John 7

¹After these things, Jesus traveled about in Galilee. He did not want to move about in Judea, because the Judean authorities were seeking to kill him. ²Now the Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near.

³So his brothers said to him, "Leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may also observe the works you are doing. ⁴For no one does anything in secret while seeking to be known publicly. If you are doing these things, reveal yourself to the world." ⁵For not even his brothers believed in him.

⁶Jesus therefore said to them, "My 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 feast. I am not going up to this feast, because my time has not yet been fulfilled." ⁹Having said these things to them, he remained in Galilee.

¹⁰But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up—not openly, but as though in secret. ¹¹The Judean authorities were therefore looking for him at the feast and saying, "Where is that man?" ¹²And there was much murmuring about him among the crowds. Some were saying, "He is good," but others were saying, "No, rather he is leading the crowd astray." ¹³Yet no one was speaking openly about him because of their fear of the Judean authorities.

¹⁴Already at the middle of the feast, Jesus went up to the temple and began teaching. ¹⁵The Judean authorities were therefore amazed, saying, "How does this man know the Scriptures, having never been trained?"

¹⁶Jesus therefore answered them and said, "My teaching is not mine, but belongs to the one who sent me. ¹⁷If anyone desires to do his will, that person will know concerning the teaching—whether it comes from God, or whether I am speaking from myself. ¹⁸The one who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of the one who sent him—this person is true, and there is no unrighteousness in him. ¹⁹Did not Moses give you the law? Yet none 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 and said to them, "I performed one work, and you are all astonished. ²²Because of this, Moses has given you circumcision—not that it comes from Moses, but from the fathers—and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. ²³If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath? ²⁴Stop judging by outward appearance, but judge with right judgment."

²⁵Some of the people from Jerusalem were therefore saying, "Is this not the man they are seeking to kill? ²⁶And look—he is speaking openly, and they are saying nothing to him! Can it be that the rulers have truly recognized that this man is the Messiah? ²⁷But we know where this man is from. Yet when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from."

²⁸Jesus therefore cried out in the temple as he was teaching, saying, "You know me, and you know where I am from! Yet I have not come on my own initiative, but the one who sent me is true—the one whom you do not know. ²⁹I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me."

³⁰They were therefore seeking to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. ³¹Yet many from the crowd believed in him, and they were saying, "When the Messiah comes, will he perform more signs than this man has performed?"

³²The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things about him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to seize him. ³³Jesus therefore said, "I am with you for only a short time longer, and then I am going to the one who sent me. ³⁴You will search for me and will not find me, and where I am, you cannot come."

³⁵The Judean authorities therefore said to one another, "Where is this man about to go that we will not find him? He is not going to the Dispersion among the Greeks to teach the Greeks, is he? ³⁶What is this statement he made: 'You will search for me and will not find me, and where I am, you cannot come'?"

³⁷Now on the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. ³⁸The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Rivers of living water will flow from within him.'" ³⁹Now he said this concerning the Spirit, which those who believed in him were about to receive—for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

⁴⁰Some from the crowd, therefore, when they heard these words, were saying, "This is truly the Prophet." ⁴¹Others were saying, "This is the Messiah." But some were saying, "Surely the Messiah does not come from Galilee, does he? ⁴²Has not the Scripture said that the Messiah 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.

⁴⁵The temple guards therefore came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and those men said to them, "Why did you not bring him?"

⁴⁶The guards answered, "Never has anyone spoken like this."

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

⁵⁰Nicodemus, the one who had come to him earlier, being one of them, said to them, ⁵¹"Our law does not judge a man unless it first hears from him and learns what he is doing, does it?"

⁵²They answered and said to him, "You are not also from Galilee, are you? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee."