John 7–8

THE UNBELIEF OF JESUS’ BROTHERS

7After this, Jesus traveled in Galilee,^an since he did not want to travel in Judea^ao because the Jews^ap were trying to kill him.^{aq 2}The Jewish Festival of Shelters^Dar was near. ³So his brothers^as said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples can see your works^at that you are doing. ⁴For no one does anything in secret while he’s seeking public recognition. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” ⁵(For not even his brothers believed in him.)

⁶Jesus told them, “My time^au has not yet arrived, but your time is always at hand. ⁷The world cannot hate^av you, but it does hate me because I testify about it—that its works are evil. ⁸Go up to the festival yourselves. I’m not going up to this festival,^E because my time has not yet fully come.” ⁹After he had said these things, he stayed in Galilee.

JESUS AT THE FESTIVAL OF SHELTERS

¹⁰After his brothers had gone up to the festival, then he also went up, not openly but secretly. ¹¹The Jews were looking for him at the festival and saying, “Where is he?” ¹²And there was a lot of murmuring about him among the crowds. Some were saying, “He’s a good^aw man.” Others were saying, “No, on the contrary, he’s deceiving^ax the people.” ¹³Still, nobody was talking publicly about him for fear of the Jews.

¹⁴When the festival was already half over, Jesus went up into the temple^a and began to teach. ¹⁵Then the Jews were amazed and said, “How is this man so learned,^b since he hasn’t been trained?”

¹⁶Jesus answered them, “My teaching isn’t mine but is from the one who sent me.^{c 17}If anyone wants to do his will,^d he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own. ¹⁸The one who speaks on his own seeks his own glory;^e but he who seeks the glory^f of the one who sent him is true,^g and there is no unrighteousness in him.^{h 19}Didn’t Mosesⁱ give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law.^j Why are you trying to kill me?”

²⁰“You have a demon!” the crowd responded. “Who is trying to kill you?”

²¹“I performed one work,^k and you are all amazed,” Jesus answered. ²²“This is why Moses has given you circumcision^l—not that it comes from Moses but from the fathers^m—and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath.^{n 23}If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath^o so that the law of Moses^p won’t be broken, are you angry at me because I made a man entirely well on the Sabbath? ²⁴Stop judging^q according to outward appearances; rather judge according to righteous judgment.”

THE IDENTITY OF THE MESSIAH

²⁵Some of the people of Jerusalem^r were saying, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? ²⁶Yet, look, he’s speaking publicly and they’re saying nothing to him. Can it be true that the authorities^s know he is the Messiah?^{t 27}But we know where this man is from.^u When the Messiah comes, nobody will know where he is from.”

²⁸As he was teaching in the temple,^v Jesus cried out, “You know me and you know where I am from. Yet I have not come on my own, but the one who sent me^w is true. You don’t know him;^{x 29}I know him because I am from him, and he sent me.”^y

³⁰Then they tried to seize him. Yet no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. ³¹However, many from the crowd believed in him and said, “When the Messiah comes, he won’t perform more signs than this man has done,^z will he?”

³²The Pharisees^aa heard the crowd murmuring these things about him, and so the chief priests^ab and the Pharisees sent servants to arrest him.

³³Then Jesus said, “I am only with you for a short time.^ac Then I’m going to the one who sent me.^{ad 34}You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”^ae

³⁵Then the Jews^af said to one another, “Where does he intend to go that we won’t find him? He doesn’t intend to go to the Jewish people dispersed^Bag among the Greeks^ah and teach the Greeks, does he? ³⁶What is this remark he made: ‘You will look for me, and you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come’^ai?”

THE PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT

³⁷On the last and most important day of the festival,^aj Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me^Cak and drink.^{al 38}The one who believes in me,^am as the Scripture^an has said, will have streams of living water^ao flow^ap from deep within him.” ³⁹He said this about the Spirit.^aq Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit,^ar for the Spirit^D had not yet been given^E because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

THE PEOPLE ARE DIVIDED OVER JESUS

⁴⁰When some from the crowd heard these words, they said, “This truly is the Prophet.”^{as 41}Others said, “This is the Messiah.” But some said, “Surely the Messiah doesn’t come from Galilee, does he? ⁴²Doesn’t the Scripture^at say that the Messiah comes from David’s^au offspring^F and from the town of Bethlehem,^av where David lived?” ⁴³So the crowd was divided^aw because of him. ⁴⁴Some of them wanted to seize him,^ax but no one laid hands on him.

