John 7:1-43

[alon]

I went with my wife to her church today. The sermon was from John ch. 7; and as the pastor read the text it struck me how very anti-Semitic our translations are. He read from the NIV, but I was following in my NASB. Here I’ll use the KJV because that is what my online Strong’s is keyed to. Also, years of people sitting under instruction from the KJV has produced a huge anti-Semitic bias in those who translate our contemporary versions of the Bible.


John 7:1 (KJV) After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry (G2449), because the Jews sought to kill him.

G2449 Ἰουδαία Ioudaia ee-oo-dah'-yah Feminine of G2453 (with G1093 implied); the Judaean land (that is, judaea), a region of Palestine: - Juda.

Here we see the first anti statement- “he would not walk in Jewry.” This sounds like Yeshua would not walk among any of His own people, the Jews. But what it really says is He would not walk in the Judean region of Yisroel. Why? Well, that brings us to our next anti sentiment:

“because the Jews sought to kill him.” This sounds like all His own wanted to kill Him.

G2453 Ἰουδαῖος Ioudaios ee-oo-dah'-yos From G2448 (in the sense of G2455 as a country); udaean, that is, belonging to Jehudah: - Jew (-ess), of Juda.

Remember that we have to be careful with statements that say or imply “all.” In Hebrew, Greek and even English “all” doesn’t always mean everyone. It can just mean a particular group or even a majority. When the pastor says “And all the people said …” and they respond “Amen!” He then says “A-a-a-a-m-e-e-e-n.” Everyone there didn’t say amen any more than whoever he was talking about in the first place. But a majority of the people in that place at that time did say “amen.” So the implication here in our “translations” that all the Jews were trying to kill Yeshua is a lie. And when it was first told it was intentional. But centuries of repetition of this lie and Christianity never until the Messianic movement bothered to question it. My guess is only a significant number of people in Yehuda were wanting to kill Yeshua. The religious leadership and their families and friends, and so too many Hellinized Jews would have lived there under the protection of Rome.


John 7: 2 Now the Jew's feast of tabernacles was at hand.

Not the feast of the Lord, but the feast of the Jews. This is important for many reasons which I won’t go into now. However this feast, Sukkot, is the backdrop for this entire chapter. It was one of the shalosh regalim, the three feasts all Jewish males were required to attend.


Verses 3-9 ammount to a friendly challenge by Yeshua’s brothers, who did not yet believe in Him, to go up and do miracles in Yerushalayim. But He sent them ahead because it was not yet time for Him to fulfill His primary redemptive mission- that of dying to redeem our sins. Had He went with them they no doubt would have called attention to Him, challenging Him to publicly perform miracles. The miracles of Adonai are not for self-agrandizement, nor for entertainment or for show. They are to affirm Yeshua was HaMoshiach. They affirmed the prophets were of Elohim; and later they affirmed the shaliachim were sent of Him as well.


John 7: 10 But when his brethren were gone up, then went he also up unto the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.

It would have been sin for Him not to go, because as I said earlier this was one of the shalosh regalim.


John 7: 11 Then the Jews sought him at the feast, and said, Where is he?

Them e-e-e-e-vil Jews … but wait! Same word as before. So we are not talking about Jews in general here either; just a substantial number of men from Yehuda.


John 7: 12 And there was much murmuring among the people concerning him: for some said, He is a good man: others said, Nay; but he deceiveth the people.

And here we have a major disconnect in Christian thinking. They have been trained to just blow right by these kinds of statements. Here we have all these statements about “the Jews” who want Yeshua dead. And they read this like “all the Jews,” not just a group of Judeans. So just who do they think were saying “He is a good man?” Answer: they don’t stop to think about it, because it would conflict with their “all the Jews wanted to kill Yeshua” doctrine.


John 7: 13 Howbeit no man spake openly of him for fear of the Jews.

Why would they fear “the Jews?” Even if this did mean every man in Judea wanted to kill Him, they would have easily outnumbered the entire regional population. They feared them because the higher leadership, and only some of them, were the ones pushing for His death.


John 7: 14-15 Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught. And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?

These men of Yehudah probably some in leadership regarded Yeshua as an am ha-aretz- a man of the land. The implication is they did not think He was as learned as they were. After all, they were in Yerushalayim where there were good yeshivas and great teachers. He was from the countryside. How could such a man be so learned?


John 7: 16 Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine (G1322) is not mine, but his that sent me.

G1322 διδαχή didachē did-akh-ay' From G1321; instruction (the act or the matter): - doctrine, hath been taught.

When Yeshua attended yeshiva, no matter who the earthly Rabbi was He was instructed by the Ruach HaKodesh.


John 7: 17-18 If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.

Yeshua spoke the things of Adonai. He did not seek to glorify Himself as a man, which again is why He did not go with his brothers. And we are to be the same way.


John 7: 19 Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me?

Yeshua tells His accusers plainly that if they were keeping the law, then they would recognize Him for who He was. And many in Yisroel (Jews) did recognize and follow Him. Many went through tevilah with Yochanon the Immerser. And later when their faith was perfected in recognition of the One who Yochanon proclaimed they underwent tevilah in light of accepting Him as HaMoshiach. So he wasn’t speaking to everyone there, just to His challengers.


