Charles Ellicott Commentary John 7

After these things . . .—Denoting not immediate sequence, but covering the interval included in this verse—i.e., the Galilean ministry of Matthew 15-18. (Compare Note on John 21:1.) It would have been natural for Him to have gone up to the Passover of that year (John 6:4), but He did not do so on account of the open hostility of the Jews. He continued his sojourn in Galilee.

Jewry was frequent in the older English translations, but has been preserved in the Authorized Version of the New Testament only here and in Luke 23:5. (See Note there, and compare Daniel 5:13 and the Prayer Book version of Psalms 76:1.)

The Jews’ feast of tabernacles.—This began on the fifteenth day of the seventh month (Leviticus 23:34), i.e., the 15th of Tishri, which corresponds to our September. The interval, then, from Passover to Tabernacles is one of about five months. The feast continued for seven days, during which all true Israelites dwelt in booths, in remembrance of their dwelling in tabernacles when they came out of the land of Egypt. Like the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover) and the Feast of Harvest (Pentecost), this Feast of In-gathering was one of the three times in the year when every male Jew was required to appear before the Lord God (Exodus 23:14). Josephus speaks of it as the holiest and greatest of the feasts. It was at once a thankful memorial of the national deliverance, and a yearly rejoicing at the close of each succeeding harvest (Deuteronomy 16:13–16).

His brethren . . .—Compare to the note on Matthew 13:55. They are excluded here by their own words from the band of disciples, as they are by John's from the believers (John 7:5), and inferentially (John 7:7) by the words of Christ Himself from the Twelve. .

That your disciples also may see . . .—The last time the word “disciples” was used, it was to mark the departure of many from Him (John 6:60; John 6:66). The months that have passed since have been a time of comparative retirement. He did not go to the Passover, where many would have expected to see Him (John 7:11), but within the narrowed circle continued His works and words.

The prophet has no honor in His own home, and His brethren, who have seen these works and do not believe, challenge Him to an open demonstration of them. There is another great feast near, and His disciples from all parts will be at Jerusalem, where the rulers will test His claims. If He is the Messiah, no conspiracy to kill Him can prevail; and if these works are really divine, let the great body of disciples see them, and amid the joyous feast, and in the royal city, proclaim Him king.

For there is no man.—His course of action seems to them to contradict His personal claim. It is opposed, they think, to the common-sense conduct of mankind.

If thou do these things.—The emphasis is on these things. There is no doubt that He does them; but if the acts themselves are such as they seem to be, and establish the claim which He bases on them, they should be done in Jerusalem, not in the villages of Galilee. They are for the world, and not for the privacy of home.

For neither did his brethren believe.—Compare Note on John 7:3. The words do not admit of any other meaning than the obvious one that even His brethren did not at this time believe Him to be the Messiah. That they are found in the very first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles joining with the Apostles, and the women, and Mary, with one accord in prayer (John 7:14), is one of the striking instances of the hardened ground of human hearts passing into the fruitful ground receptive of the seed, as the case of Judas at the close of the last chapter is an instance of the opposite. For the immediate cause of the decisive change, see 1 Corinthians 15:7.