John 7:2Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Why, then, did they omit those events? Because it was impossible to recount everything. Moreover, they especially tried to speak about matters from which some blame or contradiction might arise on the part of the Jews.

There were many events like those that were omitted. Therefore the Evangelists, after writing many times that Christ healed the sick, raised the dead, and stirred up wonder, sometimes pass over such things in silence.

But when they had to speak of something unusual, or to recount something that might seem to serve as reproach against Him, they narrated it. Thus even now the Evangelist notes that His brothers did not believe in Him, though this circumstance contains no small reproach against Him.

Truly worthy of wonder is the Evangelists’ love of truth. They are not ashamed to speak of what seems to serve as reproach against the Teacher. They even strive to narrate this more than anything else.

Therefore John, after passing over in silence many signs, miracles, and discourses of Christ, immediately proceeds to what follows.

For this reason they made booths or tents and rejoiced, as though living in the field. Some say that certain psalms of David, Psalms 80 and 83, bearing the inscription “for the winepresses,” were composed by David precisely for this feast.

At that time they filled their winepresses while gathering grapes. Giving thanks for them, they used these psalms and others that serve as expressions of thanksgiving, such as Psalm 8. For in it also the prophet mentions the good things granted by God to man.

These feasts also had another meaning. Passover signified our passage from unbelief to faith. Pentecost signified entrance into the Church, as into another promised land, where we too taste bread by communing of the Divine Mysteries.

We do not taste the Bread immediately when we believe and pass over from unbelief. We must first be baptized and be counted worthy to stand in church with the baptized. Only then do we commune of the Bread.

The setting up of tabernacles signified the resurrection, when all the fruits of our works will be gathered. Our huts, that is, our bodies, destroyed by death, will rise again.

There are other exalted aspects in these feasts, but now is not the time to set them forth. For we always choose what is more useful for the many.

Why did the Evangelist, from five months of activity, relate nothing except the miracle of the loaves and the Lord’s discourse to those who had been fed but remained ungrateful? Why did he pass over the rest and say, “The Jews’ Feast of Tabernacles was at hand”?

That he was silent about the works performed during five months is evident from this. When Jesus performed the miracle of the loaves, it was Passover, which is celebrated in the month the Romans call March, and the Jews call the first month.

Now it is the setting up of tabernacles, which according to our reckoning is celebrated in September. Why, then, did the Evangelist act this way? Because it was impossible to speak of everything in order.

And so on that feast day, though in reality there were many feast days, the Jews called it “the feast day.” It was not one day, but several. Then His brothers spoke to the Lord Christ.

Understand the words “His brothers” as you already know them. What you now hear is not new. The Lord’s brothers were the blood relatives of the Virgin Mary.

It is proper to the Scriptures to call all blood relatives and close kinsmen brothers. This is not characteristic of our usage, nor of our manner of speech. For who would call an uncle and a sister’s brother brothers?

Yet the Scriptures call such relatives brothers. Abraham and Lot are called brothers, although Abraham was Lot’s uncle; see Gen 12:5; 13:8; 14:12. Laban and Jacob are also called brothers, although Laban was Jacob’s maternal uncle; see Gen 28:2.

Therefore, when you hear of the Lord’s brothers, consider them blood relatives of the Virgin Mary, who bore no other offspring. As in the tomb where the Lord’s Body was laid, no dead man lay either before or after, so too Mary’s womb, neither before nor after, received anything mortal.

Outside Jerusalem, the people for the most part showed a strong disposition toward Jesus Christ. Even His enemies were compelled to act against Him only by cunning. In Jerusalem, however, even the voice of those well disposed toward Him became weak.

This was because of the influence of the chief seat of government upon the people’s opinions. There His enemies could use even violent measures against Him with impunity.

From this there arose a strange confusion of ideas about Jesus in Jerusalem during the feast, and even a conflict of opinions about Him. Well-minded Galilean pilgrims judged Him in one way, the inhabitants of Jerusalem in another, and His personal enemies, openly rising against Him there, in still another.

These judgments sometimes came into open contradiction with one another. Moreover, they still remembered that a year and a half earlier, when He was in Jerusalem at Passover, He had allowed Himself to heal the paralytic. Under this pretext they had sought until now to put Him to death as a transgressor of the Law.

Jerusalem was the capital of the people of God and the center of enlightenment. In their opinion, the Messiah ought chiefly to act there, and there alone His activity could be properly assessed.

When the time drew near to travel from Galilee to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles, the third great Jewish feast, Lev 23, they watched and waited to see whether the Lord would go to this feast in Jerusalem.

Not noticing such an intention in Him, they addressed Him with an invitation and, as it were, an exhortation: “Depart from here and go into Judea, that Thy disciples also, whom Thou hast gained there, Jn 2:23; 4:1, may see the works that Thou doest.”

They meant that not only the crowd, the simple people, by whom He was constantly surrounded in Galilee, should see them. “For no one does anything in secret and at the same time seeks to become known by his activity.

