The Festival of Tabernacles

• The aftermath hiatus
• Watershed
• Well-meaning advice
• Divine time
• Crowd readiness
  • Temperature
  • Timing
• Glory and truth
• Hypocrisy and Law
• Identity confusion
  • People of Jerusalem
  • Chief priests and Pharisees
  • People of Jerusalem (cont’d)
• Considered acceptance
• Arrogant rejection

The aftermath hiatus

¹ After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him.

Jesus was in hiatus wandering around in Galilee.^[1] John does not describe this time having any purposeful activity such as teaching in the synagogues or healing the sick. Jesus had just precipitated a watershed in his relationship with a pursuing crowd and religious leaders on the hunt, just as he will in his relationship with every person attracted to him. As a result, his popularity vapourised in many, the crowd shrank and the leaders intensified their determination to kill him, which had begun with the healing of the invalid at the Pool of Siloam (John 5:18) Few remained to follow him, who he tested to assess their relationship durability. How much did these mounting rejections wound the emotions of Jesus and create a necessary hiatus for Jesus to process and refocus, or did his love for his Father, and the certainty of his Father’s enduring love, enable him to keep his heart focused on listening to what his Father wanted from him in the present as necessary preparation for the spiritual challenges he would soon face attending the Feast of Tabernacles?

Watershed

Relationships often reach a watershed in order to grow. When the watershed is avoided by one or both parties, the relationship begins to stagnate and loose its life. God is well-aware of that with us. History is full of those who started well in seeking to know God and then faded^[2], even some shifting to strong opposition after hitting a watershed in their understanding of his requirements for a wholesome relationship.

In a relationship watershed, one or both parties seek to clarify with honesty the structural underpinnings of the relationship that have developed to that point, and how they will shape it in the future. For example, we seek to clarify how committed we are to our relationship partner when hearing their wants from us and the degree of their commitment. Am I in this relationship for something specific that I want and think it might deliver it to me? Will it do so in fact? What is the limit placed on my time of investment in the relationship to find out? What are the behavioural boundaries beyond which I will not go? Similarly, what about my trial partner? Honest discussion on such topics enables each party to visualise the future value, shape and sustainability of the relationship. It is particularly essential when the requirements are high, as they are with Jesus. With his mounting popularity, it was essential for him to clarify the shape of the relationship that he sought with any seeker of him, in order for both to test its likely durability.

Therefore, Jesus brought his relationship with the masses and religious leaders to a watershed. He had come to give life to each person’s spirit by union with his Spirit, and showed himself to be well aware of obstacles that block and deplete that life-giving union with him. Accordingly, he had just described the nature of the relationship he required with each person in the starkest terms of eating his flesh and drinking his blood (John 6:53). The majority of hopeful followers failed to grasp the critical spiritual truth expressed in this physical metaphor. They found the stark terms of eating his flesh and drinking his blood confusing yet knew this imagery showed that his expectation of the level of intimacy he wanted was too high and difficult, even to gain eternal life. It was too costly to most in the crowd. They had reached their watershed and left. The religious authorities saw the exodus and became even more embolden to kill him.

With minimal reflection, we can easily detect if our relationship with God as revealed in Jesus has reached a watershed. We join the crowd having reached our watershed or remain committed to continuing the work of God as defined by Jesus – continuously trusting him in every circumstance and relationship that we encounter^[3].

Well-meaning advice

² But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles^[4] was near, ³ Jesus’ brothers said to him, "Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. ⁴ No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world."

Families often have ready advice for a family member in relationship problems. Their love is genuine. Their natural desire is to protect, but often their advice is tainted by their own values or unresolved issues being projected onto the family member. The younger brothers of Jesus exposed their wants and personal investment in the popularity of their older brother increasing to the point of dismissing his safety reasons for staying in Galilee. Their wants came first. Go to Jerusalem to be seen.

"Show yourself to the world" drives the money-making efforts of many.

Was this the hidden motive driving the advice now given by the brothers of Jesus? Were they oblivious of the threats on his life by the religious authorities and prepared to surrender their brother to satisfy their physical wants?

