John 7:40

40 Those in the crowd who heard these words were saying, "This has to be 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 Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me this way, just as the Scripture says."

39 (He said this in regard to the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were about to receive. The Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.)

40 Those in the crowd who heard these words were saying, "This has to be the Prophet."

41 Others said, "He is the Messiah!" But others were saying, "The Messiah doesn't come from Galilee, does he?

42 Don't the Scriptures tell us that the Messiah comes from David's line and from Bethlehem, David's village?"