John 7 - NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible
7:1 Galilee . . . Judea. Galilee and Judea had distinct administrations. Herod Antipas governed Galilee; the Judean ruling class, especially its members in the Sanhedrin, exercised oversight in Judea, under the governance of Pilate.
7:2 Festival of Tabernacles. Scripture prescribed two pilgrimage festivals in the spring (Passover and Pentecost) and one in the fall (Tabernacles). The joyful eight-day Festival of Tabernacles commemorated Israel’s experience in the wilderness. During this time Jewish men would build and spend time in booths or shelters built with branches, sometimes on their homes’ flat roofs.
7:3 go to Judea. Often entire Galilean villages would travel to Jerusalem together for major festivals; families often traveled together. Certainly a prominent religious figure would be expected to attend the festival.
7:5 his own brothers did not believe in him. Although sibling rivalry was common, brothers ideally were supposed to be united against criticism from outside the family. Unfortunately, in this case they apparently were not.
7:7 hates me because I testify that its works are evil. In Jewish wisdom, those who hated reproof were foolish (Pr 12:1; 23:9; Sirach 21:6; 32:17).
7:10 in secret. At times God permitted misleading impressions in order to protect the person’s life (see, e.g., 1Sa 16:2–4).
7:12 widespread whispering. Jewish views in the first century were diverse (so much so that some scholars have even spoken of first-century “Judaisms” to drive home the point). More generally, divisions were rife in ancient public discourse. deceives the people. Such a person might be subject to a death sentence (Dt 13:5).
7:14 temple courts . . . to teach. In antiquity people lectured in public places, including the porticoes of temples. In Jerusalem the temple consumed most public space, so many teachers lectured there.
7:15 such learning. Most people in antiquity, especially in rural areas, could neither read nor write; in urban areas a greater number of men could at least read inscriptions. Jewish boys were often taught how to read or recite Torah but were not taught how to write. More advanced education, often in the mid-teens, included writing (for scribes) and studying under a more advanced Torah teacher.
7:16 not my own. At least in the Pharisaic tradition, teachers were praised not for their originality but for faithfully reproducing respected, time-tested traditions.
7:20 demon-possessed. Sometimes prophets were viewed as possessed, confusing the basis of their inspiration. In view of this passage, it is ironic that false prophets inspired by demons were thought to merit death.
7:23 circumcised . . . healing a man’s whole body. Some rabbis argued from lesser to greater: the requirement to circumcise, hence wound, a boy on the eighth day takes priority over the prohibition of work on the Sabbath; therefore saving a person’s life also takes priority. Jesus offers a similar argument, though some rabbis would have insisted that one could defer healing until after the Sabbath. The Pharisaic school of Hillel permitted prayer for the sick on the Sabbath; the dominant Pharisaic school, the Shammaites, rejected this practice. Jesus does what the Father does (5:19); indeed, Jesus “made a person” whole, like God “made humanity” (using forms of the same Greek words) in “our image” (Ge 1:26–27).
7:24 mere appearances. God evaluates not by appearance but by truth (1Sa 16:7). Many people in antiquity were so invested in judging by appearance that they even developed physiognomy, the association of personality traits with particular physical features.
7:25 Isn’t this the man . . . ? That the crowds do not know him by sight may suggest that Jesus physically resembled most other Jewish men of his day, with an olive complexion and dark or black hair. Some argue that average height was about five feet one inch (about 155 centimeters), and others about five foot seven inches (about 170 centimeters); because a range of appearances existed, however, these guesses do not inform us very securely about Jesus. Especially in Judea, few people had seen Jesus often and up close.
7:27 no one will know where he is from. Some Jewish sources report this “hidden Messiah” tradition.
7:28 not here on my own authority. To the extent that an agent accurately represented his commission he was backed by the sender’s authority.
7:28–29 you know me . . . You do not know him . . . I know him. When Israel obeyed the covenant they could be said to “know” God; when they disobeyed, they did not know him (Jdg 2:10; Hos 5:4); they would know him when God restored them (Jer 31:33; Eze 37:27; Hos 2:20; Zec 8:8).
7:32 The Pharisees. Pharisees likely constituted only a minority in the Sanhedrin in this period (although rarely poor, probably most Pharisees did not belong to the economic elite), but they and the dominant Sadducees cooperated on issues of public order. sent temple guards to arrest him. The chief priests could use Levite temple guards to address trouble in the temple.
7:33–34 Sages often taught in riddles; only those committed to the teaching would contemplate it until they came to understand it.
7:35 Greeks. Includes descendants of Greeks and Macedonians and those who fully adopted their culture in many cities of the eastern Mediterranean. The majority of Jewish people (sometimes estimated even at 80 percent) lived outside of the Holy Land, and the majority of the Jewish people in the Diaspora in the Mediterranean world (as opposed to Parthia and Babylonia) lived among Greeks in cities such as Alexandria, Antioch and Sardis.
7:37 come to me and drink. Jesus speaks on the climactic eighth day of the Festival of Tabernacles (see note on v. 2). He probably echoes divine Wisdom, who invited people to come and drink (Sirach 24:19, 21).
7:38 rivers of living water will flow from within them. See the article “Tabernacles and the Promise of Living Water.”
7:39 Jewish sources often use water as an analogy for wisdom or the Torah, but John’s use of the analogy for the Spirit evokes an image available in the Prophets (Isa 44:3 and especially Eze 36:25–27). The OT prophets promised a greater outpouring of the Spirit for the coming age (e.g., Eze 37:14; 39:29; Joel 2:28–29). See Jn 1:33; 3:5; 4:10, 14; cf. also Jn 2:6, 9; 5:7–8; 9:7; 13:5; 19:34.
7:42 from David’s descendants . . . where David lived. Although various conceptions of the Messiah circulated, the dominant view was an anointed king from David’s line. Mic 5:2 promised a ruler from Bethlehem.
7:49 this mob that knows nothing of the law. Educated elites in antiquity looked down on the masses. Those who could persuade only people of lower socioeconomic rank were condemned by the elite as demagogues. Some later rabbinic sources share this disdain for those uneducated in the law; we might expect this attitude even more from many aristocratic members of the Sanhedrin.
7:51 Does our law . . . ? Ironically, those insisting on their superior knowledge are here neglecting basic judicial protocol (cf., e.g., Dt 1:16), as Nicodemus points out.
7:52 a prophet does not come out of Galilee. Regional prejudices remained prominent in the ancient Mediterranean world. Urban residents often looked down on rural peasants, such as most Galileans were; Jerusalemites often viewed Galilee as backward. Ironically, these experts in the law are mistaken about no prophet coming from Galilee (2Ki 14:25; Gath Hepher was in Galilee).
7:53–8:11 As noted in the bracketed NIV text, this passage is missing in most of the oldest manuscripts. It also interrupts the flow of this Gospel’s thought and uses language missing in the rest of the Gospel (such as “the teachers of the law,” a phrase common in the Synoptics but absent in John). Because the story fits the character of Jesus, however, many consider it an authentic story about him that is simply out of place where it stands.
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