John 7:6

As the believer in Christ would have in time to, come to hide himself from persecution, that no guilt might attach to such concealment, the Head began with doing Himself, what He sanctioned in the member; After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill Him.

The connection of this passage admits of much taking place in the interval previously. Judea and Galilee are divisions of the province of Palestine. Judea has its name from the tribe of Judah; but it embraces not only the territories of Judah, but of Benjamin, all of which were called Judea, because Judah was the royal tribe Galilee has its name, from the milky, i.e. white, color of its inhabitants; Galilee being Greek for milk.

It is not meant that our Lord could not walk among the Jews, and escape being killed; for He had this power, whenever He chose to show it: but He set the example of so doing, as an accommodation to our weakness. He had not lost His power, but He indulged our frailty.

That is to say, He displayed the attribute both of divinity and humanity. He fled from His persecutors as man, He remained and appeared amongst them as God; being really both.

He withdrew too now to Galilee, because the hour of His passion was not yet come; and He thought it useless to stay in the midst of His enemies, when the effect would only have been to irritate them the more. The time at which this happened is then given; Now the Jews; feast of tabernacles was at hand.

What the feast of tabernacles is, we read in the Scriptures. They used to make tents on the festival, like those in which they lived during their journey in the desert, after their departure from Egypt. They celebrated this feast in commemoration of the good things the Lord had done for them; though they were the very people who were about to slay the Lord. It is called the day of the feast, though it lasted many days.

It appears here, that a considerable time had passed since the last events. For when our Lord sat upon the mount, it was near the feast of the Passover and now it is the feast of tabernacles: so that in the five intermediate months the Evangelist has related nothing but the miracle of the loaves, and the conversation with those who ate of them. As our Lord was unceasingly working miracles, and holding disputes with people, the Evangelists could not relate all; but only aimed at giving those, in which complaint or opposition had followed on the part of the Jews as was as the case here.

His brethren saw that He was not preparing to go to the feast: His brethren therefore said to him, Depart hence, and go into Judea.

Meaning to say, You do miracles, and only a few see them: go to the royal city, where the rulers are, that they may see Your miracles, and so you obtain praise. And as our Lord had not brought all His disciples with Him, but left many behind in Judea, they add, That Your disciples also may see the storks that you do.

i.e. the multitudes that follow You. They do not mean the twelve, but the others that had communication with Him.

When you hear of our Lord’s brethren, you must understand the kindred of Mary, not her offspring after our Lord’s birth. For as the body of our Lord once only lay in the sepulcher, and neither before, nor after that once; so could not the womb of Mary have possibly conceived any other mortal offspring. Our Lord’s works did not escape His disciples, but they escaped His brethren; hence their suggestion, That Your disciples may see the works that you do. They speak according to the wisdom of the flesh, to the Word that was made flesh, and add, For there is no man that does any thing in secret, and he himself seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show Yourself to the world; as if to say, You do miracles, do them in the eyes of the world, that the world may honor You. Their admonitions aim at procuring glory for Him; and this very thing, viz. aiming at human glory, proved that they did not believe in Him, as we next read, For neither did His brethren believe in Him. They were Christ’s kindred, hut they were on that very account above believing in Him.

It is striking to observe the great sincerity of the Evangelists; that they are not ashamed to mention things which appear to be to our Lord’s disadvantage, but take particular care to tell us of them. It is a considerable reflection on our Lord, that His brethren do not believe on Him. The beginning of their speech has a friendly appearance about it: tent there is much bitterness in it, thus charging Him with the motives of fear and vain glory; No man, say they, does anything in secret: this was reproaching Him tacitly with fear; and was an insinuation too that His miracles had not been real and solid ones. In what follows, And he himself seeks to be known openly, they taunt Him with the love of glory. Christ however answers them mildly, teaching us not to take the advice of people ever so inferior to ourselves angrily; Then Jesus said to them, My time is not yet come: but your time is alway ready.

This is no contradiction to what the Apostle says, But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son. Our Lord referring here to the time not of His nativity, but of His glorification.

They gave Him advice to pursue glory, and not allow Himself to remain in concealment and obscurity; appealing altogether to worldly and secular motives. But our Lord was laying down another road to that very exaltation, viz. humility: My time, He says, i.e. the time of My glory, when I shall come to judge on high, is not yet come; but your time, i.e. the glory of the world, is always ready. And let us, who are the Lord’s body, when insulted by the lovers of this world, say, Your time is ready: ours is not yet come. Our country is a lofty one, the way to it is low. Whoso rejects the way, why seek he the country?

