Chapter 7

¹After this Jesus went from place to place in Galilee, for he would not do so in Judea, because the Jews were making efforts to kill him. ²But the Jewish camping festival was coming. ³So his brothers said to him,

“You ought to leave here and go to Judea, to let your disciples also see the things you are doing. ⁴For no one acts in secret when he desires to be publicly known. If you are going to do these things, let the world see you.” ⁵For even his brothers did not believe in him. ⁶Then Jesus said to them,

“It is not yet time for me to act, but any time is suitable for you. ⁷It is impossible for the world to hate you, but it does hate me for testifying that its ways are wrong. ⁸As for you, go up to the festival; I am not going up to this festival as yet, for it is not quite time for me to go.”

⁹That was what he told them, and he stayed on in Galilee.

¹⁰But after his brothers had gone up to the festival, then Jesus went up also, not publicly, but as though he did not wish to be observed. ¹¹Now the Jews were looking for him at the festival and asking where he was, ¹²and there was a great deal of muttering about him among the crowds, some saying that he was a good man, and others that he was not, but was imposing on the people. ¹³But no one spoke of him in public, for fear of the Jews.

¹⁴But when the festival was half over, Jesus went up to the Temple and began to teach. ¹⁵This astonished the Jews.

“How is it that this man can read?” they said, “when he has never gone to school?”

¹⁶So Jesus answered,

“My teaching is not my own; it comes from him who has sent me. ¹⁷Anyone who resolves to do his will will know whether my teaching comes from God, or originates with me. ¹⁸Whoever speaks simply for himself is looking for honor for himself, but whoever looks for honor for the person who has sent him shows his sincerity; there is no dishonesty about him. ¹⁹Was it not Moses who gave you the Law? Yet not one of you obeys the Law. Why are you trying to kill me?”

²⁰The crowd answered,

“You must be possessed! Who is trying to kill you?”

²¹Jesus answered,

“I have done just one deed, and you are all astonished at it. ²²Yet Moses gave you the rite of circumcision—not that it began with Moses but with your forefathers—and you practice it even on the Sabbath. ²³But if a person undergoes circumcision on a Sabbath, to avoid breaking the Law of Moses, are you angry at me for making a man perfectly well on a Sabbath? ²⁴You must not judge so externally; you must judge justly!”

²⁵Some of the people of Jerusalem said, “Is not this the man they want to kill? ²⁶And here he is speaking publicly, and they say nothing to him! Can the authorities really have found that he is the Christ? ²⁷But then, we know where this man comes from, but when the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.”

²⁸So Jesus, as he was teaching in the Temple, cried out,

“You do know me and you do know where I come from, and I have not come of my own accord but someone who is very real, whom you do not know, has sent me. ²⁹I do know him, because I come from him, and he has sent me here.”

³⁰Then they tried to arrest him, and yet no one laid hands on him, because he was not yet ready. ³¹But many of the people believed in him, and said,

“Will the Christ show more signs when he comes than this man has shown?”

³²The Pharisees heard the people saying these things about him in whispers, and the high priests and the Pharisees sent attendants to arrest him. ³³Jesus said,

“I am to be with you a little while longer, and then I am going to him who has sent me. ³⁴You will look for me and you will not find me, and you will not be able to go where I shall be.”

³⁵Then the Jews said to one another,

“Where is he going, that we shall not find him? Is he going to our people scattered among the Greeks, and will he teach the Greeks? ³⁶What does he mean by saying ‘You will look for me and you will not find me, and you will not be able to go where I shall be’?”

³⁷Now on the last day, the great day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out,

“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. ³⁸If anyone believes in me, streams of living water, as the Scripture says, shall flow forth from his heart.”

³⁹He meant by this the Spirit which those who believed in him were to receive—for the Spirit had not yet come, because Jesus had not yet been glorified. ⁴⁰So some of the people, when they heard these words, said,

“This is certainly the Prophet!”

⁴¹Others said,

“This is the Christ!”

But they rejoined,

“What! Is the Christ to come from Galilee? ⁴²Do not the Scriptures say that the Christ is to spring from the descendants of David and to come from the village of Bethlehem where David lived?”

⁴³So the people were divided about him, ⁴⁴and some of them wanted to arrest him, yet no one laid hands on him.

⁴⁵The attendants went back to the high priests and Pharisees, and they said to the attendants,

“Why have you not brought him?”

⁴⁶The attendants answered,

“No man ever talked as he does!”

⁴⁷The Pharisees answered,

“Have you been imposed upon too? ⁴⁸Have any of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? ⁴⁹But these common people who do not know the Law are doomed!”

⁵⁰One of them, Nicodemus, who had previously gone to Jesus, said to them,

⁵¹“Does our Law condemn the accused without first hearing what he has to say, and finding out what he has done?”

⁵²They answered,

“Are you from Galilee too? Study and you will find that no prophet is to appear from Galilee.”