A Translation of the Gospel of John
CHAPTER 1
[fn: John’s Gospel was originally written in Greek, and contained no chapter or verse divisions. The commonly accepted system of chapters and verses was devised in the 16th century, and have been retained for ease of reading and reference.]
1:1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God [fn: ‘Word’ translates the Greek word ‘logos’, which had a long history in Greek-speaking philosophy. But for John, the logos is more than a principle, or even a personification, but a person: cf. v. 14]. 1:2He was with God in the beginning. 1:3All things came about through him, and apart from him nothing which came to be came about.
1:4In him was life, and that life was the light for people. 1:5The light also shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not grasped it.
1:6There came a man sent from God. His name was John [fn: John the Baptist. Also vv. 15, 19. He famously called on Jews to change their behaviour and act justly, and submit to a ritual washing or immersion in the Jordan River as a symbol of that change.]. 1:7This man came as a witness to testify about the light, so that through him all people might believe. 1:8That man was not the light, but came to testify about the light. 1:9The true light which shines for every person was coming into the world.
1:10He was in the world, and though the world came to exist through him, yet that world did not know him. 1:11He came to his own place, and even his own people did not receive him. 1:12But as many as received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave them the authority to become children of God. 1:13They were born not from human ‘blood’ [fn: Literally, ‘born from bloods’. The ancients regarded offspring as originating from their parents' blood. Compare our phrase, ‘my flesh and blood’.], nor from the desires of human flesh, nor from the desire of a man, but were born from God.
1:14And the Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us, and we have gazed at his glory—glory as the only-begotten [fn: or ‘one of a kind’. Also in 1:18, 3:16, 18. ‘Only-begotten’ is the traditional English rendering, and specifically highlights ‘fathering’, and not only ‘parenting’ or ‘uniqueness’.] from the Father, full of grace and truth.
1:15John testifies about him and cries out, saying, “This one was he of whom I said, ‘the one coming after me comes before me in rank, because he existed prior to me in time.’” [fn: cf. v. 30]
1:16For from his fullness we all have also received grace upon grace. 1:17For the law was given through Moses [fn: Moses was the prophet who led the nation Israel out of slavery in Egypt around 1400 BC. He received the 10 commandments on top of Mount Sinai, and authored the first five books of the Old Testament.]; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 1:18No one has ever seen God; the only-begotten God, the one being in the bosom [fn: ‘Bosom’ refers to the chest between the arms, i.e. ‘breast’, singular. Compare our phrase, ‘bosom buddies’.] of the Father, that one has made him known.
1:19And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites [fn: A tribe of Israel dedicated exclusively for the service of God and the temple.] to him, so that they might ask him, “Who are you?” 1:20And he confessed and did not deny, and he confessed, “I am not the Christ”. [fn: The ‘Christ’ or ‘Messiah’ was God’s chosen and anointed king from the line of David promised by God in the Old Testament. The Jews were eagerly awaiting him to rescue them from their enemies.]
1:21And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” [fn: Elijah was a famous Old Testament prophet who was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire. The later Old Testament expected that he would return to prepare the way for the Lord (Mal 4:4-5).] And he said, “I am not”. “Are you the prophet?” [fn: A reference to the promised coming of a prophet like Moses (Deut 18:15-18).] And he answered, “No”.
1:22So they said to him, “Who are you?—that we can give an answer to those who sent us—what do you say about yourself?”
1:23He answered, “I am a voice crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord’, just as Isaiah the prophet said.” [fn: Isaiah 40:3]
1:24Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees [fn: A religious group among the Jews who emphasised strictly keeping the law of Moses.]. 1:25And they asked him and said to him, “Why, then, do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
1:26John answered them, saying, “I baptize with water. Among you stands he whom you do not know, 1:27he who comes after me, of whom I am not worthy to loose the strap of his sandal.”
1:28These things happened in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
1:29The next day, he saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. [fn: God had commanded that a lamb be sacrificed each morning and evening in the temple (Exod 29:38-39). Lambs were also sacrificed at the Passover festival (Exodus 12).] 1:30This is he on behalf of whom I said, ‘after me comes a man who comes before me in rank, because he existed prior to me in time.’ 1:31And I did not know him, but that he might be revealed to Israel, for this reason I came baptizing with water.” 1:32And John testified, saying, “I watched the Spirit descending as a dove from heaven and remain upon him. 1:33And I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remain upon—this man is the one baptizing with the Holy Spirit.’ 1:34And I have seen and testify that this is the Son of God.”
1:35The next day, John and two of his disciples were again standing there, 1:36and seeing Jesus walking by, he said, “Look, the lamb of God!” 1:37And his two disciples heard him say it, and they followed Jesus.
1:38Now Jesus turned and saw them following him, and he said to them, “What are you looking for”. So they said to him “Rabbi” (which is translated ‘teacher’) “where are you staying?” 1:39He said to them, “Come and see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about the tenth hour. [fn: about 4pm.]
1:40Andrew the brother of Simon Peter was one of the two who heard John and followed him. 1:41He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated ‘Christ’). 1:42He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called ‘Cephas’ (which is translated ‘Peter’).
1:43The next day he wanted to go out into Galilee [fn: The Jewish region north of both Judea and Samaria, where Jesus lived.] and he found Philip. And Jesus said to him, “Follow me”. 1:44Now Philip was from Bethsaida, from the town of Andrew and Peter. 1:45Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, “We have found he whom Moses wrote about in the law, and the prophets also wrote about: Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth. 1:46And Nathaniel said to him, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see!”
1:47Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to him and said to him, “Look, here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” 1:48And Nathaniel said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you while you were under the fig tree, I saw you”. 1:49Nathaniel answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the king of Israel”. 1:50Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you that I saw you underneath the fig tree, you believe? You will see greater things than these. 1:51And he said to him, “Truly, truly I say to you, you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man”. [fn: In Genesis 28:12, Jacob, the ancestral forefather of all Israel, dreamed of a ladder reaching from earth to heaven with angels ascending and descending on it. The ‘Son of Man’ in Daniel 7:13-14 is a king who rules over all peoples and nations forever.]
CHAPTER 2
2:1And on the third day [fn: i.e. the third day since the day mentioned in 1:43, thus the end of the first week of Jesus’ public ministry] a wedding occurred in Cana of Galilee, and Jesus’ mother was there. 2:2Now Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. 2:3And when the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They do not have wine”. 2:4And Jesus said to her, “What is that to me and to you, woman? My hour has not yet come.” 2:5His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you”.
2:6Now there were lying in that place six stone water jars, for the ritual cleansing of the Jews, each containing two or three measures. [fn: between 80 and 120 litres] 2:7Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water”. And they filled them to the brim. 2:8And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the head steward”. So they took it to him. 2:9And as the head steward tasted the water which had become wine, even he did not know where it came from, but the servants who drew the water knew. The head steward called the groom 2:10and said to him, “Everybody first puts out the good wine, and when they are drunk, the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now.
2:11Jesus did this, the beginning of his signs, in Cana of Galilee and he revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.
2:12After this, Jesus went up to Capernaum—he, his mother, his brothers, and his disciples—and there he stayed not many days.
2:13Now the Passover of the Jews was approaching [fn: One of the three great festivals of the Jewish year, when the Jews gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate their escape from slavery in Egypt. The Gospel of John mentions three Passovers (John 2:13, 23, 6:4, 11:55).], and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2:14And in the temple he found those who sell cattle and sheep and doves, and the coin-changers sitting down, 2:15and making a whip out of rope, he threw them all out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle, and he tipped over the coins of the moneytraders, and he overturned their tables. 2:16And to those who were selling the doves, he said, “Get these out of here. Don’t make my Father’s house a market house!” 2:17His disciples remembered that it is written, “Zeal for your house will consume me”. [fn: Ps 69:9]
2:18Then the Jews responded and said to him, “What sign will you show us, since you are doing these things?”
2:19Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it in three days”. 2:20So the Jews said, “This temple was built over a period of forty-six years, and you will raise it in three days?” 2:21But he said this about the temple of his body. 2:22So when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus said.
2:23So as he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name when they saw his signs which he did. 2:24But Jesus himself did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all of them, 2:25 and because he did not need human testimony, for he knew what was in man.
CHAPTER 3
3:1Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 3:2He came to him during the night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could do these signs which you do, except God was with him.”
3:3Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless someone is born from above, they cannot see the kingdom of God.” 3:4Nicodemus said to him, “How can someone be born when he is old? No one cannot enter into their mother’s womb a second time and be born, can they?”
3:5Jesus answered, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless someone is born from water and Spirit [fn: or ‘water, even Spirit,’], that person cannot enter the kingdom of God. 3:6The one born from flesh is flesh, and the one born from Spirit is spirit. 3:7Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 3:8The Spirit [fn: Or ‘wind’.] blows where he wishes, and you hear his sound, but you do not know where he comes from and where he is going. In this same way is each one born from the Spirit.”
3:9Nicodemus answered and said to him, “How can these things be?” 3:10Jesus answered and said to him, “You are the teacher of Israel, and you do not understand these things? Truly, truly I say to you, that which we know, we speak, and that which we hear, to this we testify, and yet you do not receive our testimony. 3:12If I have spoken to you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I speak to you about heavenly things? 3:13And no one has gone up into heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. 3:14And just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert [fn: Num 21:4-9], in the same way the Son of Man must be lifted up, 3:15so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life.”
3:16For God loved the world in this way, that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but have eternal life. 3:17For God did not send his Son into the world so that he might judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. 3:18The one who believes in him is not judged, but the one who does not believe has already been judged, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.
