John 7:40

The People Are Divided over Jesus

40 When some from the crowd heard these words, they said, "This really is the Prophet!"^[a]

John 7:40 Meaning and Commentary

John 7:40

Many of the people therefore
Of the common people, and it may be chiefly those that came out of the country:

when they heard this saying;
or discourse of Christ, on the last and great day of the feast, relating to the large measure of grace, and the effusion of the Spirit on him, that believed:

said, of a truth this is the prophet;
spoken of in ( Deuteronomy 18:15 ) , which some understood not of the Messiah, but of some extraordinary prophet distinct from him, who should come before him, or about the same time; or they imagined he was one of the old prophets raised from the dead, whom they also expected about the times of the Messiah: or their sense might only be, that he was a prophet, which was true, though not all the truth; they had some knowledge, though but small; and they spake of him, though but as children in understanding.

John 7:40 In-Context

38 The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him."

39 He said this about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were going to receive, for the Spirit had not yet been received, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

40 When some from the crowd heard these words, they said, "This really is the Prophet!"

41 Others said, "This is the Messiah!" But some said, "Surely the Messiah doesn't come from Galilee, does He?

42 Doesn't the Scripture say that the Messiah comes from David's offspring and from the town of Bethlehem, where David once lived?"

Footnotes

• [a]. Probably the Prophet in Dt 18:15