John 3

Conversation with Nicodemus

1 Now a certain man, a Pharisees named Nicodemus, who was a member of the Jewish ruling council,t2 came to Jesust at nightts and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signss that you do unless God is with him.”3 Jesus replied,t “I tell you the solemn truth,t unless a person is born from above,ts he cannot see the kingdom of God.”s

4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb and be born a second time, can he?”t
5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the solemn truth,t unless a person is born of water and spirit,ts he cannot enter the kingdom of God.6 What is born of the flesh is flesh,s and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.7 Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must allt be born from above.’t

8 The windt blows wherever it will, and you hear the sound it makes, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”s
9 Nicodemus replied,t “How can these things be?”s10 Jesus answered,t “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you don’t understand these things?s11 I tell you the solemn truth,t we speak about what we know and testify about what we have seen, butt you peoplet do not accept our testimony.s12 If I have told you peoplet about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?s13 No onet has ascendeds into heaven except the one who descended from heaven – the Son of Man.ss14 Just ast Moses lifted up the serpentsin the wilderness,s so must the Son of Man be lifted up,s

15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”ts
16 For this is the wayts God loved the world: He gave his one and onlyt Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perisht but have eternal life.s17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,s but that the world should be saved through him.18 The one who believes in him is not condemned.t The one who does not believe has been condemnedt already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and onlyt Son of God.19 Now this is the basis for judging:t that the light has come into the world and peoplet loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil.20 For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed.

21 But the one who practices the truth comes to the light, so that it may be plainly evident that his deeds have been done in God.s

Further Testimony About Jesus by John the Baptist

22 After this,t Jesus and his disciples came into Judean territory, and there he spent time with them and was baptizing.23 Johns was also baptizing at Aenon near Salim,t because water was plentiful there, and people were comingt to himt and being baptized.

24 (For John had not yet been thrown into prison.)s
25 Now a dispute came about between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jewst concerning ceremonial washing.ts

26 So they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, the one who was with you on the other side of the Jordan River,t about whom you testified – see, he is baptizing, and everyone is flocking to him!”
27 John replied,t “No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven.28 You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ts but rather, ‘I have been sent before him.’29 The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands by and listens for him, rejoices greatlyt when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. This then is my joy, and it is complete.t

30 He must become more important while I become less important.”s
31 The one who comes from above is superior to all.t The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things.t The one who comes from heavens is superior to all.st32 He testifies about what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony.33 The one who has accepted his testimony has confirmed clearly that God is truthful.t34 For the one whom God has sentt speaks the words of God, for he does not give the Spirit sparingly.t35 The Father loves the Son and has placed all things under his authority.t

36 The one who believes in the Son has eternal life. The one who rejectst the Son will not see life, but God’s wratht remainst on him.

John 4

Departure From Judea

1 Now when Jesusst knew that the Phariseess had heard that het was winningt and baptizing more disciples than John2 (although Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were),s

3 he left Judea and set out once more for Galilee.s

Conversation With a Samaritan Woman

4 But he hads to pass through Samaria.s5 Now he came to a Samaritan townt called Sychar,s near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.s

6 Jacob’s well was there, so Jesus, since he was tired from the journey, sat right down besidet the well. It was about noon.ts
7 A Samaritan womant came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me some watert to drink.”8 (For his disciples had gone off into the town to buy supplies.t)s

9 So the Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you – a Jewt – ask me, a Samaritan woman, for watert to drink?” (For Jews use nothing in commonts with Samaritans.)s
10 Jesus answeredt her, “If you had knownt the gift of God and who it is who said to you, ‘Give me some watert to drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”ts11 “Sir,”t the womans said to him, “you have no bucket and the wellt is deep; where then do you get thist living water?s

12 Surely you’re not greater than our ancestort Jacob, are you? For he gave us this well and drank from it himself, along with his sons and his livestock.”t
13 Jesus replied,t “Everyone who drinks some of this water will be thirstyt again.14 But whoever drinks some of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again,t but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountaint of water springing upt to eternal life.”15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to drawt water.”t16 Hess said to her, “Go call your husband and come back here.”t17 The woman replied,t “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “Right you are when you said,t ‘I have no husband,’t

18 for you have had five husbands, and the man you are living witht now is not your husband. This you said truthfully!”
19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I seet that you are a prophet.20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain,s and you peoplet say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.”s21 Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman,s a timet is coming when you will worshipt the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.22 You peoplet worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, because salvation is from the Jews.t23 But a timet is coming – and now is heret – when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seekss such people to bet his worshipers.ts24 God is spirit,t and the people who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (the one called Christ);ts “whenever het comes, he will tellt us everything.”t

26 Jesus said to her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.”

The Disciples Return

27 Now at that very moment his disciples came back.t They were shockedt because he was speakingt with a woman. However, no one said, “What do you want?”ts or “Why are you speaking with her?”28 Then the woman left her water jar, went off into the town and said to the people,t29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Surely he can’t be the Messiah,t can he?”t

30 Sot they left the town and began comings to him.

Workers for the Harvest

31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him,t “Rabbi, eat something.”t32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”33 So the disciples began to sayt to one another, “No one brought him anythingt to eat, did they?”t34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent mes and to completet his work.ts35 Don’t you say,t ‘There are four more months and then comes the harvest?’ I tell you, look upt and see that the fields are already whitet for harvest!36 The one who reaps receives payt and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that the one who sows and the one who reaps can rejoice together.37 For in this instance the saying is true,t ‘One sows and another reaps.’

