A Study of John 7:25-31

“Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.” So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.” So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?””

John 7:25–31 ESV

Observation/Summary (short explanation of what the passage says in your own words):

As Jesus taught openly in the temple of Jerusalem, some of the people of the city recognized Him as the one the religious authorities were seeking to kill. Yet, they also noticed He still came to the temple and taught openly in public, and the authorities did not stop Him. Seeing this, they asked among themselves if this was because Jesus truly was the Christ, the long ago promised Messiah that Yahweh, the one true God and the God of Israel, promised to send. However, they also claimed they knew where Jesus came from, but that no one would know where the Christ came from when He did appear.

Jesus was aware of these claims so in response He proclaimed they knew where He came from, and they knew Him, but He did not come to them out of His own individual will. The Father sent Him, and the Father who sent Him is true, and these people do not know Him. But Jesus does know him, and He was sent by Him. In light of this, the authorities were trying all the more to arrest Him, but they were unable to because Jesus’ hour had not yet come. Many of the people also believed in Jesus and they asked the question, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”.

Implication (what does this mean to us):

As Jesus taught in the temple court in Jerusalem, in the previous verses, He told the people to judge Him with right judgment instead of by appearances. Because of the people’s societal norms and flawed understanding of the Old Testament (OT) Scripture, many of them failed to recognise Jesus as the incarnate Word (John 1:14), that is, Yahweh the one true God incarnate. Their sinfulness and finitude blinded them to the truth of who Jesus is. In reading those words from Jesus, we should also be challenged to evaluate our cultural and societal norms, and cast aside any that do not agree with God’s Word so that we too may “judge with right judgment.”

In saying this, Jesus challenged the religious establishment that did not believe Him and sought to kill Him (John 7:1), and in verse 25 this is exactly what some of the people of Jerusalem discussed by saying “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill?”. Earlier, in verses 19-20, Jesus brought up the fact that there were those who sought to end His life with no justification, and many of the people responded incredulously, saying He had a demon and was therefore paranoid or crazy. This is because many of the people in the crowd had come from Galilee and the surrounding areas for the celebration of the Feast of Booths (a.k.a. Succoth), and they were unaware of the plot to kill Jesus. But now, in verses 25-27, we hear from the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who were aware of the plots of their religious authority figures to silence and kill Jesus, largely spurred on by the fact that He miraculously healed a man on the Sabbath, and this gracious act violated their man-made law and ritual to abstain from work of any kind on the Sabbath, even the work of restoring a disabled person to health.

The people of Jerusalem mentioned this because, being aware of the threat Jesus faced, they were amazed to see Him teaching so boldly and openly, and they asked in verse 26 if the authorities did not confront Him because they knew He really was the Christ (Importantly, “Christ” is a title, not a last name. “Christ” comes from “Christos,” the Greek word for Messiah. So, in English we often say “Jesus Christ”, but we could also rightly say, “Jesus the Christ”). The silence of the authorities was just as amazing as the boldness of Jesus. For this reason the people began to ask if the authorities had examined the evidence or had even seen new evidence and become convinced Jesus was the Messiah. This is the first time such speculation has been mentioned in John’s gospel account.

However, in verse 27 this same question is tossed aside as the people say, “But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.”. Because of OT passages like Malachi 3:1, which said God’s messenger would come suddenly to the temple, the people incorrectly thought the Messiah would appear suddenly out of nowhere. More specifically, they thought He would be a human born as all humans are, but that no one would know who He was until he was revealed. In the case of Jesus, they knew Him as Jesus of Nazareth whose family home was in Capernaum. Also, they knew He had started a traveling ministry previously, and therefore, they reasoned, He could not be the Messiah. In his commentary of John, D.A. Carson points out that this is another example of Johannine irony. The people think they know Jesus’ true origin, but their certainty blinds them to the whole truth. Jesus may have come to them by way of Nazareth, but He was born in Bethlehem, and of course came to earth from Heaven.

