John 7:40

Different Opinions About Jesus

40 Then, [when they] heard these words, [some] from the crowd began to say, "This man is truly 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 the one who believes in me. Just as the scripture said, 'Out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.'"

39 Now he said this concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were about to receive. For the Spirit was not yet [given], because Jesus had not yet been glorified.)

40 Then, [when they] heard these words, [some] from the crowd began to say, "This man is truly the Prophet!"

41 Others were saying, "This man is the Christ!" But others were saying, "No, for the Christ does not come from Galilee, [does he]?

42 Has not the scripture said that the Christ comes from the descendants of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?"

Footnotes

• [a]. *Here "[when]" is supplied as a component of the participle ("heard") which is understood as temporal
• [b]. *The imperfect tense has been translated as ingressive here ("began to say")