Physical currency and physical image dominate the thoughts of most people. We see it to the extreme in modern media. The more extensive the image-visibility of an organisation, group or individual becomes, the greater the potential of idolisation and wealth generation. Money is the world’s currency used by Satan to control, damage and enslave a person to their projected image, pride and habits.

Jesus lived by a different currency. His life was spiritually driven and focused. He aimed to act in unity with his Father’s will at every moment. His Father was building a spiritual kingdom using spiritual means. The voice of his Son did not need to be heard in the streets. (Isaiah 42:2). Jesus carried the commission of his Father to win the spiritual warfare against Satan, who held each dead spirit captive to his wishes. Were his brothers still oblivious to this mission of Jesus and the spiritual warfare mounting against him by the religious power structure in Jerusalem? John notes,

⁵ For even his own brothers did not believe in him.

This is amazing given all the exposure to his mission that had been relayed to them by their parents, Mary and Joseph, and by senior members of the Jewish community such as Simeon and Ann the prophetess, who they met at the Temple (Luke 2:25-38). Nevertheless, John’s assessment is that the younger brothers of Jesus had not yet come to trust his claims of deity, even in the face of the multiple miraculous acts they saw him doing continuously. They remained focused on his physical, image-building actions as a miracle worker and failed to embrace his teaching on the spiritual reason behind them. They saw the joyous tone of the Feast of Tabernacles as an ideal opportunity to popularise his image and fame as a miracle-worker. There could not be a more conducive gathering to do that. Their focus on fame, however, ignored the spiritual purpose of his miracles, that he had previously stated clearly,

"For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me… For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day." (5:36, 7:40)

The spiritual purpose driving the miracles of Jesus was to buildthe belief in him (trust) that is essential for our salvation. That is why his Father sent him. The joyous atmosphere of the Feast would have been a distraction and dismissed the quiet self-reflection needed to consider the spiritual identity of Jesus as the Son of God and his claims to give eternal life. His brothers had missed that point. So too can we. Light-hearted celebrations do not foster the sober, balanced and honest self-examination needed to see spiritual reality. The chances of focusing on spiritual reality are virtually non-existent after three glasses of beer with mates.

This raises the question for each person considering Jesus,

"Do I want to understand his claims of spiritual identity, the purpose of his life and the nature of the relationship he wants with me, or do I want to restrict my observations of him to the assessing physical matters such as the historical evidence for his life? "

Each person deserves to give themselves an honest answer to this question. His brothers had no doubt that their older brother existed physically and was a spectacular miracle-worker, but they had not allowed his relationship requirements to touch them.

Another useful question to test our intentions is: Do I consider the continual work of trusting in Jesus too demanding, which he defined as doing the work God requires? Consequently, have I chosen to divert my efforts to less confronting and more appealing works of recognition to enhance my image in society?

Divine time

Jesus operated on his Father’s timing, which was revealed to him by God’s Spirit each moment and governed by the prophecy given to Isaiah (42:1-4)^[5].

⁶ Therefore Jesus told them, "My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. ⁷ The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil".

God’s timing was not determined by popularity but by the spiritual readiness of the individuals he wanted to bring to faith in Jesus and become temples of his living Spirit. Consequently, Jesus often instructed some, who were miraculously healed by him, not to broadcast what he had done, e.g., the healed leper (Matthew 8:4), the healed two blind men (9:30), the healings of a large crowd (12:16), his transfiguration before Peter, James and John (17:9) etc. The recipients of these targeted miracles were ready to entrust their lives to him. The social grapevine was not. It was driven by prejudice, judgement and self-interest, as it still is. In Jerusalem, the ever-present, visible religious power structure would use the social grapevine to turn these targeted miracles of Jesus into weapons of attack on the integrity of the healed recipients and intensify their relentless attack on Jesus.

In this case, Jesus was clear.

⁸  You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.

In other words, "My time has not yet reached its full capacity^[6]. It has not yet reached the point of completion to usher in God’s next act of revealing my purpose to the world." Jesus only did what the Spirit of his Father was directing him to do at each moment. In this case, it was to stay put for the moment. He did not need to know why.

