Chapter 7

The Feast of Tabernacles. ^1 [a]After this, Jesus moved about within Galilee; but he did not wish to travel in Judea, because the Jews were trying to kill him.^{(A) 2} But the Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near.^{(B) 3} So his brothers^[b] said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. ⁴ No one works in secret if he wants to be known publicly. If you do these things, manifest yourself to the world.”^{(C) 5} For his brothers did not believe in him. ^6 [c]So Jesus said to them, “My time is not yet here, but the time is always right for you. ⁷ The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I testify to it that its works are evil.^{(D) 8} You go up to the feast. I am not going up^[d] to this feast, because my time has not yet been fulfilled.” ⁹ After he had said this, he stayed on in Galilee.

¹⁰ But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, he himself also went up, not openly but [as it were] in secret. ¹¹ The Jews were looking for him at the feast and saying, “Where is he?” ¹² And there was considerable murmuring about him in the crowds. Some said, “He is a good man,” [while] others said, “No; on the contrary, he misleads the crowd.” ¹³ Still, no one spoke openly about him because they were afraid of the Jews.^(E)

The First Dialogue.^{[e] 14} When the feast was already half over, Jesus went up into the temple area and began to teach. ^15 [f](F)The Jews were amazed and said, “How does he know scripture without having studied?” ¹⁶ Jesus answered them and said, “My teaching is not my own but is from the one who sent me. ¹⁷ Whoever chooses to do his will^[g] shall know whether my teaching is from God or whether I speak on my own.^{(G) 18} Whoever speaks on his own seeks his own glory, but whoever seeks the glory of the one who sent him is truthful, and there is no wrong in him. ¹⁹ Did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”^{(H) 20} The crowd answered, “You are possessed!^[h] Who is trying to kill you?”^{(I) 21} Jesus answered and said to them, “I performed one work^[i] and all of you are amazed^{(J) 22} because of it. Moses gave you circumcision—not that it came from Moses but rather from the patriarchs—and you circumcise a man on the sabbath.^{(K) 23} If a man can receive circumcision on a sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because I made a whole person well on a sabbath?^{(L) 24} Stop judging by appearances, but judge justly.”^(M)

²⁵ So some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem said, “Is he not the one they are trying to kill? ²⁶ And look, he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him. Could the authorities^[j] have realized that he is the Messiah? ²⁷ But we know where he is from. When the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.”^{(N) 28} So Jesus cried out in the temple area as he was teaching and said, “You know me and also know where I am from. Yet I did not come on my own, but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true.^{(O) 29} I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”^{(P) 30} So they tried to arrest him, but no one laid a hand upon him, because his hour had not yet come.^{(Q) 31} But many of the crowd began to believe in him, and said, “When the Messiah comes, will he perform more signs than this man has done?”^(R)

Officers Sent to Arrest Jesus.^{[k] 32} The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring about him to this effect, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent guards to arrest him. ³³ So Jesus said, “I will be with you only a little while longer, and then I will go to the one who sent me.^{(S) 34} You will look for me but not find [me], and where I am you cannot come.”^{(T) 35} So the Jews said to one another, “Where is he going that we will not find him? Surely he is not going to the dispersion^[l] among the Greeks to teach the Greeks, is he? ³⁶ What is the meaning of his saying, ‘You will look for me and not find [me], and where I am you cannot come’?”

Rivers of Living Water.^{[m] 37} On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and exclaimed, “Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink.^{(U) 38} Whoever believes in me, as scripture says:

³⁹ He said this in reference to the Spirit that those who came to believe in him were to receive. There was, of course, no Spirit yet,^[o] because Jesus had not yet been glorified.^(W)

Discussion About the Origins of the Messiah.^{[p] 40} Some in the crowd who heard these words said, “This is truly the Prophet.”^{(X) 41} Others said, “This is the Messiah.” But others said, “The Messiah will not come from Galilee, will he? ⁴² Does not scripture say that the Messiah will be of David’s family and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?”^{(Y) 43} So a division occurred in the crowd because of him. ⁴⁴ Some of them even wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

⁴⁵ So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why did you not bring him?” ⁴⁶ The guards answered, “Never before has anyone spoken like this one.” ⁴⁷ So the Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? ⁴⁸ Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?^{(Z) 49} But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed.” ⁵⁰ Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them,^{(AA) 51} “Does our law condemn a person before it first hears him and finds out what he is doing?”^{(AB) 52} They answered and said to him, “You are not from Galilee also, are you? Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”

Chapter 8

A Woman Caught in Adultery.^[q] [⁵³ Then each went to his own house,