John

After this, Jesus went around Galilee; he would not travel in Judea, because the Jews wanted to kill him.

Now the Jewish feast of the Tents was at hand.

So his brothers said to him: “Don’t stay here; go instead to Judea and let your disciples see the works you are doing.

Anyone who wants to be known doesn’t work secretly. Since you can do these things, show yourself to the world.”

His brothers spoke like this because they didn’t believe in him.

Jesus said to them:

“My time has not yet come, but the time is always right for you.

The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I bear witness and I show that its works are evil.

You go up to the feast! I am not going to this feast, because my time has not yet fully come.”

After saying this, he remained in Galilee.

But after his brothers had gone to the festival, he also went up, not publicly but in secret.

The Jews were looking for him at the festival and asked:

“Where is he?”

There was a lot of talk about him among the people. Some said, ‘He is a good man,’ but others replied, ‘No, he is misleading the people.’

For fear of the Jews, no one spoke openly about him.

When the festival was halfway over, Jesus went to the temple and began teaching .

The Jews marveled and asked:

“How is it that he knows Scriptures when he has never been taught?”

Jesus replied:

“My teaching is not my own, but it comes from the one who sent me.

Anyone who does the will of God will know whether my teaching is from God or if I speak on my own authority.

Those who speak on their own authority wish to gain honor for themselves. But the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is truthful, and there is nothing false in him.

Moses gave you the law, didn’t he? But none of you keep the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”

The crowd replied:

“You have a demon! Who is trying to kill you?”

Jesus said to them:

“I performed just one deed, and you are all astounded by it.

But remember the circumcision ordered by Moses—actually, it was not Moses but the ancestors who began this practice. You circumcise a man, even on a Sabbath,

and you would break the law if you refused to do so because of the Sabbath. How is it, then, that you are indignant with me because I made a whole person well on the Sabbath?

Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”

Jesus and the Messiah

Some of the people in Jerusalem were saying:

“Is this not the one they want to kill?

And here he is speaking freely, and they don’t say a word to him? Can it be that the rulers know that this is really the Messiah?

Yet we know where this man comes from; but when the Messiah appears, no one will know where he comes from.”

So Jesus announced loudly in the temple courtyard where he was teaching:

“You say that you know me and know where I come from! I have not come on my own; I was sent by the one who is true one, and you don’t know him.

I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.”

They would have arrested him, but no one laid hands on him because his hour had not yet come.

Many people in the crowd, however, believed in him and said:

“When the Messiah comes, will he give more signs than this man has done?”

The Pharisees heard all these rumors among the people, so they and the chief priests sent temple officers to arrest him.

Jesus then said:

“I shall be with you a little longer; after that, I shall go to him who sent me.

You will look for me, and you will not find me. Where I am, you cannot come.”

So the Jews said to one another:

“Where does this man intend to go, where we shall not find him? Will he go abroad to the Jews dispersed among the Greek nations and teach the Greeks also?

What does he mean when he says, ‘You will look for me and not find me,’ and ‘Where I am going you cannot come’?”

On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood up and exclaimed:

“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me;

and let the one who believes in me drink, for the Scripture says: Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.”

Jesus was referring to the Spirit, which those who believe in him were to receive; the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Some who had been listening to these words began to say:

“This is truly the Prophet.”

Others said:

“This is the Messiah.”

But some wondered:

“Would the Messiah come from Galilee?

Doesn’t Scripture say that the Messiah will be a descendant of David and from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?”

The crowd was divided over him.

Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

The officers of the temple went back to the chief priests, who asked them:

“Why didn’t you bring him?”

The officers answered:

“No one ever spoke like this man.”

The Pharisees answered them:

“Have you also been deceived?

Have any of the authorities or any of the Pharisees believed in him?

Only these accursed people who do not know the law!”

Yet one of them, Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier, spoke out:

“Does our law condemn people without first hearing them and knowing the facts?”

They replied:

“Do you, too, come from Galilee? Look it up and see for yourself that no prophet is to arise from Galilee.”

And they all went home.