Retranslating John 7

We are blessed to have many English translations of the Bible and free online resources. We can easily use biblegateway.com to see how any verse is translated in more than 60 versions. Just type in the book, chapter, and verse in the search bar then click on the link that says “in all English translations.”

These resources helped to convince me that most versions should update their translation of John 7:37-39. Here’s how the NIV translates it:

According to this translation, “rivers of living water” will flow from within believers, but that doesn’t fit with the first and last assertions in the passage or the rest of John’s Gospel. I think the reading in the footnote should become the primary translation. And, in fact, the NET Bible includes the alternate reading in its primary text:

³⁷ On the last day of the feast, the greatest day,^[a] Jesus stood up and shouted out,^[b] “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and ³⁸ let the one who believes in me drink.^[c] Just as the scripture says, ‘From within him^[d] will flow rivers of living water.’”^[e] 39 (Now he said this about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive, for the Spirit had not yet been given,^[f] because Jesus was not yet glorified.)^[g]

I won’t reproduce all the lengthy footnotes below but check biblegateway if you are interested. In this version, the source of the living water is Jesus not believers. This is the right idea and it fits with the entire passage and John’s Gospel. If you want to read more of the details of my thinking on this passage, see this post.

Les Bridgeman

I have served as a high school Bible teacher and counselor in Asia and the U.S. I am passionate about understanding and teaching the Bible. Here’s a link to my book page.