Bible Study series: John 7:40-44. Who was Jesus, anyway? The people took their best guesses based on traditions and their interpretations of Scripture
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For the Greek text, click here:
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In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: John 7:40-44
40 Then some of the crowd, when they heard these words, were saying, “This man is truly the prophet.” 41 Others were saying, “This man is the Christ.” But others were saying, “No. Does the Christ come from Galilee? 42 Doesn’t the Scripture say that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” 43 So then there was a division in the crowd because of him. 44 Still some of them wanted to seize him, but no one laid hands on him. (John 7:40-44)
Comments
40:
I translated Christos (pronounced khree-stoss) in Greek as “Christ” because John was writing to a Greek speaking audience, probably Gentiles, and he wanted to be clear on the meaning of Christos: the Anointed One. Earliest Christianity was going out to the Greek provinces, and the NT writers wanted to communicate in their language, so they used Greek. There is nothing sinister about it, as if it was an anti-Jewish conspiracy (John does use “Messiah” in 1:41, 4:25). Messiah also means Anointed One.
3. Titles of Jesus: The Son of David and the Messiah
Evidently, the words of Jesus about the Holy Spirit touched them—or at least provoked them. The prophet was predicted by Moses himself: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.” (Deut. 18:15, NIV).
41-42:
Bethlehem of David is in Judea, in the south, near Jerusalem.
Here is Matthew’s version:
And when he [Herod] gathered together all the chief priests and teachers of the law of the people, he was inquiring from them where the Christ would be born. 5 They said, “In Bethlehem, for thus it is written through the prophet:
6 ‘Even you Bethlehem, in the land of Judea
You are in no way the least of the leading cities of Judea,
For from you shall come a leader
Who shall shepherd my people Israel.’” [Mic. 5:2] (Matt. 2:4-6)
Jews did not believe therefore that the Messiah would come from Galilee, in the north. But the Jewish prediction of the Messiah was not uniform. Mounce says that the Qumran community expected a prophet and two Messiahs: a priestly Messiah of Aaron and a royal or Davidic Messiah of Israel (comment on v. 41, referring to 1QS 9:11).
“For this Gospel, Jesus is not merely from Bethlehem; he is ‘from above’ (cf. 3:1-5)” (Klink, comment on v. 42).
The crowds and the establishment did not believe any story about the birth of Jesus during the reign of Herod, those many years ago. Too much water under the bridge.
43-44:
The division grew so strong that some wanted to eliminate him, that is, take him into custody (another way of translating “seize”), but no one dared. In v. 30 we saw how Jesus was shielded by his Father, so that no one could prematurely arrest him or throw him off a cliff (Luke 4:29-30). We need to trust God that he has a plan for us and no one can ultimately stop it, though look at this verse:
18 For we wanted to come to you—certainly I, Paul, did, again and again—but Satan blocked our way. (1 Thess. 2:18, NIV)
So Satan can counterattack, but Paul wrote a letter to the Thessalonians. He got there by another path. As I heard a wise pastor say (now deceased): “It is still God’s devil.” This is a startling way of saying that God is sovereign, and he will accomplish his plan, even if Satan has a little liberty on his short leash to momentarily hinder you. For me, ultimately, we will never figure out the interaction of the world’s systems (governments), Satan’s kingdom, and God’s overarching kingdom. Right now, the world and the devil have some liberty to maneuver. Soon, God will allow the Jewish and Roman authorities to arrest and execute his Son. And then, after this seeming defeat, he will vindicate his Son by resurrecting him and welcoming him into heaven. When Jesus returns a second time, the worldly kingdom and Satan’s kingdom will be defeated finally, once and for all, and forever.
But for now, no one seized him or put one hand on him. The timing was not right. Scroll back up to v. 30 for a parallel verse.
GrowApp for John 7:40-44
1. God protected his Son from premature death. How does God protect you? Have you placed your lifespan in his hands?
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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 