For this reason, most commentators understand Jesus’ response in verses 28-29 to be ironic. Essentially, Jesus acknowledged that they knew He was raised in Nazareth and His family lived in Capernaum, but there is also some irony or sarcasm in His response because they are ignorant of His true, heavenly origin. For this reason we may very well read this statement as an ironic question, “You know me, and you know where I come from do you?…”. These people thought they had Jesus all figured out and they thought they knew every detail about how the prophesied Messiah would come, but their unwarranted certainty blinded them.

Continuing on, Jesus said, “But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.” Whatever confusion and ignorance there may have been among the people about the origin of the Messiah, no such confusion existed in Jesus. Jesus knew who He was, where He came from, and Who it was that sent Him. Jesus was absolutely certain of His identity, origin and authority. He is the unique and only Son of God who has existed from eternity past. He is Yahweh incarnate, God in the flesh. 

When Jesus says He did not come of His own accord, He means He came by the will of God the Father, with whom His will is perfectly united. This brings us to the concept of the Trinity. Importantly, “being” is what you are and “person” is who you are. You and I are human beings, and we exist as one person. Yahweh God is one Being who exists as three perfectly unified Persons. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are separate persons who fulfill different roles within the Triune Godhead, but they are one unified Being. Nothing Jesus did or does conflicts with the will of the other two persons of the Trinity because They are one. If we want to know what God the Father is like, we need only look at Jesus, God the Son, and the same goes for the Holy Spirit. The concept of the Trinity is complex but not illogical. This is why Jesus says He did not come of His own accord. He did not act separately from the will of God the Father. He was sent, and He came of the Father’s will, which His own will is unified with.

He also emphasized that the One who sent Him is true. God the Father is true. In this context this word carries more of the meaning of “real.” In other words, Jesus is saying God the Father really did send Him. The sad part though, is that the people do not know Him. This is a significant claim to make to a 1st century Jewish audience. The nation of Israel was very proud of the fact that they were Yahweh’s covenant people. They had a unique covenant relationship with Him in contrast to the other pagan nations around them. Yahweh had revealed Himself to Israel in a special way, and He had given them the covenant law through Moses, but they did not truly understand the Law they received and therefore they did not really understand or know the God who gave it to them. If they had rightly understood and accepted God’s Word, then they would have accepted Jesus, the incarnate Word (John 1:14). The proof that they do not know God is seen in the fact that they reject Him as He stands before them in the flesh.

The meaning of Jesus’ words was not lost on those who heard Him, and as we have seen before, in places like John 7:12-13, Jesus divided opinion again in verses 30-31.This pattern is seen again and again in response to the message of Jesus in the gospels, and we still see it happening today. The message of the gospel always evokes a response one way or the other. In response to Him, the religious authorities and other disapproving Jerusalmites sought to arrest Him, but in verse 31 we read that many of the people also believed in Him. 

The leaders were those who should have known God the best from their focused, scholarly study of His Word, but few of them believed in Jesus and they were trying to arrest Him so they could kill Him (John 7:1). However, even though Jesus was in the temple court in Jerusalem, they were inexplicably unable to arrest Him because His “hour had not yet come.” This is another iteration of John’s “hour has not yet come” motif. We first saw it employed in John chapter 2 during the wedding at Cana, and there have been a few instances since then. The “hour” John writes of is the specific point in time when Jesus will enter Jerusalem, lauded by the crowds, but then later be arrested and unjustly crucified. This specific time will not come until John 12:23 when God the Father ordained for it to come. We will even read later, in John 7:46, of temple guards going back to the authorities empty-handed after being ordered to arrest Him and saying, “No one ever spoke like this man!” as their reason for why they were unable to. For reasons that go beyond human understanding, Jesus could not be touched until the appointed time, even while surrounded by a hostile crowd in the temple court.

Lastly though, “many of the people believed” in Jesus and they said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”. Here the word “signs” means “miracles.” The miracles of Jesus were not denied by any of His accusers. The miracles He performed were undeniable and they were seen by thousands of witnesses. We have seen up to this point that faith in Jesus that is based on miracles is not preferred (John 2:23-24; 4:48), but it is still better than nothing and can be the first stone laid in what will become a broader foundation of faith. And to be sure, miraculous signs are one evidence that Jesus was sent by God (John 20:30). So, the people did well to see the miraculous signs and believe, but after drinking the milk of miraculous signs, one must begin to feast on the solid faith-filled food of God’s Word. The Word of God is the primary way He has revealed Himself to us; both in Jesus, the Word who became flesh, and in the written Word of the Bible. As Jesus told Thomas after His resurrection in John 20:29, “…Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”.

