So this was asked in Quora:
My response below:
It is important to understand what "the rivers flowing out" imply in the Old Testament. They always refer to the dwelling place of God.
These occurs in a few places.
As early as the Book of Genesis, we see this Scripture in Genesis 2:10
"A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers." (Genesis 2:10, ESV)
Therefore, the source of the river = Eden. And Eden is none other than the very dwelling place of God. Biblical theology helps us understand Eden as a "type" of temple.
Where else do we see this? We see this again in Ezekiel 47. In Ezekiel 47, in Ezekiel's vision of a New Temple, he pictures a "river flowing out of the temple".
"Then he brought me back to the door of the temple, and behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar."
My response below:
The verse is NOT non-existent. The thing is the reference to a river flowing out occurs in a few places in the Old Testament. Thus when Jesus says "As the Scripture has said ..." He is referring to a theme that occurs repeatedly in the Old Testament.
It is important to understand what "the rivers flowing out" imply in the Old Testament. They always refer to the dwelling place of God.
These occurs in a few places.
As early as the Book of Genesis, we see this Scripture in Genesis 2:10
"A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers." (Genesis 2:10, ESV)
Therefore, the source of the river = Eden. And Eden is none other than the very dwelling place of God. Biblical theology helps us understand Eden as a "type" of temple.
Where else do we see this? We see this again in Ezekiel 47. In Ezekiel 47, in Ezekiel's vision of a New Temple, he pictures a "river flowing out of the temple".
"Then he brought me back to the door of the temple, and behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar."
Again, thematically, we see river flowing out = temple = dwelling place of God.
So what do we make of this? First see the setting in which Jesus makes this proclamation. He is making this proclamation in the physical temple of the 1st Century. We know this because John 7 tells us that Jesus is making this proclamation during one of the Jewish feasts, and these feasts are held at the Temple in Jerusalem.
Therefore, when Jesus declares this teaching, He is telling us that there is a shift for us to understand. The physical temple is no longer the place where God dwells. God now dwells in our hearts, hence the rivers flow out of our hearts.
This refers to God as the Holy Spirit now dwelling in the hearts of believers. Believers become a "new temple" or a "type of Eden" where God's dwelling is.
We see this idea most strongly in the Book of Ephesians, where Paul writes about how Christians are the "new temple". The Israelite temple in the Old Testament is meant to be a prototype of Eden where God's dwelling is. In the New Testament, Christians become this temple. Therefore Paul writes:
"...in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit." (Ephesians 2:21-22)
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