1   Afterwards Jesus went about in Galilee. He wished to avoid Judaea because the Jews were looking for a chance to kill him. 2    3   As the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was close at hand, his brothers said to him, ‘You should leave this district and go into Judaea, so that your disciples there may see the great things you are doing. 4   Surely no one can hope to be in the public eye if he works in seclusion. If you really are doing such things as these, show yourself to the world.’ 5    6   For even his brothers had no faith in him. Jesus said to them, ‘The right time for me has not yet come, but any time is right for you. 7   The world cannot hate you; but it hates me for exposing the wickedness of its ways. 8   Go to the festival yourselves. I am not ^note going up to this festival because the right time for me has not yet come.’ 9   With this answer he stayed behind in Galilee.

10   Later, when his brothers had gone to the festival, he went up himself, not publicly, but almost in secret. 11   The Jews were looking for him at the festival and asking, 12   ‘Where is he?’, and there was much whispering about him in the crowds. ‘He is a good man’, said some. ‘No,’ said others, ‘he is leading the people astray.’ 13   However, no one talked about him openly, for fear of the Jews.

14   When the festival was already half over, Jesus went up to the temple and began to teach. 15   The Jews were astonished: ‘How

The great controversy is it’, they said, ‘that this untrained man has such learning?’ 16   Jesus replied, ‘The teaching that I give is not my own; it is the teaching of him who sent me. 17   Whoever has the will to do the will of God shall know whether my teaching comes from him or is merely my own. 18   Anyone whose teaching is merely his own, aims at honour for himself. But if a man aims at the honour of him who sent him he is sincere, and there is nothing false in him.

19   ‘Did not Moses give you the Law? Yet you all break it. Why are you trying to kill me?’ 20   The crowd answered, ‘You are possessed! 21   Who wants to kill you?’ Jesus replied, ‘Once only have I done work on the Sabbath, and you are all taken aback. 22   But consider: Moses gave you the law of circumcision (not that it originated with Moses but with the patriarchs) and you circumcise on the Sabbath. 23   Well then, if a child is circumcised on the Sabbath to avoid breaking the Law of Moses, why are you indignant with me for giving health on the Sabbath to the whole of a man's body? 24   Do not judge superficially, but be just in your judgements.’

25   At this some of the people of Jerusalem began to say, ‘Is not this the man they want to put to death? 26   And here he is, speaking openly, and they have not a word to say to him. Can it be that our rulers have actually decided that this is the Messiah? 27   And yet we know where this man comes from, but when the Messiah appears no one is to know where he comes from.’ 28   Thereupon Jesus cried aloud as he taught in the temple, ‘No doubt you know me; no doubt you know where I come from. ^noteYet I have not come of my own accord. I was sent by the One who truly is, and him you do not know. 29   I know him because I come from him and he it is who sent me.’ 30   At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him because his appointed hour had not yet come. 31   Yet among the people many believed in him. ‘When the Messiah comes,’ they said, ‘is it likely that he will perform more signs than this man?’

32   The Pharisees overheard these mutterings of the people about him, so the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple police to arrest him. 33   Then Jesus said, ‘For a little longer I shall be with you; then I am going away to him who sent me. 34   You will look for me, but you will not find me. 35   Where I am, you cannot come.’ So the Jews said to one another, ‘Where does he intend to go, that we should not be able to find him? Will he go to the Dispersion among the

The great controversy Greeks, and teach the Greeks? 36   What did he mean by saying, “You will look for me, but you will not find me. Where I am, you cannot come”?’ ^note

37   On the last and greatest day of the festival Jesus stood and cried aloud, ‘If anyone is thirsty let him come to me; 38   whoever believes in me, let him drink.’ As Scripture says, ‘Streams of living water shall flow out from within him.’ ^note 39   He was speaking of the Spirit which believers in him would receive later; for the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

40   On hearing this some of the people said, ‘This must certainly be the expected prophet.’ 41   Others said, ‘This is the Messiah.’ Others again, ‘Surely the Messiah is not to come from Galilee? 42   Does not Scripture say that the Messiah is to be of the family of David, from David's village of Bethlehem?’ 43   Thus he caused a split among the people. 44   Some were for seizing him, but no one laid hands on him.

45   The temple police came back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked, ‘Why have you not brought him?’ 46   ‘No man’, they answered, ‘ever spoke as this man speaks.’ 47   The Pharisees retorted, ‘Have you too been misled? 48   Is there a single one of our rulers who has believed in him, or of the Pharisees? 49   As for this rabble, which cares nothing for the Law, a curse is on them.’ 50   Then one of their number, Nicodemus (the man who had once visited Jesus), intervened. 51   ‘Does our law’, he asked them, ‘permit us to pass judgement on a man unless we have first given him a hearing and learned the facts?’ 52   ‘Are you a Galilean too?’ they retorted. ‘Study the scriptures and you will find that prophets do not come from Galilee.’ ^note                                            

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