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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - John 7:19 - 7:24
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NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Joh_7:19-24
19"Did not Moses give you the Law, and yet none of you carries out the Law? Why do you seek to kill Me?" 20The crowd answered, "You have a demon! Who seeks to kill You?" 21Jesus answered them, "I did one deed, and you all marvel. 22For this reason Moses has given you circumcision (not because it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a man. 23If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath? 24Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment."
Joh_7:19 The grammatical construction expects a "yes" answer.
▣ "yet none of you carries out the law" This must have been a shocking statement to these Jews who were attending a required feast in Jerusalem.
The Law of Moses clearly prohibited premeditated murder, yet this is exactly what the leaders were planning. The local people knew of this but were unwilling to stop their plans or even complain.
▣ "Why do you seek to kill Me" The question of Joh_7:20 does not come from religious leaders, but from the crowd of pilgrims who knew nothing of the plot to kill Him. Later, in Joh_7:25, the people of Jerusalem did know of the plot to kill Jesus.
The religious leaders also charged Jesus with being demon-possessed in order to explain away His power and insight (cf. Mat_9:34; Mat_11:18; Mat_12:24; Mar_3:22-30; Joh_8:48-52; Joh_10:20-21).
Joh_7:20 "You have a demon" It is obvious to everyone who encountered Jesus that He had spiritual power. The question was where did this power come from? The Jewish leaders could not deny Jesus' "signs/miracles," so they attributed the power to Satan and the demonic (cf. Joh_8:48-49; Joh_8:52; Joh_10:20).
In this context the crowd of pilgrims attending the feast of Tabernacles uses the same phrase, but in a different sense. They are asserting that Jesus is acting in a non-rational, paranoid fashion.
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Joh_7:22
NASB, NKJV "(not because it is from Moses, but from the fathers)"
NRSV "(it is, of course, not from Moses, but from the Patriarchs)"
TEV "(although it was not Moses but your ancestors who started it"
NJB "-not that it began with him, it goes back to the patriarch-"
The rite of circumcision did not begin with the Law of Moses (cf. Exo_12:48; Lev_12:3), but was given to Abraham as a sign of the special covenant with YHWH (cf. Gen_17:9-14; Gen_21:4; Gen_34:22).
▣ "and on the Sabbath you circumcise a man" The essence of Jesus' argument was that they were willing to put aside their Sabbatical rules so that a baby could be circumcised (cf. Shab 132a; Sabh. Joh_18:3; Joh_19:1-6), but were not willing to put aside their Sabbatical rules that a man might be made whole. It is significant to realize that Jesus was using the logic and thought forms of Rabbinical Judaism throughout this section.
Joh_7:23 "If" This is a First class conditional sentence which is assumed to be true from the writer's perspective or for his literary purposes.
▣ "are you angry with Me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath" This refers either to Jesus' healing recorded in Joh_5:1-9 or an unrecorded healing during the feast.
The Greek word "angry" (cholaô) is a rare word found only here in the NT. It is found sparingly in all Greek literature (BAGD, p. 883 and MM, p. 689). It is related to the word "gall" (cholç, cf. Mat_27:34). The reason for Jesus' using this word (i.e., its connotation) is uncertain. It may denote a "divine anger" in the sense that they thought they were defending God's will and God's laws, which Jesus was violating.
Joh_7:24 "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment" This is a present imperative with negative particle, which means stop an act in process. It is followed by an aorist imperative, which implies urgency. This may be an allusion to Isa_11:3.