| John 7 | |
|---|---|
.jpg) John 16:14-22 on therecto side ofPapyrus 5, written about AD 250 | |
| Book | Gospel of John |
| Category | Gospel |
| Christian Bible part | New Testament |
| Order in the Christian part | 4 |
John 7 is the seventh chapter of theGospel of John in theNew Testament of theChristianBible. It recounts Jesus' visit toJerusalem for thefeast of Tabernacles, the possibility of hisarrest and debate as to whether he is theMessiah. The author of the book containing this chapter is anonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed thatJohn composed thisGospel.[1] Alfred Plummer, in theCambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, describes this chapter as "very important for the estimate of the fourth Gospel. In it the scene of theMessianic crisis shifts fromGalilee to Jerusalem; and, as we should naturally expect, the crisis itself becomes hotter. The divisions, the doubts, the hopes, the jealousies, and thecasuistry of the Jews are vividly portrayed."[2]John 7:1 to8:59 is sometimes referred to as the "Tabernacles Discourse".[3]Raymond E. Brown describes the Tabernacles Discourse as "a polemic collection of what Jesus said in replies to attacks by the Jewish authorities on his claims".[4]: 315
The original text was written inKoine Greek. Some earlymanuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:
This chapter is divided into 53 verses. TheNew King James Version includes sub-headings within the chapter as follows:
The evangelist states thatJesus' brothers (or "brethren" in some translations) did not believe in Him (John 7:5) but they suggest that he goes to Jerusalem for the forthcoming Feast of Tabernacles, which was one of thethree feasts which theBook of Deuteronomy prescribes that all Jewish men should attend (Deuteronomy 16:16). They suggest that Jesus wants to publicise his works and that in Galilee his activities are hidden from the view of his Judean disciples (John 7:3–4), but Jesus suggests that His brothers attend the feast but he will remain in Galilee. The Feast of Tabernacles began on 'the fifteenth day of the seventh month' (Leviticus 23:34), i.e., the 15th ofTishri, which corresponds to September, so the interval from Passover to Tabernacles is about five months.[6] Jesus says that it is always "their time" to go to Jerusalem, but that "his time" has not yet come.
Chapter 7 opens in Galilee, where the events and discourses of theprevious chapter have taken place. In Galilee, Jesus had taught in thesynagogue at Capernaum, but many people including many of his own disciples, had refused to believe.John 7:1 implies that nevertheless Jesus felt safe in Galilee, whereas inJudea or "Jewry" (e.g.King James Version), the Jews (or the Jewish ruling authorities)[8] wanted to kill Jesus.[9] He probably did not go to Jerusalem for thePassover mentioned inJohn 6:4, although theologianJohn Gill suggested that "he went to Jerusalem, to keep the passover; and finding that the Jews still sought to take away his life, he returned to Galilee, and 'walked' there".[10]
Chapters 5,6 and 7 all commence with the words μετα ταυτα (meta tauta), "after these things", "a typical Johannine transition" (chapter 7: and after these things).[11]
The "brothers", unlike the "disciples", are still unbelievers.[13] Plummer notes that
It is impossible to determine with certainty whether they (the brothers) are (1) the children ofJoseph andMary, born after the birth of Jesus; (2) the children of Joseph by a former marriage, whetherlevirate or not; or (3) adopted children... (2) is on the whole the most probable.[14]
He observes the bluntness of the suggestion in verse 3,Depart from here, "given almost as a command", which "shews that they presumed upon their near relationship. It would be more natural in the mouths of men older than Christ, and therefore is in favour of their being sons of Joseph by a former marriage".[2]
Johann Bengel describes the brothers' reasoning as a use of therhetorical devicediasyrmus.[16] Irish ArchbishopJohn McEvilly sees "selfish motives" in their pressing Jesus to go south.[17]
"My time" (Greek:ὁκαιρὸς ὁ ἐμὸς,ho kairos ho emos)[19] equates to "my hour" (Greek:ἡ ὥρα μου,hē ōra mou) inJohn 2:4, which had also at that point "not yet come".[20] TheJerusalem Bible notes that "this 'hour', the hour of his glorification and his return to hisFather, is determined by the Father and can be anticipated".[21] See also verse 8:
Plummer suggests that "'this' is wanting in authority; we should read, 'go ye up unto the feast'".[2]
Jesus does then go to Jerusalem for the feast. The evangelist unfolds his attendance in three steps:
H. W. Watkins supposes that the main party travelling from Galilee to Jerusalem would have taken the route to the east of theRiver Jordan, and that Jesus took the alternative route throughSamaria, as he had done when he travelled back from Jerusalem to Galilee inchapter 4,[6] and theJamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary agrees that He may have travelled "perhaps by some other route".[23]
When Jesus began to teach in the Temple, he was perceived as being uneducated and yet learned (John 7:15), not having received rabbinical, priestly orSadduceean training. Jesus was known not to have learned through contemporary routes of Jewish learning such as theHouse of Hillel or theHouse of Shammai, and it is likely that both the content and the style of His teaching were seen as distinct from the teaching of the "Jews" of these schools, to whom the evangelist refers.[24] "His teaching on this occasion was expository",[23] based on theHebrew Bible:Albert Barnes writes that "Jesus exhibited in his discourses such a profound acquaintance with theOld Testament as to excite [the] amazement and admiration"[25] of other learned scholars, but He explains that His teaching is not His own, "but His who sent Me" (John 7:16). Jesus does not disown His teaching, but He does not claim to be its originator or its authority:
The evangelist has already referred tofour witnesses to the validity of Jesus' testimony (John 5:31–47), and now adds that anyone who wants to do God's will know the authority of His teaching (John 7:17).
