PROLOGUE

1 In the beginninga was the Word,b and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.c 2 He was with God in the beginning.d 3 All things were createde through him,f and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. 4 In him was life,A,g and that life was the lighth of men. 5 That light shinesi in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome* it.j

6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John.k 7 He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that all might believe through him.C 8 He was not the light, but he came to testifyl about the light.

9 The true lightm that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.D,n

10 He was in the world, and the world was createdo through him, and yet the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receivep him,q he gave them the rightr to beE childrens of God,t to those who believeu in his name,v 13 who were born,w not of natural descent,F or of the willx of the flesh,y or of the will of man,G but of God.z

14 The Wordaa became fleshab and dweltH among us. We observed his glory,ac the glory as the one and onlyad SonI from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified concerning him and exclaimed, “This was the one of whom I said, ‘The one coming after meae ranks ahead of me,af because he existed before me.’ ”)ag 16 Indeed, we have all received graceah uponJ grace from his fullness, 17 for the law was given through Moses;ai grace and truthaj came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. The one and onlyak Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’sal sideK—he has revealed him.am

JOHN THE BAPTIST’S TESTIMONY

19 This was John’s testimony when the Jews from Jerusaleman sent priestsao and Levitesap to ask him, “Who are you?”

20 He didn’t deny it but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.”aq

21 “What then?” they asked him. “Are you Elijah?”ar

“I am not,” he said.

“Are you the Prophet?”as

“No,” he answered.

22 “Who are you, then?” they asked. “We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What can you tell us about yourself?”

23 He said, “I am a voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the LordL,at—just as Isaiahau the prophet said.”

24 Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.av 25 So they asked him, “Why then do you baptize if you aren’t the Messiah, or Elijah, or the Prophet?”

26 “I baptize with* water,”aw John answered them. “Someone stands among you, but you don’t know him. 27 He is the one coming after me,B,ax whose sandal strap I’m not worthy to untie.” 28 All this happened in BethanyC across the Jordan,ay where John was baptizing.

THE LAMB OF GOD

29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God,az who takes away the sinba of the world! 30 This is the one I told you about: ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me, because he existed before me.’ 31 I didn’t know him,bb but I came baptizing with water so that he might be revealedbc to Israel.” 32 And John testified, “I saw the Spiritbd descending from heaven like a dove, and he rested on him.be 33 I didn’t know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The one you see the Spirit descending and resting on—he is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’bf 34 I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.”D,a

35 The next day, John was standing with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”

37 The two disciples heard him say this and followed Jesus. 38 When Jesus turned and noticed them following him, he asked them, “What are you looking for?”

They said to him, “Rabbi”b (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”

39 “Come and you’ll see,” he replied. So they went and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about four in the afternoon.E

40 Andrew,c Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard John and followed him. 41 He first found his own brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah”F,d (which is translated “the Christ”),e 42 and he brought Simon to Jesus.

When Jesus saw him, he said, “You are Simon, son of John.G You will be called Cephas”f (which is translated “Peter”H).

PHILIP AND NATHANAEL

43 The next day JesusI decided to leave for Galilee. He found Philipg and told him, “Follow me.”

44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida,h the hometown of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanaeli and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law (and so did the prophetsj): Jesus the son of Joseph,k from Nazareth.”l

46 “Can anything goodm come out of Nazareth?” Nathanael asked him.

“Come and see,” Philip answered.

47 Then Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said about him, “Here truly is an Israeliten in whom there is no deceit.”

48 “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.

“Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you,” Jesus answered.

49 “Rabbi,”o Nathanael replied, “You are the Sonp of God; you are the King of Israel!”q

50 Jesus responded to him, “Do you believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.” 51 Then he said, “Truly I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of Godr ascending and descendings on the Son of Man.”t

THE FIRST SIGN: TURNING WATER INTO WINE

2 On the third day a wedding took place in Canau of Galilee.v Jesus’s motherw was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding as well. 3 When the wine ran out, Jesus’s mother told him, “They don’t have any wine.”

