John 7:25-52

John 7

²⁵ Some of the people from Jerusalem were saying, “Isn’t this the man they want to kill? ²⁶ Yet, look! He’s speaking openly, and they don’t say a thing to him. Certainly the rulers have not concluded that he is the Christ, have they? ²⁷ But we know where this man is from. When the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.”

²⁸ Then Jesus called out as he was teaching in the temple courts, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. Yet I have not come on my own, but the one who sent me is real. You do not know him. ²⁹ I know him because I am from him, and he sent me.”

³⁰ So they tried to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come.

³¹ But many in the crowd believed in him and asked, “When the Christ comes, he won’t do more miraculous signs than this man, will he?”

³² The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering these things about him, so the chief priests and the Pharisees sent guards to arrest him.

³³ Then Jesus said, “I am going to be with you only a little while longer. Then I am going away to the one who sent me. ³⁴ You will be looking for me and will not find me, and where I am going to be, you cannot come.”

³⁵ Then the Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? He does not intend to go to the Jews scattered among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, does he? ³⁶ What does he mean by saying, ‘You will be looking for me and will not find me, and where I am going to be, you cannot come’?”

³⁷ On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and called out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink! ³⁸ As the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from deep within the person who believes in me.” ³⁹ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive. For the Holy ^[1] Spirit had not yet come, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

⁴⁰ After hearing his words, some of the people said, “This is truly the Prophet.” ⁴¹ Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Surely the Christ does not come from Galilee, does he? ⁴² Doesn’t the Scripture say that the Christ comes from David’s descendants and from the little town of Bethlehem where David lived?” ⁴³ So the people were divided because of him. ⁴⁴ Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

⁴⁵ Then the guards came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”

⁴⁶ The guards answered, “No one ever spoke the way this man does!”

⁴⁷ So the Pharisees answered them, “You have not been deceived too, have you? ⁴⁸ Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in him? ⁴⁹ But this crowd, which does not know the law, is cursed!”

⁵⁰ One of them, Nicodemus, who had come to Jesus earlier, asked, ⁵¹ “Does our law condemn a man before we hear from him and find out what he’s doing?”

⁵² “You are not from Galilee too, are you?” they replied. “Search and you will see that a prophet does not come from Galilee.”