“If Thou doest such great works, and Thou truly dost them, then perform them openly. Manifest Thyself to the world. In the backwoods of Galilee, however much and however Thou actest, no one will know of Thee except an ignorant crowd.

“But in Jerusalem, especially during a great feast, when people stream there from everywhere, Thou canst glorify Thyself before the whole world. Thy present activity among the dark mass of the people is hidden activity.”

Thus one may paraphrase the speech of the Lord’s brothers according to the flesh.

To this Jesus Christ answers: “My time has not yet come, but for you the time is always ready.” That is, for you it is timely to go to Jerusalem not only now, as people usually go from Galilee to the Feast of Tabernacles, but whenever you think and wish.

Why? “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me, because by the light of My righteous life and truth I testify of it that its works are evil,” compare Jn 15:19.

Consequently, no danger and no obstacle await you whenever you go to Jerusalem. But danger to My life awaits Me from enemies in Jerusalem, and the time to undergo it has not yet come.

Therefore, “Go ye up to this feast. I do not go up,” ουκ αναβαίνω, or, according to some codices, “I do not yet go up,” ουπω, “to this feast, because My time to go to Jerusalem has not yet been fulfilled.”

It was celebrated for seven consecutive days, from the fifteenth to the twenty-first day of the month Tishri. The eighth day was spent in a sacred assembly.

During the seven days, in memory of their wandering in the wilderness, the Jews lived in small huts made from leafy branches of olive, palm, and myrtle trees. Each carried in his hands a bundle of greenery, the lulab, made of palm and willow branches, with peach and lemon fruits.

During the week of the feast all the priests performed the service in turn. Seventy bulls were offered in sacrifice for the seventy nations of the world. The Law was read daily. Each day the temple trumpets sounded inspired and solemn hymns twenty-one times.

The rejoicing was undoubtedly intensified by the fact that this feast came only four days after the fearful rites of the great Day of Atonement, when the solemn cleansing of the sins of the whole people was performed.

Such solemnity of the feast could have adversely affected the mood of the people. If the Savior had appeared openly in Jerusalem among enthusiastic worshipers, their enthusiasm could easily have passed into political turmoil. This had happened more than once, especially among Galileans, who were distinguished by the greatest ardor of patriotic spirit.

Therefore He avoided every occasion for this. Even when His “brothers” asked whether He would go to the feast at all, He answered evasively that He would not yet go.

Now, although He was not far from Jerusalem, He did not go to the feast at once, but only several days later. Thus many thought that He would not be at the feast at all.

It was established in memory of the forty-year wandering of the Hebrews in the wilderness on the way from Egypt to the promised land. In memory of this event, during the seven days of the feast, the whole people moved out of their houses into tents, or tabernacles, specially built for that time.

Jerusalem then resembled an immense camp of pilgrims. Squares, the sides of streets, the roofs of houses, gardens, courtyards, neighboring fields, mountains, and valleys were all filled with tents.

The principal ordinances and customs of the feast contained indications and allusions to the wondrous works of Jehovah, of which Israel had been witness during the long time of wandering in the wilderness.

The libation offering performed every morning in the temple recalled the water miraculously brought forth by Moses from the stony rock. They took branches of trees in their hands, especially those of beautiful trees, palms, broad-leaved trees, and river willow, and thus rejoiced before the Lord.

Since the feast came soon after the gathering of fruits, Deut 16:13, they celebrated it joyfully. They held great banquets, and there was much wine after the grape harvest.

The feast was so joyful that Plutarch compared it with the pagan feast in honor of Bacchus. It was the last of the great feasts, the autumn feast. The Jews had no such feast again until Passover, half a year later.

The events omitted by John are described by the other Evangelists: Mt 15:21-18; Mk 7-9; Lk 9:18-50. John especially wants to describe the discourses of Jesus. Thus he hastens to describe His discourses in the temple at the Feast of Tabernacles.

After Passover and until the Feast of Tabernacles, Christ traveled through Galilee, performing various miracles. He was in the region of Tyre, in Decapolis, in Magdala, near Bethsaida, in Caesarea Philippi, and in Capernaum.

He did not wish to travel in Judea, lest His enemies, who wished to kill Him, be stirred up to sinful and useless attempts on His life when the time for it had not yet come.

After the Feast of Tabernacles, however, the place of Christ Jesus’ activity was Judea alone: Lk 9:51-19:28; Mk 10:1-52; Mt 19:20, 34; Jn 7:2-12:11. This meant that everything had its appointed time.

The Feast of Tabernacles was established as a thankful remembrance of the Israelites’ dwelling in tabernacles, or tents, during their journey with Moses through the Arabian wilderness, Lev 23:42.

The feast began on the fifteenth day of the month Tishri, or October 12. It was one of the most solemn feasts, for which the Jews came to Jerusalem, Deut 16:16 and following; Zech 14:16.