In a discussion which demonstrates this point to the learned Jews, Jesus then refers to theMosaic law, and to the law and tradition of thepatriarchs. The law of circumcision prescribed byMoses (Leviticus 12:3) originated with God'scovenant with Abraham and required every male child to becircumcised on his eighth day. If this day was aSabbath, the obligation to circumcise that day overrode the obligation to rest on the Sabbath (Exodus 20:8–11). Jews familiar with both laws would also have been familiar with the rule of precedence between them.[27] But Jesus then refers to thehealing at the Temple on the Sabbath day of a man who had had an infirmity for thirty-eight years (John 5:8–9), on account of which the Jews wanted to kill Jesus (John 5:16):
The responses to Jesus' teaching identified in this section are:
The debate[29] or "murmurings"[30] about whether Jesus could be the Messiah came to the attention of thePharisees, and they and theChief Priests "sent officers in order to take him into custody".(John 7:32). In this verse and in verse7:45, "the reader is for the first time informed that the Pharisees and the chief priests try to arrest Jesus but do not succeed. This anticipates their new initiatives in chapters9 to12, where they finally achieve their plans.[11]
Then Jesus said[31] "I shall be with you a little while longer, and then I go to Him who sent Me. You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come." (John 7:33–34) The evangelist has noted twice in this chapter that Jesus' time has not yet come (John 7:6 and7:30, see alsoJohn 2:4), but in a little while (Greek:ετι χρονον μικρον), the time will come for Jesus to depart. The word inGreek:ὑπάγω,I go away, is a distinctively Johannine word, used 15 times throughout the gospel.[32] ThePulpit Commentary suggests that "a little while" amounts to six months, as "six months would bring round the last Passover".[26]
The statement "You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come" produces consternation and the Jewish scholars suppose that Jesus might be intending to visit the Jews of the diaspora "where our people live scattered among the Greeks" (John 7:35 -New International Version translation), and also to teach the Greeks themselves. According toActs 2:5 (referring to theFeast of Pentecost in the year after the Feast of Tabernacles described here), "there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven". The Jews therefore contemplate whether Jesus might be planning to visit their home cities and teach in their synagogues. TheologianHeinrich August Wilhelm Meyer regards the Jews' supposition as "an insolent and scornful supposition, which they themselves, however, do not deem probable (therefore the question is asked withGreek:μή,not)",[13] non-conformist theologianPhilip Doddridge described it as "a sarcasm",[33] and theInternational Standard Version offers the translation as follows:
However, it is not an unreasonable supposition, as the mission to the Jewish diaspora formed "the very mode of proceeding afterwards adopted by the Apostles"[2] and thesynoptic gospels represent Jesus as having visited "the region of Tyre and Sidon" to teach, and as having healed there "the daughter of a Greek woman, aSyro-Phoenician by birth" (Mark 7:24–30). The evangelist leaves this section with a question which remains unanswered:
Peter asks the same question of Jesus when He has privately told His disciples that He is leaving them, and "where [He is] going, [they] cannot come". Peter is told "you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterwards” (John 13:33–36).
TheBook of Leviticus prescribed that the Feast of Tabernacles should last for seven days, and that on theeighth day:
On this sacred day, Jesus stood (presumably at the Temple) and cried out:
Many translations include the scriptural reference within the words Jesus cried out. TheJerusalem Bible breaks up the text in a different manner:
ManyFathers of the Church, fromOrigen onwards, have reflected on the words of verse 38, "out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water", seen as a reference to "those who, having drunk of Christ, put their faith in him".[38]
The quoted words, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink" is a reference toIsaiah 55:1. Meyer explains that "there is no exactly corresponding passage, indeed, in Scripture" for the wordsout of his heart will flow rivers of living water. He suggests that "it is simply a free quotation harmonizing in thought with parts of various passages, especiallyIsaiah 44:3,55:1 and58:11".[13] The writer himself notes, explaining the figurative expressions of Christ,[10] that Jesus was speaking of the[Holy] Spirit, whom those believing in him would receive (later):[39] "the [Holy] Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified" (John 7:39). Literally, the text states "the (Holy) Spirit was not yet", but this "strange and startling statement"[26] is best read as "the Holy Ghost (Spirit) was not yet given; the word "given" is not in the original text; but is very properly supplied, as it is in theVulgate Latin,Syriac, and Persic versions. The Arabic version renders it, "for the Holy Ghost was not yet come".[10]
Some portion of Jesus' audience, on hearing His words, said "this is certainly the Prophet" (John 7:40). In theTextus Receptus andEnglish translations drawn from it, the number described as recognizing Jesus as the Prophet isGreek:πολλοὶ,many, but Watkins advises that "the reading of the best manuscripts is,some of the people therefore, when they heard these sayings ..."[6] The reference is to the prophet foretold by Moses inDeuteronomy 18:15, who was expected to precede the coming of the Messiah.[25] Others went further:[40] "This is the Christ" (John 7:41).