3:19This is the judgement: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light, for their works were evil. 3:20For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their works might not be exposed. 3:21But the one who does the truth comes to the light, so that their works might be displayed, because they are worked in God.
3:22After these things, Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean [fn: The southern region of Israel, in which the capital city Jerusalem was located.] countryside, and there he remained with them and baptized. 3:23Now John was also baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was a lot of water there, and people were continually coming and being baptized. 3:24For John had not yet been thrown into prison.
3:25Then a controversy came about originating from the disciples of John with a Jew about ritual cleansing, 3:26and they came to John said to him, “Rabbi, he whom was with you beyond the Jordan, about whom you testified, look, he is baptizing, and everyone is coming to him.”
3:27John answered and said, “A man is not able to receive anything except it be given to him from heaven. 3:28You yourselves can testify for me that I said, ‘I am not the Christ’, but that I was sent before him. 3:29The one who marries the bride is the groom. But the groom’s friend, the one who stands and listens for him, rejoices greatly when he hears the groom’s voice. This, then, is my joy—it is complete. 3:30He must grow greater, and I must diminish.”
3:31The one who comes from above is over all. The one being from the earth is from the earth and speaks from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is over all. 3:32That which he has seen and heard, this he testifies to, and still no-one receives his testimony. 3:33The one who receives his testimony certifies that God is true. 3:34For he whom God sent speaks the word of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. 3:35The Father loves the Son and have given all things into his hand. 3:36The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one disobeying the Son will not see life, but the anger of God remains upon him.
CHAPTER 4
4:1So since Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John—4:2although Jesus himself did not baptize, but his disciples—4:3he left Judea and went away again into Galilee.
4:4Now it was necessary for him to go through Samaria. 4:5So he went into a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field which Jacob gave to his son Joseph. [fn: Samaria was a region located between Judea and Galilee. It was formerly territory of the kingdom of Israel. The Samaritans and Jews had been feuding for 400 years.] 4:6Now the well of Jacob was there. So Jesus, because he was worn out from his journey, sat upon the well. It was about the sixth hour. [fn: 12 noon]
4:7A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me something to drink.”4:8For his disciples had gone into the town to buy food. 4:9So the Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” For Jews do not have dealings with Samaritans.
4:10Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that says to you, ‘Give me a drink’, you would ask him and he would give you living water.”
4:11The woman says to him, “Lord, you have nothing with which to draw and the well is deep. So from where will you get ‘living water’? 4:12You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, are you, who gave us the well, and he drank from it, along with his sons and livestock?”
4:13Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks from this water will become thirsty again, 4:14but whoever drinks from the water which I will give him will never become thirsty into eternity, but the water which I will give him will become in him a well of water overflowing into eternal life.”
4:15The woman said to him, “Lord, give me this water, so that I won’t become thirsty, or have to come here to draw water.” 4:16He said to her, “Go and call your husband and come back here.”
4:17The woman answered and said to him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “Well did you say, ‘I have no husband’, 4:18for you have had five husbands and the one who you now have is not your husband. You have spoken this truthfully.”
4:19The woman said to him, “Lord, I see that you are a prophet. 4:20Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and yet you say that Jerusalem is the place where it is necessary to worship.” [fn: The Samaritans—paganized descendants of Israel’s northern tribes (2 Kgs 17)—only accepted an altered version of the first five books of the Old Testament. They had built their own temple on Mount Gerizim in about 400BC, which the Jews destroyed in 108 BC. By the time of Jesus, the Samaritans worshipped among the ruin of that temple. In the time of David, God chose Jerusalem as the place to put his name (Deut 12:5; 2 Chron 6:6, Ps 132:13).]
4:21Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 4:22You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, because salvation is from the Jews. 4:23But an hour is coming and now is when the true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth, for the Father looks for worshippers of him such as these. 4:24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.”
4:25The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah, the one called Christ, is coming. When he comes, he will make everything known to us. 4:26Jesus said to her, “I am, [fn: The first instance of an important phrase in the Gospel of John. See John 8:58.] the one speaking to you.”
4:27And at this point, his disciples came back, and they were surprised that he was speaking with a woman, though no one said, “What are you looking for?” or “Why are you speaking with her?”4:28For the woman had left her water jar and went away into the city and was telling the people, 4:29“Come see a man who told me everything, as much as I did. Might this be the Christ?” 4:30They came out of the town and were coming toward him.
4:31In the meantime, the disciples were appealing to him, saying, “Rabbi, eat!” 4:32But he said to them, “I have food to eat which you do not know about.” 4:33So the disciples were saying to one another, “Perhaps someone brought him something to eat?”
4:34Jesus said to them, “My food is that I do the will of the one sending me and complete his work. 4:35Don’t you say, ‘Still four months and the harvest comes’? Look, I tell you! Lift up your eyes and take a good look at the fields, because they are already white for harvest. 4:36The one who harvests receives a wage and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that the one who sows also might rejoice with the one who harvests. 4:37For in this, the saying is true, that ‘one sows and another harvests’. 4:38I sent you to harvest that for which you had not laboured—others have laboured, and you benefited from their hard work.”
4:39And many from that town believed in him from the Samaritans because of the message of the woman, testifying that “He told me everything which I’ve done.” 4:40So likewise the Samaritans came to him, asking him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 4:41And many more believed because of his word. 4:42And they said to the woman, “We don’t believe anymore on the basis of your words, for we ourselves have heard and know that this truly is the saviour of the world.”
4:43Now after two days, he went out from there into Galilee. 4:44For Jesus himself had testified that, “A prophet in his own fatherland has no honour”. 4:45So when he went into Galilee the Galileans received him because they had seen everything he did in Jerusalem at the festival, for they also went to the festival. 4:46Therefore, he went again to Cana of Galilee—where he had made the water wine—and there was a certain officer of the king whose son was sick in Capernaum.
4:47This man, when he heard that Jesus had come out from Judea into Galilee, came to him and asked that he come down and heal his son, for he was about to die. 4:48So Jesus said to him, “If you people do not see signs and wonders, you will never believe.”
4:49The officer of the king said to him, “Lord, come down before my child dies.” 4:50Jesus said to him, “Go, your son lives”. The man believed the word which Jesus said to him, and he went away.
4:51Now while he was going down, his slaves met him, saying that his child lives. 4:52So he inquired of them the hour in which he became better. So they said to him, “Yesterday, the fever left him at the seventh hour.”
4:53Then the father knew that it happened at the hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives”, and he believed him, along with all his household.
4:54So this second sign Jesus again did when he came from Judea into Galilee.
CHAPTER 5
5:1After these things, there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 5:2Now there is in Jerusalem at the sheep gate a pool, named in Hebrew ‘Bethzatha’, having five roofed porches. 5:3Within these porches there would be lying a crowd of sick, blind, crippled, and shrivelled people. [fn: verse 4 is omitted by many early good manuscripts. It is translated, “For an angel of the Lord from time to time would bathe in the pool and would agitate the water. So the first person going in upon the agitation of the water became cured of whatever kind of disease was oppressing him.”]
5:5Now there was a certain man there who had been in his sick condition for thirty eight years.
5:6When Jesus saw this man as he lay sick, and knowing that for a long time already he had suffered this sickness, he said to him, “Do you want to become well?”
5:7The sick man answered him, “Lord, I don’t have anyone to help me into the pool when the water is agitated, and when I do go, someone else gets in before me.”
5:8Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your mat, and walk.” 5:9And immediately the man became well, and took up his mat and began walking. Now it was Sabbath on that day. [fn: The day of rest from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday commanded in the law of Moses.] 5:10So the Jews were saying to the man who had been healed, “It’s the Sabbath, and it’s not lawful for you to pick up your mat.” 5:11But he answered them, “The one who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’.” 5:12They answered him, “Who is that man who said to you ‘Pick it up and walk!’?” 5:13But he who was healed didn’t know who it was, for Jesus withdrew, because there was a crowd in that place.
5:14After these things happened, Jesus found him in the temple and he said to him, “See, you’ve become well! Stop sinning, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.” 5:15The man went away and reported to the Jews that Jesus was the one who had made him well. 5:16And because of this, the Jews were pursuing Jesus, because he did these things on the Sabbath.
5:17So Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I also am working.”
5:18So because of this, the Jews were looking out all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the Sabbath, but he was also calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
5:19Therefore, Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, the Son is not able to do anything by himself unless it is something he sees the Father doing, because whatever the Father does, these things the Son likewise does also. 5:20For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything which he does, and he will show him greater works than these, so that you might be amazed. 5:21For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, in the same way also the Son gives life to whoever he wants. 5:22For the Father doesn’t judge anything, but he has given all judgement to the Son, 5:23so that everyone might honour the Son just as they honour the Father. The one who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent him.
5:24“Truly, truly I say to you, that the one hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and is not going to come into judgement, but has crossed over from death to life.
5:25“Truly, truly I say to you that an hour is coming and now is here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 5:26For just as the Father has life in himself, in the same way he also gave to the Son to have life in himself. 5:27And he gave him authority to judge, because he is the Son of Man. 5:28Do not be surprised at this, because an hour is coming in which everybody in the tombs will hear his voice, 5:29and those who have done good will go out into the resurrection of life, but those who have practiced evil will go out into the resurrection of judgement. 5:30I cannot do anything by myself. I judge in the same way as I hear, and my judgement is just, because I do not seek my will but the will of him who sent me.
