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Bible chapter guide
John 7
Jesus goes up secretly to the Feast of Tabernacles and teaches openly in the temple halfway through, while the crowds argue about who he is. On the last and greatest day he stands and cries, 'If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink', speaking of the Spirit.
Summary written for the Labs; read the chapter itself for the full text.
See it in the Labs
- The Feast of TabernaclesThe last and greatest day · The Feast of TabernaclesOpen
- The Feast of TabernaclesThe Feast of TabernaclesOpen
- verse/john-7-37John 7:37–38Open
- The Biblical Family TreeJesus · The Biblical Family TreeOpen
- The Bible Time MapJesus · The Bible Time MapOpen
- The Temple MountThe Golden Lampstands · The Temple MountOpen
- Bible Word Usagekoilia κοιλία · Bible Word UsageOpen
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How sure can we be?
- Textually stated
On the last, great day of the feast Jesus invited the thirsty to come to him and drink.
Stated in John 7:37–39.
- Textually stated
John explains the saying as the Spirit, who was not yet given.
Stated in John 7:39.
- Strongly supported
John 7:8: "not yet" or "not"?: KJV reads "I go not up yet unto this feast"; the 和合本 reads 「我現在不上去過這節」, "I am not going up now", which keeps the plain "not" but adds "now". Jesus then went up in secret (7:10), so the wording matters. The Cambridge Bible calls "yet" very ancient but possibly not original, perhaps added to answer the pagan critic Porphyry; Bengel reads the plain "not" as "not now, with you".
- Plausible
Jesus' words about living water, and soon after about the light of the world, echo the water-drawing and lamp-lighting of the feast.
A widely held reading. The customs themselves are described only in later sources (Mishnah Sukkah 4–5, about 200 AD), which present them as late Second Temple practice. John does not mention them.
- Plausible
“That great day of the feast” is the eighth day, the solemn assembly.
Leviticus 23:36 and Numbers 29:35 make the eighth day a holy convocation that closes the feast. If this is the day, Jesus spoke after the water rites had ended: the Mishnah gives the water libation seven days (Sukkah 4:1).
- Plausible
John 7:38: the rivers of living water flow from the one who believes.
The punctuation of most translations and many Greek writers since Origen; compare John 4:14.