02/07/2022 – Gospel of John – Chapter 7 Commentary – Jesus Goes to the Feast of Tabernacles – Jerusalem
I am going to William Barclay’s Commentary – quotes designated as (*A):
“All the events of this chapter took place during the Festival of Tabernacles; and properly to understand them, we must know the significance , and at least some of the ritual of the Festival.
The Festival of the Tabernacles or Booths was the third of a trio of great Jewish Festivals, attendance at which was compulsory for all adult male Jews who lived within fifteen miles of Jerusalem — the Passover, the Festival of Pentecost, and the Festival of Tabernacles. It fell on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, that is, about 15th October. Like all the great Jewish fesivals, it had a double significance.
First, it had an historical significance. It received the name from the fact that all through it people left their homes and lived in little booths. During the Festival the booths sprang up everywhere, on the flat roof of the houses, in the streets, in the city squares, in the gardens, and even in the very courts of the Temple. The law laid it down that the booths must not be permanent structures but built specially for the occasion. … It’s purpose was ‘ that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. Originally it last seven days, but by the time of Jesus an eighth day had been added.
Second, it had an agricultural signficance. It was supremely a harvest – thanksgiving festival… The people called it ‘ the season of gladness,’ for it marked the ingathering of all the harvests, since by this time the barley, the wheat, and the grapes were all safely gathered in… Josephus called it ‘ the holiest and the greatest festival among the Jews’ (Antiquities of the Jews , 3: 10: 4) It was not only a time for the rich; it was laid down that the servant, the stranger, the widow and the poor were all to share in the universal joy. ” (pgs 247 – 249 0 John 7: 37-44)
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I share the following passage from John 7: 1-9 to point out that we have to be careful in that translations from Greek into a single meaning in English can originate from different meanings in Greek:
John 7:8: “You go the Feast, I am not yet going up to this Feast, because for me this right time has not yet come ,”
“Jesus frequently spoke about his time or his hour. But here he uses a differnt word, and uses it for the first time. In the other passages (John 2: 4; 7:30; 8:20; 12:27) the word that Jesus or John uses is ‘ hora’, which means the destined hour of God. Such a time was not movable nor avoidable. .. But in this passage , the word is kairos, which characteristically means an Opportunity; that is, the best time to do something, the moment when circumstances are most suitable, the psychological moment” (*A)
Re: John 7: 10 – 13:
“They talked about Jesus; they put forward their views about him ; they debated about him. There is both value and danger here.
-The value is that nothing helps us clarify our own opinions like pitting them against someone else’s. Mind sharpens mind as iron sharpens iron.
-The danger is that religion can so easily become regarded a a matter for argument and debate and discussion, a series of fascinating questions, about which a man may talk for a lifetime — and do nothing.
There is all the difference in the world between being an argumentative amateur theologian , willing to talk until the stars go out, and a truly religious person, who has passed from talking about Christ to knowing him.” (*A)
- “There was the crowd’s reaction of fear (verse 13). They talked about him but they were afraid to talk too loud, The word that John uses for their talking is an onomatopoetic word — that is, a word which imitates the sound of what it describes. It is the word goggusmus (two g’s in Greek are pronounced ng) The Authorized Version translates it murmuring, the Revised Standard Version, muttering… Fear can keep a man from making a clarion call of his faith and can turn it into an indistinct mutter. The Christian should never be afraid to tell the world in ringing tones that he believes in Christ.” (*A)
John: 7:18: “He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.”
People of Jerusalem : “But we know where this man is from; when the Christ comes, no one will know where is from.”
Barclay:
“All popular Jewish belief believed the Messiah would burst upon the world mysteriously. Jesus did not measure up to that kind of standard; to the Jews there was no mystery about where he cam from. This belief was characteristic of a certain attitude of mind which prevailed among the Jews and is by no means dead — that which seeks for God the abnormal. They could never be persuaded to see God in ordinary things. They had to be extraordinary before God could be in them. The teaching of Christianity is just the reverse. If God is to enter the world only in the unusual, he will very seldom be in it; whereas if we can find God in the common things, it means that he is always present. Christianity does not look on this world as one which God very occasionally invades, i9t looks on it as a world from which he is never absent.” (*A – John 7: 14, 25, 30, pgs 243 – 244)
John 7: 33 – 34: “Jesus said, ‘ I am with you for only a short time, and then I go to the one who sent me. You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”
Barclay:
“What Jesus was saying to these popel was: “You can awaken to a sense of need too late.” … The one thing a man must never lose is his sense of sin.” (*A) And as Barclay notes: “Seek the Lord while he may be found.” (Isaiah 55:6)
Soli Deo Gloria!