7:1,2
“After this ..” indicates the chronological sequence, but says little about the time gap between the previous event and this one. The “Jews” here refers to the religious leaders, who “were seeking to kill Him”. It was the time of the Feast of Booths, or Feast of Tabernacles. This celebrated the bringing in of the harvest of grapes and olives. This places the event about six months after the feeding of the five thousand. This feast was the most attractive of the main festivals, gathering the largest crowds. People travelling from the rural areas brought branches and leaves to make temporary shelters for themselves, hence the name of the festival.
7:3-5
“His brothers”. At this point his brothers did not believe in Him, though after the resurrection they did come to believe. The synoptic gospels concur that Jesus’ family were highly suspicious of what Jesus was doing, thinking Him mad. Here they suggest that He should go up to Jerusalem. They were probably aware of the desertion of many disciples after the discourse in chapter 6. There would be large crowds in Jerusalem, and if they saw the miracles many would believe. Or so the reasoning of the brothers went. It also made sense to them, why do miracles in private? Do them in public, get large crowds! “For not even his brothers believed Him.” Jesus was not courting popularity.
As an aside, ESV has a footnote that “brothers” in 7:3 could be “brothers and sisters”, NIV does not have such a footnote. ESV is generally far more faithful about using the male gender than the more recent versions of the NIV, the pattern seems to be reversed here.
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