John 7:1-9

Jesus and his brothers

1 After this, Jesus visited many places in Galilee. He did not want to visit Judea because the Jewish leaders there wanted to kill him. 2 It was almost time for the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles. 3 So Jesus' brothers said to him, ‘You should leave this place and you should go to Judea. Then your disciples will see the great things that you do. 4 Nobody does things secretly if he wants everyone to know him. You are doing these things, so you should show yourself to everybody.’ 5 Even his own brothers did not believe in him.

7:2The Festival of Tabernacles continued for a week. See Leviticus 23:34, where it is called the Feast of Huts. The people built huts from branches and they lived in these small huts during the festival. This helped them to remember what God had done. A long time before this, their ancestors had left Egypt and they had lived in huts like this. God had brought them out of Egypt so that they did not have to be slaves there any longer. The festival happened each year, after Israel's people had brought in all the harvest from the fields. It was a time for the people to thank God because he was so good to them.

6 So Jesus said to them, ‘It is not the right time for me yet. For you, any time is right. 7 People who belong to this world cannot hate you. But they hate me. The things that they do are very bad. And I tell them that those things are wrong. That is why they hate me. 8 You should go to the festival. I will not go to it now, because it is not the right time for me yet.’ 9 After Jesus said that, he stayed in Galilee.