Brit Chadasha Foundations-Concepts in John-Chapter 7

v 1… And after these things (about 6 months later), Yeshua was walking in Galilee; for he was unwilling to walk in Judea because the Jews (the rulers-7.48) were seeking to kill him

v 2… Now the feast of the Jews (as opposed to the Samaritans), the Feast of Booths (Sukkot, in Tishri, the seventh month of the religious year) was at hand.

v 3… His brothers (Matt 13.55; Mark 6.3) therefore said to him, “Depart from here, and go into Judea, that your talmidim (not the twelve, but the ones he had made in Judea) also may behold your works which you are doing (put forth your messianic claims in Jerusalem, not Galilee).

v 4… For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If you do these things (show the miracles are for real), show yourself to the world.”

v 5… For not even his brothers were believing in him (to the point of following him, that is why fleshly descent has nothing to do with the grace that comes from God. The only brothers to Messiah are spiritual-Matt 12.49; however, later they would believe in him-Acts 1.14).

v 6… Yeshua, therefore, said to them, “My time is not yet at hand (to go up to the feast just yet and reveal myself) but your time is always opportune (you can go anywhere anytime, you are not in danger).

v 7… The world cannot hate you (because they were worldly and went along with it), but it hates me (without a cause), because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil (and his brothers were part of it).

v 8… Go up to the feast yourselves (to observe it, don’t stay on my account); I will not go up now (at this time) to this feast because my time has not yet fully come.”

v 9…And having said these things to them, he stayed in Galilee.

v 10…But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he himself also went up, not publicly (as his brothers suggested), but as it were, in secret (he did not travel with the pilgrims who traveled together in caravans. According to the Torah, he needed to be there by the first day. He went up and blended in with the people. He didn’t start teaching until the middle of the festival).

v 11… The Jews (the rulers from Beit Shammai at that time) therefore were seeking him at the feast (because they knew he had to be there according to the Torah), and were saying, “Where is he?”

v 12… And there was much grumbling among the multitudes concerning him; some were saying, “He is a good man”; others were saying, “No, on the contrary, he leads the multitude astray.”

v 13… Yet no one (of the common, Jewish people) was speaking openly of him for fear of the Jews (the ruling class).

v 14… But when it was now the midst of the feast (the 17th or 18th of Tishri), Yeshua went up into the Temple to teach (it was common to teach Israel’s future from Ezekiel 37.16 to 39.16, Gog and Magog and the invasion of Israel).

v 15… The Jews (the rulers) were marveling, saying, “How has this man become learned, having never been educated (in their yeshivas or rabbinical schools, by any rabbis)?”

v 16…Yeshua, therefore, answered them, and said, “My teaching is not mine (originate with me), but his who sent me (he needed no human teachers, he was the Word, it was his, but it was not human like theirs was; he needed not to teach in the name of some rabbi, it was not acquired as they acquired it, it was from heaven).

v 17… If any man is willing to do his will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is the will of God, or I speak from myself.

v 18…He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but he who is seeking the glory of the one who sent him, he is true, and there is no unrighteousness in him (no false teachings, what he says is true).

v 19… Did not Moses give you the Torah and none of you carries out the Torah? Why do you seek to kill me (by violating the command to not murder because you think I violated the Sabbath by helping a sick person-John 5.16)?

v 20… The multitude (many came from the nations to the festival and were unaware of any plot of the rulers) answered, “You have a demon! Who seeks to kill you?”

v 21… Yeshua answered and said to them, “I did one deed (one act of mercy and healed on the Sabbath), and you all marvel.

v 22…On this account Moses has given you circumcision, not because it was from Moses (originally); but from the fathers (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob practiced it before Moses); and on the Sabbath, you circumcise a man.

v 23… If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath that the Torah of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me (he is talking about the School of Shammai) because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath?

v 23… Do not judge according to appearance (to please people), but judge with righteous judgment (on this subject of healing which you allow and which Moses and the Torah justify).”

v 25…Therefore some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, “Is this not the man whom they (the rulers) are seeking to kill (certain people did not know him as well as the Galileans)?

v 26… And look he is speaking publicly (in the open, freely), and they are saying nothing to him (to contradict him). The rulers (the Jewish leaders) do not really know that this is the Messiah, do they (have they changed their minds about him)?

v 27… However we know where this man is from (because they knew his origins, his parents, and in their minds, they rationalized that he could not be the Messiah); but whenever the Messiah may come, no one knows where he is from (the first century belief was that the Messiah would be from God and his origins would be shrouded in mystery, and he would come suddenly and out of nowhere. This was not a universal belief-Talmud, Sanhedrin 97a).”

v 28… Yeshua, therefore, cried out in the Temple, teaching and saying (he overheard their discussions), “You both know me, and know where I am from (it’s not a secret); and I have not come of myself (didn’t send himself), but he who sent me is true, whom you do not know (spiritually).

v 29… I know him (intimately); because I am from him, and he sent me.”

v 30… They were seeking therefore to seize him; and no man laid his hand on him, because his hour had not yet come (there is a fixed time for this).

