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Chapter 7

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¹ After this, Jesus moved about within Galilee; but he did not wish to travel in Judea, because the Jews were trying to kill him.

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But the Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near.

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So his brothers ² said to him, "Leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples also may see the works you are doing.

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No one works in secret if he wants to be known publicly. If you do these things, manifest yourself to the world."

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For his brothers did not believe in him.

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³ So Jesus said to them, "My time is not yet here, but the time is always right for you.

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The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I testify to it that its works are evil.

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You go up to the feast. I am not going up ⁴ to this feast, because my time has not yet been fulfilled."

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After he had said this, he stayed on in Galilee.

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But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, he himself also went up, not openly but (as it were) in secret.

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The Jews were looking for him at the feast and saying, "Where is he?"

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And there was considerable murmuring about him in the crowds. Some said, "He is a good man," (while) others said, "No; on the contrary, he misleads the crowd."

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Still, no one spoke openly about him because they were afraid of the Jews.

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⁵ When the feast was already half over, Jesus went up into the temple area and began to teach.

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⁶ The Jews were amazed and said, "How does he know scripture without having studied?"

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Jesus answered them and said, "My teaching is not my own but is from the one who sent me.

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Whoever chooses to do his will ⁷ shall know whether my teaching is from God or whether I speak on my own.

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Whoever speaks on his own seeks his own glory, but whoever seeks the glory of the one who sent him is truthful, and there is no wrong in him.

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Did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?"

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The crowd answered, "You are possessed! ⁸ Who is trying to kill you?"

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Jesus answered and said to them, "I performed one work ⁹ and all of you are amazed

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because of it. Moses gave you circumcision - not that it came from Moses but rather from the patriarchs - and you circumcise a man on the sabbath.

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If a man can receive circumcision on a sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because I made a whole person well on a sabbath?

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Stop judging by appearances, but judge justly."

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So some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem said, "Is he not the one they are trying to kill?

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And look, he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him. Could the authorities ¹⁰ have realized that he is the Messiah?

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But we know where he is from. When the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from."

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So Jesus cried out in the temple area as he was teaching and said, "You know me and also know where I am from. Yet I did not come on my own, but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true.

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I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me."

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

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But many of the crowd began to believe in him, and said, "When the Messiah comes, will he perform more signs than this man has done?"

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¹¹ The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring about him to this effect, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent guards to arrest him.

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So Jesus said, "I will be with you only a little while longer, and then I will go to the one who sent me.

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You will look for me but not find (me), and where I am you cannot come."

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So the Jews said to one another, "Where is he going that we will not find him? Surely he is not going to the dispersion ¹² among the Greeks to teach the Greeks, is he?

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What is the meaning of his saying, 'You will look for me and not find (me), and where I am you cannot come'?"

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¹³ On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and exclaimed, "Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink.

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Whoever believes in me, as scripture says: 'Rivers of living water ¹⁴ will flow from within him.'"

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He said this in reference to the Spirit that those who came to believe in him were to receive. There was, of course, no Spirit yet, ¹⁵ because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

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¹⁶ Some in the crowd who heard these words said, "This is truly the Prophet."

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Others said, "This is the Messiah." But others said, "The Messiah will not come from Galilee, will he?

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Does not scripture say that the Messiah will be of David's family and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?"

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So a division occurred in the crowd because of him.

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

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So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, "Why did you not bring him?"

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The guards answered, "Never before has anyone spoken like this one."

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So the Pharisees answered them, "Have you also been deceived?

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

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But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed."

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Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them,

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"Does our law condemn a person before it first hears him and finds out what he is doing?"

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They answered and said to him, "You are not from Galilee also, are you? Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee."

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¹⁷ Then each went to his own house,