John 7: 20 The people (G3793) answered and said, Thou hast a devil: who goeth about to kill thee?

“The people” makes it sound like all the people. But what does the word mean in the source documents?

G3793 ὄχλος ochlos okh'-los From a derivative of G2192 (meaning a vehicle); a throng (as borne along); by implication the rabble; by extension a class of people; figuratively a riot: - company, multitude, number (of people), people, press.

A throng, class, multitude, company- in other words just what I have been saying: a particular group of people. Not all the Jews, or all the people as this clearly implies. Just a particular group of people. Relatively speaking, just a few of the Jews.

Here we also see a tactic that is often used against us in MJ: accuse the one who exposes the lie in your life and deny you believed it. But I grew up with I, nd I just heard a pretty good pastor say it.

John 7: 21-24 Jesus answered and said unto them, I have done one work, and ye all marvel. Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision; (not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers;) and ye on the sabbath day circumcise a man. If a man on the sabbath day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken; are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the sabbath day? Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.

Again, had their hearts been set on they could have used righteous judgement and known that it was not only legal, but required that we do such mitzvoth on Shabbat if we are able.


John 7: 25-27 Then said some of them of Jerusalem, Is not this he, whom they seek to kill? But, lo, he speaketh boldly, and they say nothing unto him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ? Howbeit we know this man whence he is: but when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is.

Couple of things here: note that some of these men from Yerushalayim (which is in Yehudah) are questioning their leaders. Next these leaders had apparently not been schooling them correctly, since they were of the opinion no one would know where the Annionted One was to come from.

Micah 5:2 (KJV) But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.


John 7: 28-30 Then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught, saying, Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am: and I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not. But I know him: for I am from him, and he hath sent me. Then they sought to take him: but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come.

“They” knew who Yeshua was, but they denied Him. They were some of the multitude. Yet when the typical Christian reads this, he thinks “they” are all the Jews. That is what he has been trained to think.


John 7: 31 And many of the people believed on him, and said, When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done?

And the proof: many of “they” did believe on Yeshua. Most Christians don’t give this a second thought. Of those who do, many conclude there were Gentiles there and they believed.


John 7: 32-34 The Pharisees heard that the people murmured such things concerning him; and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take him. Then said Jesus unto them, Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent me. Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come.

My wife, thinking to sway me from Messianic Judaism, showed me the footnote in her Bible which said “The Jews did not believe in Jesus so they could not go to Heaven with Him.” Oh really? Did the men who wrote that THINK when they read the same text we’ve been reading? No, apparently they simply parroted the lie taught to them in seminary and first defecated by the church fathers- “The Jews are all going to Hell!” Well what about the ones who believed in … oh, wait- I know. They were Gentiles who were at this “Jewish feast.” Unreal.


John 7: 35-36 Then said the Jews among themselves, Whither will he go, that we shall not find him? will he go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles? What manner of saying is this that he said, Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come?

Obviously “they” didn’t understand Him. I’d say “they” and the preachers today have a lot In common that way.


John 7: 37-39 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

This was done every morning of Sukkot, though many Christians (including the pastor today) teach that it was only done the last day of the feast. They may be reading too much into the fact Yeshua spoke on the last day, probably at the conclusion of this ceremony.

Rabbi Ben Tzio Shafier said in an article about this ceremony: The Mishnah describes the nisukh ha-mayim – the water libation on Sukkot – which was done together with the daily tamid (“perpetual” communal sacrifice) in the morning. Water was brought from the Shiloah spring up to the Temple with great fanfare. The kohen would take the jug of water, walk up the ramp to the altar and turn left, where there were two bowls – sefalim – that drained into the foundation of the Temple. The bowls were for the nisukh ha-mayim on Sukkot and for the nisukh ha-yayin, the wine libation that accompanied many of the sacrifices. The kohen was instructed to raise up his hand so it would be clear that he was doing the avodah (service) properly. This was instituted because a kohen once poured the water on his feet instead of on the altar, and the enraged crowd pelted him with the etrogim that they were holding in their hands.

The ones who did not like the ceremony were of course the Sadducees. They denied the Oral Tradition from which this ceremony came. However Yeshua here seems to validate at least some of this tradition, because it portrayed the mayim chayim, or living waters which He makes available to us. It is based on scripture, where in Numbers 29:19, 29 and 33 there are three extra letters which, together spell “mayim”- water.


John 7: 40-43 Many of the people therefore, when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth this is the Prophet. Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee? Hath not the scripture said, That Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was? So there was a division among the people because of him.

So some did believe, others not. All had heard of this man, but apparently not much was known about Him. They knew He was from the Galil, but Moshiach was supposed to be born in Beith Lechem. Of course Yeshua was born there- another prophecy fulfilled in Him.


I’ll stop there. Just sometimes it is almost too much to sit silent in the face of all this false doctrine. Often the pastor there is spot on, however sometimes he is so far off the mark I wonder if he is reading the same book I am. Then I recall I once sat in deception myself. Yes, Christians read the same book, but with the blinders of almost 2000 yrs of dogma based in lies clouding their understanding. This is especially true with all the anti-Semitism and lack of understanding of Jewish tradition evidenced here.

Dan C