The same principle applies to anyone wanting a spiritually productive relationship with God. Timing governs spiritual usefulness – a time to weep, a time to mourn, a time to laugh, a time to instruct, a time to remain silent. I have often been insensitive to timing by not listening to the Spirit on how to engage in conversation in the moment. God’s spiritual work cannot be forced onto a heart of stone.

⁹ After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee. ¹⁰ However, after his brothers had gone up^[7] to the festival, he went up also, not publicly, but in secret.

Had Jesus deliberately tricked his brothers about his intention not to go up to the Feast? If Jesus did only what his Father instructed at any moment, then what he told his brothers was the information he had at that moment. Shortly after, he was told to go up, and it was not for him to question why. His Father knew what he wanted to achieve. He knew the crowd readiness for him to act. What did Jesus find on arrival?

Crowd readiness

Temperature

¹¹ Now at the festival the Jewish leaders were watching for Jesus and asking, "Where is he?"

The leaders

From the outset, John highlights the fear-saturated environment Jesus found in Jerusalem, as anticipated, that was fuelled by the intent of the religious power structure to kill him. The word John uses to describe their current state indicates that the authorities were actively searching for Jesus among the crowds^[8].

The crowd

¹³ But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the leaders.12Among the crowds there was widespread whispering^[9] about him.

The response of the crowd was to go underground. John describes their temperature as widespread secretive and subdued discontent against the threats hanging over them from the leaders. Nevertheless, it was a crowd divided in opinion about Jesus, as any crowd would be today.

Some said, "He is a good man." Others replied, "No, he deceives the people."

Some credited Jesus with intrinsic goodness, just as we use the word today to describe a good man i.e., someone we would like to have by our side bringing balance and protection when under the microscope of our social setting.

The negative critics considered Jesus was leading people astray. In the Greco-Roman world of the time, the concept of being led astray was often associated with false philosophies and teachings that deviate from accepted truth. We have examples today of popularised philosophies or teachings seeking to bend the cultural opinion to endorse individual or group behaviour that has been seen as unacceptable in the past, such as sexual roles, educational practices etc.

Timing

¹⁴ Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach.

Initial frivolities and scattered attention spans would have toned down by mid-week. It was time for Jesus to begin to teach. By now, those of the Jews who had gone to the Temple could recognise significant, scholarly wisdom. Their response to the teaching of Jesus shows this to be the case.

¹⁵ The Jews there were amazed and asked, "How did this man get such learning without having been taught?"

In other words, "Who is this man? What is the source of his learning?" These religious Jews were beginning to grapple with his identity. Jesus stepped into their question given that these worshippers had begun to ask the right questions. The timing to answer their questions and confront them with his identity was now!

¹⁶ Jesus answered, "My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me.

This begs the question, "Well then, who sent you?"

This question remains today. Some investigate it seriously. Others do so flippantly with no interest in the answer. Jesus immediately makes it clear that,

¹⁷ Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.

Even though some seemed ready to consider the identity and authority of Jesus, he made it clear from the outset that gaining an understanding of the source of his advanced learning will not result from any kind of intellectual assessment and debate, but only by the moral choice to submit one’s will to the will of God. Jesus promises that as soon as that choice is made, revelation of the source of his wisdom will happen.

This spiritual reality remains true today. We will never understand the divine identity of Jesus and his mission on earth without first submitting our will to the will of God, whatever that may be at any particular time in our life. This statement of Jesus is simply another way of saying that the work of God, if we want to do it, is to trust him continually, which we will only do when our will is surrendered to him. Submission of our will and trust work together. Remove one, then the other disappears. Our personal question therefore becomes, "Have I settled the matter that I will surrender my will to God to the extent that I will trust him in all aspects of my life?" This is doing the work of God. It manifests in the trust of my life to Jesus^[10]. All other efforts to arrive at a conclusion about the identity and purpose of Jesus will be wasted time and energy until that matter is resolved.

Jesus himself had resolved the matter of surrendering his will totally to the Father by choosing to come to earth, take on a limited human body, come under the authority of imperfect parents, and accept their tutelage and daily plans until the time had come for him to begin the public ministry of salvation designed by his Father.

