The people of the city, in contrast to the multitude (chapter 7:20), knew of their rulers' purpose to kill the Lord Jesus (John 5:18), so they showed surprise and sarcasm at hearing them only making sneering comments about Him (verse 15) in spite of his speaking openly (see verse 13 and chapter 18:20), before all to see Him in the temple. In their second question, in ridicule, they suggested that their leaders might even be accepting the idea of His being the Messiah.
Perhaps contemptuously, they said they knew where He came from - they must have heard it from the Galileans, who knew His family (chapter 6:42), but they knew Him only as from Nazareth, not as born in Bethlehem (verse 42). They said no one knew where Messiah was from - quoting from a piece of popular theology which ran "Three things come wholly unexpected: Messiah, a godsend, and a scorpion" (Sanhedrin 97a).
The rulers knew the birthplace to be Bethlehem (verse 42; Matthew 2:5), but some even expected the Messiah to drop suddenly from the skies, as Satan proposed to the Lord to fall down from the pinnacle of the temple. The Jews generally expected a sudden emergence of the Messiah from concealment with an anointing by Elijah.
The Lord knew what they had said even though they had probably only whispered these questions among themselves, and immediately answered them loudly and clearly in the midst of His teaching to the crowd around Him.
Tersely agreeing that they knew something of Him and where He was from, He again made it clear that He did not come of His own accord. Passing by the controversy over the piece of popular theology as to Messiah's origin, He pointed out their ignorance of He who sent Him.
The words I know Him contain the unique claim of the Lord Jesus, which is pressed all through the chapters of controversy with the Jews. He was the Interpreter of God to men (chapter 1:18) having been sent by Him. This was the very verb used when He sent forth the twelve (Matthew 10:5) and used again of himself in chapter 17:3. He is the Father's Apostle to men.
Some of the Jerusalemites (rather than some of the leaders) then sought to take Him (to the authorities). But none of them arrested Him because His hour had not yet come: the persecution and death of the Lord followed a divinely laid out plan and nobody could interfere with it. A large portion of the crowd, however, had come to believe in Him either before or during this controversy. They had watched closely the proceedings, and were impressed by all the signs He had done so far.
The Pharisees (called the Jews) were very early hostile to Christ, and the Sadducees (called the chief priests) had become critical (Matthew 16:6); now the two parties joined in sending officers to arrest Him. They had heard the whispered talk about Him before he arrived (verse 12) and still more now. His acceptance as Messiah by a portion of the crowd (verse 31) must have particularly irritated the Pharisees.
The Lord was perfectly aware of their plot. So He told them that He would be with them a little while longer: He knew that the end was near, for there were only another six months to the last Passover of His ministry. He would then go to Him who sent Him (also chapter 16:5): the words I go have the notion of withdrawing (literally, go under).
It was enigmatic language to the hearers. They would seek and not find Him, being unable to go where He was. To the multitudes He had said: "Seek and you will find" (Matthew 7:7); now his enemies were seeking (verse 30) to kill Him, but when He had gone back where He came from, they would be unable to also go there.
His place is in absolute, eternal presence with the Father. This relationship was beyond the comprehension of these hostile unbelieving Jews (see chapter 8:21-24) and they would therefore be denied salvation and access to Heaven.
Hearing this, the Jewish leaders talked among themselves in a spirit of contempt and irony: did He mean to go away to foreign lands where the Jews had been dispersed and preach to the Greeks? It is interesting that they thus ignorantly anticipated the course Christianity took; what seemed unlikely and impossible to them became actual.
On each of the first seven days of the feast, water was drawn in a golden pitcher from the pool of Siloam, carried in procession to the temple and offered by the priests as the singers chanted With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation (Isaiah 12:3). The eighth day was the great day of the feast, a holy convocation (Leviticus 23:36), kept like a Sabbath, apparently a memorial of the entrance into Canaan.
