Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 7:8
Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come.
8. Go ye up unto this feast ] ‘Ye’ is emphatic; ‘this’ is wanting in authority; we should read, go ye up unto the feast.
I go not up yet ] ‘Yet,’ though very ancient, is possibly no part of the original text: it may have been inserted to avoid the charge of the heathen critic Porphyry, that Jesus here shews fickleness or deceit, and therefore cannot be Divine. But the sense is the same, whether ‘yet’ is inserted or not. He means ‘I am not going now; not going publicly in the general caravan of pilgrims; not going with you, who do not believe on Me.’ He does not say ‘I shall not go.’ The next two verses shew exactly what is meant by the negative.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I go not up yet – Jesus remained until about the middle of the feast, Joh 7:14. That is, he remained about four days after his brethren had departed, or until the mass of the people had gone up, so that his going might excite no attention, and that it might not be said he chose such a time to excite a tumult. We have here a signal instance of our Lords prudence and opposition to parade. Though it would have been lawful for him to go up at that time, and though it would have been a favorable period to make himself known, yet he chose to forego these advantages rather than to afford an occasion of envy and jealousy to the rulers, or to appear even to excite a tumult among the people.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 8. I go not up yet unto this feast] Porphyry accuses our blessed Lord of falsehood, because he said here, I will not go to this feast, and yet afterwards he went; and some interpreters have made more ado than was necessary, in order to reconcile this seeming contradiction. To me the whole seems very simple and plain. Our Lord did not say, I will not go to this feast; but merely, I go not yet, , or am not going, i.e. at present; because, as he said Joh 7:6, and repeats here, his time was not yet come-he had other business to transact before he could go. And it is very likely that his business detained him in Galilee till the feast was half over: for we do not find him at Jerusalem till the middle of the feast, Joh 7:14, i.e. till the feast had been begun four days. He might also be unwilling to go at that time, there being such a great concourse of people on the road to Jerusalem, and his enemies might say that he had availed himself of this time and multitude in order to excite sedition.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Go ye up unto this feast; let not my forbearance to go up hinder your going up according to the law.
I go not up yet unto this feast; I have some particular reasons why as yet I will not go to be there at the beginning of it.
For my time is not yet full come; I know my time to go, when it will be most safe and proper for me. I shall be there some time during the feast, but my time is not yet come; I shall not be there at the beginning of it. It appeareth that he came not into the temple till about the middle of it, Joh 7:14, which was three or four days after it was began, for it held seven days, Lev 23:34. Or his time was not come, because he designed to go very privately without any notice taken of his coming; which must have been, if he had at that time gone up with his kindred and acquaintance.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Go we up unto this feast,…. Suggesting, that he would not have them stay for him, or hinder themselves on his account: he encourages them to go up, and observe this festival; for the ceremonial law was not yet abolished; and though they were carnal men, and did not understand what it typified: and so unregenerate persons ought to attend on the outward means, as the hearing of the word, c. though they do not understand it it may be God may make use of it, for the enlightening of their minds; and blessed are they that wait at Wisdom’s gates, and there find Christ, and life and salvation by him:
I go not up yet unto this feast; this clause, in one of Beza’s copies, is wholly left out; and in some, the word “this” is not read; and in others it is read, “I go not up unto this feast”; leaving out the word “yet”; and so read the Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic versions; and the Persic version only, “I do not go up”; which occasioned Porphyry, that great enemy of Christianity, to reproach Christ, as guilty of inconstancy, or of an untruth, since he afterwards did go up: but in almost all the ancient copies the word is read; and so it is by Chrysostom and Nonnus; and to the same sense the Syriac and Arabic versions render it, “I do not go up now to this feast”; that is, just at that very time, that very day or hour: which is entirely consistent with what is afterwards said,
for my time is not yet full come; not to die, or to be glorified, but to go up to the feast.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Go ye up to the feast ( ). The emphatic word by position is (ye) in contrast with (I). Second aorist active imperative of , old and common verb for going up to the feast (2:13) or anywhere. Take your own advice (7:3).