5:31“If I testify about myself, my testimony is not truthful. 5:32There is another who is testifying about me, and I know that his testimony which he testifies about me is truthful. 5:33You sent to John, and he has testified to the truth. 5:34Now I do not accept human testimony, but I say these things so that you might be saved. 5:35That man was a lamp that was burning and shining, and you decided to enjoy his light for an hour. 5:36But I have testimony greater than that of John, for the works which the Father has given me to complete, these same works which I do testify about me, that the Father sent me.
5:37“And he who sent me, that Father has testified about me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, 5:38and you don’t have his word living in you, because he whom that Father sent you, this one you don’t believe. 5:39You search the Scriptures because in them you think you have eternal life, and these are the Scriptures testifying about me. 5:40And you don’t want to come to me so that you might have life.
5:41“I do not accept glory from people, 5:42but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you. 5:43I have come in the name of my Father, and you do not receive me. If someone else comes in his own name, you will receive that person. 5:44How can you believe if you accept glory from one another, and you do not seek glory from the only God?
5:45“Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father. The one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you hope. 5:46For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. 5:47But if you do not believe in his writings, how will you believe in my words?”
CHAPTER 6
6:1After these things, Jesus went away across the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias. 6:2Now a great crowd was following him, because they saw the signs which he was doing for the benefit of the sick. 6:3So Jesus went away up the mountain, and there he sat with his disciples.
6:4Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. [fn: the second Passover John reports.] 6:5And Jesus, lifting his eyes and seeing that a great crowd was coming toward him, said to Philip, “From where can we buy bread so that these people can eat?” 6:6But he said this to test him, for Jesus himself knew what he was about to do.
6:7Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarius worth of bread [fn: eight months wages for a day labourer] wouldn’t be enough for each of them to take a bite.” 6:8One of his disciples, Andrew the brother of Simon Peter, said to him, “6:9There is a small boy here who has five barley bread rolls and two pickled fish, but what are these for such a crowd?”
6:10Jesus said, “Get the people to recline to eat”. [fn: At the time of Jesus, meals were eaten around a low stone table with the guests reclining.] Now in that place there was a lot of grass. So they reclined, the men numbering about five thousand. 6:11So Jesus took the bread rolls, and after he gave thanks, he distributed the bread to those who were reclining, and similarly the fish, as much as they wanted. 6:12And when they became full, he said to his disciples, “Gather the left-over pieces, so that nothing will be wasted.” 6:13So they gathered and filled twelve basketfuls of pieces of the five barley rolls which were left over after they had eaten.
6:14So when the people had seen the sign which he had done, they said, “This man is truly the prophet [fn: Deut 18:15-19] who is to come into the world.” 6:15For this reason, since Jesus knew that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
6:16And when evening came, his disciples went down to the seaside, 6:17and getting into a boat, they began crossing the sea to Capernaum. By this time it had now become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 6:18And the sea was stirred because a great wind was blowing. 6:19And having rowed about twenty-five or thirty stadia [fn: around 5 kilometres], they saw Jesus as he walked upon the sea and came near to the boat, and they were afraid. 6:20So he said to them, “I am. [fn: see John 8:58] Do not fear.” 6:21Because of this, they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat came to the shore to which they were heading.
6:22The next day, the crowd standing on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there except one, and that Jesus had not gone with his disciples in the boat, but only his disciples went away. 6:23However, boats had arrived from Tiberias near the place where they had eaten the bread after they had given thanks to the Lord. 6:24So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. 6:25And when they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” [The town of Tiberias (cf. vv. 1, 23) was about 16 kilometres, or several hours walk, from Capernaum.]
6:26Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the bread and were satisfied. 6:27Work not for food which perishes but for the food which lasts into eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For this is the one who the Father, God, has certified.”
6:28So they said to him, “What should we do to work the works of God?” 6:29Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in he whom that one has sent.”
6:30So they said to him, “What sign, then, will you do, so that we might see and believe you? What will you work? 6:31Our fathers ate the manna in the desert, just as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” [The Jewish crowd is recalling God’s great sign during the time of Moses, when God gave “bread from heaven” to Israel in the desert (e.g. Exod 16:4, 15; Pss 78:24, 105:40; Neh 9:15). ]
6:32So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, Moses has not given you the bread from heaven, but my Father is giving you the true bread from heaven. 6:33For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
6:34So they said to him, “Lord, always give us this bread!” 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. The one coming to me will never hunger, and the one believing in me will never ever thirst. 6:36However, I said to you that you have even seen me, yet you don’t believe. 6:37Every one who the Father gives me comes to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out, 6:38because I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. 6:39Now this is the will of the one who sent me, that I not lose any of his which he has given me, but that I raise them up on the last day. 6:40For this is the will of my Father, that everyone seeing the Son and believing in him has eternal life, and I will raise that person up on the last day.”
6:41Because of this, the Jews began grumbling about him, because he said, “I am the bread who came down from heaven.” 6:42And they said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it now that he says, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
6:43Jesus answered and said to them, “Stop grumbling among yourselves. 6:44No one can come to me except the Father who sent me draw that person, whom I will raise up on the last day. 6:45It is written in the prophets, ‘And everyone will be taught by God.’ [fn: Isaiah 54:13.] Everyone who listens to the Father and learns comes to me. 6:46Because no one has seen the Father except the one sent from God—he has seen the Father. 6:47Truly, truly I say to you, the one who believes has eternal life. 6:48I am the bread of life. 6:49Your fathers ate the manna in the desert and died. 6:50This is the bread that came down from heaven, so that anyone might eat and not die. 6:51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever, and the bread which I will give is my flesh, on behalf of the life of the world.”
6:52So then the Jews were arguing with one another, saying “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
6:53So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you don’t have life in you. 6:54The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person up on the last day. 6:55For my flesh is truly food and my blood is truly drink. 6:56The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in that person. 6:57Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so also the one who eats me, this person also will live because of me. 6:58This is the bread which came down from heaven, not in the same way as the fathers ate and died. The one who eats this bread will live forever.”
6:59He said these things while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
6:60Therefore, many of his disciples who heard him said, “This word is harsh. Who can accept it?”
6:61Now Jesus, because he knew in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Does this trouble you? 6:62Then what if you see the Son of Man going up to where he was at the first? 6:63The Spirit is he who gives life; the flesh does not profit anything. The words which I spoke to you are Spirit and are life. 6:64However, there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning that there were some of them who did not believe, and who was the one who betrayed him. 6:65And he said, “For this reason, I said to you that no one can come to me unless it is given to that person from the Father.”
6:66Because of this, many of his disciples went away from that point on and no longer walked with him. 6:67So Jesus said to the twelve, “you don’t also want to go away, do you?” 6:68Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, where will we go? You have the words of eternal life. 6:69And we believe and know that you are the holy one of God.” 6:70Jesus answered him, “I chose you twelve, didn’t I? Yet one of you is the devil” 6:71Now he was talking about Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, one of the twelve, for this man was going to betray him.
CHAPTER 7
7:1And after these things, Jesus was travelling in Galilee, for he did not want to travel in Judea, because the Jews were looking to kill him.
7:2Now the Jewish festival of tabernacles was approaching. [fn: A week long festival in which all Jewish males came to Jerusalem and lived in ‘tents’ or ‘booths’ made of palm branches. It was also called the festival of ‘ingathering’ or ‘booths’ (Exod 23:16, 34:22; Lev 23:33-36, 39-43; Deut 16:13-15).] 7:3So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples also will see your works which you are doing. 7:4For no one does anything in secret and everyone looks to show themselves openly before the public. If you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” 7:5For his brothers didn’t believe in him either.
7:6 In response, Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always at hand. 7:7The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I testify about it that its works are evil. 7:8You go up to the festival. I am not yet [fn: While some good manuscripts read ‘not’, there is stronger evidence for the reading ‘not yet’.] going up to this festival, because my time is not yet completed.”
7:9Now having said these things, he stayed in Galilee. 7:10But when his brothers went up to the festival, then he also went up, not openly but in secret. 7:11Therefore, the Jews were looking for him at the festival and were saying, “Where is he?” 7:12And there was much murmuring in the crowds about him. Some were saying, “he is good”, but others were saying, “no, but he deceives the crowd”. 7:13However, no-one was speaking openly about him, because of fear of the Jews.
7:14But now during the middle of the festival, Jesus went up to the temple and was teaching. 7:15As a result, the Jews were amazed, saying, “How does this man know these things if he hasn’t studied?”
7:16In response, Jesus answered them and said, “My teaching is not my own but is from the one who sent me. 7:17If anyone wants to do his will, he will know about my teaching, whether it is from God, or whether I am speaking from myself. 7:18The one who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of the one who sent him, this one is truthful, and there is no injustice in him. 7:19Moses gave you the law, didn’t he? And not one of you does the law. Why are you looking to kill me?”
7:20The crowd answered, “You have a demon. Who is looking to kill you?” 7:21Jesus answered and said to them, “I did one work, you are all amazed. 7:22For this reason, Moses gave you circumcision—not that it is from Moses but from the fathers—and on the Sabbath you circumcise a man. 7:23If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses is not broken, why are you angry with me because I made the whole man well on the Sabbath? 7:24Do not judge by appearances but judge using just judgement.”
7:25For this reason, some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem were saying, “Isn’t this the one who they are looking to kill? 7:26And look, he speaks openly, and they are saying nothing to him. Perhaps the rulers truly know that this man is the Christ?”
7:27“But we know where this man is from. But when the Christ comes, no one knows where he is from.” 7:28For this reason, Jesus cried out in the temple as he was teaching, and said, “And you know me and from where I am! I have not come from myself, but the one who sent me is truthful, whom you do not know. 7:29I know him because I am from him, and he sent me.”
