John 7–8

Jesus Goes to the Festival of Tabernacles

7After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want^a to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders^e there were looking for a way to kill him.^{f 2}But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles^g was near, ³Jesus’ brothers^h said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. ⁴No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” ⁵For even his own brothers did not believe in him.ⁱ

⁶Therefore Jesus told them, “My time^j is not yet here; for you any time will do. ⁷The world cannot hate you, but it hates me^k because I testify that its works are evil.^{l 8}You go to the festival. I am not^b going up to this festival, because my time^m has not yet fully come.” ⁹After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee.

¹⁰However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. ¹¹Now at the festival the Jewish leaders were watching for Jesusⁿ and asking, “Where is he?”

¹²Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, “He is a good man.”

Others replied, “No, he deceives the people.”^{o 13}But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the leaders.^p

Jesus Teaches at the Festival

¹⁴Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach.^{q 15}The Jews^r there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning^s without having been taught?”^t

¹⁶Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me.^{u 17}Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out^v whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. ¹⁸Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory,^w but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. ¹⁹Has not Moses given you the law?^x Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”^y

²⁰“You are demon-possessed,”^z the crowd answered. “Who is trying to kill you?”

²¹Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle,^a and you are all amazed. ²²Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision^b (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs),^c you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath. ²³Now if a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing a man’s whole body on the Sabbath? ²⁴Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.”^d

Division Over Who Jesus Is

²⁵At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill?^{e 26}Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities^f really concluded that he is the Messiah?^{g 27}But we know where this man is from;^h when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.”

²⁸Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts,ⁱ cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from.^j I am not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true.^k You do not know him, ²⁹but I know him^l because I am from him and he sent me.”^m

³⁰At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him,ⁿ because his hour had not yet come.^{o 31}Still, many in the crowd believed in him.^p They said, “When the Messiah comes, will he perform more signs^q than this man?”

³²The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.

³³Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time,^r and then I am going to the one who sent me.^{s 34}You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”^t

³⁵The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered^u among the Greeks,^v and teach the Greeks? ³⁶What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”^w

³⁷On the last and greatest day of the festival,^x Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.^{y 38}Whoever believes^z in me, as Scripture has said,^a rivers of living water^b will flow from within them.”^{cc 39}By this he meant the Spirit,^d whom those who believed in him were later to receive.^e Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.^f

⁴⁰On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”^g

⁴¹Others said, “He is the Messiah.”

Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee?^{h 42}Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendantsⁱ and from Bethlehem,^j the town where David lived?” ⁴³Thus the people were divided^k because of Jesus. ⁴⁴Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.^l

Unbelief of the Jewish Leaders

⁴⁵Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”

⁴⁶“No one ever spoke the way this man does,”^m the guards replied.

⁴⁷“You mean he has deceived you also?”ⁿ the Pharisees retorted. ⁴⁸“Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him?^{o 49}No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”

⁵⁰Nicodemus,^p who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, ⁵¹“Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”

⁵²They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”^q

8⁵³Then they all went home, ¹but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.^r

²At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.^{s 3}The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group ⁴and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. ⁵In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women.^t Now what do you say?” ⁶They were using this question as a trap,^u in order to have a basis for accusing him.^v

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. ⁷When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone^w at her.”^{x 8}Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

⁹At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. ¹⁰Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

¹¹“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,”^y Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”^z

Dispute Over Jesus’ Testimony

¹²When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am^a the light of the world.^b Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”^c

¹³The Pharisees challenged him, “Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.”^d

¹⁴Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going.^e But you have no idea where I come from^f or where I am going. ¹⁵You judge by human standards;^g I pass judgment on no one.^{h 16}But if I do judge, my decisions are true, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent me.^{i 17}In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true.^{j 18}I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me.”^k

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

“You do not know me or my Father,”^l Jesus replied. “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”^{m 20}He spoke these words while teachingⁿ in the temple courts near the place where the offerings were put.^o Yet no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come.^p

Dispute Over Who Jesus Is

²¹Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die^q in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.”^r

²²This made the Jews ask, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ‘Where I go, you cannot come’?”

²³But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.^{s 24}I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he,^t you will indeed die in your sins.”

²⁵“Who are you?” they asked.

“Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,” Jesus replied. ²⁶“I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is trustworthy,^u and what I have heard from him I tell the world.”^v

²⁷They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father. ²⁸So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up^a the Son of Man,^w then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.^{x 29}The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone,^y for I always do what pleases him.”^{z 30}Even as he spoke, many believed in him.^a

Dispute Over Whose Children Jesus’ Opponents Are

³¹To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching,^b you are really my disciples. ³²Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”^c

³³They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants^d and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”

³⁴Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.^{e 35}Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.^{f 36}So if the Son sets you free,^g you will be free indeed. ³⁷I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me,^h because you have no room for my word. ³⁸I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence,ⁱ and you are doing what you have heard from your father.^b”^j

³⁹“Abraham is our father,” they answered.

“If you were Abraham’s children,”^k said Jesus, “then you would^c do what Abraham did. ⁴⁰As…