John 7

SUMMARY.--The Unbelief of the Brethren of Jesus. He Goes to the Feast of Tabernacles. He Teaches in the Temple. The Discussions Among the People. The Pharisees Send Officers to Take Him. The Last Day of the Feast. The Report to the Officers.

      1. After these things. The events narrated in the last chapter. About six months of the ministry in Galilee intervened between the feeding of the Five Thousand and the Feast of Tabernacles. During this interval the Lord kept away from Judea on account of the enmity of the authorities there.

      2. Now the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand. It fell in the month Tizri, covering part of September and of October, and lasted for a week. It was one of the three feasts that all Jews were expected to attend.

      3. His brethren said unto him. His brothers. John 2:12. Depart hence, and go into Judea. A long time had passed since he had been at Jerusalem, and these brethren wished him to show his mighty powers there.

      4. If thou do these things. These brethren still were doubters. He differed so from their idea of the Christ that they could not understand him, and they hoped that at Jerusalem he would be made manifest. They afterwards became believers.

      6. My time is not yet come. For the full manifestation of himself. This required his death and resurrection.

      7. The world cannot hate you. Because then it would hate its own, but it hated him because he rebuked its sins. They were of the world; he was not.

      8. I go not up yet. He does not say that he will not go, but he will not go yet. He did not wish to go in the great multitude of pilgrims that were en route, as there were reasons why he should go quietly.

      10. But as it were in secret. After the crowds had gone, so that he could travel privately. The multitudes hung upon him and had sought to make him a king. In Galilee he was very popular at this time. His popularity intensified the enmity of "the Jews."

      11-13. The Jews sought him. "The Jews" in John almost always means the ruling class at Jerusalem. The people means the masses of the Jewish nation. The people were divided in opinion, but dared not express themselves openly until they saw what course the Jews would take.

      14. About the midst of the feast. The middle. It lasted eight days in all. Jesus seems to have appeared unexpectedly in the temple, engaged in teaching.

      15. How knoweth, etc.? The Jewish rulers were astonished at his learning, since he had never attended the great schools of their doctors.

      16. My doctrine is not mine. This is an answer to the question of verse 15 . His knowledge came not from man, but from God.

      17. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine. The Common Version is ambiguous. The Revision is clear: If any man willeth to do, etc. The difficulty is in the way of the Jews recognizing the teaching of Jesus as divine, was that they were not willing to do God's will. This spirit of disobedience is the source of most, if not all, skepticism. Unbelief is due, not to the head, but to the heart. He who in his heart says, "Thy will be done, give me light and I will walk in it," will find that Christ is just the teacher demanded by his soul, and that the gospel meets his soul's want. Jesus will so meet the wants of his soul that he will be satisfied and will know the doctrine, that it comes from him who made the soul. The great German poet, Heine, was a scoffer until old and tortured with chronic disease. Then he said: "I have discarded my proud philosophy and learned to trust in the consolations of religion." He had no more outward evidence than before, but his heart had changed.

      19. Did not Moses give you the law? Yet they were seeking to kill him in violation of the law which they professed to keep.

      20. The people answered. Not "the Jews," but the masses. They did not then know that the rulers were seeking his death, and hence rebukes such a suggestion. Thou hast a devil. Such a mistake must be due to the whisper of a demon, they thought.

      21. I have done one work. He goes back to the cause of the enmity of the rulers, the healing of the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath day, about eighteen months before (see chap. 5 ).