7:30For this reason, they were looking to seize him, and no one laid a hand upon him, because his hour had not yet come. 7:31But many in the crowd believed in him and were saying, “When the Christ comes, he won’t do more signs than what this man has done, will he?”
7:32The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things about him, and the high priests [fn: The high priests were hereditary rulers of the temple from the family of Aaron, Moses’ brother, and also from the tribe of Levi.] and the Pharisees sent attendants to seize him. 7:33For this reason, Jesus said, “I am with you still for a short time and then I go away to the one who sent me. 7:34You will seek me and not find me, and where I am you cannot come.”
7:35So the Jews said to themselves, “Where is this man going to go, so that we will not find him? He isn’t going to go to the diaspora of the Greeks and to teach the Greeks, is he? [fn: The ‘diaspora of the Greeks’ is a reference not to pagan Greeks but to Greek speaking Jews living throughout the Roman empire. The invasions of Israel by the Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans led to this scattering of Jewish people from their ancestral homeland, and Greek, not Aramaic, became their first language.] 7:36What is the meaning of this word which he said, “You will seek me and you will not find me, and where I am you cannot come”?
7:37Now on the last great day of the festival, Jesus stood up and shouted out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, come to me and drink. 7:38The one who believes in me, as the Scriptures say, rivers of living water will flow from his belly.” [fn: By the time of Jesus, a ceremony within the festival involved drawing, processing with, and pouring water in the temple.] 7:39Now he said this about the Spirit, whom the ones who believed in him were about to receive, for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
7:40For this reason some of the crowd, when they heard these words, were saying, “This truly is the Prophet.” 7:41Others were saying, “This is the Christ”, but others were saying, “Surely the Christ does not come from Galilee, does he? 7:42The Scripture says, doesn’t it, that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” [fn: See Matthew 2:1; Luke 2:4-7.] 7:43So a division occurred within the crowd because of him, 7:44and some of them wanted to seize him, but no one laid hands upon him.
7:45So the attendants to the high priests and Pharisees returned, and they said to them, “Why didn’t you bring him?” 7:46The attendants answered, “No one has ever spoken in this way!” 7:47So the Pharisees answered them, “You haven’t been deceived too, have you? 7:48None of the leaders or the Pharisees has believed in him, have they? 7:49But this crowd, which does not know the law—they are accursed!”
7:50Nicodemus—the one who came to him the previous time [fn: See 3:1-16 above and 19:38-42 below.], who was one of them—said to them, 7:51“Our law does not condemn a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he did, does it?” 7:52They answered and said to him, “You aren’t also from Galilee, are you? Look into it and see that a prophet does not arise from Galilee.” [fn: But see Isaiah 9:1-2, 6-7.]
7:53And each person went to his house. [fn: While John 8:1-11 is not found in the best and earliest manuscripts, there is important ancient testimony to it, and traditionally English translations include it here.]
CHAPTER 8
8:1Now Jesus went to the Mount of Olives, 8:2and when it was daybreak, Jesus again went to the temple, and all the people were coming to him, and he sat down and was teaching them.
8:3Now the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been seized for adultery, and standing her in his presence, 8:4they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was seized in the act of committing adultery. 8:5Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such a person as she is. What do you say, then?” 8:6Now they were saying this to test him, so that they might have something with which to accuse him.
So Jesus stooped down, and wrote in the earth with his finger. 8:7And as they continued asking him, he raised himself up and said to them, “The one of you who is without sin may throw the first stone at her.” 8:8And again he stooped down and wrote in the earth. 8:9And those who heard went away one by one, beginning with the elders, and he was left alone, and the woman was there in his presence.
8:10And raising himself up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Does no one condemn you?” 8:11 And she said, “No one, Lord.” So Jesus said, “I don’t condemn you either. Go, and from now on sin no longer.”
8:12So again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.” [fn: During this festival, tabernacles, four huge lamps were installed in the court of women in the temple and illuminated Jerusalem far and wide.]
8:13So the Pharisees said to him, “You are testifying about yourself. Your testimony is not truthful.”
8:14Jesus answered and said to them, “Even if I testify about myself, my testimony is truthful, for I know where I came from and where I am going. 8:15You judge according to the flesh. I do not judge anything, 8:16but even if I do judge, my judgement is truthful, because it is not I alone who judges, but it is I and the Father who sent me. 8:17But even in your law it is written that the testimony of two men is truthful. 8:18I am one who testifies about myself, and the Father who sent me also testifies about me.”
8:19For this reason they said to him, “Where is your father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would have known my Father also.” 8:20He spoke these words while teaching in the temple, in the treasury located in the court of women. Yet no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come.
8:21For this reason, he again said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. You cannot come where I am going.”
8:22So the Jews were saying, “You don’t suppose he’ll kill himself, do you? For he is saying, ‘you cannot come to where I am going’.”
8:23And he said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are from this world; I am not from this world. 8:24This was the reason I said to you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins.”
8:25So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “What I have been saying to you from the beginning, which is also what I am saying to you now. [fn: A literal translation of the Greek is, “Jesus said to them, ‘the beginning, which is what also I am saying to you’.” The rendering adopted in the text is the common understanding of the English versions, but some ancient Christian interpreters understood Jesus to being saying that he is “from eternity” or “the beginning” (cf. John 1:1, 8:58).] 8:26I have many things to say and to judge about you, but the one who sent me is truthful, and that which I have heard about him, these things I speak to the world.”
8:27They did not understand that he was speaking to them about the Father. 8:28Therefore, Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am, and that I do nothing from myself, but that I am saying these things just as the Father taught me. 8:29And the one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I do everything that pleases him.”
8:30While he was saying these things, many believed in him. 8:31For this reason, Jesus said to the Jews who believed, “If you remain in my word, you truly are my disciples, 8:32and you will know the truth, and the truth will free you.”
8:33They answered him, “We are the offspring of Abraham [fn: The forefather of the Hebrews and the Jews, who lived around 2000 BC.], and have never been enslaved by anyone. How can you say that ‘you will become free’?”
8:34Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, everyone doing sin is a slave to sin. 8:35Now the slave does not remain in the house forever; the Son remains forever. 8:36So if the Son frees you, you will really be free. 8:37I know that you are the offspring of Abraham, but you are looking to kill me, because you do not make room for my word in you. 8:38What I have seen from my Father I also tell you. For the same reason, you are doing what you have heard from your father.”
8:39They answered and said to him, “Our father is Abraham.” Jesus said to them, “If you are the children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham. 8:40But you are now looking to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. 8:41You are doing the works of your father.”
So they said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one father, God.” 8:42Jesus said to them, “If God were your father, you would love me, for I went out and came from God. For I did not come from myself, but God sent me. 8:43Why don’t you understand my words? Because you cannot hear my message. 8:44You are from your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he doesn’t stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks the lie, he is speaking his own language, because he is a liar and the father of lies. 8:45But because I am telling you the truth, you don’t believe. 8:46Who of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? 8:47The one who is from God listens to the word of God. This is the reason you do not listen, because you are not from God.”
8:48The Jews answered and said to him, “Well did we say, did we not, that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” 8:49Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honour my Father and you dishonour me. 8:50And I don’t seek my own glory. He is the one who seeks it, and judges. 8:51Truly, truly I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”
8:52So the Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets, yet you say, ‘if anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death’. 8:53You aren’t greater than our father Abraham, are you, who died, and the prophets died? What are you making yourself?”
8:54Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. My Father is the one who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God’. 8:55Yet you do not know him, but I know him. And if I say, ‘I don’t know him’, I would be a liar like you. But I know him, and keep his word. 8:56Abraham your father was overjoyed to see my day, and he saw it and rejoiced.”
8:57So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and you have seen Abraham?” 8:58Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham came into existence, I am.” [fn: The phrase “I am” (Greek egō eimi) is also used in this special sense in John 4:26, 6:20, 8:24, 28, 58, 13:19, 18:45. In the Old Testament, God revealed himself to Moses in the account of the burning bush as “I am who I am” and “I am” (Exod 3:14; Deut 32:39; Isa 41:4, 43:10, 45:1).] 8:59At this they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid and went out of the temple.
CHAPTER 9
9:1And as he passed by he saw a man blind from birth. 9:2And the disciples asked him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 9:3Jesus answered, “Neither this man sinned, nor his parents, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 9:4We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming, when no one is able to work. 9:5While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
9:6After he said these things, he spat on the ground and made mud from the spittle, and he smeared the mud on his eyes. 9:7And he said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated ‘sent’). So he went away and washed, and left seeing.
9:8Because of this, his neighbours and those who formerly saw that he was a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who sits and begs?” 9:9Some said, “He is”, while still others said, “No, but he looks like him”. The man himself said, “I am.” 9:10 So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 9:11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and smeared it on my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash’. So I went away and washed, and I could see.” 9:12And they said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I don’t know.”
9:13They brought the man who was once blind to the Pharisees. 9:14Now the day Jesus had made mud and opened his eyes was the Sabbath. 9:15So the Pharisees again also asked him how he could see, and he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I could see.”
9:16So some of the Pharisees were saying, “This man is not from God, because he doesn’t keep the Sabbath.” But others were saying, “How can a sinful man do such signs as these?” And there was a division among them. 9:17So they again said to the blind man, “What do you say about him, for he opened your eyes?” And he said, “He is a prophet.”
9:18But the Jews did not believe about him that he was blind and could see again until they heard the parents of the man who could see, 9:19and they asked them, saying, “This is your son, isn’t he, whom you say was born blind? So how is it that he now sees?” 9:20Then his parents answered and said, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind, 9:21but we don’t know how it is that he now sees, nor who opened his eyes. Ask him, he is of age. He will speak about himself.” 9:22His parents said these things because they were afraid of the Jews, for the Jews had already decided that if someone confessed him Christ, they would be excluded from the synagogue. 9:23 It was for this reason that his parents said, “He is of age. Ask him.”
