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John 7

1After these things Jesus went about in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him. 2The Jews' Festival of Booths was near. 3His brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples too may see the works you do. 4For no one does something in secret while seeking to be known openly. If you do these things, reveal yourself to the world.” 5For not even his brothers believed in him. 6Jesus 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 about it that its works are evil. 8You go up to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet been fulfilled.” 9After saying these things, he stayed in Galilee.

10But when his brothers had gone up to the festival, he too went up, not openly, but in secret. 11The Jews sought him at the festival and said, “Where is he?” 12There was much muttering about him among the crowds. Some said, “He is good.” Others said, “No, he leads the crowd astray.” 13Yet no one spoke openly about him for fear of the Jews.

14When the festival was already halfway through, Jesus went up to the temple and taught. 15The Jews marveled, saying, “How does this man have such learning without having studied?” 16Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but belongs to the one who sent me. 17If anyone wishes to do his will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I speak from myself. 18Whoever speaks from himself seeks his own glory. But whoever seeks the glory of the one who sent him is true, and there is no unrighteousness in him. 19Has Moses not given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?” 20The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who seeks to kill you?” 21Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel. 22For this reason Moses has given you circumcision—not that it comes from Moses, but from the fathers—and you circumcise a person on the Sabbath. 23If a person receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that Moses' law is not broken, are you angry with me because I made a whole person well on the Sabbath? 24Do not judge by appearance, but judge with just judgment.”

25Some of the people of Jerusalem said, “Is this not the one they seek to kill? 26Look, he speaks openly, and they say nothing to him. Have the rulers really come to know that this is the Messiah? 27But we know where this man is from. When the Messiah comes, no one knows where he is from.” 28Jesus cried out as he taught in the temple, “You know me and know where I am from! Yet I have not come from myself. The one who sent me is true, and you do not know him. 29I know him because I am from him, and he sent me.” 30They sought to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. 31Many from the crowd believed in him and said, “When the Messiah comes, he will not do more signs than this man has done, will he?”

32The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to seize him. 33Jesus said, “I am with you a little longer, and I am going to the one who sent me. 34You will seek me and not find me, and where I am, you cannot come.” 35The Jews said to one another, “Where is he going 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 word he spoke: ‘You will seek me and 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 thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38Whoever believes in me, as the scripture said, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his belly.’” 39He said this about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive. For the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

40Some from the crowd heard these words and said, “This truly is the Prophet.” 41Others said, “This is the Messiah.” But some said, “The Messiah does not come from Galilee, does he? 42Has the scripture not said that the Messiah comes from David's offspring and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” 43So a division arose in the crowd because of him. 44Some of them wanted to seize him, but no one laid hands on him.

45The officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why have you not brought him?” 46The officers answered, “No human has ever spoken like this.” 47The Pharisees answered them, “You have not been led astray too, have you? 48None of the rulers or Pharisees has believed in him, has he? 49But this crowd that does not know the law—they are cursed.” 50Nicodemus, who had gone to him before and was one of them, said to them, 51“Our law does not judge a person unless it first hears from him and knows what he does, does it?” 52They answered him, “You are not from Galilee too, are you? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”

Disputed passage: 7:53–8:11. Double brackets continue across the chapter boundary.

53Each went to his own house.

Translation notes 3

7:2, 8, 15, 35 — Festival, refusal, learning, and Dispersion. Booths is the festival also called Tabernacles. Verse 8 follows the reading “not,” though “not yet” has substantial early support; Jesus goes later in verse 10. The draft does not silently add “yet” to remove the difficulty. The question in verse 15 concerns recognized learning, not an assertion that Jesus could not read. The Dispersion refers to Jews living outside their homeland among Greek-speaking populations.

7:28, 37–39 — Knowledge and rivers. Verse 28 may be punctuated as a question or heard as an ironic concession. At verses 37–38 the punctuation and reference of “his” are debated: the rivers may be associated with the believer or with Jesus. The draft takes the believer as the source after receiving from Jesus. “Belly” is the bodily image, conventionally representing one's interior. No exact matching Old Testament sentence has been identified. Verse 39 literally says “the Spirit was not yet”; “given” is supplied in light of the promise of reception. The Spirit already appears in 1:32–33.

7:53–8:11 — A familiar passage with disputed placement. Early Greek witnesses including P66, P75, Sinaiticus, and Vaticanus omit this account. Other witnesses place it elsewhere. The evidence strongly favors its not belonging to John's earliest recoverable text. It is retained here in double brackets under the project's agreed policy. Its historical value is a separate question. The wording follows the form printed by SBLGNT; details including the accusers' consciences and Jesus' paying no attention also vary within this passage's transmission.