John 7:8

8 You go ahead, go up to the Feast. Don't wait for me. I'm not ready. It's not the right time for me."

John 7:8 Meaning and Commentary

John 7:8

Go we up unto this feast
Suggesting, that he would not have them stay for him, or hinder themselves on his account: he encourages them to go up, and observe this festival; for the ceremonial law was not yet abolished; and though they were carnal men, and did not understand what it typified: and so unregenerate persons ought to attend on the outward means, as the hearing of the word though they do not understand it; it may be God may make use of it, for the enlightening of their minds; and blessed are they that wait at Wisdom's gates, and there find Christ, and life and salvation by him:

I go not up yet unto this feast;
this clause, in one of Beza's copies, is wholly left out; and in some, the word "this" is not read; and in others it is read, "I go not up unto this feast"; leaving out the word "yet"; and so read the Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic versions; and the Persic version only, "I do not go up"; which occasioned Porphyry, that great enemy of Christianity, to reproach Christ, as guilty of inconstancy, or of an untruth, since he afterwards did go up: but in almost all the ancient copies the word is read; and so it is by Chrysostom and Nonnus; and to the same sense the Syriac and Arabic versions render it, "I do not go up now to this feast"; that is, just at that very time, that very day or hour: which is entirely consistent with what is afterwards said,

for my time is not yet full come;
not to die, or to be glorified, but to go up to the feast.

John 7:8 In-Context

6 Jesus came back at them, "Don't crowd me. This isn't my time. It's your time - it's always your time; you have nothing to lose.
7 The world has nothing against you, but it's up in arms against me. It's against me because I expose the evil behind its pretensions.
8 You go ahead, go up to the Feast. Don't wait for me. I'm not ready. It's not the right time for me."
9 He said this and stayed on in Galilee.
10 But later, after his family had gone up to the Feast, he also went. But he kept out of the way, careful not to draw attention to himself.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.