OEB - John - 7

7:1  After this, Jesus went about in Galilee, for he would not do so in Judea, because the religious authorities (in Jerusalem) were eager to put him to death.

7:2  When the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near,

7:3  his brothers said to him: “Leave this part of the country, and go into Judea, so that your disciples, as well as we, may see the work that you are doing.

7:4  For no one does a thing privately, if they are seeking to be widely known. Since you do these things, you should show yourself publicly to the world.”

7:5  For even his brothers did not believe in him.

7:6  “My time,”answered Jesus, “is not come yet, but your time is always here.

7:7  The world cannot hate you, but it does hate me, because I testify that its ways are evil.

7:8  Go yourselves up to the Festival; I am not going to this Festival yet, because my time has not yet come.”

7:9  After telling them this, he stayed on in Galilee.

7:10  But, when his brothers had gone up to the Festival, Jesus also went up — not publicly, but privately.

7:11  The authorities were looking for him at the Festival and asking ‘Where is he?’;

7:12  and there were many whispers about him among the people, some saying ‘He is a good man;’ others: ‘No! He is leading the people astray.’

7:13  No one, however, spoke freely about him, because they were afraid of the authoritites.

7:14  About the middle of the Festival week, Jesus went up into the Temple Courts, and began teaching.

7:15  The authorities were astonished. “How has this man got his learning,” they asked, “when he has never studied?”

7:16  So, in reply, Jesus said: “My teaching is not my own; it is his who sent me.

7:17  If anyone has the will to do God’s will, they will find out whether my teaching is from God, or whether I speak on my own authority.

7:18  The person who speaks on their own authority seeks honor for themselves; but the person who seeks the honor of him that sent him is sincere, and there is nothing false in him.

7:19  Was not it Moses who gave you the law? Yet not one of you obeys it! Why are you seeking to put me to death?”

7:20  “You must be possessed by a demon!” the people exclaimed. “Who is seeking to put you to death?”

7:21  “There was one thing I did,”replied Jesus, “at which you are all still wondering.

7:22  “Is he going to kill himself,” they exclaimed, “that he says — ‘You cannot go where I am going’?”

7:23  When a man receives circumcision on a Sabbath to prevent the law of Moses from being broken, how can you be angry with me for making a man sound and well on a Sabbath?

7:24  Do not judge by appearances; judge justly.”

7:25  At this some of the people of Jerusalem exclaimed: “Is not this the man who they are seeking to put to death?

7:26  Yet here he is, speaking out boldly, and they say nothing to him! Is it possible that our leading men have really discovered that he is the Christ?

7:27  Yet we know where this man is from; but, when the Christ comes, no one will be able to tell where he is from.”

7:28  Therefore, Jesus, as he was teaching in the Temple Courts, raised his voice and said: “Yes; you know me and you know where I am from. Yet I have not come on my own authority, but he who sent me may be trusted; and him you do not know.

7:29  I do know him, for it is from him that I have come, and he sent me as his messenger.”

7:30  So they sought to arrest him; but no one touched him, for his time was not come yet.

7:31  Many of the people, however, believed in him. “When the Christ comes,” they said, “will he give more signs of his mission than this man has given?”

7:32  The Pharisees heard the people whispering about him in this way, and so the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him;

7:33  on which Jesus said: “I will be with you but a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me.

7:34  You will look for me, and you will not find me; and you will not be able to come where I will be.”

7:35  “Where is this man going,” the people asked one another, “that we would not find him? Will he go to our countrymen abroad, and teach foreigners?

7:36  What does he mean by saying ‘You will look for me, and you will not find me; and you will not be able to come where I will be’?”

7:37  On the last and greatest day of the Festival, Jesus, who was standing by, exclaimed: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me, and drink.

7:38  I tell you what I have myself seen in the presence of my Father; and you, in the same way, do what you have learned from your father.”

7:39  (By this he meant the Spirit, which those who had believed in him were to receive; for the Spirit had not yet come, because Jesus had not yet been exalted.)

7:40  But, as it is, you are seeking to put me to death — a man who has told you the truth as he heard it from God. Abraham did not act in that way.

7:41  You are doing what your own father does.” “We are not bastards,” they said, “we have one Father — God himself.”

7:42  Is not it said in scripture that it is of the race of David, and from Bethlehem, the village to which David belonged, that the Christ is to come?”

7:43  So there was a sharp division among the people because of Jesus.

7:44  Some of them wanted to arrest him, and yet no one touched him.

7:45  When the officers returned to the chief priests and Pharisees, they were asked: “Why have you not brought him?”

7:46  “No one ever spoke as he speaks!” they answered.

7:47  “What! Have you been led astray too?” the Pharisees replied.

7:48  “Have any of our leading men believed in him, or any of the Pharisees?

7:49  As for these people who do not know the Law — they are cursed!

7:50  But one of their number, Nicodemus, who before this had been to see Jesus, said to them:

7:51  “Does our law pass judgment on a person without first giving them a hearing, and finding out what they have been doing?”

7:52  “Are you also from Galilee?” they retorted. “Search, and you will find that no prophet is to arise in Galilee!”

7:53  And everyone went home