John 7:2

Now the Jewish feast of Tabernacles ¹  was near. ² 

But when the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near,

Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near.

But soon it was time for the Festival of Shelters,

It was near the time of Tabernacles, a feast observed annually by the Jews.

But the feast of the Jews, the feast of tents, was near.

Now the Jewish festival of Booths was near.

Now the Jews’ Feast of Tabernacles was at hand.

Now the Jewish feast of Tabernacles ¹  was near. ² 

¹ tn Or “feast of the Tents” (the feast where people lived in tents or shelters, which was celebrated in the autumn after harvest). John’s use of σκηνοπηγία (skhnophgia) for the feast of Tabernacles constitutes the only use of this term in the New Testament.

² sn Since the present verse places these incidents at the feast of Tabernacles (a.d. 29 or 32, depending on whether one dates the crucifixion in a.d. 30 or 33) there would have been a 6-month interval during which no events are recorded. The author is obviously selective in his approach; he is not recording an exhaustive history (as he will later tell the reader in John 21:25). After healing the paralytic on the Sabbath in Jerusalem (John 5:1-47), Jesus withdrew again to Galilee because of mounting opposition. In Galilee the feeding of the 5,000 took place, which marked the end of the Galilean ministry for all practical purposes. John 7:1-9 thus marks Jesus’ final departure from Galilee.