v 31… But many of the multitude believed in him; and they were saying, “When the Messiah shall come, he will not perform more signs than those which this man has, will he (the purpose of a miracle is to draw your attention to what the miracle-worker is teaching)?”

v 32… The Pharisees (from the School of Shammai, not all Pharisees) heard the multitude muttering these things about him, and the chief priests (who were Sadducees) and the Pharisees sent officers (temple guards) to seize him (and bring him before the court).

v 33…Yeshua, therefore, said, “For a little while longer I am with you, then I go to him who sent me (during Sukkot, willow branches were cut from the valley of Motza, and water from the pool of Shiloach were brought into the Temple in a ceremony for seven days. Both words mean “sent”).

v 34… You shall seek me (you shall have great troubles, and desire for the coming of Messiah), and not find me (no Messiah will come); and where I am, you cannot come (I will be in heaven).”

v 35… The Jews therefore (the rulers) said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we shall not find him? He is not intending to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks (the Gentiles) and teach the Greeks (Gentiles), is he (the  School of Shammai excluded non-Jews from being saved unless they became Jewish-Acts 15.1, and the basis for the book of Galatians)?”

v 36… What is this statement that he has said, ‘You will seek me, and will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come’?”

v 37… Now on the last day, the great day of the feast (the seventh day of Sukkot, called “Hoshanna Rabbah” or the “great salvation.” It was a picture of the end of the messianic kingdom, the fullness), Yeshua stood and cried out, saying, “If any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink (spiritually; he probably said this during the water pouring ceremony on the altar in the temple-Jer 17.13; Isa 12.3; Ezek 47; Isa 55.1, 58.11 were Scriptures used during Sukkot).

v 38… He who believes in me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being shall flow rivers (he is comparing himself to the river in Ezek 47) of living water (mayim chayim)’.”

v 39…But this he spoke of the Spirit (power) whom those who believed in him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given because Yeshua was not yet glorified (raised from the dead and returned to the Father; the water pouring ceremony in the Temple was symbolic of this outpouring of the Holy Spirit, that’s why he said this during the ceremony. This outpouring could not happen until after his resurrection and ascension, at the feast of Shavuot. Shavuot and Sukkot are linked agriculturally as well as spiritually).

v 40…Some of the multitude, therefore, when they heard these words were saying, “This certainly is the Prophet (an eschatological character from Deut 18.15; John 1.21. They were not saying he was the Messiah, but associated with him at least).”

v 41… Others were saying, “This is the Messiah.” Still, others were saying, “Surely the Messiah is not going to come from Galilee, is he (they thought he was born there, which would have disqualified him as Messiah)?”

v 42… Has not the Scripture said that the Messiah comes from the offspring of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was (in Judea)?”

v 43…So there arose a division in the multitude because of him (they may not have all believed he was the Messiah because they did not know all of this had been fulfilled in him, but they thought he was at least a prophet).

v 44…  And some of them (Temple guards/officers) wanted to seize him (they were sent by the chief priests and the Pharisees of Beit Shammai), but no one laid hands on him (not God’s timing).

v 45… The officers, therefore (the temple guards) came to the chief priests (who were Sadducees) and Pharisees (from the School of Shammai) and they said to them, “Why did you (the officers) not bring him (to us as they were assembled in the Sanhedrin chamber in what was called the “Chamber of the Hewn Stones” in the temple)?”

v 46… The officers answered, “Never did a man speak the way this man speaks (they were deeply impressed).”

v 47.. The Pharisees (of the School of Shammai in the Sanhedrin) therefore answered them, “You have not also been led astray (like the unlearned common people; you have been working with us and should know better), have you?

v 48…No one of the rulers or Pharisees has believed in him, has he (Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were members of the Sanhedrin but had not openly showed they were followers just yet)?

v 49… But this multitude (the people of the land or “am ha eretz”; unlearned) which does not know the Torah (both written and oral) is accursed (because of this “ignorance” they were seen as profane, wicked, and in some cases abandoned by God, or so they thought; this was the position of Beit Shammai).”

v 50…Nicodemus said to them, he who came to him before, being one of them (of the Sanhedrin),

v 51… “Our law (Torah) does not judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he is doing, does it?”

v 52… They answered and said to him, “You are not also from Galilee (a follower of the “Galilean” Yeshua, which they used as an insult against him; unlearned)? Search (the Scriptures), and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee (this is not true because Jonah was from Gath-hepher, which was in Zebulon in 2 Kings 14.25, and Nahum was from Elkosh, a small village in Galilee in Nah 1.1. The Scriptures also say that the Messiah would preach in Galilee and be revealed from there-Isa 9.1; so it was the Sanhedrin that didn’t know the Scriptures with all their “learning”).”

v 53… And everyone went to his home (without the arrest of Yeshua, their business was over; Sukkot was over and they did not stay in their sukkahs).

Posted in Articles, Idioms, Phrases and Concepts, Tying into the New Testament, Verse-by-Verse Bible Studies

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