4 “What has this concern of yours to do with me,* x woman?”y Jesus asked. “My hour has not yet come.”

5 “Do whatever he tells you,” his mother told the servants.

6 Now six stone water jars had been set there for Jewish purification.z Each contained twenty or thirty gallons.B

7 “Fill the jars with water,” Jesus told them. So they filled them to the brim. 8 Then he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the headwaiter.”C And they did.

9 When the headwaiter tasted the water (after it had become wine), he did not know where it came from—though the servants who had drawn the water knew. He called the groom 10 and told him, “Everyone sets out the fine wine first, then, after people are drunk, the inferior. But you have kept the fine wine until now.”

11 Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Canaaa of Galilee.ab He revealedac his glory,ad and his disciples believed in him.

12 After this, he went down to Capernaum,ae together with his mother, his brothers,af and his disciples, and they stayed there only a few days.

CLEANSING THE TEMPLE

13 The Jewish Passoverag was near, and so Jesus went up to Jerusalem.ah 14 In the templeai he found people selling oxen, sheep, and doves, and he also found the money changers sitting there. 15 After making a whip out of cords,aj he drove everyone out of the temple with their sheepak and oxen. He also poured out the money changers’ coins and overturned the tables. 16 He told those who were selling doves, “Get these things out of here! Stop turning my Father’sal houseam into a marketplace!”D,an

17 And his disciples remembered that it is written: Zealao for your house will consumeap me.E,aq

18 So the Jews replied to him, “What sign will you show us for doing these things?”

19 Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple,* a and I will raise it up in three days.”b

20 Therefore the Jews said, “This temple took forty-six years to build,G and will you raise it up in three days?”c

21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body.d 22 So when he was raised from the dead,e his disciples remembered that he had said this,f and they believed the Scriptureg and the statement Jesus had made.

23 While he was in Jerusalemh during the Passover Festival,i many believed in his namej when they saw the signs he was doing. 24 Jesus, however, would not entrust himself to them, since he knew them all 25 and because he did not need anyone to testify about man; for he himself knew what was in man.k

JESUS AND NICODEMUS

3 There was a man from the Phariseesl named Nicodemus,m a rulern of the Jews. 2 This man came to him at night and said, “Rabbi,o we know that you are a teacherp who has come from God,q for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him.”r

3 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again,* s he cannot see the kingdom of God.”t

4 “How can anyone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?”

5 Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is bornu of water and the Spirit,v he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 Whatever is born of the fleshw is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spiritx is spirit. 7 Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be borny again. 8 The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going.z So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”aa

9 “How can these things be?” asked Nicodemus.

10 “Are you a teacherB of Israel and don’t know these things?” Jesus replied. 11 “Truly I tell you,ab we speak what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony. 12  If I have told you about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascendedac into heavenad except the one who descended from heavenae—the Son of Man.C,af

14 “Just as Mosesag lifted up the snake in the wilderness,ah so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him mayD have eternal life.ai 16 For God lovedaj the world in this way:E He gaveF his one and onlyak Son,al so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.am 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemnan the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned,ao because he has not believed in the nameap of the one and only Sonaq of God. 19 This is the judgment: The lightar has come into the world,as and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hatesat the light and avoids it,G so that his deedsau may not be exposed. 21 But anyone who lives byH the truth comes to the light, so that his worksav may be shown to be accomplished by God.”