I go not up yet ( ). So Westcott and Hort after B W L (Neutral) while (not) is read by Aleph D, African Latin, Vulgate, Coptic (Western). Some of the early Greek Fathers were puzzled over the reading (I go not up) as contradictory to verse 10 wherein it is stated that Jesus did go up. Almost certainly (not) is correct and is not really contradictory when one notes in verse 10 that the manner of Christ’s going up is precisely the opposite of the advice of the brothers in verses John 7:3; John 7:4. “Not yet” () is genuine before “fulfilled” (, perfect passive indicative of ). One may think, if he will, that Jesus changed his plans after these words, but that is unnecessary. He simply refused to fall in with his brothers’ sneering proposal for a grand Messianic procession with the caravan on the way to the feast. He will do that on the journey to the last passover.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
This feast. For this, read the, the first time, but not the second. Full come [] . Literally, has been fulfilled. So Rev., is not yet fulfilled.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Go ye up unto this feast: (humeis anabete eis ten heorten) “You all go up into the feast,” you four younger brothers, if you will, if you desire to observe the feast, Joh 6:3; Mat 13:55; Mar 6:3. Join the pilgrim bands.
2) “I go not up yet unto this feast; (ego ouk anabaino eis ten heorten tauten) “I am not going into this feast, at this time,” or to this particular feast of the tabernacles, Joh 7:2.
3) “For my time is not yet full come.” (hoti ho emos kairos oupo peplerotai) “Because my time period has not yet been fulfilled,” or fully come. When that time-period did come, He was as fully bent ongoing up as He now was of staying away. This discussion of Jesus with His four brothers, as John, this gospel writer recounts, may have occurred in the home, a month or so before the feast. The term (engus) meaning near, or at hand, Joh 7:2, l ends time for a journey by foot some 60 miles up to Jerusalem, and time to build the booths, in which they would live there for a week, Lev 23:34.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(8) Go ye up unto this feast.This should be, rather, Go ye up unto the feast, with the stress on the pronoun ye, and the article instead of the demonstrative this.
I go not up yet unto this feast.The yet is of doubtful authority, though it is found in some early MSS. and versions, and the more so because it removes an apparent difficulty. Without it, the words do not involve a change of purpose, and Porphyrys often-repeated charge of fickleness has no real ground. He is not going up unto the feast in the sense in which they intendedopenly, with the usual caravan from Galilee. Another going up publicly, as they intended, and with an issue the dark presages of which now crowd upon Him, is present to His mind. Ye, go ye up to the feast; I go not up to this feast. The verb is in the present, and its meaning does not exclude a going up afterwards. (See also Note on Joh. 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. (Comp. Note on Luk. 9:51.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. I go not up yet The best authorities decide that the word yet should be rejected from the text. His true Words are, I go not up to this feast. That Jesus did not then intend to go up to the feast is perfectly clear from the reason alleged, namely, My time is not yet. This of course clearly means that when his time came he would go up. It came and he went. Jesus uses a word that applied only to the present, I go not. He spoke not for the future; but, obediently unknowing the moment, he leaves the decision of the time to the Father, and tells precisely as he knows.
Not yet full come
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘You go up to the Feast. I am not going up to this feast, because my time is not yet fulfilled.’ And having said these things to them he remained dwelling in Galilee.’
So He told His brothers to go to the feast, while He remained in Galilee, awaiting God’s time. What He, of course, meant was that He was not going up ‘at present’ along with the party who are going from Galilee. He knew that He had to await His Father’s instructions.
Many good authorities have ‘I am not yet going’, and the ‘yet’ is certainly to be understood if not there (it is easy to see why it might have been written as a comment and then incorporated into the text). John is hardly likely to have depicted Jesus as deceiving his brothers, and it is clear that He was not yet sure as to what exactly He was going to do. What He therefore meant was that in view of the situation He was still awaiting word from His Father and would not act until then. Once, however, He received that word, He went.
