Metaphysical Bible Interpretation of John Chapter 7
Metaphysically Interpreting John 7:1-9
7:1And after these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Judaea, because the Jews sought to kill him. 7:2Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of tabernacles, was at hand. 7:3His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judaea, that thy disciples also may behold thy works which thou doest. 7:4For no man doeth anything in secret, and himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou doest these things, manifest thyself to the world. 7:5For even his brethren did not believe on him. 7:6Jesus therefore saith unto them, My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. 7:7The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that its works are evil. 7:8Go ye up unto the feast: I go not up unto this feast; because my time is not yet fulfilled. 7:9And having said these things unto them, he abode still in Galilee.
Metaphysically Interpreting John 7:10-24
7:10But when his brethren were gone up unto the feast, then went he also up, not publicly, but as it were in secret. 7:11The Jews therefore sought him at the feast, and said, Where is he? 7:12And there was much murmuring among the multitudes concerning him: some said, He is a good man; others said, Not so, but he leadeth the multitude astray. 7:13Yet no man spake openly of him for fear of the Jews.
7:14But when it was now the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught.7:15The Jews therefore marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? 7:16Jesus therefore answered them and said, My teaching is not mine, but his that sent me. 7:17If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from myself. 7:18He that speaketh from himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh the glory of him that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.
7:19Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you doeth the law? Why seek ye to kill me? 7:20The multitude answered, Thou hast a demon: who seeketh to kill thee? 7:21Jesus answered and said unto them, I did one work, and ye all marvel because thereof. 7:22Moses hath given you circumcision (not that it is of Moses, but of the fathers); and on the sabbath ye circumcise a man. 7:23If a man receiveth circumcision on the sabbath, that the law of Moses may not be broken; are ye wroth with me, because I made a man every whit whole on the sabbath? 7:24Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
Metaphysically Interpreting John 7:25-31
7:25Some therefore of them of Jerusalem said, Is not this he whom they seek to kill? 7:26And lo, he speaketh openly, and they say nothing unto him. Can it be that the rulers indeed know that this is the Christ? 7:27Howbeit we know this man whence he is: but when the Christ cometh, no one knoweth whence he is. 7:28Jesus therefore cried in the temple, teaching and saying, Ye both know me, and know whence I am; and I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not. 7:29I know him; because I am from him, and he sent me. 7:30They sought therefore to take him: and no man laid his hand on him, because his hour was not yet come.7:31But of the multitude many believed on him; and they said, When the Christ shall come, will he do more signs than those which this man hath done?
Metaphysically Interpreting John 7:32-36
7:32The Pharisees heard the multitude murmuring these things concerning him; and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to take him. 7:33Jesus therefore said, Yet a little while am I with you, and I go unto him that sent me. 7:34Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, ye cannot come. 7:35The Jews therefore said among themselves, Whither will this man go that we shall not find him? will he go unto the Dispersion among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? 7:36What is this word that he said, Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me; and where I am, ye cannot come?
April 12, 1914: John 7:28-37
Christ is the one and only complete mental man in the mind of the everywhere-present God; the “only begotten Son of God” and “hid with Christ in God.” The “Son of Man” is the thought of this Spiritual Man, or Idea of God, and like all thoughts is subject to the limitations of its own identity. By voluntarily casting off these limitations the man identity may come into realization of its own universality as the only begotten of God. So we find Jesus referring to himself as both the “Son of God” and the “Son of Man,” because he had reached a place in understanding where he realized his relation in Being. In the 29th verse of this lesson Jesus explains this realization when he says, “I know him; because I am from him, and he sent me.”
“Jesus went up into the temple and taught” signifies that the I Am must ascend into the spiritual realms of its own body temple, and there speak words of Truth to the multitude of thoughts that are there to be instructed. People, who have not carefully studied thoughts and the states of consciousness which they form about the I Am in mentality and body, do not comprehend how necessary it is to re-educate their own thoughts, both formed and unformed. These thoughts are the “people” of your world, and they know only what you have told them. They know only the I Am from its personal standpoint. As Jesus said in verse twenty-eight, “Ye both know me and know whence I am: and I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not.”
The thoughts of man do not know God; they know the I Am only and it knows God. Hence something more than a mere perception of Truth is necessary to its full demonstration. The whole organism, both within and without, must be educated in spiritual ways by the perceiving I Am. In your world are all the doubting thoughts, the opposing thoughts, the Pharisee (sectarian) thoughts, sick thoughts, lustful thoughts, and thoughts of every kind and complexion. These will seek to capture the I Am, but you are free; your “hour has not yet come.” That “hour” is the state of final blending between the whole consciousness and the I Am in its purity. Then when you are lifted up you will “draw all men” or all your thoughts unto you.
The miracles or “signs” which go so far in convincing the unbelieving thoughts are the transformations which go on in their midst, the result of your true word. A lady told her cross-eyes that they were not eyes of flesh, but eyes of Spirit, and that they were of one mind, perfect and harmonious in every way. She was filled with joy to find that they, after a time, came into right relation; she was healed of that defect in thought. But more than this, she found that she perceived Truth much clearer than ever before. Not only the eye as an organ of sight, but that which stands back of the eye, spiritual perception, became clarified. The thoughts of sight became educated through the Word of Truth sent forth by the I Am.
