62. 7:45 : Jn 18:18
63. 7:45 : Mt 2:4
64. 7:46 : Mt 7:28–29
65. 7:47 : Rv 20:10
66. 7:48 : Lk 8:41
67. 7:50 : Jn 3:1; 19:39
68. 7:51 : Dt 1:16; 17:6; 19:15
69. 7:52 : Mt 17:22
70. 7:52 : 2Kg 14:25