Jesus Teaches at the Feast 1 UDB After this, Jesus went to other areas in the region of Galilee. He avoided traveling to Judea because the Jewish authorities were searching for a way to charge him with a crime and to have him put to death. BSB BSB: After this, Jesus traveled throughout Galilee. He did not want to travel in Judea, because the Jews there were trying to kill Him.
2 UDB Now it was time for the Jewish Festival of Shelters. This was a time to remember when the Jewish people lived in tents during the Exodus long ago. BSB BSB: However, the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near.
3 UDB Because the festival was to take place in Judea, Jesus's brothers said to him, "Leave here and go to Judea so your other followers can see the powerful works you can do. BSB BSB: So Jesus’ brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go to Judea, so that Your disciples there may see the works You are doing.
4 UDB No one hides his work if he wants people to know what kind of a person he is. Show yourself to the world!" BSB BSB: For no one who wants to be known publicly acts in secret. Since You are doing these things, show Yourself to the world.”
6 UDB So Jesus said to them, "It is not yet time for me to bring my work to an end. However, you can choose any time you want to accomplish whatever you wish. BSB BSB: Therefore Jesus told them, “Although your time is always at hand, My time has not yet come.
7 UDB The people who live for themselves and love the things of this world cannot hate you, but they do hate me. I am the one who tells them that what they do with their lives is evil. BSB BSB: The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me, because I testify that its works are evil.
8 UDB You go ahead to the festival. I am not going up now; it is not the right time for me." BSB BSB: Go up to the feast on your own. I am not going up to this feast, because My time has not yet come.”
9 UDB After he said that, Jesus stayed a little longer in Galilee. BSB BSB: Having said this, Jesus remained in Galilee.
10 UDB However, a few days after his brothers left for the festival, he also went, but he did so secretly. BSB BSB: But after His brothers had gone up to the feast, He also went—not publicly, but in secret.
11 UDB The Jewish opponents of Jesus were looking for him, hoping to find him at the festival. They were asking people, "Where is Jesus? Is he here?" BSB BSB: So the Jews were looking for Him at the feast and asking, “Where is He?”
12 UDB Among the crowds, many people were quietly speaking with each other about Jesus. Some were saying, "He is a good man!" Others were saying instead, "No! He is deceiving and misleading the crowds!" BSB BSB: Many in the crowds were whispering about Him. Some said, “He is a good man.” But others replied, “No, He deceives the people.”
13 UDB Because they were afraid of the Jewish enemies of Jesus, no one spoke of him in a public place where other people could overhear what they were saying. BSB BSB: Yet no one would speak publicly about Him for fear of the Jews.
14 UDB When the Festival of Shelters was about half over, Jesus went to the temple courtyard and started to teach there. BSB BSB: About halfway through the feast, Jesus went up to the temple courts and began to teach.
16 UDB Jesus replied to them, "What I teach does not come from myself. It comes from the one who sent me. BSB BSB: “My teaching is not My own,” Jesus replied. “It comes from Him who sent Me.
17 UDB If anyone chooses to do what God wants, he will find out if what I teach comes from God or if I speak only by my own authority. BSB BSB: If anyone desires to do His will, he will know whether My teaching is from God or whether I speak on My own.
18 UDB Anyone who speaks on his own authority speaks so others will honor only him. However, if a servant works hard to honor the person who sent him, to give him a good reputation as a man of integrity, there is no fault in that kind of a servant. BSB BSB: He who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is a man of truth; in Him there is no falsehood.
19 UDB Did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you does what the law demands. You are the ones plotting to murder me right now! BSB BSB: Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps it. Why are you trying to kill Me?”
20 UDB Someone in the crowd answered, "You have a demon! Name the person who wants to put you to death!" BSB BSB: “You have a demon,” the crowd replied. “Who is trying to kill You?”
21 UDB Jesus replied to the crowd, "Because I did one work of power for you to see, you all marvel at it. BSB BSB: Jesus answered them, “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed.
22 UDB Moses gave you a law, and that law says you must circumcise your male children and that you must do that exactly seven days after the children are born. (To be accurate, this rite was from your forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and not from Moses, who wrote down the law about this practice.) Because of that requirement in the law, you sometimes have to circumcise a baby on the Sabbath day, and that is working, too! BSB BSB: But because Moses gave you circumcision, you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath (not that it is from Moses, but from the patriarchs.)
23 UDB You sometimes circumcise boys on the Sabbath so that you will not violate the law of Moses. So why are you angry with me, saying I worked on the Sabbath when I was healing a man! Healing someone is more wonderful and a greater work than circumcising a baby! BSB BSB: If a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses will not be broken, why are you angry with Me for making the whole man well on the Sabbath?
24 UDB Stop deciding whether healing this man was right or wrong according to a false application of God's law, and that without any thought! Instead, decide what a person should do and how he should be judged by the principle of what is right and what is just according to God, not man." BSB BSB: Stop judging by outward appearances, and start judging justly.”
Is Jesus the Christ? 25 UDB Some of the people from Jerusalem were saying, "Is this not the man they are trying to put to death? BSB BSB: Then some of the people of Jerusalem began to say, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill?
26 UDB He is saying these things publicly, but the authorities are not saying anything to oppose him. Is that because they know he is the Christ? BSB BSB: Yet here He is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying anything to Him. Have the rulers truly recognized that this is the Christ?
