John 7:40

40 Some of the people in the crowd heard him say this and said, "This man is really the Prophet!"

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 whoever believes in me should drink. As the scripture says, "Streams of life-giving water will pour out from his side.' "

39 Jesus said this about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were going to receive. At that time the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not been raised to glory.

40 Some of the people in the crowd heard him say this and said, "This man is really the Prophet!"

41 Others said, "He is the Messiah!" But others said, "The Messiah will not come from Galilee!

42 The scripture says that the Messiah will be a descendant of King David and will be born in Bethlehem, the town where David lived."

Footnotes

• [a]. the prophet: [See 1.21.]