John 7:32–53

Officers Sent to Arrest Jesus

³²The Pharisees heard the crowd ^pmuttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent ^qofficers to arrest him. ³³Jesus then said, ^r“I will be with you a little longer, and then ^sI am going to him who sent me. ^34tYou will seek me and you will not find me. 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? ^uDoes he intend to go to ^vthe Dispersion among ^wthe Greeks and teach the Greeks? ³⁶What does he mean by saying, ^x‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?”

Rivers of Living Water

^37yOn the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ^z“If anyone thirsts, let him ^acome to me and drink. ³⁸Whoever believes in me, ^bas⁶ the Scripture has said, ^c‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of ^dliving water.’ ” ³⁹Now ^ethis he said about the Spirit, ^fwhom those who believed in him were to receive, ^gfor as yet the Spirit had not been ^hgiven, ⁱbecause Jesus was not yet glorified.

Division Among the People

⁴⁰When they heard these words, ^jsome of the people said, “This really is ^kthe Prophet.” ⁴¹Others said, “This is ^lthe Christ.” But some said, ^m“Is the Christ to come from Galilee? ⁴²Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes ⁿfrom the offspring of David, and comes ^ofrom Bethlehem, the village ^pwhere David was?” ⁴³So there was ^qa division among the people over him. ^44rSome of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

^45sThe officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” ⁴⁶The officers answered, ^t“No one ever spoke like this man!” ⁴⁷The Pharisees answered them, ^u“Have you also been deceived? ^48vHave any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? ⁴⁹But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” ^50wNicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, ^51x“Does our law judge a man without first ^ygiving him a hearing and learning what he does?” ⁵²They replied, ^z“Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that ^ano prophet arises from Galilee.”

[The earliest manuscripts do not include 7:53–8:11.]¹

The Woman Caught in Adultery

8[[⁵³They went each to his own house,