Bible Study series: John 7:1-9. Jesus told his brothers no about going to the feast in Jerusalem. Then he went just a little later. How do we explain this?
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I also translate to learn. The translations are mine, unless otherwise noted. If you would like to see many others, please click here:
For the Greek text, click here:
At that link, I provide a lot more commentary.
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: John 7:1-9
1 So afterwards, Jesus traveled around in Galilee, for he did not want to travel around in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him. 2 The Jewish feast of tabernacles was getting closer. 3 So his brothers said to him, “Move on from here and go to Judea, so that your disciples also may observe you and your works which you do, 4 for no one does anything in secret and yet he himself seeks to be in public! If you do these things, show yourself to the world!” 5 For neither did his brothers believe in him. 6 So Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet appeared, but your time is always ready. 7 The world is unable to hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. 8 You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast because my time has not yet been accomplished.” 9 After saying these things, he himself remained in Galilee. (John 7:1-9)
Comments:
Since the verb believe and the noun faith are so important in John’s Gospel, I would like to plant word studies at the beginning of each chapter.
A true acronym:
F-A-I-T-H
=
Forsaking All, I Trust Him
The bottom line is that for John’s Gospel believing and faith must not get stuck in an intellectual assent. “I believe that God exists and Jesus lived.” This may a good start, but everyone who believes or has faith must put their complete trust in God’s Son. One has to surrender totally to the Lordship of Jesus.
Word Study on Faith and Faithfulness
Now let’s move on.
1-2:
Jesus was already in the north, at Capernaum. “travel around” means to travel about and minister. Literally the Greek reads “walk around” or “walk about.” Carson says that Jesus ministered in Galilee for about a year (comment on v. 1). Mounce says that Jewish law said that anyone within fifteen miles (24.1 km) of Jerusalem had to go to the capital for the festival.
The Jews = the Jerusalem establishment.
Here are some basic facts about the Feast of Tabernacles (booths) or Sukkoth:
Time of Year in OT: seventh month, Ethanim / Tishri fifteenth day of the month and lasts eight days.
Time of Year in Modern Calendar: September / October
How to celebrate it:
On the first day, the Sabbath, the people are to hold a sacred assembly (meet at the tabernacle), when they are not to do any work. For seven days they present food offerings, and then on the eighth say the hold a closing sacred assembly and do no regular work. The festival begins after the people had gathered all the crops of the land. Lev. 23:40-43 offers these further instructions:
On the first day you are to take branches from luxuriant trees—from palms, willows and other leafy trees—and rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. 41 Celebrate this as a festival to the Lord for seven days each year. … 42 Live in temporary shelters for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in such shelters 43 so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in temporary shelters when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’” (Lev. 23:40-43)
Num. 29:12-38 lays out the commands for the offerings the community had to bring, on each day. They are too numerous to discuss here. The reader is invited to click on the link.
Purpose: Bring in crops and celebrate the Lord’s bounty and to teach descendants that the Israelites lived in temporary shelters when the Lord brought them out of Egypt.
To find out how the NT fulfils this festival, so that it does not to be kept, unless someone voluntarily wishes to do so, please see this post:
Festivals in Leviticus 23 from a NT Perspective
In these two verses we have the narrative scene staged or set up for the dialogue between him and his brothers.
3-5:
Let’s take care of a word study first:
“Disciples”: the noun is used 261 times in the NT, though many of them are duplicates in the three synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. BDAG, considered by many to an authoritative lexicon, says of the noun (1) “one who engages in learning through instruction from another, pupil, apprentice”; (2) “one who is rather constantly associated with someone who has a pedagogical reputation or a particular set of views, disciple, adherent.”