, Or there seems to be another meaning concealed in the words; perhaps they intended to betray Him to the Jews; and therefore He says, My time is not yet come, i.e. the time of My cross and death: but your time is always ready; for though you are always with the Jews, they will not kill you, because you are of the same mind with them: The world cannot hate you; but Me it hates, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil: as if He said, How can the world hate them who have the same wishes and aims with itself? It hates Me, because I reprove it. I seek not then glory from men; inasmuch as I hesitate not to reprove them, though I know that I am hated in consequence, and that My life is aimed at. Here we see that the hatred of the Jews was owing to His reproofs, not to His breaking the sabbath.

Our Lord brings two arguments in answer to their two charges. To the charge of fear He answers, that He reproves the deeds of the world, i.e. of those who love worldly things; which He would not do, if He were under the influence of fear; and He replies to the charge of vain glory, by sending them to the feast, Go you up to this feast. Had He been possessed at all with the desire for glory, He would have kept them with Him: for the vain glorious like to have many followers.

This is to show too, that, while He does not wish to humor them, He still allows them to observe the Jewish ordinances.

Or He seems to say, Go you up to this feast, and seek for human glory, and enlarge your carnal pleasures, and forget heavenly things. I go not up to this feast;

i.e. not with you, for My time is not yet full come. It was at the next passover that He was to be crucified.

Or My time, i.e. the time of My glory, is not yet come. That will be My feast day; not a day which passes and is gone, like holidays here: but one which remains for ever. Then will be festivity; joy without end, eternity without stain, sunshine without a cloud.

16. Next we come to the passage where His brethren, that is to say, His relations according to the flesh, urge Him to go up to the feast-day, in order that He may have an opportunity of making Himself known to the multitude. And here, again, how supremely elevated is the tone of His reply! “My time is not yet come, but your time is alway ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil.” So it is the case, then, that “your time is alway ready,” because ye desire that kind of day to which the prophet refers when he says, “But I have not laboured following Thee, O Lord; and the day of man I have not desired, Thou knowest:” that is to say, to soar to the light of the Word, and to desire that day which Abraham desired to see, and which he did see, and was glad. …

On the words of the Gospel of John vii. 6 , etc., where Jesus said that He was not going up unto the feast, and notwithstanding went up.

1. I Purpose by the Lord’s assistance to treat of this section of the Gospel which has just been read; nor is there a little difficulty here, lest the truth be endangered, and falsehood glory. Not that either the truth can perish, nor falsehood triumph. Now hearken for a while what difficulty this lesson has; and being made attentive by the propounding of the difficulty, pray that I may be sufficient for its solution. “The Jews’ feast of tabernacles was at hand;” these it seems are the days which they observe even to this day, when they build huts. For this solemnity of theirs is called from the building of tabernacles; since σκηνὴ means a “tabernacle,” σκηνοπηγία is the building of a tabernacle. …

And again to His brethren themselves, saying unto Him, “Show thyself to the world,”and wishing thence to feed their vainglory, He said, “Your time” (so He speaks) “is always ready, but my time is not yet come.”

Ver. 6 . “My time is not yet come.” He here seemeth to me to hint at something other than He expresseth; perhaps in their envy they designed to deliver Him up to the Jews; and pointing out this to them, He saith, “My time is not yet come,” that is, “the time of the Cross and the Death, why then hasten ye to slay Me before the time?” “But your time is always ready.” As though He had said, “Though ye be ever with the Jews, they will not slay you who desire the same things with them; but Me they will straightway wish to kill. So that it is ever your time to be with them without danger, but My time is when the season of the Cross is at hand, when I must die.” For that this was His meaning, He showed by what followed.

When they see these things, or rather even hear of them, for see they do not, will they not desire, as it is written, to become ‘fuel of fire,’ because their counsels and their words are contrary to what the Lord both did and taught? Also when John was martyred, and his disciples buried his body, ‘when Jesus heard of it, He departed thence by ship into a desert place apart.’ Thus the Lord acted, and thus He taught. Would that these men were even now ashamed of their conduct, and confined their rashness to man, nor proceeded to such extreme madness as even to charge our Saviour with cowardice! for it is against Him that they now utter their blasphemies. But no one will endure such madness; nay it will be seen that they do not understand the Gospels. …