John 7:14–53

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,