seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
John 7:1 After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want[a] to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him. 2 But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, 3 Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. 4 No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 For even his own brothers did not believe in him.
6 Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. 8 You go to the festival. I am not[b] going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.” 9 After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee.
10 However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. 11 Now at the festival the Jewish leaders were watching for Jesus and asking, “Where is he?”
12 Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, “He is a good man.”
Others replied, “No, he deceives the people.” 13 But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the leaders.
14 Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. 15 The Jews there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught?”
16 Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. 17 Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. 18 Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. 19 Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”
20 “You are demon-possessed,” the crowd answered. “Who is trying to kill you?”
21 Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed. 22 Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath. 23 Now 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? 24 Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.”
25 At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? 26 Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he 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, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, 29 but I know him because I am from him and he sent me.”
30 At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. 31 Still, many in the crowd believed in him. They said, “When the Messiah comes, will he perform more signs than this man?”
32 The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.
33 Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I am going to the one who sent me. 34 You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”
35 The 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 among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? 36 What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”
37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”[c] 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
40 On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”
41 Others said, “He is the Messiah.”
Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? 42 Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” 43 Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. 44 Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.
45 Finally 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,” the guards replied.
47 “You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. 48 “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? 49 No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”
50 Nicodemus, 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?”
52 They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”
[The earliest manuscripts and many other ancient witnesses do not have John 7:53—8:11. A few manuscripts include these verses, wholly or in part, after John 7:36, John 21:25, Luke 21:38 or Luke 24:53.]
53 Then they all went home,
Footnotes:
a. John 7:1 Some manuscripts not have authority
b. John 7:8 Some manuscripts not yet
c. John 7:38 Or me. And let anyone drink 38 who believes in me.” As Scripture has said, “Out of him (or them) will flow rivers of living water.”
This is from the easy English site.
The Pharisees and the scribes studied the Law all the time. They had added many extra rules to it, too. They liked to think that they obeyed every rule. But Jesus accused them all. He said that they were not obeying the Law. This was because they wanted to kill him. Of course, the Law did not allow murder. This was one of God’s 10 most important rules (Exodus 20:1-17).
Jesus contrasted his attitude and the Jewish leaders’ attitude to the Sabbath. He referred back to the time when he cured the man by the pool (John 5:1-18). He had told the man to carry his mat. To the Jewish leaders, this was ‘work’. But the Jewish leaders ‘worked’ on the Sabbath, too. To obey Moses’ Law, people had to circumcise boys on the 8th day after their birth (Genesis 17:9-14; Leviticus 12:3). They always did this, even if the 8th day was the Sabbath. They made an exception to the rules about the Sabbath when they circumcised boys. But they could not make an exception to the rules in order to make a sick person completely well again!
Jesus showed also that the Jewish leaders were using the Law to suit themselves. They emphasised the rules about the Sabbath. And they emphasised how it was important to obey these rules. But they did not care about one of God’s 10 most important rules, because they were intending to murder Jesus!
After Jesus’ speech, the people had different opinions about who he was. Some people said that he was the Prophet or the Messiah (see note on John 1:21 and 6:14). Both ‘the *Prophet’ and ‘the *Messiah’ meant the same person. So these people were correct. But other people said that Jesus could not be the Messiah. They knew that he had come from Nazareth. So they thought that he had been born there, in Galilee. They did not realise that he had been born in Bethlehem. So, in fact, the prophecy that they mentioned (Micah 5:2) did refer to Jesus. But it seems that the people had decided already about Jesus. So the facts about where he was born did not interest them.
The Jewish leaders were very angry! They were very proud people. They believed that they were superior to the ordinary Jews. And there was an important reason why they believed this. For much of their lives, they had studied the Law and all the other rules. They thought that only they knew the truth about God. Because they did not agree with Jesus, they did not listen to him sincerely. Their minds and their hearts were not ready to receive the truth.
But many people in the crowd believed in Jesus. So the leaders said that the crowd did not really know the Law. They had not studied it, as the leaders had. Therefore, the leaders said, the crowd could not obey God properly. And they believed anything! The leaders said that God would punish the crowd for this.
But Nicodemus accused the other leaders. He himself was a *ewish leader. But he said that they were not obeying the Law. They had decided immediately that Jesus was guilty of a crime. They had not given him a proper opportunity to speak to them. This was not legal.
Nicodemus was bold. He did not care what the other leaders thought about him. He did not care if he did not continue to be popular among them.
Of course, the leaders knew that Nicodemus was not from Galilee. But they wanted to insult him because he was helping Jesus.
For quite some time... I've been fearing a peace agreement in Israel followed by a horrific earthquake that changes the landscape totally. Meanwhile in Jerusalem.... back in the days of Jesus.... they thought their Messiah would show up suddenly. I believe He will show up suddenly as well.... and there will be no doubt that He's the Messiah. He'll become king of the world. Now back in the days of Jesus..... the people were watching Bethlehem... because the Messiah was going to be born in Bethlehem. Remember.... they tried to murder Jesus when He was a newborn? Remember.... He had to be taken to Egypt in the middle of the night to save Him from the first Herod's cunning. [not the current Herod.... who murdered John the Baptist.... it was Herod's dad .... also named Herod who tried to murder Jesus as a baby]. Those people didn't realize that Jesus was not born in Nazareth.... He was born in Bethlehem.
Jesus had human brothers. Of course they were only half brothers.... but they were brothers.... boys who had been around Jesus their whole life. To them He was a human.... a little odd maybe but a human. All this public stuff must have been annoying to them. I bet they had to stay home and work on the family business.... carpentry.... while Jesus went off galavanting all around with people hanging on His very words...... hey maybe He should get into politics..... bet they could rule the world..... even His own brothers didn't have a clue.
But the big deal IMHO about today's chapter was the talk about circumcision and murder. Those leaders of the church would perform a circumcision on the Sabbath..... but there was no way they would save a man who was dying on the Sabbath. Those leaders of the church would talk about loving God and then discuss the murder of a man they hated because He knew the scripture better than they did.
Odd..... circumcision and murder....
