John 7

1After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him.

2Now the Jewish Festival of Booths was near.

3So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples also may see the works you are doing.

4For no one who wants to be known publicly does things in secret. If you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.”

5For not even his brothers believed in him.

6So Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but any time is right for you.

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 fully come.”

9After saying this, he stayed on in Galilee.

10But after his brothers had gone up to the festival, then he also went up, not openly but in secret, as it were.

11The Jews were looking for him at the festival and saying, “Where is he?”

12There was a lot of muttering about him among the crowds. Some were saying, “He is a good man,” while others were saying, “No, he is leading the people astray.”

13Yet no one would speak openly about him, for fear of the Jews.

14When the festival was already half over, Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach.

15The Jews were amazed and said, “How does this man have such learning, when he has never studied?”

16So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.

17If anyone is willing to do his will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own.

18Whoever speaks on his own seeks his own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and there is no wrong in him.

19Did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”

20The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is trying to kill you?”

21Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you are all amazed.

22For this reason Moses gave you circumcision—not that it comes from Moses, but from the patriarchs—and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath.

23If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses will not be broken, why are you angry with me because I made a whole man well on the Sabbath?

24Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”

25Then some of the people of Jerusalem said, “Is this not the man they are trying to kill?

26And look, he is speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Could it be that the authorities really know that this is the Messiah?

27But we know where this man comes from, and when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he comes from.”

28So Jesus cried out as he was teaching in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from. Yet I have not come on my own. The one who sent me is true, and you do not know him.

29I know him, because I come from him, and he sent me.”

30So they tried to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.

31Yet many in the crowd believed in him, and they said, “When the Messiah comes, will he do more signs than this man has done?”

32The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.

33Then Jesus said, “I will be with you only a little while longer, and then I am going to him who sent me.

34You will look for me, but you will not find me, and where I am, you cannot come.”

35The 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?

36What does he mean by saying, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me, and where I am, you cannot come’?”

37On the last day of the festival, the great day, Jesus stood and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

38Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from within him.’”

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.

40When they heard these words, some of the people in the crowd said, “This really is the Prophet.”

41Others said, “This is the Messiah.” But others said, “Surely the Messiah does not come from Galilee, does he?

42Has not the Scripture said that the Messiah comes from the offspring of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?”

43So the crowd was divided because of him.

44Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

45Then the officers went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?”

46The officers answered, “No one has ever spoken like this!”

47The Pharisees answered them, “Have you been deceived too?

48Has any of the rulers or any of the Pharisees believed in him?

49But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.”

50Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and was one of them, said to them,

51“Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and finding out what he is doing?”

52They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and you will see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”

53[Then each one went to his own home.]