John 7:37-52

New Testament for Everyone

³⁷ On the last day of the festival, the great final celebration, Jesus stood up and shouted out, “If anybody’s thirsty, they should come to me and have a drink! ³⁸ Anyone who believes in me will have rivers of living water flowing out of their heart, just like the Bible says!”

³⁹ He said this about the spirit, which people who believed in him were to receive. The spirit wasn’t available yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Where does the Messiah come from?

⁴⁰ When they heard these words, some people in the crowd said, “This man really is ‘the Prophet’!”

⁴¹ “He’s the Messiah!” said some others.

But some of them replied, “The Messiah doesn’t come from Galilee, does he? ⁴² Doesn’t the Bible say that the Messiah is descended from David, and comes from Bethlehem, the city where David was?”

⁴³ So there was a division in the crowd because of him. ⁴⁴ Some of them wanted to arrest him, but nobody laid hands on him.

⁴⁵ So the servants went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees.

“Why didn’t you get him?” they asked.

⁴⁶ “No man ever spoke like this!” the servants replied.

⁴⁷ “You don’t mean to say you’ve been taken in too?” answered the Pharisees. ⁴⁸ “None of the rulers or the Pharisees have believed in him, have they? ⁴⁹ But this rabble that doesn’t know the law—a curse on them!”

⁵⁰ Nicodemus, who went to Jesus earlier, and who was one of their own number, spoke up.

⁵¹ “Our law doesn’t condemn a man, does it, unless first you hear his side of the story and find out what he’s doing?”

⁵² “Oh, so you’re from Galilee too, are you?” they answered him. “Check it out and see! No prophet ever rises up from Galilee!”