³⁷ On the last and greatest day of the festival,^(A) Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.^{(B) 38} Whoever believes^(C) in me, as Scripture has said,^(D) rivers of living water^(E) will flow from within them.”^{[a](F) 39} By this he meant the Spirit,^(G) whom those who believed in him were later to receive.^(H) Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.^(I)

⁴⁰ On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”^(J)

⁴¹ Others said, “He is the Messiah.”

Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee?^{(K) 42} Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants^(L) and from Bethlehem,^(M) the town where David lived?” ⁴³ Thus the people were divided^(N) because of Jesus. ⁴⁴ Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.^(O)

Unbelief of the Jewish Leaders

⁴⁵ Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”

⁴⁶ “No one ever spoke the way this man does,”^(P) the guards replied.

⁴⁷ “You mean he has deceived you also?”^(Q) the Pharisees retorted. ⁴⁸ “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him?^{(R) 49} No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”

⁵⁰ Nicodemus,^(S) who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, ⁵¹ “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”

⁵² They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”^(T)

[The earliest manuscripts and many other ancient witnesses do not have John 7:53—8:11. A few manuscripts include these verses, wholly or in part, after John 7:36, John 21:25, Luke 21:38 or Luke 24:53.]

⁵³ Then they all went home,