9:24So for a second time they called the man who was blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” 9:25Then that man answered, “I don’t know if he is a sinner—one thing I do know: I was blind, and now I can see.” 9:26So they said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 9:27He answered them, “I already told you, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You don’t want to become his disciples too, do you?”
9:28Then they mocked him and said, “You are that man’s disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 9:29We know that God spoke to Moses, but we don’t know where this man is from.”
9:30The man answered and said to them, “Now this is amazing, that you don’t know where he is from, yet he opened my eyes! 9:31We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but to someone who worships him and does his will. 9:32No one has ever heard of anyone opening the eyes of a person born blind. 9:33Unless this man were from God, he wouldn’t be able to do anything.”
9:34They answered and said to him, “You were born entirely in sin, and you would teach us?” And they threw him out.
9:35Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and finding him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 9:36The man answered and said, “And who is he, Lord, that I might believe in him?” 9:37Jesus said to him, “You have even seen him, and he is the one speaking with you.” 9:38So he said, “I believe, Lord.” And he worshipped him.
9:39And Jesus said, “I have come into this world for judgement, so that those who don’t see might see, and those who see might become blind.”
9:40Those from the Pharisees who were with him heard these things, and they said to him, “We’re not blind too, are we?” 9:41Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We can see’, your sin remains.
CHAPTER 10
10:1“Truly, truly I say to you, the one who does not come into the sheep pen through the gate but who gets into it another way, that person is a thief and robber. 10:2But the one who goes in through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 10:3The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out. 10:4When he brings out all his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. 10:5But they will never follow a stranger, but they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the stranger’s voice.”
10:6Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
10:7So again Jesus said, “Truly, truly I say to you, that I am the gate for the sheep. 10:8Everyone who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. 10:9I am the gate. The one who enters through me will be saved and will go in and go out and find pasture. 10:10The thief does not come except to steal and butcher and destroy. I have come that they might have life, and have it abundantly.
10:11“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 10:12The hired hand, also not being the shepherd, whose sheep they are not, sees the wolf coming and abandons the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them—10:13because the hired hand also does not care about the sheep.
10:14“I am the good shepherd, and I know my sheep and my sheep know me, 10:15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. 10:16And I have other sheep which are not from this sheep pen. And I must also bring these in, and they will listen to my voice, and they will become one flock under one shepherd.
10:17“For this reason, the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, so that I can take it up again. 10:18No-one takes it from me, but I lay it down myself. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”
10:19A division again came about among the Jews because of these words. 10:20And many of them were saying, “He has a demon and is insane. Why listen to him?” 10:21But others were saying, “These are not the words of someone demon-possessed! A demon cannot open the eyes of the blind.”
10:22Then came the festival of dedication [fn: The festival of dedication, also known as Hannukah, was not set down by the Old Testament but arose from the re-dedication of the Second Temple in 167 BC after it had been desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes.] in Jerusalem. It was winter, 10:23and Jesus was walking in the temple in Solomon’s porch. 10:24So the Jews encircled him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us openly.”
10:25Jesus answered them, “I told you and you don’t believe. The works which I do in my Father’s name testify about me, 10:26but you don’t believe because you are not my sheep. 10:27My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, 10:28and I give them eternal life, and they will never ever perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 10:29My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one can snatch them from my Father’s hand. 10:30I and my Father are one.”
10:31Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him. 10:32Jesus answered and said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these works do you stone me?”
10:33The Jews answered him, “We do not stone you for a good work, but for blasphemy, and because you, being a man, make yourself God!” 10:34Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, that ‘I said, “You are gods”? [fn: Psalm 82:6.] 10:35If those to whom the word of God came are called ‘gods’, and the Scripture cannot be broken, 10:36what of he whom the Father set apart and sent into the world? But you say, ‘You are blaspheming’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’. 10:37If I don’t do the works of my Father, do not believe me, 10:38but if I am doing [them], and you don’t believe me, believe through the works, so that you might know and keep on knowing that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”
10:39So they again looked to seize him, yet he escaped their hand. 10:40And he went away again across the Jordan to the place where John first baptized, and he stayed there. 10:41And many came to him and said, “John did no signs, but everything John said about him was true.” 10:42And many believed in him there.
CHAPTER 11
11:1Now a certain person, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha, was sick. 11:2And this Mary, whose brother Lazarus was sick, was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair. 11:3So the sisters sent word to him, saying, “Lord, look, he whom you love is sick”. 11:4And when he heard, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God might glorified through it.”
11:5Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 11:6So since he had heard that he was sick, he stayed in the place where he was two more days after that. 11:7Then after this he said to his disciples, “Let’s go into Judea again.” 11:8The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews are now seeking to stone you, and you are going there again?” 11:9Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? Someone who walks in the daylight doesn’t stumble, because that person sees the light of this world. 11:10But anyone who walks in the night stumbles, because there is no light in the night.”
11:11He said these things, and after this he said to them, “Lazarus our friend is asleep, but we are going so that I might awaken him.” 11:12So the disciples said to him, “Lord, if he is asleep, he will be saved.” 11:13But Jesus had spoken about his death, though they thought that he was speaking about the normal bodily rest of sleep. 11:14So then Jesus spoke to them openly: “Lazarus is dead. 11:15And I am glad for your sake that we are not there, so that you might believe, But let’s go to him.” 11:16So Thomas, called ‘twin’, said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s also go with him so that we might die with him.”
11:17So when he arrived, Jesus found him having already been in the tomb for four days. 11:18Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about 15 stadia away, 11:19and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother. 11:20So as soon as Martha heard that Jesus had arrived, she went to meet him, while Mary was sitting in the house. 11:21So Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you were here, my brother would not have died. 11:22But even now I know that God will give you as much as you ask him.”
11:23Jesus said to her, “Your brother will be raised.” 11:24Martha said to him, “I know that he will be raised in the resurrection on the last day.” 11:25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though that person dies. 11:26And every one who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this? 11:27She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”
11:28And after she said this, she went away and called Mary her sister secretly, saying, “The teacher is here and is calling you.” 11:29So when she heard, she arose quickly and came to him.
11:30Now Jesus had not yet entered into the village, but he was still in the place where Martha met him. 11:31So the Jews who were with her in the house and consoling her, when they saw that Mary quickly stood up and went out, followed her, supposing that she went out to the tomb that she might weep there.
11:32So Mary, as she came to where Jesus was, saw him and fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you were here, my brother wouldn’t have died.” 11:33So as he saw her weeping, and the Jews who were coming with her weeping, Jesus was moved with angry emotion in his spirit, and was deeply disturbed. 11:34And he said, “Where have they put him?” 11:35 Jesus broke down and cried. 11:36So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.” 11:37But some of them said, “Couldn’t the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this person from dying?”
11:38Then Jesus, again moved with angry emotion in himself, arrived at the tomb. Now there was a cave, and a stone had been placed across it. 11:39Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, now it will smell, for it is the fourth day.” 11:40Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” 11:41Then they took away the stone, and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you hear me. 11:42And I know that you always hear me. But because of the crowd standing around, I spoke, so that they might believe that you sent me. 11:43And having said these things, he shouted in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 11:44The dead man came out, his feet and hands bound with bandages, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Untie and release him so that he can go.”
11:45For this reason, many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what he did believed in him, 11:46but some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus did.
11:47So the high priests and the Pharisees called together the Sanhedrin [fn: The Jewish ruling council.] and said, “What are we doing? This man is doing many signs. 11:48If we let him keep going in this way, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place [fn: A reference to the temple in Jerusalem.] and our nation.”
11:49But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing! 11:50Don’t you think that it is better for you that one man die for the people and the whole nation not perish?” 11:51And he did not say this in his personal capacity, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die on behalf of the nation, 11:52and not only on behalf of the nation, but also so that the scattered children of God might be gathered together as one.
11:53So from that day on they planned to kill him. 11:54For this reason, Jesus no longer travelled openly among the Jews, but he went away into the nearby desert region, into Ephraim called a city, and there he stayed with his disciples.
11:55Now the Passover of the Jews [fn: The third Passover mentioned by John.] was approaching, and many went up to Jerusalem from the country prior to the Passover so that they might sanctify [fn: The ritual cleansing required by the law of Moses.] themselves. 11:56So they were looking for Jesus, and saying to one another while standing in the temple, “What do you think? For surely he won’t come to the festival, will he?” 11:57Now the high priests and the Pharisees had given a command that anyone who knows where he is should report it, so that they can arrest him.
CHAPTER 12
12:1For this reason, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus was, who Jesus raised from the dead. 12:2So they prepared a banquet for him there, and Martha was serving, and Lazarus was one of those who were reclining for the meal with him.
12:3Then Mary, taking a pound of the expensive ointment of genuine spike nard [fn: 328 grams, almost one third of a kilogram, of expensive aromatic essential oil used as a perfume or in traditional medicine.], anointed the feet of Jesus, and dried his feet off with her hair. And the house was full of the fragrance of the ointment.
12:4Now Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, the one who was going to betray him, said, 12:5“Why wasn’t this ointment sold for 300 denarius and the money given to the poor?” [fn: About a year’s wages for a day labourer.] 12:6Now he said this not because it mattered to him about the poor, but because he was a thief, and since he held the money bag, he stole what was put in it.
