John 7:1 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

After these things— That is, after the miracle of the loaves, and the conversation in the synagogue at Capernaum. Sir Isaac Newton thinks, that these words intimate that our Lord did not celebrate the third passover at Jerusalem, (see ch. John 6:4.) and it must be owned that the evangelists do not say expressly that Jesus went up to it; nevertheless, if we may judge from the religious regard which he constantly shewed to all the divine institutions, and from his behaviour on other occasions of a like nature, we may safely believe, that he went not only to this, but to all the feasts which the Jewish males were obliged by law to attend; Deuteronomy 16:16. Numbers 9:13 and it seems that the many cities and villages which our Lord is said to have visited, Mark 6:56 lay on his way to this passover; a conjecture which appears to be favoured by the present passage; for it implies, that, after the miraculous dinner, Jesus had been in Jewry, where an attempt was made upon his life, which made it dangerous for him to continue there any longer at that time. But if any attempt was made upon our Lord's life in Jewry about this time, no scene was so fit for it as Jerusalem; no time so proper as the passover, which happened during this period; and no actors so likely to be engaged in it, as the haughty priests, the scribes, and Pharisees, who were assembled at the feast. Perhaps Christ's disciples also, who were offended by the sermon in the synagogue of Capernaum, had joined his enemies in the metropolis, when they came up to the feast; and incensed them anew, by rehearsing, with the usual aggravations of same, the miracle of the loaves, performed to the conviction of every individual present.