John 7 denying the-God of John1:1, in order to promote a messiah

[Introduction: Biblical literature offers hints to the-ineluctable-truth about human opportunity. Here are 3 hints: Jesus’ will expressed (Genesis 1:26-28, NIV), Jesus is the-God (John 1:1), and Jesus’ message, "Be [as] perfect" as the-God (Mathew 5:48). Humankind works to discover the-ineluctable-truth.

The living Jesus may have advocated the-good rather than claimed to be “anointed one& king”. Human-beings can& may accept the-good, continually pursue the-good, and continuously practice the-good. If asked how humankind discovered self-interest in the-good, we can& may express appreciation to Jesus. Also, see my Genesis 1 essay about human duty, at the end of this study.

Consider the scholarly Bible evidence, “From Jesus to Christ”, Parts 1& 2, FRONTLINE,1998 at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN8FM1NCOSk and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXqFvfCaFwY. Each Easter, we can effect the public resurrection of the-civic-Jesus and accept the mysterious-Jesus presence in the beginning until the end.

Under our mystery-watch to “ourselves and our Posterity”, Jesus, the-God, can overcome Christ, messiah& king of Judeo-Christianity.] 

John 7 After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him. ² But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, ³ Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. ⁴ No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” ⁵ For even his own brothers did not believe in him.

⁶ Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. ⁷ The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. ⁸ You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.” [His brothers might have known better: fellow-Jews attend festivals.] ⁹ After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee.

¹⁰ However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. ¹¹ Now at the festival the Jewish leaders were watching for Jesus and asking, “Where is he?”

¹² Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, “He is a good man.”

Others replied, “No, he deceives the people.” ¹³ But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the leaders. [Do church leaders silence people in all ages? Is church the original wokeism? If so, members can& may reform their church.]

¹⁴ Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. ¹⁵ The Jews there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught? [The Jews appreciated Jesus despite their leaders. In all generations, some people appreciate Jesus despite Christ; the-God of John 1:1 despite the anointed one; pursuing as-perfect behavior despite soul salvation.]”

¹⁶ Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. ¹⁷ Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. ¹⁸ Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth [Jesus repeats this point, while facing death-sentencing, in John 18:37.]; there is nothing false about him. ¹⁹ Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?” [They construct& defend their-God rather than practice humility to the-God.]

²⁰ “You are demon-possessed,” the crowd answered. “Who is trying to kill you?”

²¹ Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed. ²² Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath. ²³ Now if a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing a man’s whole body on the Sabbath? ²⁴ Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.” [Perhaps expecting miracles is arrogance toward the-God.]

²⁵ At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? ²⁶ Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Messiah? ²⁷ But we know where this man is from; when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.” [Contradicting Jewish tradition.]

²⁸ Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, ²⁹ but I know him because I am from him and he sent me.”

³⁰ At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. ³¹ Still, many in the crowd believed in him. They said, “When the Messiah comes, will he perform more signs than this man?”

³² The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.

³³ Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I am going to the one who sent me. ³⁴ You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”

³⁵ The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? ³⁶ What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”

³⁷ On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. ³⁸ Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” ³⁹ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

⁴⁰ On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”

⁴¹ Others said, “He is the Messiah.”

Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? ⁴² Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” ⁴³ Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. ⁴⁴ Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.

⁴⁵ Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”

⁴⁶ “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied.

⁴⁷ “You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. ⁴⁸ “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? ⁴⁹ No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.” [The curse is the church, and only the people can effect reform. Just as civic-citizens determine their civil-governance, civic-citizens govern their church.]

⁵⁰ Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, ⁵¹ “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?” [Is it beneficial to constrain Jesus, the truth, to Christ, the messiah& king? Consider John 18:37, “’You are a king, then!’ said Pilate. Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.’”]

 

The importance of Genesis 1, a 5,500 year old Mesopotamian political philosophy:

[I apply Genesis-1-NIV perspective to Bible interpretation, NIV because of the phrase “so they may” in V 26. Coming from the-God, “may” implies “can”.

I think Genesis 1:26-28, expresses the-civic-Jesus-message (CJM):  Human male unites-to female human-being and their spouse-hood can& may pursue comprehensive-safety& security to the living species and to the earth (SECURITY). Every person can& may aid SECURITY, and the civic-citizen so chooses. Some persons neglect, partially or wholly, mysterious-Jesus-appreciation, Jesus’-peace, and SECURITY.

I call Genesis-1’s message, “responsible-human-independence” or RHI. Some human-beings throughout history practice, facilitate& encourage RHI. History’s Jesus exemplified RHI. From the past, civic-citizens guide us and consequences from non-civic-persons warn against error. I think the-civic-Jesus practiced, facilitated& encouraged RHI. “Civic” means reliable in human connections& transactions. Perhaps the authentic Jesus merely advocated the-good.

But I don’t know the-ineluctable-truth (IDK). “Ineluctable” means: not to be avoided, changed, escaped, neglected, or resisted: I can& may choose either RHI or dependency, such as religious arrogance. I can& may be derelict.

Persons appreciating contemporary human being (verb), during each generation, develop CJM. In other words, CJM facilitates the civic-appreciation that human being (verb) applied “before Abraham was born” and since then. Given the question, “Was Jesus a man?”, I respond IDK yet value CJM, an attitude which seems sufficient& complete to my person. I advocate the-civic-Jesus and admit that could be the-good. Yet the-good cannot replace the authentic Jesus.

Perhaps CJM always was the-good human being (verb). That potential was present at the Big Bang, 13.7 billion years ago. There’s joy in accepting IDK, seeking ineluctable-evidence, and reserving humility to RHI. Joy may facilitate happiness.

It seems the-laws-of-physics& progeny (PHYSICS) constrains the consequences of each person’s choices. Physics’ progeny includes, forces, mathematics, chemistries, biology, psychology, imagination, and their subsets. I choose to accept mysterious-Jesus and pursue Jesus’ “my-peace”, in-order-to commit-to and trust-in PHYSICS. For example, I work for food& shelter rather than accept what a bureaucrat might provide. I work to aid SECURITY rather than pray for an entity to usurp RHI. Make no mistake: if one of my loved ones seems threatened beyond my protection, I pray to the-God.

Admitting I could be wrong, IDK, I accept that Genesis 1:26-28, NIV, urges me to constrain chaos in my way of living, or urges me to the-good suggested by the-civic-Jesus I pursue by listening.]