Discovery BoxJohn 7:40-44 
Context7:40 When they heard these words, some of the crowd 1 began to say, “This really 2 is the Prophet!” 3 7:41 Others said, “This is the Christ!” 4 But still others said, “No, 5 for the Christ doesn’t come from Galilee, does he? 6 7:42 Don’t the scriptures say that the Christ is a descendant 7 of David 8 and comes from Bethlehem, 9 the village where David lived?” 10 7:43 So there was a division in the crowd 11 because of Jesus. 12 7:44 Some of them were wanting to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him. 13
1 tn Or “The common people” (as opposed to the religious authorities like the chief priests and Pharisees).
2 tn Or “truly.”
3 sn The Prophet is a reference to the “prophet like Moses” of Deut 18:15, by this time an eschatological figure in popular belief.
4 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.
5 tn An initial negative reply (“No”) is suggested by the causal or explanatory γάρ (gar) which begins the clause.
6 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?”).
7 tn Grk “is from the seed” (an idiom for human descent).
map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.
10 tn Grk “the village where David was.”
11 tn Or “among the common people” (as opposed to the religious authorities like the chief priests and Pharisees).
12 tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
13 sn Compare John 7:30 regarding the attempt to seize Jesus.
