Were Jesus' brothers being facetious when suggesting He perform signs before His disciples in Judea?

Question

In John's Gospel, Jesus' brothers appear to somewhat flippantly suggest that He demonstrate certain "works" to prove or publicize Himself before His disciples in Judea:

John 7:2-5: "Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near. ³Therefore His brothers said to Him, 'Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. ⁴For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.' ⁵For not even His brothers were believing in Him." (emphasis added).

This seems especially peculiar given Christ recent notoriety. Were they suggesting this facetiously, perhaps reflecting on previous behavior that left them deeply skeptical — maybe their attempts to "save Jesus from Himself" as we read in Mark's Gospel?

Mark 3:21: "When [Jesus'] own people heard of [the multitudes seeking Him out], they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, 'He has lost His senses.'"

This timeline may not be quite correct. (If so, I would appreciate someone pointing that out.) Nonetheless, how should we view Christ's own brothers' petty recommendations as anything but irreverent since "they did not believe Him" when they offered such "valuable advice"?

Answer 1

Jesus knew beforehand in Luke 4:24

"Truly I tell you," he continued, "no prophet is accepted in his hometown.

Jesus was getting popular but his family didn't believe him.

Mark 3:

20Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. 21When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

Some months later, they still didn't believe him.

John 7:

1After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him.

This was serious. They wanted to kill Jesus.

2 "Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near. 3Therefore His brothers said to Him, 'Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. 4For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.' 5For not even His brothers were believing in Him."

I don't think his brothers were being facetious. I think it was a case of sibling jealousy. They kind of dared him to go to Jerusalem where the Jewish leaders were expecting him:

11Now at the festival the Jewish leaders were watching for Jesus and asking, “Where is he?”

12Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, “He is a good man.”

Others replied, “No, he deceives the people.” 13But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the leaders.

For his family, it was a case of familiarity breeds contempt.