You will have more trouble with your sectarian thoughts (Pharisees and chief priests) than all others. They are very close to the spiritual realm in your consciousness, and therefore more powerful than the more material thoughts. If, like Jesus, you know of whom you are “sent,” that you are a child of the One Universal God, you will not be captured by another sect or church, no matter how powerful it may seem nor how attractive its truths. Knowing your own place in the realms of Spirit you refuse to be bound by any doctrine. You say to all these thoughts that tie themselves to the limitation and darkness of sectarianism, “Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me; and where I am, ye cannot come.”
Then those who do not know the glorious freedom of the true Church of Christ will marvel and say, “What is this word that he said, Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me; and where I am, ye cannot come?” But in “the last Day” that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.” In the end the freedom of the I AM must be sought by those who let their sectarian thoughts sidetrack them in some man-expressed statement of Truth as authority.
Metaphysically Interpreting John 7:37-39
7:37Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. 7:38He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water. 7:39But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believed on him were to receive: for the Spirit was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Metaphysically Interpreting John 7:40-44
7:40Some of the multitude therefore, when they heard these words, said, This is of a truth the prophet. 7:41Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, What, doth the Christ come out of Galilee? 7:42Hath not the scripture said that the Christ cometh of the seed of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was? 7:43So there arose a division in the multitude because of him. 7:44And some of them would have taken him; but no man laid hands on him.
March 5, 1905: John 7:37-46
The Feast of the Tabernacles is a festival of ingathering, like our Thanksgiving. It was also a commemoration of the deliverance of the children of Israel from the forty years in the wilderness, where they lived in booths, and their entrance into the Promised Land (Lev. 23:33-44). During the celebration of this feast in Jerusalem booths were erected everywhere, in court and on housetop, in street and in square. These arbors or booths were made of branches of trees. Nobody was living at home; everybody [was] in these booths. All distinction of rank, all separation between rich and poor, were for awhile forgotten, as each one dwelt in as good a dwelling as his neighbor.
All the feasts and festivities of the Jews had their foundation in science, although the people may not have understood their significance. The soul and body are constantly acting and reacting upon each other on planes of consciousness invisible to mortal man. What seems outwardly a case of sickness is often some soul reaction that shows forth thus on the surface. We are through our thoughts and acts constantly setting free dynamic energies that accumulate in the consciousness, and must at regular intervals find outlet, either upward to soul growth, or downward to physical dissipation. The man or woman who has no concept of Spirit or spiritual life in themselves, dissipate their surplus life in sense sensation. This ends in dissolution of the body, and starvation of the soul. This is the result of that “fallen,” or separated state of mind described in the allegory of Adam and Eve and the serpent.
When the soul, or inner thought realm, is united again with the Spirit, this sense of separation is done away with, and man begins his upward way to the Paradise of God. These Jewish feasts represent the harvest and gathering in by the Spirit of the surplus energies of the soul and body. In a former lesson was described the “passing over” from one plane of consciousness to another of the nervous energy, and this Feast of the Tabernacles is the inflow of substance from objective to subjective planes. When this inflow is complete, it is called the last day of the feast. Then another step is necessary to complete the upward trend of man's being, and that is union with Spirit. This union is brought about through faith, or belief, in Spirit and the higher life. When the soul thirsts after Truth, it can only be satisfied by drinking in this higher life.
On the last day of this Jewish feast, early in the morning, the people, headed by a priest who bore a golden pitcher, went to the fountain of Siloam to draw water. It is this spiritual I AM in us that says to the full soul, “Come unto me and drink.” Then when we have connected the soul and Spirit, we realize a great outflow of love to all men. Instead of “out of his belly,” a modern authority says, read, “out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.” The glorification, or spiritual uplift, which follows this is the union of the whole man, spiritual I AM included, with the great Universal Mind. This does not take place until the I AM, or Spirituality, has made its unity with soul and body. “Jesus was not yet glorified.”
During this experience we find ourselves mentally in a contentious state. The various teachings about the difference between Spirit and matter and the impossibility of Spirit coming from matter will present themselves. This is the symbology of the arguments between the people as to the origin of Jesus (I AM). Does the I AM come from Galilee (Soul Energy), or from the seed of David (Unlimited Spirit) ? The fact is, that it is a common factor pervading all. In the last analysis of Being all is God. Everything at its foundation bespeaks the Eternal Word of God, the Divine Man showing forth his Divinity.
Metaphysically Interpreting John 7:45-52
7:45The officers therefore came to the chief priests and Pharisees; and they said unto them, Why did ye not bring him? 7:46The officers answered, Never man so spake. 7:47The Pharisees therefore answered them, Are ye also led astray? 7:48Hath any of the rulers believed on him, or of the Pharisees? 7:49But this multitude that knoweth not the law are accursed. 7:50Nicodemus saith unto them (he that came to him before, being one of them), 7:51Doth our law judge a man, except it first hear from himself and know what he doeth?7:52They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and see that out of Galilee ariseth no prophet.
January 27, 1952: John 7:45-52
How does the quickening Spirit affect us? It makes us responsible for the way in which we meet the present and for the way in which we prepare to meet the future. As we control the present by manifesting the spirit of love, wisdom, and discipline in thought, word, and act, we fit ourselves to control the future.
Transcribed by Lloyd Kinder on 01-13-2014
