John 7:1–10

Verse 2. This was the festival of Tabernacles, on which the Jews made tents, in imitation of those which were their habitations during their sojournment in the wilderness, for forty years. See Leviticus 23:34. The Jews called it a festival day; though it consisted not of one, but of many days successively. Saint Augustine, tract. 28. in Joan.

Verse 3. These brethren of Christ were the relatives of the blessed Virgin, not her children. For, as in the sepuchre, were the body of our Saviour was deposited, no other mortal lay either before or since; so neither did the womb of Mary ever either before or after bear any other body but that of her divine Son. Saint Augustine, ut supra.

Verse 5. Neither did his brethren believe in him; by his brethren here, we are to understand his kindred, this townsmen or countrymen, at or about Nazareth. Witham.

Verse 8. Go you up to this festival day, which lasted eight days.—I go not with you, nor to be there at the first day, nor in that public manner as you desire. But when the feast was half over, about the fourth day, Jesus went thither in a private manner, yet so that when he arrived, he spoke publicly in the temple. Witham.

Verse 10. But why does he ascend to the festival day, when he said he would not? He did not say, I will not ascend, but only, I do not ascend; that is, in your company. Saint John Chrysostom hom. xlvii in Joan.—Or, I do not go up to this festival, that is the first or second day of the feast, which lasted eight days, and to which you wish me to ascend: but he went afterwards, when the first part of the festival was over. Saint Augustine, tract. 28. in Joan.