John 7

John 7:3

On this occasion his kindred (ver. 5.) said unto him, Go into Judæa again, that the many, which were wont to follow thee there, may see the miracles which thou doest.

John 7:4

For whosoever would gain an authority among the people, in any reason, must not do his miracles privately; therefore, whatever thou doest, do it in Judæa, as publicly as thou canst.

[a] be known openly] The word παρρησίᾳ in the New Testament hath divers significations. First, it signifies ἄδιων, saith Hesychius, boldness, confidence, fearlessness of danger. So John xi. 54, παρρησίᾳ περιπατεῖν, to go about fearlessly. So Acts xxviii. 31, Phil. i. 20, Heb. iii. 6. and x. 35, and 1 John iv. 17, boldness, or fearlessness, when they are called before secular tribunals. And so παρρησιάζομαι, in two places of the Acts, ch. xiii. 46, where, in opposition to the ζῆλος, and ἀντιλογία, and βλασφημίαι of the Jews, their virulency, contradiction, and railing against Paul and Barnabas, it is said that they παρρησιαζόμενοι εἶπον, spake boldly and confidently that speech of the greatest danger, that brought all the hatred and persecution of the Jews upon them, we depart to the Gentiles. So ch. xxvi. 26, I speak, παρρησιαζόμενος, with confidence and courage to Agrippa, who knows of these things, though Festus do not. So Eph. vi. 20, and 1 Thess. ii. 2. Secondly, it signifies freeness or liberty of speaking, saying what a man will. So Acts

John 7:5

This they said, as not believing on him, but either suspecting the truth of his miracles, or else desiring that he would do that which might acquire him that authority, which they conceived him to pretend to.

6, 7. Jesus, therefore, to rectify this mistake of theirs, saith unto them, It is not yet fit for me to be so public, because the doctrine that I teach is contrary and odious to the world, or the present prevailing power of the Jews. You may appear wheresoever you will, being not under any such hatred, by any thing that you do or teach, as I am sure to be among the Pharisees and chief of the Jews.

John 7:8

You may go up to Jerusalem, to the feast, as publicly as you please, but I shall not go yet, when you go, or with you, because my time of going up, in such a public capacity, ver. 10, is not yet come.

John 7:9

And accordingly he stayed a while, after the rest of his kindred, in the place where he now abode.

John 7:10

Soon after his kindred were gone, he also followed, but more privately, with small company

John 7:14

Now on some middle day of the feast, on one of the eight days of which the feast consisted, but neither on the first nor the last of them, (ver. 37.)

John 7:15

How comes he to understand the books of the law and scriptures so well, having not been brought up in the schools of the prophets? (see note

John 7:17

Any man that hath a willingness to do God’s will, how contrary soever it be to his own, that hath a readiness to serve God in God’s way, and is not wedded to his own, (see note [d] ch. vi.) that man, and none but he, is likely to pass a right judgment on my doctrine, whether it be of God or no.

John 7:18

For that man will thus judge: He that pretends to be sent by God when he is not, always seeks his own advantages, somewhat of glory or profit to himself; but he that labours only the bringing honour to God, and in pursuit of that doth what is most contrary to his own interests, conceals nothing, though it cost him never so dear, to declare it he is worth believing, (or deserves to be believed,) having no false design in what he doth, no deceit or guile in him.

John 7:19

But it is otherwise with you: you are not of that making, ver. 17. That law which your own beloved Moses gave you, and for the maintaining of which you have so much zeal, and hate me as a breaker of it, ye do not yourselves observe, ye do not (the most of you) live according to the rules of it. If ye did, ye would not be so forward to embrue your hands in my blood, who have no way offended against you or that; this concludes you not likely to judge what doctrine is of God. A man must have

a books, learning, the scriptures: the Syriac reads, the book: see note [g].

John 7:20

[b] Thou hast a devil] All sorts of diseases were in those days brought on men (sometimes) by the devil, and so generally they that are brought to Christ for cure are said to be possessed, (see note [c] Matt. xvii.) but especially those who were more strangely affected, without any visible cause of it, were generally thought to suffer this from the devil’s getting power to possess them; and of this sort, especially mad men, (such the δαιμονιζόμενοι, Matt. viii. 28, appear to be by their raving temper there,) who being not discernibly sick, or ill affected, did yet behave themselves as if they were in some strong distemper, which is oft an effect of disease or παραφροσύνη, and therefore were by them thought to be possessed by some evil spirit. So in Just. Mart. Apol. 2, οὓς δαιμονολήπτους καὶ μαινομένους καλοῦσι πάντες, “they that are possessed are by all men called mad.” So ch. x. 20, it is plainly said, He hath a devil, and is mad; and Matt. xi. 18.

