John 7:1-53

The Feast of Tabernacles

John 7:1 to John 10:21. Jesus at the Feast of Tabernacles, October, 28 a.d.

After the discourse of John 6, delivered just before Passover 28 a.d., Jesus did not go up to Jerusalem (John 7:1), but devoted Himself for five or six months to active work in various parts of Galilee, of which St. John says nothing. At the close of this period He visited the country of Tyre and Sidon (Mark 7:24), made a tour through Decapolis, where He fed the 4,000 (Mark 8:1), retired to Cæsarea Philippi, where St. Peter made his great confession (Mark 8:27.), and subsequently, at a place not specified, was transfigured. To this period belong the gradual falling away of the people, the widening of the breach with the Pharisees, the deepening of the faith of the apostles, who are led to acknowledge Him as the Son of God, and the prophecies of Death and Resurrection which followed the Transfiguration. When, in October, Jesus went up to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, His Galilean ministry was over, and He knew that His death was impending.

The account of our Lord's teaching at the Feast of Tabernacles is remarkably vivid, and bears all the marks of historic accuracy (see especially the graphic details in John 7:11; John 7:25; John 7:31; John 7:40, and in John 9). He sets His claims before the inhabitants of Jerusalem with great urgency, knowing that His time on earth is short. His hearers will die in their sins unless they believe that He is the Messiah (John 8:24). He is more than the Messiah; He is the Son of God, self-existent and eternal (John 8:58), the Living Water (John 7:37), the Light of the world (John 8:12; John 9:5), the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep (John 10:14), and the giver of true freedom (John 8:36). He works only one miracle, but it is an important one, enforcing His claim to be the Light of the world (John 9).