Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 7:5
For neither did his brethren believe in him.
5. For neither did his brethren believe in him ] Or, For not even did His brethren (as one would expect) believe on Him. It is marvellous that in the face of this verse any one should have maintained that three of His brethren (James, Simon, and Judas) were Apostles. This verse is also fatal to the common theory, that these ‘brethren’ are really our Lord’s cousins, the sons of Alphus. Certainly one of the sons of Alphus (James) was an Apostle; probably a second was (Matthew, if Levi and Matthew are the same person, as is almost universally admitted); possibly a third was (Judas, if ‘Judas of James’ means ‘Judas, brother of James,’ as is commonly supposed). By this time the company of the Twelve was complete (Joh 6:67; Joh 6:70-71); so that we cannot suppose that some of the Twelve have still to be converted. If then one, two, or three sons of Alphus were Apostles how could it be true that the sons of Alphus ‘did not believe on Him?’ ‘His brethren’ cannot be the sons of Alphus. They seem to have been converted by the Resurrection. Immediately after the Ascension we find them with the Apostles and the holy women (Act 1:14; comp. 1Co 9:5, Gal 1:19).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 5. Neither did his brethren believe in him.] They did not receive him as the promised Messiah; but, having seen so many of his miracles, they could not but consider him as an eminent prophet. They supposed that, if he were the Messiah, he would wish to manifest himself as such to the world; and, because he did not do so, they did not believe that he was the salvation of Israel.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Not all his own friends and kindred; he came not only among his own countrymen, but among his own relations, and they received him not; or if they had some opinion of him, and some little hopes concerning him, yet they did not believe as they ought to have believed. Certainly there cannot be a greater proof and demonstration that faith is not of ourselves, nor a thing in our own power, no, not with all the external aids of gospel doctrine and arguments, than is in this text. We cannot imagine but our Lords brethren were willing enough to have believed in Christ as the true Messiah and Saviour of the world; the very honour of their family would have so far inclined them. It is impossible that they, or any others, should have had greater external means, aids, and assistances for their faith, than Christs preaching amongst them, and confirming his doctrine by miraculous operations before them; if now they had a power in their own wills, to have looked upon Christ as the true Messiah and Saviour of the world, and accordingly to have received and embraced him, what was the matter they believed not, or as yet at least they believed not in him?
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
For neither did his brethren believe in him. At first they might take to him, and embrace him as the Messiah, and expect he would set up a temporal kingdom; in which they might hope, on account of their relation to him, according to the flesh to enjoy great honours and privileges; but finding that he was not inclined to anything of that nature, and talked in a quite different way, they grew sick of him, and rejected him, as the Messiah; so, little regard is to be had, or confidence placed, in carnal descent from, or alliance to the best of men; as to Abraham, or any other true believer, if they have not the same grace, or the same faith as such have; and which comes not by blood, or natural generation, but by the free favour of God; for it matters not, if men have known Christ, or have been allied to him after the flesh, unless they are new creatures in him; they may be the one, and not the other; even the carnal brethren of Christ, and yet not believers in him; and it is only such who are so in a spiritual sense, that are regarded by him, Mt 12:49.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
For even his brethren did not believe on him ( ). Literally, “For not even were his brothers believing on him.” Imperfect tense of with sad picture of the persistent refusal of the brothers of Jesus to believe in his Messianic assumptions, after the two rejections in Capernaum (Luke 4:16-31; Mark 6:1-6; Matt 13:54-58), and also after the blasphemous accusation of being in league with Beelzebub when the mother and brothers came to take Jesus home (Mark 3:31-35; Matt 12:46-50; Luke 8:19-21). The brothers here are sarcastic.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Neither [] . Better, as Rev., not even.
Did believe [] . The imperfect, were believing; referring not to a single act of faith, but to faith as habitual and controlling.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “For neither did his brethren,” (oude gar hoi adelphoi autou) “For not even his (own) brothers,” of the flesh, James, Joses, Simon, and Judas, Mat 13:55; Mar 6:3.
2) “Believe in him.” (episteuon eis auton) “Believed into or upon him,” at least to the extent of following Him, as the twelve apostles did, Mat 13:57-58; Mar 6:4. As prophesied by the Psalmist He became a stranger and alien to His own brethren, Psa 69:8.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
5. For even his brethren did not believe in him. Hence we infer how small is the value of carnal relationship; for the Holy Spirit stamps with a perpetual mark of infamy the relations of Christ, because, though convinced by the testimonies of so many works, they did not even then believe. Therefore, whosoever wishes to be thought to be in Christ, as Paul says, let him be a new creature, (2Co 5:17; Gal 6:15😉 for they who dedicate themselves wholly to God obtain the place of father, and mother, and brethren to Christ, and all others he utterly disavows, (Mat 12:50.) So much the more ridiculous is the superstition of Papists, who, disregarding everything else in the Virgin Mary, extol her only on the ground of relationship, bestowing on her the title of the Mother of Christ, (180) as if Christ himself had not reproved the woman who exclaimed from the midst of the crowd,
Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the breasts that suckled thee; for Christ replied, Nay, rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God, (Luk 11:27.)