His brothers urged him to go show himself—to show off—right now, in a Messianic manner which they thought was the right way. (Maybe they saw that many disciples left, in John 6:66.) They say “your disciples” and the works that Jesus does. One gets the impression that “when they saw him coming, Jesus’s brothers spoke about Jesus in a similar way to how Joseph’s brothers spoke about him: ‘Here comes that dreamer!’ (Gen 37:19)” Klink, comment on v. 3). The brothers use the verb metabainō (pronounced meh-tah-by-noh), which in some contexts can mean to “take up residence” (Shorter Lexicon). I translated it as “move on.” They want him to cross the Rubicon, so to speak, and get into a big clash and destroy the enemy, Rome. Now is his time! Or they really did not know whether he had such power to crush Rome, so they may have wanted to manage his career, much like agents manage stars today.
Further, they said if you do these things, perform more signs in the heart of Jerusalem, the capital of Judaism—never mind that he had already done this (John 2:23). Jesus did not want to go in for publicity stunts.
In the brothers saying show yourself to the world, “such a grandiose statement was certainly intended to offer an over-the-top mockery of his ministry and self-identity. Yet with irony that only detected by the reader of the Gospel, the statement intended to be a rebuke founded upon the impossible could not have been more accurate. Jesus had come to show himself to the world, though in a very different manner than what his brothers could have imagined” (Klink, comment on v. 4). (See v. 27 for an explanation of irony.)
Here is a list of Messianic signs according to the Synoptics (Matthew standing in for the other two):
Verses: “I am the LORD: I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for my people, a light for the nations, to open they eyes that are blind, to bring the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness” (Is. 42:6-7, ESV). Is. 42:18 connects hearing and seeing with walking in God’s ways, and deafness and blindness with national judgment. As for leprosy, Jesus referred to the time when Elijah the prophet healed Namaan the Syrian of his skin disease, and the return of Elijah was a sign that the Messiah was here (Mal. 4:5-6; Luke 9:28-36).
Here are the miracles so far:
Blind healed (9:27-31)
Lame walking (9:2-8)
Lepers cleaned (8:1-4)
Deaf hearing (9:32-33)
Dead raised (9:18-26)
The poor enjoy the good news preached to them (4:17, 23; 5-7, particularly the Beatitudes which begins with the kingdom of heaven belonging to the poor in spirit.
In summary, miracles of God, particularly the ones Jesus performed to usher in the kingdom of God, are purposed to help people, to set them free from natural deformities and diseases and spiritual, demonic afflictions, and falsehoods—all the abnormalities of a world gone haywire, a fallen world. They are all people-centered an on their real needs in body and soul. This is the kind of Messiah he was. Those are the signs he did.
But his brothers were not catching on. They counseled him to be a walking, talking infomercial for their version of the Messiah. Sorry, no.
His brothers not believing in him fits the Synoptic witness:
20 He came home, and again a crowd gathered together, so that they were unable even to eat a meal. 21 When his family heard this, they went out to take him into custody, for they were saying, “He was out of his mind.” … 31 His mother and his brothers, standing outside, sent for him and called him. 32 A crowd sat around him and said to him, “See, your mother and your brothers and your sisters are looking for you outside.” 33 In reply, he said to them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34 He looked around at those sitting about him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. 35 The one who does the will of God—this one is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3:20-21, 31-35)
So Jesus had to move on from them, until, thankfully, after his resurrection, they came to believe.
6:
As usual, Jesus plays with a rich word, time. In Greek chronos (pronounced khroh-noss) means more of a calendar time. It measures one day, one week or one month after another. But here he uses another word, kairos (pronounced kye-ross). It is used 85 times in the NT. It speaks more of a quality time than quantity. BDAG defines the noun as follows: (1) a point of time or period of time, time, period, frequently with the implication of being especially fit for something and without emphasis on precise chronology. (a) Generally a welcome time or difficult time … fruitful times; (b) a moment or period as especially appropriate the right, proper, favorable time … at the right time; (2) a defined period for an event, definite, fixed time (e.g. period of fasting or mourning in accord with the changes in season), in due time (Gal. 6:9); (3) a period characterized by some aspect of special crisis, time; (a) generally the present time (Rom. 13:11; 12:11); (b) One of the chief terms relating to the endtime … the time of crisis, the last times.