The people of Jerusalem, debating atJohn 7:27 whether Jesus could be the Messiah, cast doubt on this interpretation of Jesus' works because "when the Christ comes, no one [will] know where He is from".
InJohn 7:42, some of the crowd reason that "the Christ [will] come from the seed ofDavid and from the town ofBethlehem, where David was" and therefore Jesus, who came from Galilee, could not be the Messiah:
It is written inMicah 5:2:
The Gospels ofMatthew andLuke give an account of how Jesus ofNazareth in Galilee could also be from Bethlehem, as He wasborn there, but John's Gospel has no parallel account. The Pulpit Commentary identifies a number of theologians (De Wette,Baur,Weisse,Keim and others) who "have tried to prove from this that the evangelist was ignorant of Christ's birth at Bethlehem",[26] whereasBengel argued that "John takes [this] for granted as known from the other evangelists".[16]
So opinion about Jesus was "divided" (John 7:43) - aGreek:σχίσμα arose, "whence our word ‘schism’, meaning 'a serious and possibly violent division'" is derived.[2] This division extended to the issue of whether Jesus should be arrested: "some of them" - "i.e. [some] of those who refused to accord him Messianic reception because he had not commenced his ministry at Bethlehem, and had not flaunted his Davidic ancestry"[26] - wanted to arrest Him, but "no one laid a hand on him" (John 7:44). The chief priests and the Pharisees questioned why Jesus had not been detained - inJohn 7:32 they had dispatched officers for this purpose - and the returning officers replied that "No man ever spoke like this Man" (John 7:46). Ellicott states that "some of the oldest manuscripts, including theVatican, have a shorter text,Never man spake thus; but the longer reading is to be preferred",[6] with the additional wordsGreek:ὡς οὗτος λαλεῖ ὁ ἄνθρωπος,as this man speaks, which are retained by theTextus Receptus. The officers "were so impressed and awed with what he said that they dared not take him";[25] the Pharisees said they were "deceived" (John 7:47), suggesting that none of the rulers - "the members of theSanhedrin, who were supposed to have control over the religious rites and doctrines of the nation - had believed.[25] The evangelist reminds his readers thatNicodemus, "one of them" (i.e. one of the Sanhedrin) had met Jesus before (John 3:1–21). Nicodemus reminds his colleagues:
This is reminder of the words inDeuteronomy 1:16:
The Sanhedrin advises Nicodemus that he should study the scriptures further:
At this point, the division of the text into chapters (attributed toStephen Langton) brings chapter 7 to its close, with the words "Then they all went home".Chapter 8 opens with the words "[b]ut Jesus went to theMount of Olives".Young's Literal Translation and theJerusalem Bible both unite these phrases as a single sentence. Bengel argues for Jesus' visit to the Mount of Olives to be treated as part of chapter 7.[16] The Pulpit Commentary queries whether the departure home refers only to the breaking up of the Sanhedrin (with Barnes)[25] or to "the scattering of the crowd or the return of the pilgrims to Galilee".[26] The pilgrims' return home at the end of the Feast of Tabernacles provides a natural end to the chapter, but "a very improbable consequence of verse 52".[26]
Thepericope commencing withJohn 7:53 is considered canonical, but not found in most of the early Greek Gospel manuscripts.[45] It is not inP66 or inP75, both of which have been assigned to the late 100s or early 200s. Nor is it in two important manuscripts produced in the early/mid 300s,Sinaiticus andVaticanus. The first surviving Greek manuscript to contain the pericope is theLatin/Greek diglotCodex Bezae, produced in the 400s or 500s (but displaying a form of text which has affinities with"Western" readings used in the 100s and 200s). Codex Bezae is also the earliest surviving Latin manuscript to contain it. Out of 23 Old Latin manuscripts of John 7-8, seventeen contain at least part of the pericope, and represent at least three transmission-streams in which it was included. The New King James Version includes the text with the explanation that the words from John 7:53 to 8:11 are bracketed by NU-Text "as not original. They are present in over 900 manuscripts of John"[46] and theJerusalem Bible claims "the author of this passage is not John".[47]
| Preceded by John 6 | Chapters of the Bible Gospel of John | Succeeded by John 8 |