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John 7:2-10
New English Translation

2 Now the Jewish Feast of Shelters[a] was near.[b] 3 So Jesus’ brothers[c] advised him, “Leave here and go to Judea so your disciples may see your miracles that you are performing.[d] 4 For no one who seeks to make a reputation for himself[e] does anything in secret.[f] If you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 (For not even his own brothers believed in him.)[g]

6 So Jesus replied,[h] “My time[i] has not yet arrived,[j] but you are ready at any opportunity![k] 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I am testifying about it that its deeds are evil. 8 You go up[l] to the feast yourselves. I am not going up to this feast[m] because my time[n] has not yet fully arrived.”[o] 9 When he had said this, he remained in Galilee.

10 But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, then Jesus[p] himself also went up, not openly but in secret.

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Footnotes

  1. John 7:2 tn Or “Feast of Tabernacles” or Or “Feast of Booths” (the feast where people lived in tents or huts, which was celebrated in the autumn after harvest). John’s use of σκηνοπηγία (skēnopēgia) for the Feast of Shelters constitutes the only use of this term in the New Testament.
  2. John 7:2 sn Since the present verse places these incidents at the Feast of Shelters (a.d. 29 or 32, depending on whether one dates the crucifixion in a.d. 30 or 33) there would have been a 6-month interval during which no events are recorded. The author is obviously selective in his approach; he is not recording an exhaustive history (as he will later tell the reader in John 21:25). After healing the paralytic on the Sabbath in Jerusalem (John 5:1-47), Jesus withdrew again to Galilee because of mounting opposition. In Galilee the feeding of the 5,000 took place, which marked the end of the Galilean ministry for all practical purposes. John 7:1-9 thus marks Jesus’ final departure from Galilee.
  3. John 7:3 tn Grk “his brothers.”sn Jesus’ brothers. Jesus’ brothers (really his half brothers) were mentioned previously by John in 2:12 (see the note on brothers there). They are also mentioned elsewhere in Matt 13:55 and Mark 6:3.
  4. John 7:3 tn Grk “your deeds that you are doing.”sn Should the advice by Jesus’ brothers, Leave here and go to Judea so your disciples may see your miracles that you are performing, be understood as a suggestion that he should attempt to win back the disciples who had deserted him earlier (6:66)? Perhaps. But it is also possible to take the words as indicating that if Jesus is going to put forward messianic claims (i.e., through miraculous signs) then he should do so in Jerusalem, not in the remote parts of Galilee. Such an understanding seems to fit better with the following verse. It would also indicate misunderstanding on the part of Jesus’ brothers of the true nature of his mission—he did not come as the royal Messiah of Jewish apocalyptic expectation, to be enthroned as king at this time.
  5. John 7:4 tn Or “seeks to be well known.”
  6. John 7:4 sn No one who seeks to make a reputation for himself does anything in secret means, in effect: “if you’re going to perform signs to authenticate yourself as Messiah, you should do them at Jerusalem.” (Jerusalem is where mainstream Jewish apocalyptic tradition held that Messiah would appear.)
  7. John 7:5 sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.
  8. John 7:6 tn Grk “Then Jesus said to them.”
  9. John 7:6 tn Or “my opportunity.”
  10. John 7:6 tn Or “is not yet here.”
  11. John 7:6 tn Grk “your time is always ready.”
  12. John 7:8 sn One always speaks of “going up” to Jerusalem in Jewish idiom, even though in western thought it is more common to speak of south as “down” (Jerusalem lies south of Galilee). The reason for the idiom is that Jerusalem was identified with Mount Zion in the OT, so that altitude was the issue.
  13. John 7:8 tc Most mss (P66,75 B L T W Θ Ψ 070 0105 0250 ƒ1,13 M sa), including most of the better witnesses, have “not yet” (οὔπω, oupō) here. Those with the reading οὐκ are not as impressive (א D K 1241 al lat), but οὐκ is the more difficult reading here, especially because it stands in tension with v. 10. On the one hand, it is possible that οὐκ arose because of homoioarcton: A copyist who saw oupw wrote ouk. However, it is more likely that οὔπω was introduced early on to harmonize with what is said two verses later. As for Jesus’ refusal to go up to the feast in v. 8, the statement does not preclude action of a different kind at a later point. Jesus may simply have been refusing to accompany his brothers with the rest of the group of pilgrims, preferring to travel separately and “in secret” (v. 10) with his disciples.
  14. John 7:8 tn Although the word is καιρός (kairos) here, it parallels John’s use of ὥρα (hōra) elsewhere as a reference to the time appointed for Jesus by the Father—the time of his return to the Father, characterized by his death, resurrection, and ascension (glorification). In the Johannine literature, synonyms are often interchanged for no apparent reason other than stylistic variation.
  15. John 7:8 tn Or “my time has not yet come to an end” (a possible hint of Jesus’ death at Jerusalem); Grk “my time is not yet fulfilled.”
  16. John 7:10 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
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John 7:14
New English Translation

Teaching in the Temple

14 When the feast was half over, Jesus went up to the temple courts[a] and began to teach.[b]

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Footnotes

  1. John 7:14 tn Grk “to the temple.”
  2. John 7:14 tn Or “started teaching.” An ingressive sense for the imperfect verb (“began to teach” or “started teaching”) fits well here, since the context implies that Jesus did not start his teaching at the beginning of the festival, but began when it was about half over.
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John 7:37
New English Translation

Teaching About the Spirit

37 On the last day of the feast, the greatest day,[a] Jesus stood up and shouted out,[b] “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and

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Footnotes

  1. John 7:37 sn There is a problem with the identification of this reference to the last day of the feast, the greatest day: It appears from Deut 16:13 that the feast went for seven days. Lev 23:36, however, makes it plain that there was an eighth day, though it was mentioned separately from the seven. It is not completely clear whether the seventh or eighth day was the climax of the feast, called here by the author the “last great day of the feast.” Since according to the Mishnah (m. Sukkah 4.1) the ceremonies with water and lights did not continue after the seventh day, it seems more probable that this is the day the author mentions.
  2. John 7:37 tn Grk “Jesus stood up and cried out, saying.”
John 7:37 in all English translations
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