It seems that 2b is the right definition here. His time has not yet come because he is waiting for a signal from his Father, his appointed time. As we read in Mark 3:20-21 and 31-35, so in this passage in the Fourth Gospel, his family also stands in opposition to the Father’s will. Jesus has to follow his Father, not his family. He rejects their timing of his appearance, but that is not to say that he will stay away when the Father tells him to appear. That’s the lesson for all of us. Following Jesus must come before the family, if the family opposes the Gospel, as it often happens in devout Jewish and Muslim families today.
“in this way, Jesus’s statement [“My time has not yet appeared, but your time is always ready”] offers a rejoinder that, without any combative hyperbole, could not be perceived by his brothers, but was intended to act as a distancing mechanism … And in doing so, Jesus aligns himself with the Father” (Klink, comment on v. 6).
Bottom line: The brothers’ kairos is always here, meaning without redemptive significance. They can do as they please and no one will notice in the flow of redemptive history. However, Jesus’s kairos is not quite ready because it will culminate in his redemptive crucifixion and resurrection, later. For now he can visit Jerusalem as he pleases, not because his brothers compel him. More significantly, he will visit Jerusalem on his Father’s time (kairos), which happens in John 12:12-16; 23-29, because the redemption through the crucifixion and resurrection will have been set in motion. In 12:12-16, 23-29 his arrival in Jerusalem fulfilling biblical prophecy about the entrance of the king will be his kairos time. So Jesus is playing with the ambiguity embedded in the word kairos; he was not “lying.” He often does this with words and imagery, throughout the Gospel.
So he rejects their timing and their manner. But he will appear in Jerusalem in his time and his manner—as directed by the Father.
“appear”: it has additional connotations, meaning “to be present” or “to be here” or “to be there.” I translated it as “appear,” because Jesus is refuting his brothers’ counsel to make a Grand Appearance, to walk the red carpet as the superstar at the Jerusalem Religious Oscars (so to speak). Once again, he rejects the brothers’ manner of his appearance.
7:
Jesus draws a sharp contrast between his relation to the world and his brothers’ relation to the world. The world—which includes Jerusalem—hates him because he testifies that its works or deeds are evil. Then he says that the world does not hate them. Ouch. His implication is that his brothers’ works are part and parcel of the world. The brothers fit right in because their works are evil. They match up. Jesus will prove who his true brothers / disciples really are (15:19) (Klink, comment on v. 7).
“world”: The Greek noun is kosmos (pronounced coz-moss). It could refer to the physical universe (17:5; 21:25). Or it could refer to humanity as a group. What we call humanity or humankind is, in John, the world. This is why God invades the kosmos. “The ‘world’ is the place or realm where God is at work, the place that is the main focus of God’s attention. God’s saving light invades the dark world. Jesus came to the dark world to save as many as those who believe in him and in his name. In sum, “it appears that the personification of the ‘world’ in John is the portrait of a class of people.” It is the dimension of a relational encounter between God and people (Klink, comment on 1:10, pp. 100-01).
God is at work in the world. So once again, Jesus is not completely revealing who he is.
“testify”: “The theme of witness … pervades the whole Gospel. The witness to the truth of God’s self-revelation in the Word is manifold: it comprises the witness of the Father (5:32, 37; 8:18), of the Son 8:14, 18), of the Spirit (15:26); the witness of the works of Christ (5:36; 10:25), the witness of the scriptures (5:39), the witness of the disciples (15:27), including the disciple whom Jesus loved (19:35; 21:24). The purpose of this manifold witness, as of John’s witness, is ‘that all might believe’: it is the purpose for which the Gospel itself was written (20:31)” (Bruce, comment on 1:6-8). The terms “witness” or “testimony” carries a legal meaning “of testifying or bearing witness to the true state of affairs by one who has sufficient knowledge or superior position” (Klink, comment on 1:7).
Mounce says, simply, that Jesus is saying that he will not go to Jerusalem with his brothers (comment on vv. 8-9). That makes sense.
