John 7:6 Commentary and Bible Study

What did he mean, ‘my time is not yet come’? Some people say that he meant my time to suffer and die upon the Cross. ‘If I go to Jerusalem very publicly and openly, I will be seized and taken before the time, but that cannot be.’ He was following his timetable. Others say it refers simply to this: ‘It is not the time that I shall go to Jerusalem. I shall wait until you have gone, and some while afterwards, then it is time for me to go. Overnight perhaps, with just my disciples, not with the crowd of pilgrims, when the search parties are no longer operating.’ Perhaps he meant that, perhaps he meant both in a rather wonderful way.‘But your time is alway ready.’ According to your reasoning – ‘Show yourself’ – any time is right. Of course, his brothers did not understand the plots that were operating in Jerusalem; they were out in Galilee. They did not understand that there were efforts to take him before the time and to see him executed.