John 7 Footnotes

7:5 If Jesus was truly the Messiah who Christians claim he was, surely his own family members would have believed in him? Not necessarily, especially if he had seemed like an ordinary boy when growing up. In fact, it’s unlikely John would have reported this kind of skepticism if it weren’t accurate. In the case of James, it may have taken a personal resurrection appearance to bring him to faith (1Co 15:7).

7:15 If Jesus hadn’t “been trained,” does this mean he was illiterate or didn’t have the detailed familiarity with Hebrew Scripture that the Gospels claim he did? No, he would have attended an elementary school of some sort in the synagogue, learned to read and write, and memorized much of the OT, like other Jewish boys between the ages of five and twelve. But he had no formal, subsequent training with a rabbi that would qualify him to act as an official rabbi.

7:34-36 How do we answer the authorities’ question about Jesus’s claim to be going away where no one could find him? By understanding him to have been referring to his death, resurrection, and ascension. They would look for him later, but physically they would not be able to find him. His Holy Spirit would be with his followers (8:21-22).

7:39 The Holy Spirit had been given frequently, but only temporarily, to various people throughout the OT. But he would permanently indwell God’s people only after Jesus’s death and exaltation (14:17; see Ac 2).

7:41-42,52 These verses do not contradict Mt 2:1 and Lk 2:4 on Jesus’s being born in Bethlehem. Rather, they point out (ironically) how Jesus was rejected because people mistakenly think he was born in Nazareth, where he grew up. Some prophets did in fact come from Galilee (Hosea, Jonah, Nahum), but not “the Prophet” (i.e., the Messiah, as the textual variant clarifies).