John 7:8

Vv. 8 draws the practical consequence of this contrast. The meaning of the reply of Jesus is naturally in accord with that of the question, and especially of the words: “Manifest thyself to the world.” Jesus well knew that He must one day make the great Messianic demonstration which His brethren demanded, but He also knew that the time for it was not yet come. His earthly work was not accomplished. Moreover, it was not at the feast of Tabernacles, it was at that of the Passover that He must die. Hence, the special emphasis with which He says in the second clause, no longer as when speaking of His brethren: “Go up to the feast ” (comp. the reading of B D, etc.), but “to this feast,” or even “this particular feast.” If the reply of Jesus is thus placed in close connection with the request of His brethren, it is no longer necessary, in order to justify it, to read with so many of the MSS.: “I go not yet up,” instead of: “I go not up. ” The first reading is manifestly a correction by means of which an attempt was early made to remove the apparent contradiction between the reply of Jesus and His subsequent action (John 7:10). The reading, not yet, is not only suspicious for this reason; the meaning of it is altogether false. The antithesis which engages the thought of Jesus when He says: “I go not up to this feast,” is not the contrast between this day and some days later; it is that between this feast and another subsequent feast. What proves this, is the reason which He alleges: For my time is not yet fulfilled (John 7:8). The condition of things had not changed when Jesus went up to Jerusalem a few days afterwards. This very solemn expression, therefore, could only apply to the period of time which still remained before the future feast of the Passover, the destined limit of His earthly life.

The not yet which was well adapted to John 7:6, was wrongly introduced into our verse instead of not; comp. for this solemn sense of the word to be fulfilled Luke 9:31; Luke 9:51; Acts 2:1, etc. As Jesus rejected at Cana a solicitation of His mother aiming substantially at the same result as the present summons of His brethren, and yet soon gave her satisfaction of her desire in a much more moderate way, so Jesus begins here by refusing to go up to Jerusalem in the sense in which He was urged to do so (that of manifesting Himself to the world), in order to go up afterwards in a wholly diffent sense. The conversion of His brethren, a few months afterwards, proves that the subsequent events were for them the satisfactory commentary on this saying, and that there did not remain in their minds the slightest doubt respecting the veracity and moral character of their brother. The following are the other explanations which have been given of this saying of Jesus.

1. That of Chrysostom, adopted by Lucke, Olshausen, Tholuck, Stier: “I go not now,” deriving a νῦν (now), to be supplied, from the present ἀναβαίνω (I go). This ellipsis is not only needless, but false. Jesus, as we have seen, makes no allusion to a nearly approaching journey to Jerusalem, which perhaps was not yet even determined upon in His own mind.

2. Meyer holds that Jesus, in the interval between John 7:8 and John 7:10, formed a resolution which was altogether new; Gess, in like manner: God did not give Him the order until later (John 7:19). Reuss, nearly the same: Jesus reserved to Himself the liberty of acting according to His own desire, without consulting any one. Weiss: In accordance with prudence, Jesus was obliged to say: I go not up; but as His father gave Him afterwards the order to go, a promise was given to protect Him; and this is what took place. All this is very well conceived. But if Jesus did not yet know the Divine will, should He have said so positively: I go not up. This was to declare Himself far too categorically. He should have answered more vaguely: “I know not yet whether I shall go up; do you go up; nothing prevents your doing so.”

3. Others finally, as Bengel and Luthardt, explain in this way: “I go not up with the caravan; or, as Cyril, Lange, etc., “I go not up to celebrate the feast ” (οὐχ οὕτως ἑορτάζων); which would not exclude the possibility that Jesus should go to Jerusalem during the feast. In fact, the full celebration of the feast, as the brethren of Jesus conceived of it, included certain indispensable rites, certain sacrifices of purification, which the pilgrims were obliged to offer before its beginning (John 11:55). And if it is objected that in John 7:10 John must have said, not: “He went up to the feast,” but: “He went up to Jerusalem,” this objection falls before the Alexandrian reading, which refers the words to the feast, not to: “And Jesus went up,” but to the clause: “ When His brethren were gone up. ” This very ingenious interpretation is not wanting in probability; its only defect is its excess of ingenuity. That which I have given in the first place, and to which the context more directly leads, seems to me preferable. It removes from Jesus, not only the accusation of falsehood, but also that of inconsistency which the philosopher Porphyry in the fourth century brought against Him on this account. The meaning given by Westcott: “I cannot yet go up as Messiah; but this does not prevent my going up as a prophet,” has a certain agreement with our explanation. Only it attributes to Jesus a reticence which is very much like mental reservation.