After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in
Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now the Jews'
Feast of Booths was at hand. So his brothers said to him, “Leave
here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works
you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known
openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” For
not even his brothers believed in him. Jesus said to them, “My time
has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot
hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works
are evil. You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast,
for my time has not yet fully come.” After saying this, he remained
in Galilee.
But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also
went up, not publicly but in private. The Jews were looking for him
at the feast, and saying, “Where is he?” And there was much
muttering about him among the people. While some said, “He is a
good man,” others said, “No, he is leading the people astray.” Yet
for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him.
About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and
began teaching. The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it
that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” So Jesus
answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If
anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the
teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.
The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but
the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him
there is no falsehood. Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of
you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?” The crowd answered,
“You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” Jesus answered
them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it. Moses gave you
circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and
you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If on the Sabbath a man
receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken,
are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man's whole
body well? Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right
judgment.”
Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the
man whom they seek to kill? And here he is, speaking openly, and
they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know
that this is the Christ? But we know where this man comes from, and
when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.” So
Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you
know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He
who sent me is true, and him you do not know. I know him, for I
come from him, and he sent me.” So they were seeking to arrest him,
but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.
Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ
appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”
The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him,
and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.
Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am
going to him who sent me. You will seek me and you will not find
me. Where I am you cannot come.” The Jews said to one another,
“Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does
he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the
Greeks? What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will
not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?”
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and
cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his
heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about
the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as
yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet
glorified.
When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This
really is the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some
said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the Scripture
said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes
from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” So there was a
division among the people over him. Some of them wanted to arrest
him, but no one laid hands on him.
The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who
said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” The officers answered,
“No one ever spoke like this man!” The Pharisees answered them,
“Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the
Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd that does not know the
law is accursed.” Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who
was one of them, said to them, “Does our law judge a man without
first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” They
replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet
arises from Galilee.”
[The earliest manuscripts do not include 7:53–8:11.]
