Chapter 7

1After this, Jesus traveled around Galilee. He did not want to travel in Judea because the Jewish authorities there were looking for a way to kill him.

2The Jewish Festival of Shelters was near.

3So Jesus’ brothers told him, “Leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples there can also see the works you are doing.

4They continued, “No one does things in secret while wanting to be publicly known. If you really do these things, show yourself to the world.”

5Even his brothers did not believe in him.

6Jesus told them, “The right time for me has not arrived yet, but any time is right for you.

7The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I tell people that what they do is evil.

8You go up to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet reached its fulfillment.”

9After saying this, Jesus remained in Galilee.

10But after his brothers had gone up to the festival, Jesus also went—not openly, but in secret.

11The Jewish authorities were looking for him during the festival and asking, “Where is that man?”

12The crowds were quietly arguing a great deal about him. Some said, “He is a good man.” Others said, “No, he is misleading the crowd.”

13Yet no one spoke openly about him because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities.

14When the festival was already half over, Jesus went to the Temple grounds and began teaching.

15The Jewish authorities were amazed and asked, “How does this man know so much without having received formal training?”

16Jesus answered them, “What I teach does not come from me. It comes from God, who sent me.

17Anyone who chooses to do what God wants will know whether my teaching comes from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.

18A person who speaks on his own authority is seeking honor for himself. But the person who seeks honor for the one who sent him is truthful, and there is nothing dishonest in him.

19Didn’t Moses give you the Law? Yet none of you obeys it. Why are you trying to kill me?”

20The crowd answered, “A demon has taken hold of you! Who is trying to kill you?”

21Jesus replied, “I did one remarkable work, and all of you are amazed.

22That is why Moses gave you circumcision—the ritual removal of a boy’s foreskin—although the practice did not begin with Moses but with your ancestors. You circumcise a boy even on the Sabbath.

23If a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that Moses’ Law will not be broken, why are you furious with me for making an entire person healthy on the Sabbath?

24Stop judging by appearances. Judge fairly.”

25Then some Jerusalem residents said, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill?

26Look! He is speaking openly, and they say nothing to him. Could our leaders actually have recognized that he is the Messiah, God’s promised king?

27But we know where this man comes from. When the Messiah comes, no one will know where he comes from.”

28While teaching on the Temple grounds, Jesus called out, “So you know me, and you know where I come from! Yet I did not come on my own authority. The one who sent me is genuine, but you do not know him.

29I know him because I come from him, and he sent me.”

30Then they tried to arrest Jesus, but no one laid a hand on him because his appointed time had not yet come.

31Yet many people in the crowd believed in him. They said, “When the Messiah comes, surely he will not perform more miraculous signs than this man has, will he?”

32The Pharisees, members of a strict Jewish religious group, heard the crowd whispering these things about Jesus. So the chief priests and Pharisees sent Temple guards to arrest him.

33Jesus said, “I will be with you for only a little longer. Then I am going to the one who sent me.

34You will look for me but will not find me, and you cannot come where I am.”

35The Jewish authorities asked one another, “Where does he intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Jews scattered throughout the Greek world and teach the Greeks?

36What does he mean by saying, ‘You will look for me but will not find me, and you cannot come where I am’?”

37On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and called out, “If anyone is thirsty, let that person come to me and drink.

38Whoever believes in me—as Scripture says—rivers of living water will flow from deep within that person.”

39Jesus was speaking about God’s Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive. The Spirit was not yet present in this way because Jesus had not yet been honored with glory.

40When some people in the crowd heard these words, they said, “He really is the promised Prophet!”

41Others said, “He is the Messiah!” But still others said, “Surely the Messiah does not come from Galilee, does he?

42Doesn’t Scripture say that the Messiah comes from David’s family and from Bethlehem, David’s hometown?”

43So the crowd became divided because of Jesus.

44Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

45The Temple guards returned to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”

46The guards answered, “No one has ever spoken like this.”

47The Pharisees replied, “Have you been misled too?

48Has any member of the ruling council or any Pharisee believed in him?

49But this crowd knows nothing about Moses’ Law. They are cursed!”

50Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus before and was himself one of the Pharisees, said to them,

51“Our Law does not judge a person without first hearing from him and learning what he is doing, does it?”

52They answered him, “You aren’t from Galilee too, are you? Look into it, and you will see that no prophet comes from Galilee.”

53Then everyone went home.