Is Jesus the Christ?

²⁵ Then some of the people who lived in Jerusalem said, “·This is the man [^LIsn’t this the man…?] they are trying to kill. ²⁶ But he is ·teaching where everyone can see and hear him [^Lspeaking publicly], and no one is ·trying to stop [^Lsaying anything to] him. Maybe the ·leaders [rulers; authorities] have ·decided [come to recognize] he really is the ·Christ [Messiah]. ²⁷ But we know where this man is from. Yet when the real ·Christ [Messiah] comes, no one will know where he comes from.” [^CSome Jewish traditions claimed the Messiah would be unknown until he came to deliver Israel.]

²⁸ Jesus, teaching in the Temple [courts; 2:14], cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. But I have not come ·by my own authority [on my own initiative; ^Lfrom myself]. I was sent by the One who is true, whom you don’t know. ²⁹ But I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”

³⁰ When Jesus said this, they tried to ·seize [arrest] him. But no one was able to ·touch him [^Llay a hand on him], because ·it was not yet the right time [^Lhis hour had not yet come; see 2:4]. ³¹ But many ·of the people [^Lin the crowd] believed in Jesus. They said, “When the ·Christ [Messiah] comes, will he do more ·miracles [^Lsigns] than this man has done?”