John 7:22

[c] therefore] It is to be observed that as δὲ in other Gospels, so οὖν in this is a particle of transition, otherwise insignificant, serving only for passage, not to import any causality. And the same is here to be said of διὰ τοῦτο, in the beginning of this verse, which is only a form of proceeding in the present discourse, and might be rendered,

John 7:35

[d] the dispersed among the Gentiles] The Jews were dispersed before this time in several places among the Gentiles, some in Europe, others in Asia: those in Europe had their chief assembly at Alexandria, and there the Septuagint’s translation of the Bible into Greek was in use, and thence they are called διασπορὰ Ἑλλήνων, the dispersion of the Hellenists. And of these there were many also in Jerusalem which used the Septuagint’s translation, being thus skilled in the Greek tongue, and these living not in Greece are yet called Ἑλληνισταί, Acts vi. 1, Hellenists, because they used the Greek language and the Septuagint’s translation, whereas others are called Ἑβραίοι, Hebrews, (see note [a] Acts vi.) The Asian dispersion is mentioned 1 Pet. i. 1, and had Babylon for their metropolis, and used the Targum or Chaldee paraphrase of Onkelos in their synagogues. Of these two dispersions see Rev. xii. 14.

John 7:36

What is the meaning of that speech that he said—

John 7:37

On the last day of the feast of tabernacles, which was a day of solemn assembly, (see note [d] ch. xix.,) and on which it was the manner of the Jews to pour out water solemnly on the altar, Jesus on that occasion proclaimed aloud, saying, If— ° it shall be with him according to what is said, Isa. lviii. 11, He shall be like a spring of water, whose water, by conduits, shall from within break forth in great abundance; that is, being filled with the Spirit of Christ, shall not be able to contain, but break forth into all Christian actions, and preach the gospel with all zeal.

[e] the feast] This feast was the feast of Tabernacles, and that is sometimes by the Hebrews called, without any more, חנ, the feast, as in Cod. Middoth, c. 2, שבו מכנסך צלוחית של מים של נסוך בחנ, “they carry a vessel of water through them” (that is, “through the water gates,” שער המים) “to the sacrifice of the feast;” and Joma, c. 2. §. 5, “at the feast there was in the hand of one a pot of water,” (for so that rabbinical צלוחית is the Greek word σελενκίς, which in Athenaeus, lib. 2, signifies a sort of pots, so called, saith he, from the name of a king Seleucus.) Now it was the custom in that feast of Tabernacles to offer up water unto God, to denote the blessing of rain, which they then prayed for, as of special use against the approaching seed time, as at the Passover they offered an omer, to obtain from God his blessing on their harvest, and at Pentecost their firstfruits, to obtain from God his blessing on the fruits of the trees; see Rab. Levi ben Gersom on 2 Sam. xxiii. 16. These waters which they thus offered, they drew out of Siloah, and brought them into the temple with the sound of the trumpet, and offered them with singing of voices and instruments. And in relation to these customs of the Jews at that feast, Christ here is said to have cried, ἱκραξε, with a loud voice, supplying the sound of the trumpet, a voice of proclaiming, (as κράξιον and κηρύσσιον are but several variations of the Hebrew כרו,) saying, If any man thirst, &c. taking occasion from their custom of drawing water out of Siloah, to excite the people to fetch and draw from him, as from a true fountain, all the gifts of the Spirit, which may tend to the fitting them for a divine heavenly plantation.

John 7:38

[f] out of his belly] It was ordinary at fountains or springs of water to build receptacles, or vessels of stone, or wells, and in the middle thereof (that is, the κοιλία, the belly here, and in the Hebrew בֶּמֶן, 1 Kings vii. 20.) to have pipes or cisterns, Prov. v. 15, through which the water passes, and comes out by cocks, &c. And thus shall it be with every believer; he shall be so filled with the Spirit of God,

John 7:39

(This saying of Christ belonged to the descent of the Holy Ghost, Acts ii. (see note [a] Acts i. and note [a] Acts xxiii.) which was to be after his ascension, and not before.) P that prophet that Moses foretold us of (though that he should be the Messias they did not all resolve). q very Messias. r David’s parents dwelt?