DEBATE OVER JESUS’S CLAIMS

⁴⁵Then the servants^ay came to the chief priests^az and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him?”

⁴⁶The servants answered, “No man ever spoke like this!”^Aba

⁴⁷Then the Pharisees responded to them, “Are you fooled^bb too? ⁴⁸Have any of the rulers^bc or Pharisees believed in him? ⁴⁹But this crowd, which doesn’t know the law, is accursed.”

⁵⁰Nicodemus^bd—the one who came to him previously and who was one of them—said to them, ⁵¹“Our law doesn’t judge a man before it hears from him and knows what he’s doing, does it?”^a

⁵²“You aren’t from Galilee^b too, are you?” they replied. “Investigate and you will see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”^c

[⁵³Then each one went to his house. 8But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.^d

AN ADULTERESS FORGIVEN

²At dawn he went to the temple^e again, and all the people were coming to him.^f He sat down^g and began to teach them.

³Then the scribes and the Pharisees^h brought a woman caught in adultery,ⁱ making her stand in the center. ⁴“Teacher,” they said to him, “this woman was caught in the act of committing adultery.^{j 5}In the law Moses^k commanded us to stone such women.^l So what do you say?” ⁶They asked this to trap him,^m in order that they might have evidence to accuse him.

Jesus stooped down and started writing on the ground with his finger. ⁷When they persisted in questioning him, he stood up and said to them, “The one without sinⁿ among you^o should be the first to throw a stone at her.”^{p 8}Then he stooped down again and continued writing on the ground. ⁹When they heard this, they left one by one, starting with the older men. Only he was left, with the woman in the center. ¹⁰When Jesus stood up, he said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

¹¹“No one, Lord,” she answered.

“Neither do I condemn you,”^q said Jesus. “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.”]

THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

¹²Jesus spoke to them again: “I am^r the light^s of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”^t

¹³So the Pharisees said to him, “You are testifying about yourself. Your testimony is not valid.”

¹⁴“Even if I testify about myself,” Jesus replied, “my testimony is true, because I know where I came from and where I’m going. But you don’t know where I come from or where I’m going.^{u 15}You judge^v by human standards.^Dw I judge no one.^{x 16}And if I do judge, my judgment is true, because it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.^{y 17}Even in your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true.^{z 18}I am the one who testifies^aa about myself, and the Father who sent me testifies about me.”

¹⁹Then they asked him, “Where is your Father?”

“You know neither me nor my Father,”^ab Jesus answered. “If you knew me, you would also know my Father.”^{ac 20}He spoke these words by the treasury,^ad while teaching in the temple. But no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come.

JESUS PREDICTS HIS DEPARTURE

²¹Then he said to them again, “I’m going away;^ae you will look for me, and you will die in your sin.^af Where I’m going, you cannot come.”^ag

²²So the Jews said again, “He won’t kill himself, will he, since he says, ‘Where I’m going, you cannot come’^ah?”

²³“You are from below,” he told them, “I am from above.^ai You are of this world;^aj I am not of this world.^{ak 24}Therefore I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.”

²⁵“Who are you?” they questioned.

“Exactly what I’ve been telling you from the very beginning,” Jesus told them. ²⁶“I have many things to say and to judge about you, but the one who sent me^al is true, and what I have heard from him—these things I tell the world.”^am

²⁷They did not know he was speaking to them about the Father. ²⁸So Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man,^an then you will know that I am^ao he, and that I do nothing on my own.^ap But just as the Father taught me, I say these things. ²⁹The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone,^aq because I always do what pleases him.”

TRUTH AND FREEDOM

³⁰As he was saying these things, many believed in him.

³¹Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you continue in my word,^a you really are my disciples. ³²You will know the truth,^b and the truth will set you free.”

³³“We are descendants of Abraham,”^c they answered him, “and we have never been enslaved to anyone. How can you say, ‘You will become free’?”

³⁴Jesus responded, “Truly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.^{d 35}A slave does not remain in the household forever,^e but a son does remain forever.^{f 36}So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free. ³⁷I know you are descendants of Abraham,^g but you are trying to kill me because my word has no place among you. ³⁸I speak what I have seen^h in the presence of the Father;^Ci so then, you do what you have heard from your father.”

³⁹“Our father is Abraham,” they replied.

“If you were Abraham’s…