‘My time is not yet fulfilled’. He was aware that danger awaited Him, and that His death would be sought. And He knew that it was not yet time for Him to die. He had a further ministry to be fulfilled which had not yet been fulfilled. So He must wait.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Joh 7:8-9. Go ye up unto this feast, &c. “Repair ye therefore unto Jerusalem as soon as you please, that you may be there at the beginning of the feast: I shall not keep you company, nor indeed go yet awhile; for I must wait a little longer before it will be prudent for me to be seen there.” By this answer he sent them to attend divine ordinances, though they were persons of a carnal unbelieving heart: but, as they did not like his presence among them, he would not honour them with it.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
8 Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come.
Ver. 8. I go not up yet ] q.d. I will ere long: lest haply they should think that he disliked the public services, and would not come at them, because of the manifold corruptions that were then crept into them. All which notwithstanding, Christ never separated, nor commanded others so to do, but the contrary: “Go show thyself to the priest,”Mat 8:4Mat 8:4 ; “The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’ chair; hear them,” Mat 23:2 . It is noted as a great fault in Eli’s time, that men “abhorred the offering of the Lord,” though the sin of the priests was very great before the Lord, and all was out of order; yet in abhorring the sacrifice, they “transgressed, even to a cry,”1Sa 2:171Sa 2:17 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Joh 7:8 . “Go ye up to the feast. I go not up yet to this Feast, for my time is not yet fulfilled.” His time for manifesting Himself publicly was not yet come, and therefore He did not wish to go up to the feast with His brothers , who were eager for some public display. Had He gone in their company He would have been proclaimed, and would have appeared to be the nominee of His own family. It was impossible He should go on any such terms.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Go . . . up. Greek anabaino, the technical word for going up with others as in a caravan. See Joh 11:55. Mat 20:17, Mat 20:18. Mar 10:32, Mar 10:33. Luk 2:42; Luk 18:31 (compare Joh 7:35); Joh 19:4, Joh 19:28, Joh 11:55, Act 21:15.
unto. Greek eis. App-104.
this = the,
is not yet full come = has not yet been fulfilled. Compare Luk 21:24. Act 7:23.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Joh 7:8. , not) I do not now go up with you (Joh 7:10, When His brethren were gone up, then went He also up), as you advise, that I may be seen in the highway and in the city. For which reason He abode [still in Galilee], Joh 7:9. , I go up, is to be taken strictly in the present. Comp. , not [= not yet], at Mat 11:11 [ – ], where also the past tense ought to be understood in its strict sense. So , not, for , not yet, Mar 7:18, Are ye so without understanding? Do ye not (yet) perceive that, etc.; : comp. Mat 15:17 [where Beng. with Rec. Text reads . But [165][166][167] read ]. He who was not present on the first day of the feast, was likely to be thought not present at all. The Lord afterwards went up to the feast, but as it were incognito, and not so much to the feast, as to the temple; Joh 7:10, not openly, but as it were in secret; 14, Jesus went up into the temple and taught. There was now but one going up, in the proper sense, set before the Lord, namely, that at the passover of His passion: it is concerning this that He speaks in an enigmatical way.- , time [season]) Wisdom observes carefully the [right] time. His speech at Joh 7:6, My time is not yet come, refers to His time for going up to the feast; but in this verse, as it seems, it refers to His time of suffering: comp. Joh 5:30, No man laid hands on Him, because His hour was not yet come. This journey to the Feast of Tabernacles was His last journev but one to Jerusalem.
[165] the Vatican MS., 1209: in Vat. Iibr., Rome: fourth cent.: O. and N. Test. def.
[166] Bez, or Cantabrig.: Univ. libr., Cambridge: fifth cent.: publ. by Kipling, 1793: Gospels, Acts, and some Epp. def.
