Charles Ellicott Commentary John 7:8

"Go ye up unto the feast: I go not up unto this feast; because my time is not yet fulfilled." — John 7:8 (ASV)

Go you up to this feast.—This should be, rather, Go you up to the feast, with the stress on the pronoun “you,” and the article instead of the demonstrative “this.”

I go not up yet to this feast.—The word “yet” is of doubtful authority, although it is found in some early manuscripts and versions. Its inclusion is particularly suspect because it removes an apparent difficulty. Without it, the words do not imply a change of purpose, and Porphyry’s often-repeated charge of fickleness has no real basis.

He is not going up to the feast in the sense in which they intended—that is, openly, with the usual caravan from Galilee. Another public journey (as they intended), with an outcome whose dark presages now crowd upon Him, is present to His mind. His meaning is effectively, “You, go up to the feast; I do not go up to this feast.”

The verb is in the present tense, and its meaning does not exclude going up afterwards (see also Note on John 7:10). They were then going; the caravan was preparing to start. I am not going up (now). The time is coming, but it has not yet fully come (compare Note on Luke 9:51).