John 7:44

And some of the officers sent, ver. 32, would have taken— ° the ministers of the sanhedrim, sent by them to apprehend him, back again without having done it; and they said—

John 7:49

[g] this people who knoweth not the law] Among the Jews there were, 1, the doctors of the law, the wise men, γραμματεῖς, scribes, or νομοδιδάσκαλοι, teachers of the law, (γράμματα and νόμος, writings and law, being all one, both equally the rendering of the Hebrew ספרה, which signifies the book of the law, (by which the Syriac render γράμματα, writings, ver. 15.) ιερά γράμματα, the holy writings, 2 Tim. iii. 15.) the expounders of the scripture; and, 2dly, studiosi legis, “those that studied the law,” disciples, or (as the Hebrews called them) תלמידי, חכמים, scholars of the wise men; and such an one they style חבר, a companion of wise men, who is not yet a rabbi, or teacher, cannot be called doctor noster excellens, “our excellent doctor,” but the next degree to one, one of the sons of the prophets, or, as the Targum renders חברין, companions, Ezek. xxxvii, אחיהון, their brethren, that is, such as are of the same society, or fraternity, with the excellentissimus doctor noster: and, 3dly, the people of the earth, the illiterate man, εἰς τῶν πολλῶν, one of the many; and these are noted by ὁ ὄχλος οἶτος, this rout, or multitude, ὁ μὴ γινώσκων τὸν νόμον, which knoweth not the law.

John 7:52

[h] out of Galilee ariseth no prophet] That Galilee was under a reproach among the Jews, appears ch. i. 46. And as there it is said, that no good could come out of Nazareth, so here that never any prophet came out of Galilee. But upon search it seems to appear, that the Pharisees here were too large in their observation of reproach; for though it happened not often, yet of Jonah we find that he was of Gath Hepher, 2 Kings xiv. 25, that was a town of the tribe of Zebulun, Joshua xix. 13, and consequently in Galilee, Isaiah ix. 1; and this Jonah prophesied in the time of Joash, (when he was oppressed by the Syrians,) that by his son Jeroboam the kingdom should be delivered out of their hands, 2 Kings xiv. 25, 26, and was afterwards sent to Nineveh, Jonah i. 1.

John 7:53

[i] And every —] This verse and the eleven first verses of chap. viii, the whole story of the woman taken in the act of adultery, are wholly omitted in many ancient copies. St. Chrysostom leaves it out, so doth Nonnus and Theophylact, and the Syriac interpreter, and Euthymius saith that none of the ancients have taken notice of it in their expositions of the Gospel. Maldonate, who strives for it, to make good the Trent canon, doth yet confess, that of all the manuscript Greek copies none have it but only one with Leontius’s comment, and that in that also it is adashed out with a pen, and omitted by the commentator; that it is not in the most ancient copy of the Vatican; that none of the twenty-three authors in the Catena mention it. And in the end of the third book of Eusebius Eccl. Hist. we have these words, speaking of Papias, Ἐκτεθειται δὲ καὶ ἄλλην ἱστορίαν περὶ γυναικὸς ἐπὶ πολλαῖς ἁμαρτίας διαβληθείσης ἐπὶ τοῦ Κυρίου, ἦν τὸ καθ’ Ἑβραίους εὐαγγέλιον περιέχει, “He hath related another story of a woman accused to Christ of many sins, which the Gospel according to the Hebrews contains,” implying it not to be in any of the four Gospels. Other later

John 7:55

[f] indeed] One principal notion of ἀληθῆς hath been formerly explained (see note [a] Luke xvi.) to signify truly valuable, or durable, or truly valuable, because it is durable; and so here, ἀληθῆς or ἀληθῶς βρῶσις, true meat, or truly meat, is explained to be the bread of life, ver. 48, that on which he that feeds shall live for ever; so the βρῶσις μίγουσα εἰς αἶδρα, food that endures for ever, ver. 27, and opposite to manna, on which they that feed die, ver. 49. And this, 1. as the word ἀληθῶς, truly, noteth some special eminency, wherein any attribute belongs to the subject; and when it is applied to resemblances, it then signifies that which is spoken of to be more eminently that by which it is resembled than that itself is; as, I am the true vine, that is, a vine by bearing grapes, (which yield wine, which makes glad the heart of man,) is not near so able and proper to refresh a thirsty person as I am, as my commands and promises are. So St. John, of Christ, ch. i. 9, that he is the true light, that is, the most excellent. So Heb. viii. 2, heaven is the true tabernacle, that of which the tabernacle was but a dark and poor resemblance, and so this is called ἀληθινὸς ἄρτος, true bread, ver. 32, and truly meat here, that is, more nutritive, and strengthening, and comforting than meat and bread is. Secondly, in respect of the particular matter to which it is here applied, viz. βρῶσις, food, that which feeds one for an hour, or a day, (and enlargeth his life but so long,) being not truly food, not worthy to be so called, at least not so in comparison with that which keeps him alive, so as life is adequately opposite to death, that is, for ever. And so with us the word false signifies fading, transitory, that which will fail us, when it were most of advantage for us to receive benefit by it.