Bible Strands
John 7:39
He was speaking about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. For the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — John the narrator interjects an explanatory note between Jesus' words (v.38) and the crowd's reaction (v.40), addressing his own readers rather than the on-scene listeners. The moment is the Feast of Tabernacles, mid-discourse.
The words — ἐμέλλον (emellon), "were about to," is the imperfect of μέλλω and carries a sense of pending certainty—something fixed but not yet executed. It marks the Spirit's giving as future from the narrator's vantage point, not as a present reality for the crowd.
The thread — The pouring out of the Spirit finds its fulfillment in Joel 2:28, quoted at Pentecost in Acts 2:17, and the "another Advocate" of John 14:16. The condition—glorification—points to the cross and resurrection as the enabling event.
Why it lands — The verse forces a reader to accept a sequence: the Spirit is not a generic resource but something contingent on a specific historical act (glorification). It asks you to hold the promise and the delay in the same hand without collapsing one into the other.
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
(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)
Cross-references
- Acts 2:17 ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
- Joel 2:28 And afterward, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.
- John 14:16 And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever—
- Isaiah 32:15 until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high. Then the desert will be an orchard, and the orchard will seem like a forest.
- John 16:7 But I tell you the truth, it is for your benefit that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.
- Acts 2:33 Exalted, then, to the right hand of God, He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.
- Isaiah 44:3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and currents on the dry ground. I will pour out My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring.
- John 12:16 At first His disciples did not understand these things, but after Jesus was glorified they remembered what had been done to Him, and they realized that these very things had also been written about Him.
- John 13:31 When Judas had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him.
- John 20:22 When He had said this, He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.