Response (How does this change how I think, act and pray?):

When faced with this eyewitness account from John the apostle, we must ask some version of the same question the people who heard Jesus speak over 2,000 years ago asked: “Is this the Christ?”. This man, Jesus, cannot just have been a good moral teacher or human prophet of God, because He claimed to be God and He died and rose again, just like He said He would. In the gospels we have eyewitness accounts that Jesus did and said all these things, including rising from the dead. But these people lost everything, from a worldly perspective, to go around proclaiming this good news. Many people would die for a lie they believe is true, but no one would die for a lie they know is false.

We must therefore conclude that the people who saw Jesus arrested, killed and entombed, and who then scattered and fled, must have seen Him risen. Why else would they have picked up this message of salvation again? To be crucified, stoned, burned alive, or fed to wild beasts? No, this man; this God-man, Jesus, is who He said He is. He is Yahweh incarnate, who came to earth to live the life we never could, and He died the death we deserve to pay the penalty for our sin and the sin of the whole world (1 John 2:2). Faced with His miraculous deeds, heavenly words, glorious resurrection and ascension, we must make a choice: Declare believing loyalty to Jesus Christ alone as our God and Savior, or reject the only hope for our immortal souls. There can be no neutrality.

Self Reflection:

1. Does my life reflect the fact that I have placed my faith and believing loyalty in the one true God, the Lord Jesus Christ? Have I trusted in Jesus alone and forsaken all other gods?

2. How do I respond when the words of Jesus in the Bible conflict with the prevailing thought in my culture and society? Do I submit to His Word, or do I expect Him to submit to my word?

3. How does the mixed response to Jesus’ message in this passage inform me of what to expect when I faithfully declare the gospel in my day? And How should I respond when this message is met with hostility? (Matthew 5:43-48)

Definitions of the original language in the context of this passage:

-Of Jerusalem: “Ἱεροσολυμιτῶν”, “Hierosolymitōn”; noun, genitive, plural, masculine | proper name – a citizen or inhabitant of Jerusalem.

-Authorities: “ἄρχοντες”, “archontes”; noun, nominative, plural, masculine | subject – rulers, leaders; used of the members of the Jewish Sanhedrin.

-Christ: “χριστός”, “christos”; noun, nominative, singular, masculine | predicate nominative – Christ = “anointed”, Christ was [and is] the Messiah, the Son of God.

-Appears: “ἔρχηται”, “erchētai”; verb, present, either middle or passive, subjunctive, third person, singular | finite verb – to come i. e. to appear, make one’s appearance, come before the public.

-Jesus: “Ἰησοῦς”, “Iēsous”; noun, nominative, singular, masculine | proper name – Jesus = “Yahweh is salvation”; Jesus, the Son of God, the Saviour of mankind, God incarnate.

-Temple: “ἱερῷ”, “hierō”; noun, dative, singular, neuter | prepositional object – a sacred place, temple.

-To Arrest: “πιάσαι”, “piasai”; verb, aorist, active, infinitive | substantival infinitive – seize, take into custody, to capture in order to imprison.

-Hour: “ὥρα”, “hōra”; noun, nominative, singular, feminine | subject of the dependent clause – any definite time, point of time, moment; ‘one’s hour’, i. e. the time when one must undergo the destiny appointed him by God: so of Christ in John 7:30.

-Believed: “ἐπίστευσαν”, “episteusan”; verb, aorist, active, indicative, third person, plural | finite verb – usd in John 7:31 of a faith which does not yet recognize Jesus as the Messiah, but as a prophet very like the Messiah.

-Signs: “σημεῖα”, “sēmeia”; noun, accusative, plural, neuter | direct object – a sign, prodigy, portent, i.e. an unusual occurrence, transcending the common course of nature; of miracles and wonders by which God authenticates the men sent by him, or by which men prove that the cause they are pleading is God’s.