John 7:3-5

“ His brethren therefore said to him: Depart hence and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may behold the works which thou doest; 4 for no man does any work in secret, while seeking after fame; if thou really doest such works, manifest thyself to the world. 5. For even his brethren did not believe on him. ”

We take the expression “ Jesus' brethren,” in the strict sense. Comp. on this question Vol. I., pp. 357-361. At the head of these brethren was undoubtedly James, who was afterwards the first director of the flock at Jerusalem (Acts 12:17; Acts 15:13; Acts 21:18; Galatians 1:19; Galatians 2:9). The exhortation which they address to Jesus is inspired neither by a too impatient zeal for the glory of their brother (Hengstenberg, Lange) nor by the malignant desire of seeing Him fall into the hands of His enemies (Euthymius). They are, beyond doubt, neither so good nor so bad. They are perplexed with regard to the claims of Jesus; on the one hand, they cannot deny the extraordinary facts of which they are every day the witnesses; on the other, they cannot decide to regard as the Messiah this man whom they are accustomed to treat on terms of the most perfect familiarity. They desire, therefore, to see Him withdraw from the equivocal situation which He creates for Himself and in which He places them all by keeping Himself so persistently at a distance from Jerusalem. If He is truly the Messiah, why indeed should He fear to make His appearance before more competent judges than the ignorant Galileans. His place is at Jerusalem. Is not the capital the theatre on which the Messiah should play His part, and the place where the official recognition of His mission should be accomplished? The approaching feast, which seems to impose on Jesus an obligation to go to Jerusalem, appears to them the favorable moment for a decisive step. There is a certain analogy between this summons of the brethren and the request of Mary, chap. 2, as there will be also between the manner in which the Lord acts and His conduct at the wedding in Cana.

What do the brethren mean by the expression “ thy disciples ” (John 7:3)? It seems that they apply this name only to the adherents of Jesus in Judea. And this was indeed their thought, perhaps, in view of the fact that there only had Jesus properly founded a school similar to that of John the Baptist, by baptizing like him; comp. John 4:1: “ The Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John the Baptist. ” All this had been told and repeated in Galilee; a great stir had been made respecting these numerous adherents of Jesus in Judea and at Jerusalem, at whose head might even be found members of the Sanhedrim. His brethren remind Him of these earlier successes in Judea, and this with the more timeliness because, since the scene of chap. 6, the larger part of His disciples in Galilee had abandoned Him, and He was now surrounded only by a fluctuating multitude. They mean, therefore: “These Messianic works which thou dost lavish upon these crowds, without any result, go then, at length, and do them in the places where it is said that thou hast formed a school, and where thou wilt have witnesses more worthy of such a spectacle and more capable of drawing a serious conclusion from it.” It is not necessary, therefore, to supply, with Lucke and others, ἐκεῖ : “thy disciples there,” or to explain, as Hengstenberg and Meyer do: “thy disciples in the entire nation, who will come to the feast.” John must certainly have added a word in order to indicate either the one or the other of these meanings. The term μαθηταί, disciples, is taken here by the brethren in a sense which is slightly emphatic and ironical.

Lucke has perfectly rendered the construction of John 7:4 by a Latin phrase: Nemo enim clam sua agit idemque cupit celeber esse. There exists no man who works in secret and at the same time aspires to make for himself a name. Αὐτός refers to this hypothetical subject of the verb ποιεῖ, does, whose real existence the word no one afterwards denies. The copula καί, and, strongly sets forth the internal contradiction between such a claim and such conduct (comp. the καί of John 6:36). ᾿Εν παῤῥησίᾳ is used here, whatever Meyer may say, in the same sense as in John 11:54 and Colossians 2:15: in public. From the idea of speaking boldly we easily pass to that of acting openly (Keil). The sense given by Meyer: “No one acts in secret and wishes at the same time to be a man of frankness,” is inadmissible. By saying εἰ, if, the brethren do not precisely call in question the reality of the miracles of Jesus. This εἰ is logical; it signifies if really. Only they ask for judges more competent than themselves to decide on the value of these works. And for this end it is necessary that he should advance or retreat. Certainly, speaking absolutely, they were right: the Messianic question could not be decided in Galilee. The choice of the time remained; this was the point which Jesus reserved for Himself. By κόσμος, the world, the brethren evidently mean the great theatre of human existence, such as they knew it, Jerusalem. The style of John 7:4 has a peculiarly Hebraic stamp: these are the words of the brethren of Jesus taken as if from their lips. Comp. the analogous construction in 1 Samuel 20:2.

Hengstenberg, Lange, Keil and Westcott endeavor to reconcile John 7:5 with the supposition that two or three of Jesus' brothers were apostles. Hengstenberg remarks first that these words may refer to Joses, the fourth brother of Jesus, and then to the husbands of His sisters. Perceiving indeed the improbability of this understanding of the matter, the others weaken as far as possible the force of the words: They did not believe. It is only a partial and momentary want of faith, or, according to Westcott, an effect of the insufficient influence exerted by their faith on their thought and their conduct. But this relative unbelief, as they call it, does not account for the absolute expression: They did not believe on him; especially when strengthened, as it is, by the word neither, by which John brings the brethren of Jesus into the category of all the other unbelieving Galileans. The reading of D L: They did not believe (aorist), is certainly a correction, intended to facilitate an interpretation of this sort. Moreover, what follows excludes this weakened meaning. How could Jesus address to His brothers, being apostles, those severe words: “ The world cannot hate you ” (John 7:7), while in John 15:19 He says to the apostles: “ If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world..., therefore the world hates you. It certainly follows, therefore, from this remark, that even at this time, six months before the last Passover, Jesus' own brothers did not acknowledge Him as the Messiah. But, divided between the impression which His miracles produced upon them and the insuperable doubts of their carnal minds, they eagerly desired to reach at length a solution. This attitude is very natural; it accords with the role which is ascribed to them in the Synoptical narrative; comp. Mark 3. The perfect sincerity of John's story appears from the frankness with which he expresses himself respecting this fact which was so humbling to Jesus (see Tholuck). We may well remark also, with the same author, that these words of the brethren (John 7:3-4) contain the complete indirect confirmation of the entire representation of the Galilean ministry which is traced by the Synoptics.