Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near.
Parallel translations
- WEB Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was at hand.
- KJV Now the Jews’ feast of tabernacles was at hand.
- BSB However, the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near.
- NKJV Now the Jews’ Feast of Tabernacles was at hand.
- NLT But soon it was time for the Jewish Festival of Shelters,
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The Feast of Booths (Tabernacles) is near. This setting frames the events and teaching that follow in Jerusalem.
Overview
The Feast of Booths celebrated God's provision during Israel's wilderness wandering and looked forward to the harvest. Its themes of water and light will surface in Jesus's later teaching (7:37-38; 8:12). John notes the feast to set the stage for Jesus's revelation of Himself as the fulfillment of its symbols.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Zech 14:16–19It will happen that everyone who is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, Yahweh of Armies, and to keep the feast of tents.
- Deut 16:13–16You shall keep the feast of tents seven days, after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and from your wine press.
- Lev 23:34–43“Speak to the children of Israel, and say, ‘On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the feast of tents for seven days to Yahweh.
- Num 29:12–38“‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no regular work. You shall keep a feast to Yahweh seven days.
- Exod 23:16–17And the feast of harvest, the first fruits of your labors, which you sow in the field; and the feast of ingathering, at the end of the year, when you gather in your labors out of the field.
- 2 Chr 7:9–10On the eighth day, they held a solemn assembly; for they kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven days.
- Neh 8:14–18They found written in the law how Yahweh had commanded by Moses that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month;
- Ezra 3:4They kept the feast of tents, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the ordinance, as the duty of every day required;
- 1 Kgs 8:2All the men of Israel assembled themselves to king Solomon at the feast, in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month.
- 1 Kgs 8:65So Solomon held the feast at that time, and all Israel with him, a great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt, before Yahweh our God, seven days and seven more days, even fourteen days.
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Christ at the center
John declares him plainly: the eternal Word made flesh, the Lamb of God, the great 'I AM' — bread, light, door, shepherd, way, truth, life, resurrection — that you may believe and have life in his name.
How John 7:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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