[167] Dubliniensis rescr.: Trin. Coll., Dublin: Matthew def.: sixth cent.: publ. by Barrett, 1801.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 7:8
Joh 7:8
Go ye up unto the feast: I go not up unto this feast; because my time is not yet fulfilled.-They could go when they pleased. There were reasons why he could not then go. His time was not fully come. [He uses the present, not future tense. The thought is, I am not now going. It would have doubtless defeated his purpose had he gone with those who were determined that he should make an exhibition of himself. It cannot be determined from this whether he had yet purposed to go at all.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
I go not: Joh 7:6, Joh 7:30, Joh 8:20, Joh 8:30, Joh 11:6, Joh 11:7, 1Co 2:15, 1Co 2:16
Reciprocal: Exo 12:41 – selfsame Joh 11:55 – before
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
8
This verse has the same thought as verse 6, and states the reason why Jesus was not in any hurry to attend the feast.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast: for my time is not yet full come.
[I go not up yet unto this feast.] That passage in St. Luke, Luk 9:51, “When the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem” must have relation to this story; as will be very evident to any one that will study the harmony of the gospel; especially if they observe, that this evangelist tells us of two journeys after this which Christ took to Jerusalem, viz. Luk 13:22, to the feast of the Dedication; and Luk 17:11, to the feast of the Passover. He had absented himself a long time from Judea, upon the account of those snares that had been laid for him; but now, when he had not above six months to live and converse in this world, he determines resolutely to give all due manifestations of himself, both in Judea, and wherever else he should happen to come. And for this cause he sent those seventy disciples before his face, into every city and place where he himself would come. Luk 10:1.
When therefore he tells his unbelieving brethren, I go not up yet; etc., he does not deny that he would go at all, but only that he would not go yet; partly, because he had no need of those previous cleansings which they had, if they had touched any dead body; partly, that he might choose the most fit season for the manifestation of himself.
But if we take notice how Christ was received into Jerusalem five days before the Passover, with those very rites and solemnities that were used at the feast of Tabernacles, viz. “with branches of palms,” etc. Joh 12:13, these words may seem to relate to that time; and so the word feast might not denote the individual feast that was now instant, but the kind of feast, or festival-time. As if he had said, “You would have me go up to this feast, that I may be received by my disciples with applause; but I do not go up to that kind of festivity; the time appointed for that affair is not yet come.”
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Joh 7:8. Go ye up unto the feast: I go not up yet unto this feast, because my time is not yet fulfilled. The words not yet imply an intention of attending the festival, though as yet the appointed time had not come. The interval before it comes may be of the shortest, but the not yet lasts till the now comes, and then the obedience must be instant and complete. It is well known that this verse furnished Porphyry, the assailant of Christianity in the third century, with one of his argument. In his Greek text of the Gospel the reading was, I go not up unto (the word yet being absent), and upon this Porphyry founded an accusation of fickleness and change of purpose.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Vv. 8 draws the practical consequence of this contrast. The meaning of the reply of Jesus is naturally in accord with that of the question, and especially of the words: Manifest thyself to the world. Jesus well knew that He must one day make the great Messianic demonstration which His brethren demanded, but He also knew that the time for it was not yet come. His earthly work was not accomplished. Moreover, it was not at the feast of Tabernacles, it was at that of the Passover that He must die. Hence, the special emphasis with which He says in the second clause, no longer as when speaking of His brethren: Go up to the feast (comp. the reading of B D, etc.), but to this feast, or even this particular feast. If the reply of Jesus is thus placed in close connection with the request of His brethren, it is no longer necessary, in order to justify it, to read with so many of the MSS.: I go not yet up, instead of: I go not up. The first reading is manifestly a correction by means of which an attempt was early made to remove the apparent contradiction between the reply of Jesus and His subsequent action (Joh 7:10). The reading, not yet, is not only suspicious for this reason; the meaning of it is altogether false. The antithesis which engages the thought of Jesus when He says: I go not up to this feast, is not the contrast between this day and some days later; it is that between this feast and another subsequent feast. What proves this, is the reason which He alleges: For my time is not yet fulfilled (Joh 7:8). The condition of things had not changed when Jesus went up to Jerusalem a few days afterwards. This very solemn expression, therefore, could only apply to the period of time which still remained before the future feast of the Passover, the destined limit of His earthly life.
