"Come and See": A Web Commentary on the Gospel of John: Section 8 Jesus at Tabernacles (Jn 7.1- 8.59)

8.2 Teaching during the Feast (Jn 7.14-36)

¹⁴Now then at the mid-point of the feast Jesus went up to the Temple and taught. ¹⁵Then the Judaeans (or the Jerusalemites) were astounded, saying “How does this fellow know his letters when he hasn't been taught?” ¹⁶Then Jesus answered them and said, “My teaching is not my own, but his that sent me. ¹⁷If anyone wants to do the will of the one that sent me¹, they will know about the teaching, whether it is from God or I am speaking for myself. ¹⁸Someone speaking for themself seeks their own glory, but the one seeking the glory of the one that sent them is genuine² and there is no unrighteousness in them.

¹⁹“Did not Moses give you the Law? Yet none of you obeys the Law! Why do you seek to kill me?”

²⁰The crowd answered, “You're possessed!³ Who's trying to kill you?” ²¹Jesus answered and said to them, “I did a single deed and you all wondered ²²at it. Moses gave you the rite of circumcision -- not that it is from Moses, but from the patriarchs -- and you circumcise a person on Sabbath. ²³If a person receives circumcision on Sabbath so as not to break the law of Moses, are you angry at me because I made the whole person healthy on Sabbath? ²⁴Don't judge according to outward appearance, but judge justly.”⁴

²⁵Then some of the residents of Jerusalem said, “Is this not the fellow they were seeking to kill? ²⁶And look, he speaks publicly and they say nothing to him. Do the leaders⁵ perhaps really know that he is the Messiah? ²⁷But we know where he is from; yet when the Messiah comes, no-one will know where he comes from.” ²⁸Then while he was teaching in the Temple Jesus cried out, saying “Indeed you know me and you know where I am from. Indeed I have not come from myself, rather the one that sent me is true⁶: you do not know him! ²⁹I know him because I am from him and he himself sent me.” ³⁰Then they sought to arrest him and no-one touched him, because his hour had not yet come.

³¹Many from the crowd trusted in him and said, “When the Messiah comes, surely he won't do more signs than this fellow did, will he?” ³²The Pharisees heard that the crowd was muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent Temple attendents to arrest him. ³³Then Jesus said “I am still with you for a little while and I am going away to the one who sent me. ³⁴You will seek me and you will not find [me], and where I am you cannot come.” ³⁵Then the Judaeans (or the Jerusalemites) said to themselves, “Where is this fellow going to that we won't find him? Surely he's not going to go to the Diaspora, among the Greeks and teach Greeks, is he? ³⁶What is this remark that he made, 'You will seek me and you will not find [me], and where I am you cannot come'?”

Return to the Outline

Return to the opening menu.