John 7 - NIV LifeConnect Study Bible

7:1 Since 6:4 refers to the Passover Festival and 7:2 to the Festival of Tabernacles, the interval was about six months.

7:2 The Festival of Tabernacles celebrated the completion of harvest and commemorated God’s goodness to the people during the desert wanderings.

7:14 The crowds would have reached their peak halfway through the festival. Teaching in the temple courts at such a time would have reached many.

7:15 The Jews wanted to know where Jesus had gone to school. Educational standards for rabbis were well established by Jesus’ day. Advanced study under a rabbinic scholar was common (cf. Paul with Gamaliel in Ac 22:3). Jesus possessed no such credentials.

7:37–38 The Festival of Tabernacles lasted seven days (Lev 23:34; Dt 16:13,15) but included a “closing special assembly” on the eighth day (see Lev 23:36). The celebration included a daily procession from the temple to the Pool of Siloam. There a priest drew water that was then returned and poured out as an offering at the altar, accompanied by a recitation of Isaiah 12:3. On the final day of celebration (either the seventh or eighth day), Jesus announced that he himself was the source of “living water.”