Bible Strands
John 11:56
They kept looking for Jesus and asking one another as they stood in the temple courts, “What do you think? Will He come to the feast at all?”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Crowds gathered in the temple courts during Passover purification are searching for Jesus and questioning one another about His attendance at the feast.
The words — The text uses ἐζήτουν (ezētoun), meaning “they were seeking,” and ἔλεγον (elegon), meaning “they were saying,” to describe the crowd’s active search and verbal inquiry.
The thread — This pattern of searching for Jesus at a Jewish feast appears in John 7:11, while the surrounding context in John 11:7 shows Jesus deliberately choosing to return to Judea despite the danger.
Why it lands — The passage places public curiosity alongside a secret arrest warrant, requiring the reader to recognize that Jesus’ movement toward Jerusalem occurs under active opposition rather than popular acclaim.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Then sought they for Jesus, and spake among themselves, as they stood in the temple, What think ye, that he will not come to the feast?