8:
Jesus tells his brothers that they should go up to Jerusalem, and using the present tense, he says “I am not going up” to Jerusalem for this feast (it is best not to regard the verbal clause as a “futuristic present tense,” but the action is already going on [Novakovic, p. 236]). As we are about to learn, however, he will go up a little later, when, it is implied, he gets word from his Father. It may be as simple as the fact that he did not want to share the road to Jerusalem with his brothers. When they had intended to take custody of him (Mark 3:21), who can blame him? His family seems to want to hinder and / control the ministry which God gave him.
Incidentally, why the verb “going up” and not just “going”? Jerusalem, particularly the center, sat on a hill, Mt. Zion. All for Gospels often say “go up.” Once again, John understood the topography, which adds a little to his historical reliability.
“I am not going up”: it is in the present tense: “I am not (currently) going up (right now).” His brothers were controlling him. He owed his unbelieving brothers nothing, no added information. Why should he tell him of his plan to go up when his Father told him? He withheld the fullest information so that he could keep things ambiguous. That was his way at this stage—speaking in cryptic or symbolic language, as we just read in most of John 6. People had to search for the answers, particularly about his identity of being the Messiah and his tight relationship with his Father.
Bruce is also right: “The reading ‘I am not going up’ in any case implies the proviso: ‘until my Father’s will is shown.’ Until then, Jesus’s time was not fulfilled’” (comment on vv. 6-8).
Klink points out that Jesus says that he is not going up to this feast. Why the clear pronoun this? “What makes this statement remarkable is that the implied other feast is the same feast—the Feast of Tabernacles! The contrast Jesus makes suggests that there is a distinction between the Feast of Tabernacles and the true tabernacle—Jesus himself” (comment on v. 8). This makes sense (a) because Jesus often spiritualizes the language and renews old concepts, as we just read about the bread of heaven, the true bread, the bread of God; and (b) because John said: “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as the only and unique Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
Jesus was going to replace this old festival with a new grace, grace in place of grace (1:16). So v. 8 can be paraphrased in this expansive way: “I am not going up to this feast (as you brothers understand it and it is historically done), but to my own feast of tabernacles—myself, who has tabernacled among you.” Klink’s insight is not farfetched because Jesus is the fulfillment of all the feasts (though the expanded translation is mine, and so is the diagram). And it is then that his time will have been “accomplished” or “fulfilled” (v. 8). Excellent.
Again:
Festivals in Leviticus 23 from a NT Perspective
Carson writes: “Jesus’ response to his brothers is not that he is planning to stay in Galilee forever, but that because his life is regulated by his heavenly Father’s appointments, he is not going to the Feast when they say he should. The ‘counsel of the wicked’ (Ps. 1:1) cannot be permitted to set his agenda. His ‘not’ turns down his brothers’ request; it does not promise he will not go to the Feast when the Father sanctions the trip” (comment on vv. 8-9).
As usual, Carson cuts to the essence. Excellent explanation.
9:
Bruce points out that the third-century Neo-Platonist Porphyry wrote a work in fifteen books titled, Against the Christians. He argued that Jesus was irresolute when he stayed in Galilee but then went up to Jerusalem in the end, a short time later. So this objection has been circulating for many centuries. Bruce replies: “The Evangelist’s [John’s] point is rather that the whole incident marks his steadfast resolution not to run before the Father’s guidance nor yet lag behind it” (comment on v. 9). John’s entire Gospel is all about Jesus doing his Father’s will, hearing his voice and following it, so Bruce is right to include the implied proviso (see v. 8).
GrowApp for John 7:1-9
1. Have you ever let your unbelieving family control your walk with God? How did you reclaim it?
2. Have you ever run ahead of God? How did you come back to his guidance?
RELATED
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
12. Eyewitness Testimony in John’s Gospel
4. Church Fathers and John’s Gospel
3. Archaeology and John’s Gospel
SOURCES
For the bibliography, click on this link and scroll down to the very bottom:
Dr. Jim's Essential Bible Teaching 