John 7:3Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

As though it were some great thing, they advised Him to receive the admiration of spectators. They spoke as if He wished each time to perform miracles only in order to appear wondrous to onlookers and be adorned with human praises, like those who love honor.

See how they advise Him to go “into Judea” and to work miracles there above all. This was not so that “His disciples” might believe in Him, but “that they may see the works which Thou doest.”

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.”

They believed that He would subject the whole world to the Jews. With such views of the Messiah’s purpose, it is understandable that they could not recognize the meek and poor Jesus as the desired Deliverer.

They undoubtedly knew of the miracles He performed, but they were scarcely acquainted with His teaching. If the Nazarenes did not want to believe, or even to think, that their fellow citizen, Jesus the carpenter, could be the Messiah, His nearest relatives could believe in Him still less.

The mystery of His birth was also hidden from them. That these relatives did not follow Jesus and knew of His works only by hearsay is clear from their own words.

They advised Him not to hide there, but to go into Judea: “that Thy disciples also may see the works which Thou doest,” Jn 7:3.

If they thought that Jesus’ disciples had not seen the works He performed, one may conclude that they had in mind only the last period of His ministry. At that time He truly avoided crowds and withdrew with the Apostles to prepare them for His coming sufferings, death, and Resurrection.

From these words it is clear that they knew nothing, or almost nothing, of the period preceding this withdrawal.

According to Professor Nesmelov, the so-called brothers of Jesus did not believe in Him as the Messiah and Deliverer solely because He decisively refused to appear in the role of a political figure.

“The works which Thou doest” means the extraordinary and miraculous works capable of awakening faith in Him as an extraordinary messenger of God.

They set forth the general reason for this counsel: whoever wants to become known by his works should not do them secretly.

They were apparently, though there are many disagreements, the children of Mary of Cleopas, the Theotokos's own sister. Compare Mk 2 and Jn 19:25. Jude the brother of James is the same as Levi the son of Alphaeus, Mt 10:3, as Bishop Michael indicates with references at this passage.

Yet we must say that, by comparing Mk 2 with Lk 5:27, 29 and Mt 9:9, where the calling of the publican, or tax collector, is recounted, the Apostle and Evangelist Matthew, "Matthew the publican" in Mt 10:3, is identified with Levi the son of Alphaeus. In general, this question is very difficult.

Second, in all probability the Lord's brothers who did not believe in Him were the sons of Joseph the Betrothed from his first marriage. Blessed Theophylact indicates this beautifully when commenting on this passage of John.

We must add that St. John Chrysostom, in Homily 48 on John, thinks that those who reproached Him included the Apostles Jude and James. He does this by identifying them with the persons named in Mt 13:55. But compare Mk 3 and 34. It is hard to suppose that the Apostles were among those who said, "He is beside Himself."

Blessed Theophylact says: "His brothers reproach Him, plainly the children of Joseph, as being assailed by two passions, fear and love of glory." He continues: "Whence came such unbelief in them? From a corrupt will and envy. For relatives are always accustomed to envy their own more than strangers."

In citing these words of blessed Theophylact, we point out that we cannot allow that any of the Apostles, apart from Judas Iscariot, were among the unbelieving brothers.

Theophylact, following John Chrysostom, does indeed seem inclined to think that Jude the brother of James and James the son of Alphaeus were among them. Yet, apart from what has already been said, we must consider the bitter words of reproach, which are impossible in the mouths of the Apostles.

We should also note that the Lord says to them below, in verse 8: "You go up to this feast." According to verse 10, they did indeed go. But could the Apostles have gone up to the feast apart from the Lord?

All this comes down to the fact that we do not recognize Jude the brother of James and his brother James the son of Alphaeus as sons of Joseph the Betrothed. James later became bishop of the Church of Jerusalem, Acts 12:17; 15:13; Gal 2:9. We see them only as persons legally related to the Lord's brothers according to the flesh.

As for the sons of Joseph from his first marriage, listed in Mt 13:55, we think of the Lord's word: "A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house." These words are spoken after the listing of the Lord's brothers, James, Joses, Simon, and Jude, in Mt 13:57.

There seems to be no doubt that these are precisely the relatives who, in Mk 3, "went out to seize Him, for they said, 'He is beside Himself.'" We also think that they not only did not believe in the Lord, but, as blessed Theophylact proves, they also envied Him.

These brothers of the Lord were probably sons of the aged Joseph from a very early marriage. They were far older in years than the Lord Jesus and apparently allowed themselves to give Him advice. Such is the advice in the present passage of the Gospel we are reading.

In it, besides unbelief, one also hears a hidden desire to make use of this world's goods, if, as they thought, the Lord Jesus became king. "Show Yourself to the world," they say. They probably allude also to the fact that the Lord, as we said above, had not been in Jerusalem at the second Passover, but had spent it in Galilee.

Perhaps the Lord's unbelieving brothers expected that in Jerusalem, as had happened in Galilee, the crowd of people would wish to make Him king by force. They may have thought that He would be unable to decline this title, which would bring them reputation and wealth.