Glory and truth

¹⁸ Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.

Jesus now claims to have resisted any glory he might have gained for himself through his amazing miracles and enlightening teaching, but instead he directed all glory to his Father, His speech was governed by that singular objective. As a consequence, it contained no exaggerations or lies to detract from demonstrating the glory of his Father as his mission. No personal self-seeking pride could be promoted in his speech thereby embellishing it in any way. His claims could therefore be trusted to be truth.

Nothing false! This means that I do not have the option to fault Jesus as a proven man of truth in any attempt to protect my chosen life-style and entrench my self-glorifying pride worshiping the gods it has established. Many senselessly attempt to do so, subtly or blatantly^[11].

Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth…

Note the definitive nature of this claim. This spiritual process applies to anyone who wants to become a person seeing and speaking truth clearly. In every situation, I must commit to foster the glory of the authority I represent, in order to prevent my subtle pride distorting the truth to enhance my own glory. Every person continually faces this challenge in their personal development. It is easy to spot distorted boasting in others while missing our own delusions about self. It is easy for my pride to project unknowingly my own distortions of truth onto others. A commitment to seek the glory of God as my life goal exposes the deceitfulness of any delay tactics, diversions and excuses I might use to avoid submitting my will to Him in full trust in each situation.

Hypocrisy and Law

It was time for Jesus to turn the focus of this public interaction upon the motives of his listeners. Was there anything false in them? Yes there was.

¹⁹ Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?"

The crowd could give only one response to being accused by Jesus of breaking the law: 1) Ignore the accusation. 2) Immediately deflect the searchlight back onto Jesus to dodge the light being shone on their motives. 3) Give him the worst label possible to dismiss any authenticity. 4) Act innocent and request specific evidence for the charge.

²⁰ "You are demon-possessed," the crowd answered. "Who is trying to kill you?"

Jesus did not let the crowd control the interaction with him. He ignored their accusation and their open question as a technique to dodge his questioning of their motive to kill him. He avoided their attempted deflection and persisted in questioning their motives.

²¹ Jesus said to them, "I did one miracle, and you are all amazed. ²² Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath. ²³ Now if a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing a man’s whole body on the Sabbath?

Jesus had already confronted the hypocrisy of the religious leaders about their use of the Law in their attempt to control an invalid of 38 years at the pool of Siloam, who Jesus had healed on the Sabbath and commanded to pick up his camp bed and walk. Their definition of work on the Sabbath forbade it. On another occasion, Jesus had gone into a synagogue on the Sabbath, where control by the religious class was the greatest, and healed a man’s shrivelled hand, in order to confront their hypocrisy using of the Law as a weapon of authority rather than a framework of mercy. (Matthew 12:9-13) Now he tackles their hypocrisy again in their inconsistent use of the Law. He questions motives to expose their religious hypocrisy.

²³ Now if a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing a man’s whole body on the Sabbath?

Why? Such inconsistency exists with every person who wishes to apply a rule book, developed by themselves, or borrowed from a religion, to govern their social interactions. We all have a rule book front of mind, or submerged in the subconscious. No person is capable of applying their rule book consistently from their bent, flawed soul, even the Rulebook given by God to Moses to govern the behaviours of a new nation. That is why love must guide law and override it where necessary. To act in love, however, requires dispensing with religious posturing and control.

²⁴ Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly."

Correct judgement goes beyond physical observations to spiritual sight. The majority of our instant judgements in our physical world through our five physical senses, reinforced by pride, are based on "mere appearances". Jesus commanded the crowd to stop physical judgements that result in error. God’s instruction to Samuel, when sent to choose and anoint the first king of Israel from among Jesse’s sons, explained how he focuses his assessment of a person:

The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart. (Samuel 16:7)

Therefore, in essence Jesus is commanding, "Stop instant assessments of people through your five senses based solely on physical impressions. Catch yourself in the act of swelling your pride and switch your focus to listen to the Spirit’s assessment of their spirit. Then your assessment will be upright and not unjust. Then spiritual sight and love will govern your observations and understanding".

