John 7

¹After this, Jesus moved about in Galilee. He did not want to move about in Judea because the Judean authorities were seeking to kill him. ²Now the Judean Festival of Booths was near. ³So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go into Judea, so that your disciples can also see the works you are doing. ⁴For no one does anything in secret while seeking to be known in public. If you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” ⁵For not even his brothers believed in him.

⁶Jesus said to them, “My appointed time has not yet arrived, but your time is always ready. ⁷The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify concerning it—that its works are evil. ⁸You go up to the festival. I am not going up to this festival yet, because my appointed time has not yet been fulfilled.” ⁹Having said these things, he stayed in Galilee.

¹⁰But when his brothers had gone up to the festival, then he also went up—not publicly, but as if in secret. ¹¹The Judean authorities were looking for him at the festival and kept asking, “Where is that man?” ¹²There was a great deal of whispering about him among the crowds. Some were saying, “He is a good man.” Others were saying, “No, he is leading the crowd astray.” ¹³Yet no one spoke openly about him because of their fear of the Judean authorities.

¹⁴When the festival was already half over, Jesus went up into the Temple and began to teach. ¹⁵The Judean authorities were astonished and said, “How does this man know the scriptures without having been formally trained?”

¹⁶Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not my own, but belongs to the one who sent me. ¹⁷If anyone desires to do God’s will, they will know whether this teaching is from God or whether I am speaking from my own authority. ¹⁸The one who speaks from his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth, and there is no injustice in him. ¹⁹Didn't Moses give you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you seeking to kill me?”

²⁰The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?”

²¹Jesus answered them, “I performed one work, and you are all astonished. ²²Because Moses gave you circumcision—not that it is from Moses, but from the patriarchs—you circumcise a man even on a Sabbath. ²³If a man receives circumcision on a Sabbath so that the law of Moses is not broken, are you bitterly angry with me because I made a whole man healthy on a Sabbath? ²⁴Do not judge by appearances; instead, judge with the judgment of justice.”

²⁵Then some of the residents of Jerusalem said, “Isn’t this the man they are seeking to kill? ²⁶And look, he is speaking openly and they are saying nothing to him! Could it be that the rulers have truly recognized that this man is the Christ? ²⁷But we know where this man is from. When the Christ comes, no one knows where he is from.”

²⁸Then Jesus, still teaching in the Temple, cried out, “So you know me, and you know where I am from? I have not come on my own authority. The one who sent me is true, and him you do not know. ²⁹I know him, because I am from him and he sent me.” ³⁰Then they were seeking to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. ³¹But many from the crowd believed in him and were saying, “When the Christ comes, will he perform more signs than this man has performed?”

³²The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent temple guards to seize him. ³³Then Jesus said, “I am with you for only a little while longer, and then I am going to the one who sent me. ³⁴You will seek me and you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”

³⁵The Judean authorities said to one another, “Where is this man about to go that we will not find him? Is he about to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? ³⁶What is this statement he made: ‘You will seek me and you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come’?”

³⁷On the last day, the great day of the festival, Jesus stood and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let them come to me and drink! ³⁸The one who believes in me—just as the scripture said—rivers of living water will flow from within their innermost being.” ³⁹He said this concerning the Spirit, which those who believed in him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet present, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

⁴⁰When they heard these words, some from the crowd said, “This is truly the Prophet.” ⁴¹Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Surely the Christ doesn’t come from Galilee, does he? ⁴²Hasn't the scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” ⁴³So a division occurred in the crowd because of him. ⁴⁴Some of them wanted to seize him, but no one laid hands on him.

⁴⁵Then the temple guards went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him?”

⁴⁶The guards answered, “No human being ever spoke like this!”

⁴⁷The Pharisees answered them, “Have you been led astray too? ⁴⁸Has any one of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in him? ⁴⁹But this crowd, which does not know the law—they are accursed!”

⁵⁰Nicodemus, the one who had come to Jesus previously and who was one of them, said to them, ⁵¹“Our law doesn't judge a person without first hearing from them and learning what they are doing, does it?”

⁵²They answered him, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that a prophet does not arise from Galilee!”