John 7
The full text of John 7 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Greek. Free to read.
1 After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jewish leaders were seeking to kill him.
2 Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Tabernacles, was near.
3 So his brothers said to him, "Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works that you are doing.
4 For no one does anything in secret while seeking to be known publicly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world."
5 For not even his brothers believed in him.
6 Jesus then said to them, "My time has not yet come, but your time is always here.
7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I testify about it that its works are evil.
8 You go up to the feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come."
9 Having said these things, he himself remained in Galilee.
10 But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he himself also went up, not openly but, as it were, in secret.
11 The Jewish leaders therefore were looking for him at the feast, and saying, "Where is he?"
12 And there was much grumbling about him among the crowds. While some were saying, "He is a good man," others were saying, "No, he is leading the people astray."
13 Yet for fear of the Jewish leaders no one spoke openly about him.
14 About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach.
15 The Jewish leaders therefore marveled, saying, "How does this man have such learning, when he has never been taught?"
16 Jesus answered them, "My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.
17 If anyone wills to do his will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is from God or whether I am speaking from myself.
18 Whoever speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but whoever seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and there is no falsehood in him.
19 Did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?"
20 The crowd answered, "You have a demon. Who is seeking to kill you?"
21 Jesus answered them, "I did one work, and you all marvel.
22 Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath.
23 If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because I made a man's whole body well on the Sabbath?
24 Do not judge by appearance, but judge with right judgment."
25 Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, "Is not this the man whom they seek to kill?
26 And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Messiah?
27 But we know where this man is from. When the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from."
28 Then Jesus, teaching in the temple, cried out, "You both know me and know where I am from. Yet I have not come of my own accord, but he who sent me is true, whom you do not know.
29 I know him, for I am from him, and he sent me."
30 So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.
31 Yet many of the crowd believed in him. They said, "When the Messiah comes, will he do more signs than this man has done?"
32 The Pharisees heard the crowd grumbling these things about him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.
33 Jesus then said, "I am with you a little while longer, and then I am going to him who sent me.
34 You will seek me and not find me; where I am, you cannot come."
35 The Jewish leaders therefore said to one another, "Where does this man intend to go that we shall not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks?
36 What does this saying mean which he said, 'You will seek me and not find me, and where I am, you cannot come'?"
37 On the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'"
39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
40 When they heard these words, some of the people said, "This really is the Prophet."
41 Others said, "This is the Messiah." But others said, "Is the Messiah to come from Galilee?
42 Has not the Scripture said that the Messiah comes from David's seed and from the village of Bethlehem, where David was?"
43 So there was a division in the crowd over him.
44 Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.
45 The officers then went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, "Why did you not bring him?"
46 The officers answered, "No man ever spoke like this man!"
47 The Pharisees answered them, "Have you also been led astray?
48 Has anyone of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him?
49 But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed."
50 Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them,
51 "Does our law judge a man without first hearing him and finding out what he is doing?"
52 They answered him, "Are you also from Galilee? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee."
53* They went each to his own house,
This passage (John 7:53—8:11) is not found in the earliest and most reliable manuscripts.
Translation notes (17)
- John 7:2a Σκηνοπηγία 'Feast of Tabernacles / Booths' — autumn pilgrimage festival commemorating Israel's wilderness wandering in temporary shelters (Lev 23:33-43). The festival's water-libation ceremony (drawing water from Siloam pool, processing to the temple) is the ritual background for Jesus's living-water saying in v.37.
- John 7:6a καιρός ('time / opportunity / appointed moment') — distinct from χρόνος ('chronological time') and ὥρα ('hour' as Johannine technical term). καιρός is the divinely-appointed kairos-moment. Both vocabularies (καιρός, ὥρα) frame Jesus's ministry as following a divine timetable.
- John 7:8a Manuscripts split: P66, P75, B, L, T, W read οὔπω ('not yet,' NA28 preferred); ℵ, D, KJV read οὐκ ('not'). NA28's 'not yet' resolves the apparent contradiction with v.10 ('he himself also went up to the feast'); the 'not' reading creates an apparent inconsistency, which is probably why some early scribes changed it.
- John 7:15a πῶς οὗτος γράμματα οἶδεν μὴ μεμαθηκώς — 'how does this one know letters, having not learned?' γράμματα 'letters' = formal scholarly education in Torah/rabbinic tradition. The objection: Jesus's teaching shows depth that ought to require rabbinic training, but he has none. The miracle of his teaching is the second sign — alongside his physical signs.
- John 7:21a 'One work' refers to the Bethzatha healing (chapter 5) — the Sabbath miracle that prompted the kill-decision (5:18). Jesus recalls it to set up the Sabbath/circumcision argument in vv.22-23.