Identity confusion

People of Jerusalem

²⁵ At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, "Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? ²⁶ Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Messiah? ²⁷ But we know where this man is from; when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from."

Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Messiah? When the Messiah comes will he perform more signs than this man? Confusion!

The word certainly had spread through the attendees to the Festival that the Jewish leaders were hunting for a man claiming to be the Messiah. Here he was, however, teaching in the Temple and without restraint. Jesus could not have been in a more confronting location to teach the religious adherents. He was teaching in the Pharisees’ domain of authority without a single word coming from them to silence or remove him. Why?

Chief priests and Pharisees

³² The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering^[12] such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.

As soon as the Pharisees heard the smouldering, subdued, discontent of the Festival crowd questioning their authority and intentions, they acted swiftly to remove Jesus from the scene. They wanted him out of the Temple and silenced as a teacher and were prepared to use force to do so. They commissioned his forceful arrest using the temple guards, who stood a while among the Temple attendees listening to the interaction of Jesus with them.

People of Jerusalem (cont’d)

As Jesus continued teaching the Temple attendees, he revealed that his time with them would be brief and come to an end, even though they would try to extend it.

³³ Jesus said, "I am with you for only a short time, and then I am going to the one who sent me. ³⁴ You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come."

His descriptions of future location raised more questions. They focused on the ‘where?’ and ‘what?’ and missed the primary purpose of their time with Jesus coming to an end, viz., "I am going to the one who sent me".

³⁵ The Jews said to one another, "Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks?

³⁶ What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me, ‘ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?"

Jesus from the outset of his ministry had identified himself as sent by the Father (e.g., John 5:18, 5:23-24, 5:30, 5:37, 6:39, 7:16)^[13]. Now the reason for his sending by his Father was coming to an end. If the worshippers in the Temple had grasped this fact, their questions of his future location would not have arisen. He was soon to return to the Father in heaven who had sent him. The temple guards listening to these responses of the people were no doubt identifying with the questioning and wondering what he was claiming. He was going home.

Later, Jesus ascended in full view of the apostles to the Father, who had sent him. That is where he remains with his Father today and one day will return again as the global King and not as the suffering servant. This eternal, heavenly identity of Jesus continues to be missed by many who limit his identity to being a teacher restricted to a short period of history, who started a new Jewish religion through his teachings and time-restricted life example. Because they ignore, or dismiss, his eternal divine identity and purpose for being sent to earth, they place him in the same mythical basket as all other would-be religious leaders, from which to select a teaching to answer a current need.

In our day, we need to remember that upon his departure from the Mount of Olives, the attending angels made clear to his apostles that Jesus would return in the same manner as they had just witnessed him leave.

¹⁰ They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ¹¹ "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven." (Acts 1:10)

The signs given for his return suggest that the desire of the crowd at the Feast of Tabernacles to hold onto Jesus will one day be fulfilled in us.

² But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. ³ All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

Considered acceptance

⁴⁵ Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, "Why didn’t you bring him in?"

Clearly, the time taken by the temple guards to listen to Jesus before forcibly arresting him had a profound effect on them, to the extent that they were prepared to disobey the command of their authorities and leave Jesus free to keep on teaching in the Temple.

⁴⁶ "No one ever spoke the way this man does, " the guards replied.

They were emphatic in their description of Jesus to the Pharisees. John highlights this by using the word οὐδέποτε (oudepote), which was a composite adverb formed by joining oude (meaning "not even") together with pote (meaning "at any time" or "ever"). It was used in the New Testament to emphasize the impossibility of a situation or action ever occurring. In other words, the effect of the teaching of Jesus on the guards was to be struck by his outstanding uniqueness that stood above any other teacher they had heard, including the Pharisees wanting to silence him.

Arrogant rejection

The response of the Pharisees showed their true colours. They derided the guards, presented themselves as the arbiters of truth and mocked the Temple attendees as being ignorant and under a curse.

⁴⁷ "You mean he has deceived you also?" the Pharisees retorted.

⁴⁸ "Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him?

