John 7:9,10

“ Having said this to them he remained in Galilee. 10. But when his brethren had gone up to the feast, then he also went up himself, not openly, but as it were in secret. ”

The ninth verse signifies that He allowed His brethren to depart, and John 7:10 gives us to understand that, when He went up Himself afterwards, it was either entirely alone or with one or two only of His most intimate associates. Thus are the words: as it were in secret, most naturally explained. ῾Ως, which is certainly authentic, softens the expression ἐν κρυπτῷ : Jesus was not really a man who concealed Himself, although He for the moment acted as such. But why go up, if this act might so soon bring the end of His activity? The answer is simple. Jesus was not able, even to the end, to withdraw from the obligation of giving testimony before the assembled people in Jerusalem. But He avoided going thither in company with the numerous caravans which were at that time proceeding on their way towards the capital. A new movement of enthusiasm might manifest itself, like that in ch. 6, and without the possibility on His part of restraining it. The state of men's minds, as it is described in John 7:11-13, proves that the danger was a very real one. It could not be prevented except by a course of action such as He adopts here. Besides, He thereby prevented the hostile measures which might have been taken against Him in advance by the authorities. What a sad gradation or rather degradation, since the first Passover in ch. 2! There, He entered the temple as Messiah-King; in ch. 5, He had arrived as a simple pilgrim; here He can no more even come publicly to Jerusalem in this character: He is reduced to the necessity of going thither incognito.

An hypothesis of Wieseler has found favor with some interpreters. According to this scholar, this journey is identical with that which is spoken of in Luke 9:51 ff. This uniting of the two cannot be sustained. In Luke 9 Jesus gives to His departure from Galilee the character of the greatest publicity: He sends, two and two, His seventy disciples into all the cities and villages through which He is to pass (John 10:1); He makes long stays (John 13:22; John 17:11); multitudes accompany Him (John 14:25). And this, it is said, is to go to Jerusalem, as it were, in secret! It would be better to give up all harmony between John and the Synoptics, than to obtain it by thus violating the texts. Exegesis simply establishes the fact, as we have said above, that the journey of which John here speaks, as well as those of chaps. 2 and 5, is omitted by the Synoptics. And, as Gess observes, the omission of the last two journeys (chaps. 5 and 7) is the less surprising, since Jesus seems to have gone to Jerusalem both times alone or almost alone. Hengstenberg thinks that this journey (together with the sojourn in Perea John 10:40), corresponds to the departure mentioned in Matthew 19:1; Mark 10:1. But the exegesis of the passage in Matthew by means of which this scholar tries to reach this result, is unnatural. See on John 7:1 and John 10:22 for the relation between the journeys of John and those of the Synoptics, Luke 9:51; Matthew 19:1; Mark 10:1.

The following verses describe in an animated and dramatic way what occurred at Jerusalem before the arrival of Jesus, as soon as the fact of His absence was discovered.