Did Jesus Lie About His Festival Appearance?

During the course of John 7: 2-5, Jesus’ brothers tauntingly encourages Him to go with them to the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles in Judea. Verse 1 states that Jesus was publicly avoiding Judea because the Jewish leaders were trying to kill Him. Through vs.’s 6-9, Jesus told the brothers to go ahead without Him; that he wasn’t going to the festival because His time had not come. And so He stayed behind in Galilee.

It’s in vs. 10 that has made some wonder, including me the first time I read it, if Jesus lied to His brothers. That’s because the verse says that later on, Jesus did go to the festival and was there under cover, so to speak. Skipping to vs. 14, we learn that it was halfway through the seven-day festival that Jesus finally revealed Himself, at which point He went up to the temple courts and began to teach.

During subsequent readings of this episode, three points have emerged that, for me, clarifies the situation. First, context shows that the brothers knew the festival was about to begin, and so were encouraging Jesus to publicly make a spectacle of Himself at that time. Note that Jesus responded that He wasn’t going to go because their time (wanting to be there at the festival’s opening) was not His time. So He waited.

That brings me to the second point. It seems that Jesus had in mind the opportune time to publicly reveal Himself at the temple; a time in which He wouldn’t be harmed. That time was halfway through the festival until its end. Perhaps an earlier time wouldn’t have allowed Him to go up to the courts and teach; and at that time, if His presence were made known, He would’ve been unable to avoid any physical attacks against Himself.

But once He started to teach, angering some, His words were so powerfully captivating that they acted as a shield against anyone who thought to lay a hand on Him. That fact is brought to our attention within the verses that extend to vs. 46, in which the temple guards explained to their bosses why they didn’t seize Jesus. Their excuse was, “No one ever spoke the way this man does.”

The last point is that in order to say that Jesus lied to His brothers, one would have to prove that Jesus said that He wasn’t going to go to the festival at all.

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