(180) “ Le titre de Mere de Christ.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(5) For neither did his brethren believe.Comp. Note on Joh. 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 (Joh. 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 1Co. 15:7.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. Neither his brethren believe The brothers of a sinless, perfect child would, then, give him no credit for being such! However right he may be, they would always hold him wrong when he differed from themselves. So they do on the present occasion. He is waiting his “time” from the Father in his most perfect rectitude of soul, and these brothers rather think him a miraculous fool!
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Joh 7:5-6 . For not even His brothers , whom we might have expected to have been foremost, etc.; otherwise they would not have urged Him to the test of a public appearance. They urged this upon Him all the more, because He had absented Himself from the previous Passover at Jerusalem, a fact which could not have been unknown to them.
. .] in the ordinary sense; they did not believe in Him as the Messiah . To take the words to mean only the perfect self-surrender of faith, which they had not yet attained to (Lange, Hengstenberg), is an inference necessitated by the mistaken notion that these brothers were not literally brothers (see on Mat 12:46 ; Act 1:14 ; Mar 3:31 ; 1Co 9:5 ). Nonnus admirably says: , . See Joh 7:7 .
] cannot mean the time to make the journey to the feast (Luther, Jansen, Cornelius a Lapide, and most expositors); the antithesis . demands a deeper reference. It is, according to the context, the time to manifest myself to the world , Joh 7:4 , by which Jesus certainly understood the divinely appointed yet still expected moment of public decision concerning Him (comp. Joh 2:4 ), which did come historically at the very next Passover, but which He now felt in a general way was not yet come. Thus the explanation of Chrysostom, Euthymius Zigabenus, Lampe, and most others, who refer the words to the time of His passion , is not wrong, only that this is not actually expressed , but was historically the fulfillment of what is here said. The corresponding in like manner means the time for showing themselves openly to the world , which the brothers might do at any time , because they stood in no opposition to the world (Joh 7:7 ; Joh 15:19 ).
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
5 For neither did his brethren believe in him.
Ver. 5. For neither did his brethren believe ] This the Jews of this day read with much wonderment; and take occasion from this text to slander our Saviour’s miracles, as nothing so manifest as we conceive them, since his own kindred believed not in him.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Joh 7:5 . It is indeed added , “For not even did His brothers believe in Him”; but this does not mean that they did not believe He wrought miracles, but that they had not submitted to His claim to be Messiah. They required to see Him publicly acknowledged before they could believe. Therefore this clause is introduced to explain why they urged Him to go to Jerusalem.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
neither = not even. Greek. oude. App-105. See note on “And we beheld”, &c., Joh 1:14.
believe in. App-150. See note on Joh 1:12.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Joh 7:5. ) not even: so few they were that believed! Not except by Divine succours was faith in Jesus of Nazareth established: the very members of His family were opposed to Him.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 7:5
Joh 7:5
For even his brethren did not believe on him – [Note that a clear distinction is made between his brethren and his disciples. The distinction is more clear in Mat 12:47. Later they became believers. (Act 1:14).]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Joh 1:11-13, Mic 7:5, Mic 7:6, Mar 3:21
Reciprocal: Num 12:1 – Miriam 2Sa 19:41 – Why have Psa 69:8 – become Jer 12:6 – thy brethren Mat 12:46 – his Joh 7:3 – brethren
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
5
John explains the criticism of these brethren by saying they did not believe in him. It doubtless was on the principle stated in chapter 4:44.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joh 7:5. For not even did his brethren believe in him. This verse seems to afford an unanswerable argument against those who hold that amongst these brothers of our Lord were included two or three of the twelve apostles. How long this unbelief lasted we cannot tell: the words of Paul in 1Co 15:7, Then He appeared to James, make it very probable that it was by our Lords resurrection from the dead that the brothers were led to a true belief in that Divine mission which, in spite of the earlier miracles they had witnessed, they had refused to accept.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
7:5 For neither did his {b} brethren believe in him.
(b) His relatives: for the Hebrews used to speak in this way.