‘His brothers therefore said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples also may see the works that you are doing. For no man does anything in secret, and himself seeks to be known openly. If you do these things show yourself clearly to the world.” For even his brothers did not believe in him.'
It was to this feast then that Jesus was urged to go by His brothers (v. 3-4). But their aim was the wrong one. They were seeking to help Him further His cause as the Messiah in the way in which they thought of it, and they wanted Him to perform signs and miracles so that He could become ‘known openly', and encourage the stirring up of the many followers He had in Judea as a result of His earlier ministry there, presumably with a view to an uprising. As we have seen in the previous chapter many in Galilee would have been willing to follow Him (John 6:15). They had totally the wrong ideas about Him.
‘For no man does anything in secret and himself seeks to be known openly.' They were constantly puzzled. They could not understand why Jesus would insist on details of His miracles not being voiced abroad, and had an annoying habit of telling people not to tell everyone what He had done for them. And this in spite of the fact that it was clear that He felt that He had a public ministry. So what was He waiting for? If He wanted to be famous let Him rather publicise what He was doing. How else could He expect to be accepted as the Messiah?
‘For even his brothers did not believe in him', that is, they did not at this time understand and respond to the real truth about Him. They did not recognise His mission of mercy from God and His unique status. They shared the popular views about the coming Messiah. They did not have ‘saving faith'. This is one of those incidents which help to confirm the historicity of the Gospel. No one at a later date would have invented this about the brothers of Jesus who eventually became highly respected Christians. It is included because it happened.