12:7In response Jesus said, “Leave her alone, because she kept this ointment for the day of my embalming. 12:8For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
12:9So a great crowd of the Jews, knowing that Jesus was there, also came not only because of Jesus, but also to see Lazarus, whom he raised from the dead.
12:10Now the high priests conspired also to kill Lazarus, 12:11because on his account many of the Jews were leaving them and believing in Jesus.
12:12On the next day, the great crowd that was coming to the festival, when they heard that Jesus was coming into Jerusalem, 12:13took the branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, and were crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” and “the King of Israel”.
12:14Now Jesus found a donkey and sat upon it, just as it is written, 12:15“Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. See, you king is coming, sitting upon the colt of a donkey.” [fn: Zechariah 9:9.] 12:16His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written for him, and they did these things for him.
12:17So the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead kept testifying. 12:18This was the reason that the crowd also went to meet him, because they had heard that he had done this sign.
12:19So the Pharisees said among themselves, “Look, you aren’t getting anywhere. See how the world has gone after him!”
12:20Now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the festival. [fn: Probably gentile God-fearers, non-Jews who gathered around the synagogues, frequently financially supported it, and worshipped the God of Israel without getting circumcised.] 12:21So these men came to Philip from Bethsaida of Galilee and asked him, “Lord, we want to see Jesus.” 12:22Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.
12:23And Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 12:24Truly, truly I say to you, if the grain of wheat which falls into the earth does not die, this grain remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 12:25Those who love their lives destroy them, and those who hates their lives in this world will keep them into eternal life. 12:26Anyone who serves me must follow me, and where I am, there my servant will also be. The Father will honour the one who serves me.
12:27“Now my soul is troubled, and what should I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour?’ Rather, this is the reason I have come to this hour. 12:28‘Father, glorify your name.’”
Then a voice came from heaven, “I have also glorified it, and I will again glorify it”. 12:29Then the crowd which stood and heard said, “It was thunder”, but others said, “An angel had spoken to him.”
12:30Jesus answered and said, “This voice has not come on my account, but for you. 12:31Now is the judgement of this world, now the ruler of this world will be thrown out. 12:32And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.” 12:33Now he said this signifying the kind of death he was going to die.
12:34For this reason the crowd answered him, “We heard from the law that the Christ will stay forever, yet how is it that you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”
12:35So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness does not take hold of you, and the one who walks in the darkness doesn’t know where he is going”. 12:36While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you might become sons of the light.” Jesus said these things, and then he went away and hid from them.
12:37Now after he had done so many signs in their sight, they did not believe in him, 12:38so that the word of Isaiah the prophet would be fulfilled, which said, “Lord who believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” [fn: Isaiah 53:1.] 12:39For this reason, they couldn’t believe, because Isaiah also said, 12:40“He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so that they do not see with their eyes nor understand with their hearts, and be converted, and I will heal them.” [fn: Isaiah 6:10.] 12:41Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory, and spoke about him. 12:42But still even many of the rulers believed in him, but they would not confess him because of the Pharisees, so that they would not be excluded from the synagogue. 12:43 For they loved glory from people more than the glory of God.
12:44Now Jesus cried out and said, “The one who believes in me does not believe in me, but in he who sent me, 12:45and the one who sees me sees he who sent me. 12:46I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness. 12:47And if anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.
12:48“The one who sets me aside and doesn’t receive my words has a judge: the word which I have spoken will judge that person on the last day. 12:49For I have not spoken from myself, but the one who sent me, the Father himself has given me a command, which is what I say and speak. 12:50And I know that his command is eternal life. So what I speak, I likewise speak just as the Father has spoken to me.”
CHAPTER 13
13:1Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus, seeing that his hour had come, so that he would transfer from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
13:2And when the evening meal had come, when the devil at that time had put it into the heart of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray him, 13:3knowing that the Father had given all things into his hand, and that he had come from God and he was going to God, 13:4he got up from the evening meal and put on the garments, and taking a towel, he tied it around himself. 13:5Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of his disciples, and to dry them off with the towel which he had tied around him.
13:6So he came to Simon Peter. He said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 13:7Jesus answered and said to him, “You do not understand now what I am doing, but after these things you will understand. 13:8Peter said to him, “You will most certainly never wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with me.”
13:9Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!” 13:10Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but the whole person is clean. And you are clean, but not all of you.” 13:11For he knew who was going to betray him. For this reason he had said that “Not all of you are clean”.
13:12So when he had washed their feet, and put on his clothes and reclined again, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done for you 13:13You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘Lord’, and well you say this, for I am. 13:14Therefore, if I, the ‘Lord’ and ‘teacher’, have washed your feet, you also are obliged to wash one another’s feet. 13:15For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done for you.
13:16Truly, truly I say to you, a slave is not greater than his Lord, neither is an apostle greater than the one sending him. 13:17If you understand these things, blessed are you if you do them.
13:18I do not speak about all of you, for I know those whom I have chosen, but so that the Scripture might be fulfilled, “the one eating my bread has lifted his heel against me”. [fn: Psalm 41:9] 13:19I tell you this now before it happens, so that you might believe when it happens that I am.
13:20Truly, truly I say to you, the one who receives anyone who I will send receives me, and the one who receives me receives the one who sent me.
13:21Having said these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and he testified and said, “Truly, truly I say to you, that one of you will betray me.”
13:22The disciples began looking at one another, at a loss about what he was saying. 13:23One of his disciples, one whom Jesus loved, was reclining at Jesus’ belly. 13:24So Simon Peter nodded to him to enquire who it might be about whom he spoke. 13:25So that disciple, leaning thus upon Jesus’ chest, said to him, “Lord, who is it?”
13:26Jesus answered, “That man is he to whom I will give the piece of bread I will dip.” So he dipped the piece of bread and gave it to Judas, son of Simon Iscariot. 13:27And then Satan entered him after he took the piece of bread. So Jesus said to him, “What you are doing, do quickly”.
13:28But none of those reclining knew what he had said to him. 13:29For some had supposed that since Judas had care of the money bag, that Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the festival”, or “Go, give something to the poor”. 13:30So Judas took the piece of bread and left immediately. And it was night.
13:31So when he had left, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him. 13:32If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and immediately he will glorify him.
13:33Little children, I am still with you for a little while. You will look for me, and just as I said to the Jews that ‘you cannot come where I am going’, now I also say it to you.
13:34A new command I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, so also you must love one another. 13:35In this way everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
13:36Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered him, “where I am going, you now cannot follow me, but you will follow later.”
13:37Peter said to him, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” 13:38Jesus answered, “You will lay down your life for me? Truly, truly I say to you, the rooster will certainly not crow until you have denied me three times.
CHAPTER 14
14:1“Do not let your heart be disturbed. You trust in God; trust also in me. 14:2In my Father’s house are many rooms. If there weren’t, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 14:3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will once again come and take you to be with me, so that you also may be where I am. 14:4And you know the way to where I am going.”
14:5Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going: how can we know the way?” 14:6Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me. 14:7If you had known me, you would also know my Father. And from now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
14:8Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that is enough for us.” 14:9Jesus said to him, “I have been with you for such a long time, and you do not know me, Philip? The one who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 14:10You believe, don’t you, that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me? The words which I am saying to you, I am not speaking from myself, but the Father who remains in me is doing his works. 14:11Believe me that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me. But if not, believe because of the works themselves.
14:12“Truly, truly I say to you, the one who believes in me will also do these works which I am doing, and will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 14:13And whatever you ask for in my name, I will do, so that the Father might be glorified in the Son. 14:14If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.
14:15“If you love me, you will keep my commands. 14:16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, so that he might be with you forever, 14:17the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see nor know him. You know him, because he remains with you and will be in you. [fn: In John 14:17, some good early witnesses read ‘is in you’ rather than ‘will be in you’.]
14:18I will not leave you orphans; I am coming to you. 14:19Yet a little while and the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, that I am living and you will live. 14:20On that day, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
14:21“The one who has my commands and keeps them loves me. Now, the one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”
14:22Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, what has happened, that you are going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”
14:23Jesus answered and said to him, “Anyone who loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love that person. We will come and make our dwelling with that person. 14:24The one who does not love me does not keep my word. And the word which you hear is not mine but is the Father’s who sent me.
14:25“I have spoken these things to you while I remain with you. 14:26But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and will enable you to remember everything which I have said to you.
14:27“I leave you peace, I give you my peace. I don’t give you peace like the world gives it. Do not let your heart be troubled or afraid. 14:28You have heard that I said to you, ‘I am going away and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than me. 14:29And now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens you might believe. 14:30I will not speak with you much longer, for the ruler of the world is coming, and in me he has nothing, 14:31but so that the world might know that I love the Father, what I am doing is just what the Father has commanded me. Arise, let us go from here.
CHAPTER 15
15:1“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 15:2He removes every branch in me which does not bear fruit, and he prunes clean every branch which bears fruit, so that it bears more fruit. 15:3Now you are clean, because of the word which I have spoken to you.
15:4“Remain in me, and I will remain in you. Just as the branch is unable to bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, in this same way will you not bear fruit unless you remain in me.
15:5“I am the vine, you are the branches. The one who remains in me, and in whom I remain, bears much fruit, for apart from me you cannot do anything. 15:6Anyone who does not remain in me is a branch that is cut off and withers, and they gather them up and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 15:7If you remain in me, and my word remains in you, you can ask whatever you want, and it will happen for you. 15:8In this my Father will be glorified, so that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.