The Lord Jesus stood and suddenly cried out as in verses 37-38 (it is uncertain whether the libations were made on this day, but if not, their absence would give a still more fitting occasion for these words). No precise passage in the Old Testament can be found for His quotation, though there is a similar idea in several (Isaiah 55:1; 58:11; Zechariah 13: 1; 14:8; Ezekiah 47: 1; Joel 3: 1 8).
As this Gospel was written long after the event, verse 39 provides the interpretation of the language of the Lord as an allusion to the coming of the Holy Spirit, whom those then believing in Him would receive at Pentecost, after the Lord Jesus had ascended to glory in heaven, and thereafter on conversion (Acts 10:44, 1 Corinthians 12:13).
Some of the people were convinced that He was the prophet Promised to Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15) and long expected (chapter 1:21). Others went further and dared to openly call Him the Messiah and not merely the prophet who might not be the Messiah. Those who denied that Jesus was the Messiah gave as their reason the fact that he came from Galilee, apparently unaware that He had been born in Bethlehem, where the Scripture, which they rightly quoted, said He would come from (Micah 5:2). There was therefore a clear split of opinion among the people, with some again wishing to seize him, but not doing so.
There was an indignant outburst of the Sanhedrin (both Sadducees and Pharisees) at the failure of the temple police to arrest the Lord Jesus. They may have been sitting in expectation of immediately questioning him, and were stunned at this outcome. Police officers are not usually carried away by public speech but these had been impressed in the same way as the crowd by His words (see verse 24).
The Pharisees sneered at the officers for being deceived in the same way as the accursed crowd which does not know the law, rather than obeying their rulers and themselves who did not believe in Him. (They had a scorn for what they called the people of the earth as is seen in rabbinical literature: no brutish man is sin-fearing, nor is one of the people of the earth pious, it reads. See the amazement of the Sanhedrin at Peter and John in Acts 4:13 as unlettered and untrained [idiotai] men. No wonder the common people heard the Lord gladly).
Nicodemus, not heard from since he timidly came to Jesus by night, now boldly protests against the injustice of condemning Jesus unheard. These exponents of the law (verse 49) were really violating the law of criminal procedure (Exodus 23: 1; Deuteronomy 1: 16).
They gave him a scornful answer, implying that Nicodemus had lined himself up with this despised Galilean mob. No prophet has arisen out of Galilee, they lie (Jonah, Hosea, Nahum, possibly also Elijah, Elisha, and Amos were all from Galilee).
25 Now some of them from Jerusalem said, "Is this not He whom they seek to kill?
26 "But look! He speaks boldly, and they say nothing to Him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is truly the Christ?
27 "However, we know where this Man is from; but when the Christ comes, no one knows where He is from."
28 Then Jesus cried out, as He taught in the temple, saying, "You both know Me, and you know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know.
29 "But I know Him, for I am from Him, and He sent Me."
30 Therefore they sought to take Him; but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.
31 And many of the people believed in Him, and said, "When the Christ comes, will He do more signs than these which this Man has done?"
32 The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things concerning Him, and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take Him.
33 Then Jesus said to them, "I shall be with you a little while longer, and then I go to Him who sent Me.
34 "You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come."
35 Then the Jews said among themselves, "Where does He intend to go that we shall not find Him? Does He intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks?
36 "What is this thing that He said, 'You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come'?
37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.
38 "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."
39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
40 Therefore many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, "Truly this is the Prophet."
41 Others said, "This is the Christ." But some said, "Will the Christ come out of Galilee?
42 "Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?"
43 So there was a division among the people because of Him.
44 Now some of them wanted to take Him, but no one laid hands on Him.
45 Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, "Why have you not brought Him?"
46 The officers answered, "No man ever spoke like this Man!"
47 Then the Pharisees answered them, "Are you also deceived?
48 "Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him?
49 "But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed."
0 Nicodemus (he who came to Jesus by night, being one of them) said to them,
51 "Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing?"
52 They answered and said to him, "Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee."
53 And everyone went to his own house.