Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
John 7:40-43 Many of the people therefore, when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth this is the Prophet.
John 9:16 Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a s…
John 7:32 The Pharisees heard that the people murmured such things concerning him; and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take him.
John 7:47 Then answered them the Pharisees, Are ye also deceived?
Acts 11:24 For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith: and much people was added unto the Lord.
Matthew 10:25 It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub,…
Matthew 16:13-16 When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?
Matthew 21:46 But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on John 7:1-13
We have here, I. The reason given why Christ spent more of his time in Galilee than in Judea (Joh 7:1): because the Jews, the people in Judea and Jerusalem, sought to kill him, for curing the impotent man on the sabbath day, Joh 5:16. They thought to be the death of him, either by a popular tumult or by a legal prosecution, in consideration of which he kept at a distance in another part of the country, very much out of the lines of Jerusalem's communication. It is not said, He durst not, but, He would not, walk in Jewry; it was not through fear and cowardice that he declined it, but in prudence, because his hour was not yet come. Note, 1. Gospel light is justly taken away from those that end…
much murmuring--buzzing.
among the people--the multitudes; the natural expression of a Jewish writer, indicating without design the crowded state of Jerusalem at this festival [WEBSTER and WILKINSON].
a good man . . . Nay . . . deceiveth the people--the two opposite views of His claims, that they were honest, and that they were an imposture.
Adam Clarke on John 7:12
Some said, He is a good man - The multitude were divided in their opinions concerning him: those who knew him best said, He is a good man. Those who spoke according to the character given him by the priests, etc., said, Nay; but he deceiveth the people. Those who spoke evil of him spoke out, because they had the rulers on their side; but those who spoke good of him were obliged to do it in private, because they feared these rulers. Calumny and slander are among the privileged orders; they stalk abroad with their thousand brazen mouths, and blast the reputation of the followers of God. Benevolence and candor are only on sufferance; and a whisper in secret is the most they are permitted to giv…
And there was much murmuring among the people concerning him,.... There was a general whisper, and a private controversy and contention among the people about him, upon inquiry being made after him:
for some said he is a good man; a man of a good principle, of a good life and conversation; and who is good, kind, and beneficent, both to the bodies and souls of men; preaches good doctrine, and does many good things:
others said: nay, or denied him to be a good man:
but he deceiveth the people; drawing them off from the law of Moses, teaching them to break the sabbath, setting himself up for the Messiah, and asserting himself to be the son of God.
The Church Fathers
"And there was much murmuring among the people concerning Him." I think they were exasperated by the place where the miracle had been wrought, and were greatly infuriated and afraid, not so much from anger at what had gone before, as from fear lest He should again work something similar. But all fell out contrary to what they desired, and against their will they rendered Him conspicuous.
"And some said, He is a good man; others said, Nay, but He deceiveth the people." Methinks the first of these opinions was that of the many, the other that of the rulers and priests. For to slander Him suited their malice and wickedness. "He deceiveth," say they, "the people." How, tell me? Was it by seeming to work, not really working miracles? But experience witnesses the contrary.
(Tract. xxviii. s. 11) And there was much murmuring in the people concerning Him. A murmuring arising from disagreement. For some said, He is a good man: others said, Nay; but He seduceth the people. Whoever had any spark of grace, said, He is a good man; the rest, Nay, hut He seduceth the people. That such was said of Him, Who was God, is a consolation to any Christian, of whom the same may be said. If to seduce be to decide, Christ was not a seducer, nor can any Christian be. But if by seducing be meant bringing a person by persuasion out of one way of thinking into another, then we must enquire from what, and to what. If from good to evil, the seducer is an evil man; if from evil to good, a good one. And would that we were all called, and really were, such seducers.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
John Calvin on John 7:9-13
John 7:9-13
9. And having said these things, he remained in Galilee. 10. And when his brethren had gone up, then he also went up to the feast, not openly, but, as it were, in secret. 11. The Jews therefore sought him at the feast, and said, Where is he? 12. And there was much murmuring concerning him among the crowds; for some said, He is a good man, and others said, No, but he seduceth the multitude. 13. Yet no man spoke openly about him for fear of the Jews.
9. He remained in Galilee. The Evangelist here places before our eyes the cousins of our Lord Jesus Christ, [182] who, in compliance with ordinary customs, pretend to worship God, but yet are on friendly terms with unbelievers, and t…