15:9“In the same way that the Father loves me, I also love you. Remain in my love. 15:10If you keep my commands, you remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
15:11“I have spoken these things to you so that my joy might be in you, and your joy might be complete. 15:12This is my command, that you love one another just as I love you. 15:13No one has greater love than this, that they lay down their life for their friends. 15:14You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15:15I no longer call you ‘servants’, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I call you ‘friends’, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 15:16You did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you to go and bear fruit, and that your fruit might remain, so that I might give you whatever you ask the Father in my name. 15:17I am commanding you to do these things, so that you love one another.
15:18“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before you. 15:19If you were from the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not from the world, but I have chosen you from the world, for this reason the world hates you. 15:20Remember the word which I spoke to you, ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 15:21But they will do all these things to you because of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me. 15:22Unless I had come and spoken to them, they would not have sin. But now they do not have an excuse about their sin. 15:23The one who hates me also hates my Father. 15:24If I had not done the works among them which no one else did, they would not have sin. But now they have also seen me and have also hated me and my Father. 15:25But so that the word written in their law be fulfilled, ‘They freely hated me’. [fn: Psalm 35:19, 69:4.]
15:26“When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. 15:27And you also will testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.
CHAPTER 16
16:1“I have spoken these things to you so that you might not stumble. 16:2They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed an hour is coming when anyone who kills you will think it a service offered to God. 16:3And they will do these things because they have not known the Father nor me.
16:4“However, I have spoken these things to you so that when their hour comes, you will remember them, because I have told you. But I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you.
16:5“But now I am going to the one who sent me, and none of you asks me, “Where are you going?” 16:6But because I have said these things to you, grief has filled your heart.
16:7“But I am telling you the truth, it is better for you that I go away, for if I did not go away, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 16:8And when he comes, he will prosecute the world about sin and about righteousness and about judgement—16:9about sin, because they do not believe in me, 16:10about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, and you will no longer see me, 16:11and about judgement, because the ruler of this world stands judged.
16:12“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 16:13But when that one comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you in all the truth. For he will not speak from himself, but he will speak as much as he will hear, and he will announce to you the things that are coming. 16:14He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and announce it to you. 16:15Everything—as much has the Father has—is mine. This is the reason I said that he takes from what is mine and will announce it to you.
16:16“A little while and you are no longer going to see me, and again a little while, and you will see me.”
16:17Therefore, some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this which he is saying to us, ‘a little while and you are not going to see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? and that ‘I am going away to the Father’?” 16:18So they were saying, “what is this ‘little while’ which he is talking about? We don’t know what he is saying.”
16:19Jesus, knowing that they wanted to ask him, also said to them, “Are you searching out about this with one another, because I said ‘a little while and you are not going to see me, and again a little while and you will see me’?”
16:20“Truly, truly I say to you, that you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice. You will grieve, but your grief will turn into joy. 16:21The woman, when she gives birth, is grieved because her hour has come. But when she gives birth to the child, she doesn’t remember her distress any longer because of her joy that she has borne a human into the world. 16:22So therefore you now have grief, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one is going to take your joy away from you.
16:23“And on that day, you will not ask me anything. Truly, truly I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in my name, he will give it to you. 16:24Up until now, you haven’t asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy might be full.
16:25“I have spoken these things to you with figures of speech. An hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech, but I will declare to you openly about the Father. 16:26On that day, you will ask in my name, and I am not saying to you that I will ask the Father about you. 16:27For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and believed that I came from God. 16:28I came from the Father and I have come into the world, yet I am again leaving the world and going to the Father.”
16:29The disciples said to him, “See, you are now speaking openly and no longer speaking in figures of speech. 16:30Now we know that you know everything, and you do not need anyone to question you. Because of this, we believe that you have come from God.”
16:31Jesus answered them, “Now you believe? 16:32See that an hour is coming and has come, when each of you will be scattered to his own home and leave me alone. 16:33I have spoken these things to you so that you might have peace in me. In this world you have trouble. But take heart! I have had victory over the world.”
CHAPTER 17
17:1Jesus said these things, and then, lifting his eyes to heaven, said, “Father, the hour has come; Glorify your Son, so that the Son might glorify you, 17:2just as you gave him authority over all flesh, that he might give eternal life to everyone you have given to him. 17:3Now this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, who you sent. 17:4I have glorified you on earth, completing the work which you have given me to do. 17:5And now, glorify me, Father, with the glory which I had with you before the world came to be.
17:6“I have revealed your name to those whom you gave me from the world. They were for you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 17:7Now they know that all things—as much as you have given me—are from you. 17:8For I have given them the words which you gave me, and they received them and truly know that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.
17:9“I ask about them—I do not ask about the world but about those whom you have given me—that they are for you, 17:10and everything that is mine is yours, and your things are mine, and I have been glorified in them. 17:11I am no longer in the world, and they are in the world, and I am coming to you.
“Holy Father, keep them in your name which you have given me, so that they might be one just as we are one. 17:12When I was with them, I kept them in your name which you gave me, and guarded them, and none of them perished except the son of perdition, so that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 17:13But now I am coming to you, and I spoke these things in the world, so that they might have my joy fulfilled in them.
17:14“I have given them your word, and the world hated them, because they are not from the world, just as I am not from the world. 17:15I do not ask that you take them from the world, but that you keep them from evil. 17:16They are not from the world just as I am not from the world. 17:17Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. 17:18Just as you sent me into the world, I also sent them into the world. 17:19And for them I sanctify myself, so that they also might be sanctified in the truth.
17:20“I am not asking only about them, but also about those who believe in me through their word, 17:21so that all might be one, just as you Father are in me and I am in you, so that they also might be in us, so that the world might believe that you sent me. 17:22And I have given them the glory which you gave me, so that they might be one just as we are one: 17:23I in them and you in me, so that they might be completely brought into one, that the world might know that you sent me, and you loved them just as you loved me.
17:24“Father, I want that which you gave me, so that they also might be with me where I am, so that they might see my glory which you have given me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
17:25“Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and these people know that you sent me. 17:26And I made known to them your name, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me might be in them, and I in them.”
CHAPTER 18
18:1Having said these things, Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley [fn: The valley between the city of Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives.], where there was a garden, into which he and his disciples entered.
18:2Now Judas, the one who betrayed him, also knew about the same place, because Jesus had met there with his disciples many times. 18:3So Judas took a cohort of Roman soldiers and attendants from the high priests and Pharisees, and came there with torches, lanterns, and weapons.
18:4So Jesus, because he knew everything which was coming upon him, went out and said to them, “Who are you looking for?” 18:5They answered him, “Jesus the Nazarene”. He said to them, “I am”. And Judas, the one who betrayed him, was also standing with them. 18:6So when he said to them, “I am”, they drew back and fell to the ground. 18:7So again he asked them, “Who are you looking for?” And they said, “Jesus the Nazarene.” 18:8Jesus answered, “I said to you that I am. So if you are looking for me, let these people go” 18:9(that the word which he spoke be fulfilled, “I have not lost one of those who you have given me”). [fn: See above at 6:39, 17:12.]
18:10So Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. (And the name of the servant was Malchus.) 18:11So Jesus said to Peter, “Put the sword back in its sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which the Father has given me?” [fn: ‘Drinking the cup’ is a way of talking about receiving a painful judgement, like we would say, ‘taking your medicine’.]
18:12So the cohort and the tribune and the attendants of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him 18:13and brought him first to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year.
18:14Now Caiaphas was the one who advised the Jews that it is better for one man to die for the people.
18:15Now Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. And that disciple was known to the high priest, and he went in with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, 18:16but Peter stood outside at the door. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the doorkeeper, and brought Peter in.
18:17So the servant girl who was the doorkeeper said to Peter, “You also aren’t one of the disciples of this man, are you?” He said, “I am not”. 18:18Now the servants and the attendants were standing there having made a fire of coals—for it was cold—and they were warming themselves. And Peter was also standing with them, warming himself.
18:19Then the high priest asked Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching. 18:20Jesus answered him, “I have spoken openly to the world. I always taught in synagogue and the temple, where all the Jews came together, and I said nothing in secret. 18:21Why do you ask me? Ask those who heard what I said to them. Look, these people know what I said.”
18:22Now while he was saying these things, one of the attendants standing there hit Jesus, saying, “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” 18:23Jesus answered him, “If I spoke evilly, testify about that evil: but if I spoke well, why did you hit me?”
18:24Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.
18:25Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, “You aren’t also one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.” 18:26One of the servants of the high priest, who was a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said, “I saw you with him in the garden, didn’t I?” 18:27So again Peter denied it, and immediately a rooster crowed.
18:28Then they brought Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium [fn: The headquarters and house of a Roman governor or general.]. Now it was early, and they had not entered the Praetorium so that they would not become unclean but might eat the Passover. 18:29So Pilate [Pontius Pilate (d. ca. AD 39) was the Roman Prefect of the province of Judea from AD 26-36.] came out to them and said, “What charge do you bring against this man?” 18:30They answered and said to him, “If he were not doing evil, we wouldn’t have handed him over to you.” 18:31Then Pilate said to them, “You take him and judge him according to your law”. The Jews said to him, “It is unlawful for us to put anyone to death”, 18:32that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled which he had spoken signifying what kind of death he was going to die.
18:33So Pilate again went into the Praetorium, and he called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” 18:34Jesus answered, “Do you say this from yourself, or have others spoken to you about me?” 18:35Pilate answered, “I’m not a Jew, am I? Your nation and the high priests handed you over to me. What did you do?”
18:36Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my attendants would fight so that I would not have been handed over by the Jews. But now my kingdom is not from here.”
18:37So Pilate said to him, “Aren’t you a king, then?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born and for this I have come into the world, so that I might testify to the truth. All those who are of the truth listen to my voice.” 18:38Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” And having said this, he again went out to the Jews and said to them, “I find no cause against him. 18:39Now it is your custom that I release for you someone at Passover time. So do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews?”
