John 7:14-16 -My teaching is not mine

7:14,15

Having arrived in private, at the middle of the feast (which lasted about a week) Jesus went up to the temple. He went there to teach, not to do miracles as His brothers had been urging Him to do. In Mark’s gospel in particular it is clear that Jesus viewed His teaching as being of the utmost importance. Carson seems to think that “the Jews” here has a wider application than the religious leaders, but I am not so sure. It would make perfect sense for the religious leaders to be amazed that someone who had never attended a rabbinical school could teach like Jesus did. Matt 7:28,29 records the crowds as being amazed at His teaching. There they contrasted Jesus’ authority with the distinct lack of authority that the rabbis had. In Acts 4:13 the religious leaders were amazed at Peter and John, for they too were unschooled. I am pretty sure that “Jews” here does mean the religious leaders.

7:16

Jesus answered them by saying that His teaching was not His own, but belonged to the One who sent Him, i.e. to the Father. A common practice of the day was for rabbis to quote numerous antecedents, building on the work of others. Jesus taught directly from God. Now there is an interesting point here. Jesus is God, so surely He could have spoken on His own authority? Sometimes He did, but Jesus is both fully God and fully man. He shows us how a man under God’s authority lives. We should also note that Jesus did not “parrot” the words of the Father. He had a deep understanding and appreciation of them. So we see something of what we are meant to be like if we are involved in teaching and preaching. We are to speak the words of God, but not as automatons.