John - Chapter 7

¹ After this Jesus travelled round Galilee; he could not travel round Judaea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him.

² As the Jewish feast of Shelters drew near,

³ his brothers said to him, 'Leave this place and go to Judaea, so that your disciples, too, can see the works you are doing;

⁴ no one who wants to be publicly known acts in secret; if this is what you are doing, you should reveal yourself to the world.'

⁵ Not even his brothers had faith in him.

⁶ Jesus answered, 'For me the right time has not come yet, but for you any time is the right time.

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

⁸ Go up to the festival yourselves: I am not going to this festival, because for me the time is not ripe yet.'

⁹ Having said that, he stayed behind in Galilee.

¹⁰ However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went up as well, not publicly but secretly.

¹¹ At the festival the Jews were on the look-out for him: 'Where is he?' they said.

¹² There was a great deal of talk about him in the crowds. Some said, 'He is a good man'; others, 'No, he is leading the people astray.'

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

¹⁴ When the festival was half over, Jesus went to the Temple and began to teach.

¹⁵ The Jews were astonished and said, 'How did he learn to read? He has not been educated.'

¹⁶ Jesus answered them: 'My teaching is not from myself: it comes from the one who sent me;

¹⁷ anyone who is prepared to do his will, will know whether my teaching is from God or whether I speak on my own account.

¹⁸ When someone speaks on his own account, he is seeking honour for himself; but when he is seeking the honour of the person who sent him, then he is true and altogether without dishonesty.

¹⁹ Did not Moses give you the Law? And yet not one of you keeps the Law! 'Why do you want to kill me?'

²⁰ The crowd replied, 'You are mad! Who wants to kill you?'

²¹ Jesus answered, 'One work I did, and you are all amazed at it.

²² Moses ordered you to practise circumcision -- not that it began with him, it goes back to the patriarchs -- and you circumcise on the Sabbath.

²³ Now if someone can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses is not broken, why are you angry with me for making someone completely healthy on a Sabbath?

²⁴ Do not keep judging according to appearances; let your judgement be according to what is right.'

²⁵ Meanwhile some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, 'Isn't this the man they want to kill?

²⁶ And here he is, speaking openly, and they have nothing to say to him! Can it be true the authorities have recognised that he is the Christ?

²⁷ Yet we all know where he comes from, but when the Christ appears no one will know where he comes from.'

²⁸ Then, as Jesus was teaching in the Temple, he cried out: You know me and you know where I came from. Yet I have not come of my own accord: but he who sent me is true; You do not know him,

²⁹ but I know him because I have my being from him and it was he who sent me.

³⁰ They wanted to arrest him then, but because his hour had not yet come no one laid a hand on him.

³¹ There were many people in the crowds, however, who believed in him; they were saying, 'When the Christ comes, will he give more signs than this man has?'

³² Hearing that talk like this about him was spreading among the people, the Pharisees sent the Temple guards to arrest him.

³³ Then Jesus said: For a short time I am with you still; then I shall go back to the one who sent me.

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

³⁵ So the Jews said to one another, 'Where is he intending to go that we shall not be able to find him? Is he intending to go abroad to the people who are dispersed among the Greeks and to teach the Greeks?

³⁶ What does he mean when he says: "You will look for me and will not find me; where I am, you cannot come?" '

³⁷ On the last day, the great day of the festival, Jesus stood and cried out: 'Let anyone who is thirsty come to me!

³⁸ Let anyone who believes in me come and drink! As scripture says, "From his heart shall flow streams of living water." '

³⁹ He was speaking of the Spirit which those who believed in him were to receive; for there was no Spirit as yet because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

⁴⁰ Some of the crowd who had been listening said, 'He is indeed the prophet,'

⁴¹ and some said, 'He is the Christ,' but others said, 'Would the Christ come from Galilee?

⁴² Does not scripture say that the Christ must be descended from David and come from Bethlehem, the village where David was?'

⁴³ So the people could not agree about him.

⁴⁴ Some wanted to arrest him, but no one actually laid a hand on him.

⁴⁵ The guards went back to the chief priests and Pharisees who said to them, 'Why haven't you brought him?'

⁴⁶ The guards replied, 'No one has ever spoken like this man.'

⁴⁷ 'So,' the Pharisees answered, 'you, too, have been led astray?

⁴⁸ Have any of the authorities come to believe in him? Any of the Pharisees?

⁴⁹ This rabble knows nothing about the Law -- they are damned.'

⁵⁰ One of them, Nicodemus -- the same man who had come to Jesus earlier -- said to them,

⁵¹ 'But surely our Law does not allow us to pass judgement on anyone without first giving him a hearing and discovering what he is doing?'

⁵² To this they answered, 'Are you a Galilean too? Go into the matter, and see for yourself: prophets do not arise in Galilee.'

⁵³ They all went home,

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