38 I sent you to reap what you did not work for; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.”

The Samaritans Respond

39 Now many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the report of the woman who testified,t “He told me everything I ever did.”40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they began askingt him to stay with them.t He stayed there two days,41 and because of his word many moret believed.

42 They said to the woman, “No longer do we believe because of your words, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this onet really is the Savior of the world.”s

Onward to Galilee

43 After the two days he departed from there to Galilee.44 (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.)s

45 So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him because they had seen all the things he had done in Jerusalemss at the feasts (for they themselves had gone to the feast).s

Healing the Royal Official’s Son

46 Now he came again to Canas in Galilee where he had made the water wine.s Int Capernaumss there was a certain royal officialt whose son was sick.47 When he heard that Jesus had come back from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and begged himt to come down and heal his son, who was about to die.48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you peoplet see signs and wonders you will never believe!”t49 “Sir,” the official said to him, “come down before my child dies.”

50 Jesus told him, “Go home;t your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and set off for home.t
51 While he was on his way down,s his slavest met him and told him that his son was going to live.52 So he asked them the timet when his condition began to improve,t andt they told him, “Yesterday at one o’clock in the afternoont the fever left him.”53 Then the father realized that it was the very timet Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live,” and he himself believed along with his entire household.

54 Jesus did this as his second miraculous signt when he returned from Judea to Galilee.

John 5

Healing a Paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda

1 After thiss there was a Jewish feast,ss and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.s2 Now there ist in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gatet a pool called Bethzathass in Aramaic,t which has five covered walkways.ts3 A great number of sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed people were lying in these walkways.sss5 Now a man was there who had been disabled for thirty-eight years.t6 When Jesus saw him lying there and when he realizedt that the mant had been disabled a long time already, he said to him, “Do you want to become well?”7 The sick man answered him, “Sir,t I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I am trying to get into the water,t someone elset goes down theret before me.”8 Jesus said to him, “Stand up! Pick up your matt and walk.”

9 Immediately the man was healed,t and he picked up his matt and started walking. (Now that day was a Sabbath.)ts
10 So the Jewish leaderst said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and you are not permitted to carry your mat.”t11 But he answered them, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your matt and walk.’”12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick up your mats and walk’?”t

13 But the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped out, since there was a crowd in that place.
14 After this Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “Look, you have become well. Don’t sin any more,t lest anything worse happen to you.”

15 The man went away and informed the Jewish leaderst that Jesus was the one who had made him well.

Responding to Jewish Leaders

16 Now because Jesus was doing these thingss on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaderst began persecutingt him.17 So hes toldt them, “My Father is working until now, and I too am working.”s

18 For this reason the Jewish leaderst were trying even harder to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was also calling God his own Father, thus making himself equal with God.
19 So Jesus answered them,t “I tell you the solemn truth,t the Son can do nothing on his own initiative,t but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Fathert does, the Son does likewise.s20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he does, and will show him greater deeds than these, so that you will be amazed.21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life,t so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes.t22 Furthermore, the Father does not judget anyone, but has assignedt all judgment to the Son,

23 so that all peoplet will honor the Son just as they honor the Father. The one who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.
24 “I tell you the solemn truth,t the one who hearst my messaget and believes the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned,t but has crossed over from death to life.25 I tell you the solemn truth,t a timet is coming – and is now here – when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.26 For just as the Father has life in himself, thus he has granted the Son to have life in himself,

27 and he has granted the Sont authority to execute judgment,t because he is the Son of Man.
28 “Do not be amazed at this, because a timet is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice29 and will come out – the ones who have done what is good to the resurrection resulting in life, and the ones who have done what is evil to the resurrection resulting in condemnation.t

30 I can do nothing on my own initiative.t Just as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just,t because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the one who sent me.t

More Testimony About Jesus

31 “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true.32 There is anothers who testifies about me, and I know the testimony he testifies about me is true.33 You have sent to John,s and he has testified to the truth.34 (I do not acceptt human testimony, but I say this so that you may be saved.)

35 He was a lamp that was burning and shining,s and you wanted to rejoice greatly for a short timet in his light.
36 “But I have a testimony greater than that from John. For the deedst that the Father has assigned me to complete – the deedst I am now doing – testify about me that the Father has sent me.37 And the Father who sent me has himself testified about me. You peoplet have never heard his voice nor seen his form at any time,s38 nor do you have his word residing in you, because you do not believe the one whom he sent.39 You study the scriptures thoroughlyt because you think in them you possess eternal life,s and it is these same scripturest that testify about me,

40 but you are not willing to come to me so that you may have life.
41 “I do not acceptt praiset from people,t42 but I know you, that you do not have the love of Godt within you.43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not acceptt me. If someone else comes in his own name, you will acceptt him.

44 How can you believe, if you accept praiset from one another and don’t seek the praiset that comes from the only God?s
45 “Do not suppose that I will accuse you before the Father. The one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have placed your hope.s46 Ift you believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me.

47 But if you do not believe what Mosest wrote, how will you believe my words?”