John 7:40-44
New English Translation
Differing Opinions About Jesus
40 When they heard these words, some of the crowd[a] began to say, “This really[b] is the Prophet!”[c] 41 Others said, “This is the Christ!”[d] But still others said, “No,[e] for the Christ doesn’t come from Galilee, does he?[f] 42 Don’t the scriptures say that the Christ is a descendant[g] of David[h] and comes from Bethlehem,[i] the village where David lived?”[j] 43 So there was a division in the crowd[k] because of Jesus.[l] 44 Some of them were wanting to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.[m]
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- John 7:40 tn Or “The common people” (as opposed to the religious authorities like the chief priests and Pharisees).
- John 7:40 tn Or “truly.”
- John 7:40 sn The Prophet is a reference to the “prophet like Moses” of Deut 18:15, by this time an eschatological figure in popular belief.
- John 7:41 tn Or “the Messiah” (Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “one who has been anointed”).sn See the note on Christ in 1:20.
- John 7:41 tn An initial negative reply (“No”) is suggested by the causal or explanatory γάρ (gar) which begins the clause.
- John 7:41 tn Questions prefaced with μή (mē) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end in English (here the tag is “does he?”).
- John 7:42 tn Grk “is from the seed” (an idiom for human descent).
- John 7:42 sn An allusion to Ps 89:4.
- John 7:42 sn An allusion to Mic 5:2.
- John 7:42 tn Grk “the village where David was.”
- John 7:43 tn Or “among the common people” (as opposed to the religious authorities like the chief priests and Pharisees).
- John 7:43 tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- John 7:44 sn Cf. John 7:30 regarding the attempt to seize Jesus.
John 7:40-44
Lexham English Bible
Different Opinions About Jesus
40 Then, when they[a] heard these words, some from the crowd began to say,[b] “This man is truly the Prophet!” 41 Others were saying, “This man is the Christ!” But others were saying, “No, for the Christ does not come from Galilee, does he?[c] 42 Has not the scripture said that the Christ comes from the descendants of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” 43 So there was a division in the crowd because of him. 44 And some of them were wanting to seize him, but no one laid hands on him.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- John 7:40 Here “when” is supplied as a component of the participle (“heard”) which is understood as temporal
- John 7:40 *The imperfect tense has been translated as ingressive here (“began to say”)
- John 7:41 *The negative construction in Greek anticipates a negative answer here, indicated in the translation by the phrase “does he”
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