Controversy

The Feast of Tabernacles was an eight-day celebration, lasting from Sabbath to Sabbath. About halfway through the feast, Jesus went up to the temple courts and began to teach. The Jewish leaders knew that Jesus had not attended their schools. And so, they were amazed by His teachings and asked, “How did this man attain such learning without having studied?”

Jesus heard them and replied, “My teaching is not My own. It comes from Him who sent Me. If anyone desires to do His will, they will know whether My teaching is from God or whether I speak on My own. They who speak on their own authority seek their own glory, but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is a man of truth; in Him, there is no falsehood. Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps it. Why are you trying to kill Me?”

Some in the crowd had come from some distance and were not aware of the dark plans the Jewish leaders had for Jesus. They were surprised by His statements and said, “You have a demon. Who is trying to kill You?”

Jesus continued, recalling another time He was in Jerusalem and He healed an invalid on the Sabbath: “I did one miracle, and you all are shocked. But because Moses gave you circumcision, you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath (not that it is from Moses, but from the patriarchs). If a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses will not be broken, why are you angry with Me for making the whole man well on the Sabbath? Stop judging by outward appearances, and start judging justly.”

Then, some of the people who were from Jerusalem and were aware of the plot of the Jewish leaders, said, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? Yet here He is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying anything to Him. Have the rulers truly recognized that this is the Christ (Messiah)?" But these people thought the Scriptures indicated the Messiah would be someone completely unknown to them. And so, they declared, "But we know where this man is from. When the Christ comes, no one will know where He is from.”

Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “You know Me, and you know where I am from. I have not come of My own accord, but He who sent Me is true. But you do not know Him. I know Him, because I am from Him and He sent Me.”

Then those people tried to seize Jesus, but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come. Many in the crowd, however, believed in Jesus and said, “When the Christ comes, will He perform more signs than this man?”

When the Pharisees heard the crowd whispering these things about Jesus, they and the chief priests sent officers to arrest Jesus. So, Jesus said to them, “I am with you only a little while longer, and then I am going to the One who sent Me. You will look for Me, but you will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.”

At this, the Jewish leaders said to one another, “Where does He intend to go that we will not find Him? Will He go where the Jews are dispersed among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? What does He mean by saying, ‘You will look for Me, but you will not find Me,’ and, ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”

On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and called out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said: ‘Streams of living water will flow from within him.’ ” He was speaking about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. For the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

On hearing these words, some of the people said, “This is truly the Prophet.”

Others declared, “This is the Christ.”

But still others who did not know about Jesus' childhood And family asked, “How can the Christ come from Galilee? Doesn’t the Scripture say that the Christ will come from the line of David and from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?”

So there was division in the crowd because of Jesus. Some of them wanted to seize Him, but no one laid a hand on Him.

Then the officers returned to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring Him in?”

“Never has anyone spoken like this man!” the officers answered.

“Have you also been deceived?” replied the Pharisees. “Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in Him? But this crowd, that does not know the law, they are under a curse.”

Then Nicodemus asked a question. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a member of the Sanhedrin and a respected teacher, and he had met with Jesus early in His ministry. Nicodemus asked the group a proper question of legal procedure: “Does our law convict a man without first hearing from him to determine what he has done?”

Rather than address his question, they accused Nicodemus of supporting Jesus, saying, “Are you also from Galilee?” Then they turned the conversation to that region. “Look into it, and you will see that no prophet comes out of Galilee.”

See John 7:14-52; John 5:2-15; Deuteronomy 18:15-19; Leviticus 23:39-43; Isaiah 12:3

Notes: 

1. "as the Scriptures say": There is not a text in Old Testament canon that matches Jesus' quotation. It is possible that the writer did not hear Jesus correctly or that was reinterpreting one of the following passages.

2. "no prophets come out of Galilee": The Pharisees were supposedly referring to the historical record. But their statement was incorrect. According to 2 Kings 14:25, Jonah was of Gath-hepher, a town of Zebulun in Lower Galilee. Elkosh, the birthplace of Nahum, may have been in Galilee, although this is not certain. And while Hosea may not have been from Galilee, he at least was from the Northern Kingdom of Israel. In any case, it is possible that the Pharisees had selective memory in order to support their argument.

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