27 UDB But he cannot be the Christ, because we know where he comes from. But when Christ comes, no one is supposed to know where he comes from." BSB BSB: But we know where this man is from. When the Christ comes, no one will know where He is from.”
28 UDB So while Jesus was teaching in the temple courtyard, he called out as he taught, "Yes, you say you know me, and you think you know where I am from. But I have come here not because I appointed myself. Instead, the one who sent me bears the truth as his testimony, and you do not know him. BSB BSB: Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “You know Me, and you know where I am from. I have not come of My own accord, but He who sent Me is true. You do not know Him,
29 UDB I know him because I have come from him. He is the one who sent me." BSB BSB: but I know Him, because I am from Him and He sent Me.”
30 UDB Then they tried to lay their hands on him, but no one could arrest him because it was not yet the time for him to complete his work and for his life to end. BSB BSB: So they tried to seize Him, but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.
31 UDB Many in the crowd, after they heard him and saw his works, put their trust in him. They said, "When the Christ comes, will he be able to do more miraculous signs than this man has done?" BSB BSB: Many in the crowd, however, believed in Him and said, “When the Christ comes, will He perform more signs than this man?”
32 UDB The Pharisees heard them quietly speaking these things about Jesus. So the chief priests and Pharisees together sent some officers to arrest him. BSB BSB: When the Pharisees heard the crowd whispering these things about Jesus, they and the chief priests sent officers to arrest Him.
33 UDB Then Jesus said, "I will be with you for only a short time. Then I am going back to the one who sent me. BSB BSB: So Jesus said, “I am with you only a little while longer, and then I am going to the One who sent Me.
34 UDB You will search for me, but you will not find me. Where I am going, you cannot come." BSB BSB: You will look for Me, but you will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.”
35 UDB So the Jewish people who were his enemies said to themselves, "Where can this man go where we cannot find him? Does he intend to go where the Jews are spread all across the Greek world, and will he teach the people there these new things? BSB BSB: At this, the Jews said to one another, “Where does He intend to go that we will not find Him? Will He go where the Jews are dispersed among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks?
36 UDB What did he mean when he said, 'You will search for me, but you will not be able to find me,' and when he said, 'Where I am going, you cannot come'?" BSB BSB: What does He mean by saying, ‘You will look for Me, but you will not find Me,’ and, ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”
Living Water 37 UDB So on the last day of the festival, the great day, Jesus stood up cried out with a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. BSB BSB: On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and called out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.
38 UDB Whoever trusts in me, as the scripture said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" BSB BSB: Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said: ‘Streams of living water will flow from within him.’”
39 UDB He said this about the Spirit, whom the Father was going to give to those who trusted in him. God had not yet sent the Spirit to live within those who trusted him because Jesus had not yet finished his work, that work which would bring great honor to God by saving his people through his death. BSB BSB: He was speaking about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. For the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
Division over Jesus 40 UDB When some of the crowd heard those words, they said, "This truly is the Prophet that we were expecting." BSB BSB: On hearing these words, some of the people said, “This is truly the Prophet.”
41 UDB Others said, "This is the Christ." Other people said, "But the Christ cannot come from Galilee. BSB BSB: Others declared, “This is the Christ.” But still others asked, “How can the Christ come from Galilee?
42 UDB Do not the scriptures say that the Christ must come through the descendants of David and that he must be born in Bethlehem, the village that was David's home?" BSB BSB: Doesn’t the Scripture say that the Christ will come from the line of David and from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?”
43 UDB So there was a division of opinion about Jesus. BSB BSB: So there was division in the crowd because of Jesus.
44 UDB Some of the people wanted to arrest him. Yet no one laid a hand on him. BSB BSB: Some of them wanted to seize Him, but no one laid a hand on Him.
The Unbelief of the Jewish Leaders 45 UDB So the officers returned to the chief priests and the Pharisees. These were the officers that the rulers had sent to arrest Jesus. The Pharisees said to the officers, "Why did you not seize him and bring him here?" BSB BSB: Then the officers returned to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring Him in?”
46 UDB The officers replied, "No one ever spoke like this man." BSB BSB: “Never has anyone spoken like this man!” the officers answered.
47 UDB Then the Pharisees replied, "Have you also been deceived? BSB BSB: “Have you also been deceived?” replied the Pharisees.
48 UDB None of the Jewish authorities or the Pharisees have trusted in Jesus. BSB BSB: “Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in Him?
49 UDB This crowd who does not know the teachings of our laws, let them be cursed!" BSB BSB: But this crowd that does not know the law—they are under a curse.”
50 UDB Then Nicodemus spoke. (He was the one who had gone to see Jesus at night to speak with him, and he was one of the Pharisees.) He said to them, BSB BSB: Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who himself was one of them, asked,
51 UDB "Our Jewish law does not permit us to condemn a man before we have listened to him. First, we give him a hearing, and we must learn about what he has done." BSB BSB: “Does our law convict a man without first hearing from him to determine what he has done?”
52 UDB They replied to him, "Are you also from Galilee? Search carefully and read what is written in the scriptures! You will find that no prophet comes from Galilee." BSB BSB: “Aren’t you also from Galilee?” they replied. “Look into it, and you will see that no prophet comes out of Galilee.”
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.