The author of the book containing this chapter is anonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that John composed this Gospel.

[1] Alfred Plummer, in the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, describes this chapter as "very important for the estimate of the fourth Gospel.

[3] Raymond E. Brown describes the Tabernacles Discourse as "a polemic collection of what Jesus said in replies to attacks by the Jewish authorities on his claims".

The New King James Version includes sub-headings within the chapter as follows: The evangelist states that Jesus' brothers (or "brethren" in some translations) did not believe in Him (John 7:5) but they suggest that he goes to Jerusalem for the forthcoming Feast of Tabernacles, which was one of the three feasts which the Book of Deuteronomy prescribes that all Jewish men should attend (Deuteronomy 16:16).

[23] When Jesus began to teach in the Temple, he was perceived as being uneducated and yet learned (John 7:15), not having received rabbinical, priestly or Sadduceean training.

Theologian Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer regards the Jews' supposition as "an insolent and scornful supposition, which they themselves, however, do not deem probable (therefore the question is asked with Greek: μή, not)",[13] non-conformist theologian Philip Doddridge described it as "a sarcasm",[33] and the International Standard Version offers the translation as follows: However, it is not an unreasonable supposition, as the mission to the Jewish diaspora formed "the very mode of proceeding afterwards adopted by the Apostles"[2] and the synoptic gospels represent Jesus as having visited "the region of Tyre and Sidon" to teach, and as having healed there "the daughter of a Greek woman, a Syro-Phoenician by birth" (Mark 7:24–30).

The Jerusalem Bible breaks up the text differently: The quote "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink" is a reference to Isaiah 55:1.

Meyer explains that "there is no exactly corresponding passage, indeed, in Scripture" for the words out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

In the Textus Receptus and English translations drawn from it, the number described as recognizing Jesus as the Prophet is Greek: πολλοὶ, many, but Watkins advises that "the reading of the best manuscripts is, some of the people therefore, when they heard these sayings ..."[6] The reference is to the prophet foretold by Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15, who was expected to precede the coming of the Messiah.

In John 7:42, some of the crowd reason that "the Christ [will] come from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was" and therefore Jesus, who came from Galilee, could not be the Messiah: It is written in Micah 5:2: The Gospels of Matthew and Luke give an account of how Jesus of Nazareth in Galilee could also be from Bethlehem, as He was born there, but John's Gospel has no parallel account.

[16] So opinion about Jesus was "divided" (John 7:43) - a Greek: σχίσμα arose, "whence our word ‘schism’, meaning 'a serious and possibly violent division'" is derived.

Ellicott states that "some of the oldest manuscripts, including the Vatican, have a shorter text, Never man spake thus; but the longer reading is to be preferred",[6] with the additional words Greek: ὡς οὗτος λαλεῖ ὁ ἄνθρωπος, as this man speaks, which are retained by the Textus Receptus.

The officers "were so impressed and awed with what he said that they dared not take him";[25] the Pharisees said they were "deceived" (John 7:47), suggesting that none of the rulers - "the members of the Sanhedrin, who were supposed to have control over the religious rites and doctrines of the nation - had believed.

[16] The Pulpit Commentary queries whether the departure home refers only to the breaking up of the Sanhedrin (with Barnes) [25] or to "the scattering of the crowd or the return of the pilgrims to Galilee".

[26] The pericope commencing with John 7:53 is considered canonical, but not found in most of the early Greek Gospel manuscripts.

The first surviving Greek manuscript to contain the pericope is the Latin/Greek diglot Codex Bezae, produced in the 400s or 500s (but displaying a form of text which has affinities with "Western" readings used in the 100s and 200s).

The New King James Version includes the text with the explanation that the words from John 7:53 to 8:11 are bracketed by NU-Text "as not original.