Jesus’ third public announcement at the Feast of Tabernacles took place on the last and greatest day of the Feast (v. 37). It is perhaps the most remembered and certainly the most widely discussed saying in Jesus’ temple discourse if not in the entire Gospel. Of the nineteen articles on John 7 listed in the bibliography of Raymond Brown’s major commentary, seventeen deal with verses 37–39! (The Gospel According to John, AB 29A [New York: Doubleday, 1966], p. 331). This is attributable both to the intrinsic appeal of Jesus’ words and to the unique combination of difficulties in knowing how they should be heard or read. Verses 37–39 might be plausibly understood in any of at least three ways:

1. Jesus … said … “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the…