Add parallel Print Page Options

37 On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and exclaimed, “Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink.(A) 38 Whoever believes in me, as scripture says:

‘Rivers of living water[a] will flow from within him.’”(B)

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,[b] because Jesus had not yet been glorified.(C)

Discussion About the Origins of the Messiah.[c]

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 7:38 Living water: not an exact quotation from any Old Testament passage; in the gospel context the gift of the Spirit is meant; cf. Jn 3:5. From within him: either Jesus or the believer; if Jesus, it continues the Jesus-Moses motif (water from the rock, Ex 17:6; Nm 20:11) as well as Jesus as the new temple (cf. Ez 47:1). Grammatically, it goes better with the believer.
  2. 7:39 No Spirit yet: Codex Vaticanus and early Latin, Syriac, and Coptic versions add “given.” In this gospel, the sending of the Spirit cannot take place until Jesus’ glorification through his death, resurrection, and ascension; cf. Jn 20:22.
  3. 7:40–53 Discussion of the Davidic lineage of the Messiah.