18:40Again they cried out saying, “Not this man but Barabbas.” Now Barabbas was a robber.
CHAPTER 19
19:1So then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. 19:2And the soldiers, having twisted a crown of thorns, put it on his head, and put a purple robe around him, 19:3and they came to him and said, “Hail, king of the Jews”. And they hit him repeatedly.
19:4And again Pilate went out and said to them, “Look, I brought him out to you, so that you might know that I find no cause against him. 19:5So Jesus came outside, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And he said to them, “Look, here is the man!”
19:6Then when the high priests and the attendants saw him, they shouted out, saying, “Crucify him, crucify him.” Pilate said to them, “You take him and crucify him. For I have not found cause against him.”
19:7The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to the law, he deserves to die, because he made himself the Son of God”.
19:8Then when Pilate heard this word, he was more afraid, 19:9and went into the Praetorium again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus did not give him an answer.
19:10So Pilate said to him, “Aren’t you speaking to me? Don’t you know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” 19:11Jesus answered him, “You would not have any authority over me unless it had been given to you from above. For this reason, the one who handed me over to you has committed a greater sin.” 19:12From this point on, Pilate sought to release him. But the Jews shouted out, saying, “If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who makes himself a king speaks against Caesar”. 19:13So when Pilate heard this word, he brought Jesus out and sat upon the judgement seat in the place called the ‘stone pavement’, but in Aramaic, ‘Gabbatha’. 19:14Now it was the day for the preparation [fn: i.e. The day before.] of the Passover, at the sixth hour [fn: 12 noon.]. And he said to the Jews, “Look, here is your king!” 19:15Then they cried out, “lift him up, lift him up, crucify him!” Pilate said to him, “Should I crucify your king?” The high priests answered, “We have no king except Caesar”. 19:16So then he handed him over to them to be crucified.
So they took Jesus, 19:17and bearing his own cross, he went out to the place called ‘Skull’, which is called in Aramaic, ‘Golgotha’, 19:18where they crucified him, and two others with him, one on one side and one on the other, and Jesus in the middle.
19:19And Pilate also wrote a sign and placed it upon the cross. And on it was written, “Jesus the Nazarene, the king of the Jews”. 19:20And many of the Jews read this sign, because the place where they crucified Jesus was near the city. And it was written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek.
19:21So the high priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The king of the Jews’, but that ‘This man said, “I am king of the Jews.”’” 19:22Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
19:23Then the soldiers, when they crucified Jesus, took his clothes and made four shares, a share for each soldier, and the tunic. Now the tunic was seamless, woven from top to bottom. 19:24So they said to one another, “Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it to decide whose it will be”, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled which said, “they divided my clothes among themselves, and for my garment cast a lot”. [fn: Psalm 22:18.]
For this reason the soldiers did these things, 19:25but standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 19:26So Jesus, when he saw his mother and the disciple whom Jesus loved standing with her, said to his mother, “Woman, look, here is your son”, 19:27then he said to the disciple, “Look, here is your mother”. And from that hour, this disciple took her into his home.
19:28After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had now been accomplished so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, said, “I am thirsty”. 19:29A container was put there full of wine vinegar. So they presented a sponge full of wine vinegar, placed on a hyssop branch, to his mouth. 19:30So when Jesus took the wine vinegar, he said, “It is accomplished”. And having bowed his head, he gave up his spirit.
19:31Then the Jews, since it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the Sabbath—for that was a great day of the Sabbath—asked Pilate that their legs be broken and they be taken off the cross. [fn: Deuteronomy 21:22-23 commanded that the body of an executed criminal hung on a tree should not remain overnight but be buried the same day, and that person is cursed by God. Breaking the legs in crucifixion led to a quicker death by asphyxiation.] 19:32So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who was crucified with him, 19:33but on coming to Jesus, when they saw that he had already died, they did not break his legs, 19:34but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. 19:35And the one who saw this has testified, and his testimony is true, and that man knows that he speaks the truth, so that you might believe.
19:36For these things happened so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled, “his bones will not be broken” [fn: Exod 12:46; Num 9:12; Psalm 34:20.], 19:37and again another Scripture says, “they will look to whom they have pierced”. [fn: Zech 12:10.]
19:38Now after these things, Joseph from Arimathea—who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because of fear of the Jews—asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate permitted him. So he came and took away the body of Jesus. 19:39And Nicodemus, the one who came to him at the first at night, also came, carrying a mixture of about one hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes. 19:40Then they took the body of Jesus and wrapped it in linen clothes with the aromatic spices—just as is the custom of the Jews in preparing for burial. 19:41Now in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. 19:42So, because of the day of preparation of the Jews, since the tomb was near, they laid Jesus there.
CHAPTER 20
20:1Now early on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb while it was still dark and saw that the stone was removed from the tomb. 20:2So she quickly went to Simon Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said to them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and I do not know where they have put him.” 20:3So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. 20:4Now the two were running, and the other disciple ran faster than Peter and came to the tomb first, 20:5and bending down, he saw the strips of linen lying there, but he did not go in. 20:6Then Simon Peter also came, following after him, and he went into the tomb, and saw the strips of lining lying there, 20:7and the face cloth which was on his head, not lying with the strips of linen, but folded up by itself. 20:8So then the other disciple who came to the tomb first also entered and saw and believed. 20:9For they had not yet understood the Scripture that he must rise from the dead. 20:10Then the disciples went away again to their homes.
20:11Now Mary stood outside the entrance to the tomb crying. Then while she was crying, she bent down into the tomb, 20:12and saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been laid, one at the head and one at the feet. 20:13And the angels said to her, “Woman, why are you crying?” She said to them, “they have taken my Lord away, and I don’t know where they have put him.” 20:14After she said these things, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there—although she did not know that it was Jesus. 20:15Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who are you looking for?” And she, thinking that he was the gardener, said to him, “Lord, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will take him back.” 20:16Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned around and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni” (which means ‘teacher’). 20:17Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet gone up to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, “I am going up to my Father and your Father, and my God and your God.”
20:18Mary Magdalene went and reported to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”, and that he had said these things to her.
20:19Then it was evening on that day, the first of the week, and the doors where the disciples were staying were shut for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood in their midsts and said to them, “Peace be with you”. 20:20And having said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced, because they had seen the Lord. 20:21So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. Just as the Father sent me, I am also sending you.” 20:22And having said this, he breathed and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 20:23If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven them. If you retain anyone’s sins, they are retained.”
20:24Now Thomas, one of the twelve, who was called ‘twin’, was not with them when Jesus came. 20:25So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and thrust my finger into the mark of the nails, and thrust my hands into his side, I will never believe.”
20:26And after eight days the disciples were again inside, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came and stood in their midsts, though the doors had been shut, and said, “Peace be with you.” 20:27Then he said to Thomas, “bring your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and thrust it into my side, and don’t be unbelieving but believing.” 20:28Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and My God.” 20:29Jesus said to him, “Do you believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and believe.”
20:30So Jesus also did many other signs in the sight of his disciples which are not written in this book. 20:31But these are written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you have life in his name.
CHAPTER 21
21:1After these things, Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberius. [fn: i.e. The Sea of Galilee.] Now Jesus appeared in this way.
21:2Simon Peter and Thomas, called ‘twin’, and Nathaniel from Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and another two of his disciples, were together. 21:3Simon Peter said to them, “I’m going fishing.” They said to him, “We’re also coming with you.” They went out and got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing.
21:4And when the morning came, Jesus stood on the beach, but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 21:5So Jesus said to them, “Children, you haven’t caught anything to eat, have you?” They answered him, “No.” 21:6Then Jesus said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast the net, and they were not strong enough to haul it in because of the great catch of fish. 21:7Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord”. So Simon Peter, when he heard that it was the Lord, put on his cloak—for he had stripped down—and dived into the sea. 21:8But the other disciples came in the boat, for they were not far from land, but about two hundred cubits [fn: Around 100 meters.] away, dragging the net of fish.
21:9So when they got onto land, they saw a fire of hot coals prepared, and fish cooking on it, and bread. 21:10Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish which you have now caught.” 21:11Then Simon Peter came up and dragged onto land the net full of large fish—one hundred and fifty three—and as many as there were, the net did not tear. 21:12Jesus said to them, “Come, have breakfast”. But none of the disciples dared enquire of him, “Who are you?” For they knew it was the Lord. 21:13Jesus came and took the bread, and gave it to them, and likewise the fish. 21:14This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after rising from the dead.
21:15So after they had breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes Lord, you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 21:16He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes Lord, you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Shepherd my sheep.” 21:17He said to Jesus a third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?”, and he said to him, “Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”
21:18“Truly, truly I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself [fn: ‘Girding the loins’ involved gathering and tying around the waist the tunic material which normally covered the legs, which permitted the wearer freedom of movement to run, work, or fight.] and walked where you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others will gird you and carry you where you don’t want to go.” 21:19Now he said this signifying with what sort of death he would glorify God. And after he said this, he said to him, “Follow me.”
21:20Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, who had also reclined at the evening meal on his chest and said, “Lord who is the one betraying you?”. 21:21So Peter, seeing this disciple, said to Jesus, “Lord, what about him?” 21:22Jesus said to him, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me.” 21:23Then this report went out to the brothers, that that disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?”
21:24This is the disciple who testifies about these things and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true. 21:25Now there were many other things which Jesus also did, which if each one were written down, I suppose that not even the world itself would have space for the books which would be written.