- John 7:27a Reflects a Jewish folk-belief: the Messiah's origin would be hidden, only revealed at his appearing. Cf. 1 Enoch 48:6; 4 Ezra 13:52. The crowd's confidence that they know Jesus's origin (Galilee, son of Joseph) is meant to disqualify him as Messiah.
- John 7:35a ἡ διασπορὰ τῶν Ἑλλήνων 'the Dispersion of the Greeks' = the Diaspora — Jews living among Gentiles outside Palestine. The Jewish leaders' speculation drips with disdain: would Jesus stoop to teaching Hellenized diaspora Jews and Gentiles? The dramatic irony: this is exactly what the post-resurrection mission becomes (Acts 11:19-20, Paul's missionary journeys).
- John 7:37a 'Last day, the great day' = the seventh or eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles. The festival's water-libation ceremony (drawing water from the pool of Siloam, processing to the temple, pouring it on the altar) was the daily ritual highlight — performed seven times on the seventh day. Jesus's living-water proclamation explicitly co-opts the festival's water-symbolism: he is the source the libation pointed to. Cross-ref to 4:14 ('a spring of water welling up to eternal life') and 6:35 ('whoever believes in me shall never thirst').
- John 7:38a Greek punctuation determines whether the rivers flow FROM the believer ('out of HIS heart' — the believer's; NA28's punctuation, NIV/ESV/most) or FROM JESUS ('out of HIS heart' — Christ's, with the previous clause structurally rearranged). Both have ancient support. The Christological reading fits the later 19:34 piercing-scene where blood and water flow from Jesus. The believer-reading fits the Spirit-indwelling theology of v.39. Brand keeps NA28 punctuation; footnote captures the Christological alternative.
- John 7:38b 'As the Scripture has said' — but no single OT passage matches exactly. Likely a conflation of Isa 58:11 ('a spring of water whose waters do not fail'), Ezek 47:1-12 (river from the temple), Zech 14:8 ('living waters from Jerusalem'), Ps 78:16 (water from the rock). Jesus reads the temple-water-source typology Christologically.
- John 7:39a The Greek phrase `oupō gar ēn pneuma` literally means "for the Spirit was not yet." Some manuscripts add `dedomenon` ("given"), which is bracketed in the critical Greek text, while others leave it implied. The compact Greek phrase means "the Spirit had not yet been given," referring to the Spirit not yet being poured out on the church, which awaited Jesus's glorification (his death, resurrection, and ascension).
- John 7:39b The Greek word `doxazō`, meaning "glorify," refers to the entire sequence of events in John's Gospel: Jesus's cross, resurrection, and ascension (compare John 12:23, "the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified," and 13:31-32, 17:1, 17:5). The outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2) happened after this glorification, confirming Jesus's prediction in this verse.
- John 7:42a Crowd cites Mic 5:2 + 2 Sam 7:12-16 (David's seed). The dramatic irony: readers of John know Jesus WAS born in Bethlehem (Matt 2, Luke 2), but the crowd objects on the assumption he wasn't. The Gospel narrator does not pause to correct — readers supply the resolution. The crowd's self-confident knowledge is wrong; Jesus's origin is BOTH Galilee (residence) AND Bethlehem (birth) AND from the Father.
- John 7:49a 'Accursed' (ἐπάρατοί) — strong Pharisaic dismissal of the ʿam ha-aretz ('people of the land,' the unlearned masses). The Pharisees' contempt reveals a class-based understanding of religion: only Torah-trained insiders are legitimate. The dramatic irony: Jesus repeatedly affirms the very crowd they dismiss (cf. Matt 5:3-12 Beatitudes; Luke 6:20-26).
- John 7:50a Cross-reference to chapter 3 ('the man who came to Jesus by night') — Nicodemus's discipleship arc continues. By 19:39 he will publicly help bury Jesus.
- John 7:52a Some manuscripts (P66*, P75) read "THE prophet (`ho prophētēs`) does not arise from Galilee," referring to the special Prophet expected in the end times, mentioned in Deuteronomy 18 (compare John 7:40). The critical Greek text reads "a prophet." In either case, the Pharisees' statement is factually incorrect, as Jonah was from Gath-Hepher in Galilee (2 Kings 14:25), and arguably Hosea, Nahum, and Elijah were also from Galilee. Their historical error highlights their irritation, showing they are wrong about both proper legal procedure (verse 51) and about prophets coming from Galilee.
- John 7:53a Verse 7:53 begins the passage known as the Pericope Adulterae (7:53-8:11), which is missing from P66, P75, ℵ, B, A, C, and most early translations. It is present in Codex Bezae (D) and later Byzantine manuscripts. The critical Greek text places double brackets around it. While the content, such as Jesus's mercy and the saying "let the one without sin cast the first stone," aligns with his character and likely preserves a genuine tradition about Jesus, its placement here in John's Gospel is not original.
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