John 7:41-43

7:41 Others said, “This is the Christ!” ¹  But still others said, “No, ²  for the Christ doesn’t come from Galilee, does he? ³  7:42 Don’t the scriptures say that the Christ is a descendant ⁴  of David ⁵  and comes from Bethlehem, ⁶  the village where David lived?” ⁷  7:43 So there was a division in the crowd ⁸  because of Jesus. ⁹ 

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¹ tn Or “the Messiah” (Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “one who has been anointed”).

sn See the note on Christ in 1:20.

² tn An initial negative reply (“No”) is suggested by the causal or explanatory γάρ (gar) which begins the clause.

³ tn Questions prefaced with μή (mh) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end in English (here the tag is “does he?”).

⁴ tn Grk “is from the seed” (an idiom for human descent).

⁵ sn An allusion to Ps 89:4.

⁶ sn An allusion to Mic 5:2.

map For location see Map5-B1; Map7-E2; Map8-E2; Map10-B4.

⁷ tn Grk “the village where David was.”

⁸ tn Or “among the common people” (as opposed to the religious authorities like the chief priests and Pharisees).

⁹ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.