John 7

John 7
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John 16:14-22 on the recto side of Papyrus 5, written about AD 250.
Book	Gospel of John
Bible part	New Testament
Order in the Bible part	4
Category	Gospel

John 7 is the seventh chapter of the Gospel of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It recounts Jesus' visit to Jerusalem for the feast of Tabernacles, the possibility of his arrest and debate as to whether he is the Messiah. The book containing this chapter is anonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that John composed this Gospel. The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges describes this chapter as "very important for the estimate of the fourth Gospel. In it the scene of the Messianic crisis shifts from Galilee to Jerusalem; and, as we should naturally expect, the crisis itself becomes hotter. The divisions, the doubts, the hopes, the jealousies, and the casuistry of the Jews are vividly portrayed." John 7:1 to 8:59 is sometimes referred to as the "Tabernacles Discourse".Raymond E. Brown describes the Tabernacles Discourse as "a polemic collection of what Jesus said in replies to attacks by the Jewish authorities on his claims".

The New King James Version organized this chapter as follows:

Chapter 7 opens in Galilee, where the events and discourses of the previous chapter have taken place. In Galilee, Jesus had taught in the synagogue at Capernaum, but many people including many of his own disciples, had refused to believe. John 7:1 implies that nevertheless Jesus felt safe in Galilee, whereas in Judea or "Jewry" (e.g. King James Version), the Jews (or the Jewish ruling authorities) wanted to kill Jesus. He probably did not go to Jerusalem for the Passover mentioned in John 6:4, although theologian John Gill suggested that "he went to Jerusalem, to keep the passover; and finding that the Jews still sought to take away his life, he returned to Galilee, and "walked" there".