The not yet which was well adapted to Joh 7:6, was wrongly introduced into our verse instead of not; comp. for this solemn sense of the word to be fulfilled Luk 9:31; Luk 9:51; Act 2:1, etc. As Jesus rejected at Cana a solicitation of His mother aiming substantially at the same result as the present summons of His brethren, and yet soon gave her satisfaction of her desire in a much more moderate way, so Jesus begins here by refusing to go up to Jerusalem in the sense in which He was urged to do so (that of manifesting Himself to the world), in order to go up afterwards in a wholly diffent sense. The conversion of His brethren, a few months afterwards, proves that the subsequent events were for them the satisfactory commentary on this saying, and that there did not remain in their minds the slightest doubt respecting the veracity and moral character of their brother. The following are the other explanations which have been given of this saying of Jesus.
1. That of Chrysostom, adopted by Lucke, Olshausen, Tholuck, Stier: I go notnow, deriving a (now), to be supplied, from the present (I go). This ellipsis is not only needless, but false. Jesus, as we have seen, makes no allusion to a nearly approaching journey to Jerusalem, which perhaps was not yet even determined upon in His own mind.
2. Meyer holds that Jesus, in the interval between Joh 7:8 and Joh 7:10, formed a resolution which was altogether new; Gess, in like manner: God did not give Him the order until later (Joh 7:19). Reuss, nearly the same: Jesus reserved to Himself the liberty of acting according to His own desire, without consulting any one. Weiss: In accordance with prudence, Jesus was obliged to say: I go not up; but as His father gave Him afterwards the order to go, a promise was given to protect Him; and this is what took place. All this is very well conceived. But if Jesus did not yet know the Divine will, should He have said so positively: I go not up. This was to declare Himself far too categorically. He should have answered more vaguely: I know not yet whether I shall go up; do you go up; nothing prevents your doing so.
3. Others finally, as Bengel and Luthardt, explain in this way: I go not up with the caravan; or, as Cyril, Lange, etc., I go not up to celebrate the feast ( ); which would not exclude the possibility that Jesus should go to Jerusalem during the feast. In fact, the full celebration of the feast, as the brethren of Jesus conceived of it, included certain indispensable rites, certain sacrifices of purification, which the pilgrims were obliged to offer before its beginning (Joh 11:55). And if it is objected that in Joh 7:10 John must have said, not: He went up to the feast, but: He went up to Jerusalem, this objection falls before the Alexandrian reading, which refers the words to the feast, not to: And Jesus went up, but to the clause: When His brethren were gone up. This very ingenious interpretation is not wanting in probability; its only defect is its excess of ingenuity. That which I have given in the first place, and to which the context more directly leads, seems to me preferable. It removes from Jesus, not only the accusation of falsehood, but also that of inconsistency which the philosopher Porphyry in the fourth century brought against Him on this account. The meaning given by Westcott: I cannot yet go up as Messiah; but this does not prevent my going up as a prophet, has a certain agreement with our explanation. Only it attributes to Jesus a reticence which is very much like mental reservation.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Having offered His explanation, Jesus encouraged his brothers to go on to the feast without Him. Again He intimated that the Father was setting His agenda and He needed to follow it rather then their suggestion (cf. Joh 2:4). God’s immediate will for Him was to stay in Galilee.
The NIV "yet" has weak textual support, though it represents a valid interpretation. Many old Greek manuscripts do not contain it. Probably copyists added it to explain what Jesus meant since He did go to Jerusalem shortly after He spoke these words (Joh 7:10).