⁴⁹ No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them."

Such reaction showed how elitist and arrogant these city Pharisees were. They looked down on country dwellers visiting Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles and considered them ignorant, even including Pharisees from the country, such as Nicodemus from Galilee. The equivalent today would be a city-based lawyer in a multi-national law firm deriding a lawyer in a country town servicing sheep farmers.

⁵⁰ Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, ⁵¹ "Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?"

Nicodemus challenged his colleagues actions based on the Law itself. The only response they could give to such a challenge was to challenge his knowledge of the Scriptures.

⁵² They replied, "Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee."

The irony was that it was their own knowledge that was flawed, and they didn’t seem to know it. Arrogance is blind to truth and distorts history. The prophet Jonah came from Galilee.^{[14] 53} Then they all went home…but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

---

1. John uses the Greek imperfect indicative tense of peri-pateó (περιπατέω) from the Greek words "peri" (around) and "pateó" (to walk). This tense was used for actions that are in progress or incomplete. It conveys that Jesus was spending undefined time walking around in the region of Galilee. ↩︎

2. Moses was well-aware of the danger of the memory of a vivid, life- changing reality fading, or being distorted into corrupt worship. (Deuteronomy 4:7-20)…"Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them." ↩︎

3. John 6:29 ↩︎

4. The Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot in Hebrew) lasted for 7 days. It was one of the three major pilgrimage festivals at the time of Jesus alongside Passover and the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot). It began on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei, which usually occurs in late September to late October. It was a feast of joy that began and ended with Sabbath rest. Over 8 days, people would live in temporary shelters (tabernacles) to commemorate the Israelites’ journey in the wilderness after leaving Egypt. It was a time for giving thanks and remembering God’s provision and protection. (Leviticus 23:33-44) ↩︎

5. "Here is my servant whom I have chosen,
   the one I love, in whom I delight;
   I will put my Spirit on him,
   and he will proclaim justice to the nations.
   He will not quarrel or cry out;
   no one will hear his voice in the streets.
   A bruised reed he will not break,
   and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out,
   till he has brought justice through to victory. In his name the nations will put their hope." ↩︎

6. Jesus uses πληρόω (play-ro’-o) meaning "To fill, to make full, to complete" to describe the timings in his life. ↩︎

7. John uses ἀναβαίνω (anabainó) meaning "to go up, ascend, mount" most likely because it was an uphill treck from Galilee to Jerusalem. ↩︎

8. John uses zητέω (dzay-teh’-o) meaning "to search for, strive after, seek". It is often used in the New Testament for seeking God and His kingdom as a priority over worldly pursuits. It implies effort and focus. In this case, it is used in the pursuit of evil and opposition to God’s Messiah, who was a threat to the leaders’ control. The leaders were on the hunt, not simply casually surveying the crowd from a distance. ↩︎

9. Γογγυσμός (phonetically gong-goos-MOS) is used for more private and often subversive forms of dissent, e.g., the Israelites complaints wandering in the desert. The leaders in this case had created such fear among the devout attendees at the Feast about any association with Jesus, discussion about him was carefully hidden. ↩︎

10. Jesus: "The work of God is this: to believe continuously in the one he has sent." (John 6:28-29) ↩︎

11. e.g., Mohammed’s denials of the claims of Jesus about himself: "Allah is only One God. Glory be to Him! He is far above having a son! " (Quran, Sura An-Nisa 4:171) And by this distortion, millions today are diverted from salvation in Jesus. ↩︎

12. Γογγύζω, Phonetic Spelling:(gong-good’-zo), an onomatopoetic term imitating the sound of cooing doves; to murmur or mutter (grumble) about leadership with muffled undertones, e.g., the frequent grumbling of the Israelites against Moses and Aaron during 40 years spent in the wilderness. ↩︎

13. John 5:18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God…, the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me. ³⁷ And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me.

    John 6:38 I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. ↩︎

14. The prophet Jonah, son of Amittai, who was sent to Ninevah to prophesy its destruction, came from Gath-hepher, a town in northern Galilee. (Joshua 19:13; 2 Kings 14:25) ↩︎