JESUS AND JOHN THE BAPTIST

22 After this, Jesus and his disciples went to the Judean countryside, where he spent time with them and baptized.

23 Johnaw also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water there. People were coming and being baptized, 24 since John had not yet been thrown into prison.ax

25 Then a dispute arose between John’s disciplesay and a JewA about purification.az 26 So they came to John and told him, “Rabbi,ba the one you testified about, and who was with you across the Jordan,bb is baptizing—and everyone is going to him.”bc

27 John responded, “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 Messiah,bd but I’ve been sent ahead of him.’be 29 He who has the bridea is the groom. But the groom’s friend, who stands by and listens for him, rejoices greatlyB at the groom’s voice. So this joya of mine is complete. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”

THE ONE FROM HEAVEN

31 The one who comes from aboveb is above all. The one who is from the earth is earthly and speaks in earthly terms.C The one who comes from heaven is above all.c 32 He testifiesd to what he has seen and heard, and yet no one accepts his testimony. 33 The one who has accepted his testimony has affirmed that God is true.e 34 For the one whom God sent speaks God’s words, since heD gives the Spiritf without measure. 35 The Father loves the Song and has given all things into his hands.h 36 The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the SonE will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him.i

JESUS AND THE SAMARITAN WOMAN

4 When JesusF learned that the Phariseesj had heard he was makingk and baptizing more disciples than Johnl 2 (though Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were), 3 he left Judeam and went again to Galilee.n 4 He had to travel through Samaria;o 5 so he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the propertyG that Jacobp had given his son Joseph.q 6 Jacob’s wellr was there, and Jesus, worn out from his journey, sat down at the well. It was about noon.H

7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water.s

“Give me a drink,” Jesus said to her, 8 because his disciples had gone into town to buy food.

9 “How is it that you, a Jew,t ask for a drink from me, a Samaritanu woman?” she asked him. For Jews do not associate withI Samaritans.J

10 Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God,v and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.”w

11 “Sir,”x said the woman, “you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do you get this ‘living water’? 12 You aren’t greater than our father Jacob,y are you? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.”

13 Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. 14 But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again.z In fact, the water I will give him will become a wellA,aa of water springing up in him for eternal life.”ab

15 “Sir,” the woman said to him, “give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and come here to draw water.”

16 “Go call your husband,” he told her, “and come back here.”

17 “I don’t have a husband,” she answered.

“You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,’ ” Jesus said. 18 “For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”

19 “Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain,ac but you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”ad

21 Jesus told her, “Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews.ae 23 But an hour is coming, and is now here,af when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth.* Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit,ag and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.”ah

25 The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiahai is coming” (who is called Christaj). “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

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

THE RIPENED HARVEST

27 Just then his disciples arrived, and they were amazed that he was talking with a woman. Yet no one said, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

28 Then the woman left her water jar, went into town, and told the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”al 30 They left the town and made their way to him.am

31 In the meantime the disciples kept urging him, “Rabbi,an eat something.”

32 But he said, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”

33 The disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?”

34 “My food is to do the will of hima who sent meb and to finish his work,”c Jesus told them. 35 “Don’t you say, ‘There are still four more months, and then comes the harvest’? Listen to what I’m telling you: OpenC your eyes and look at the fields, because they are readyD for harvest. 36 The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life,d so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. 37 For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’e 38 I sent you to reap what you didn’t labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited fromA their labor.”

THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD

39 Now many Samaritansf from that town believed in him because of what the woman saidB when she testified,g “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him,h they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 Many more believed because of what he said.C 42 And they told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said, since we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Saviori of the world.”D

A GALILEAN WELCOME

43 After two days he left there for Galilee.j 44 (Jesus himself had testifiedk that a prophet has no honor in his own country.l) 45 Whenm they entered Galilee, the Galileansn welcomed him because they had seen everything he did in Jerusalemo during the festival.p For they also had gone to the festival.

THE SECOND SIGN: HEALING AN OFFICIAL’S SON

46 He went again to Canaq of Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. There was a certain royal official whose son was ill at Capernaum.r 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judeas into Galilee, he went to him and pleaded with him to come down and heal his son, since he was about to die.

48 Jesus told him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders,t you will not believe.”u

49 “Sir,”v the official said to him, “come down before my boy dies.”

50 “Go,” Jesus told him, “your son will live.” The man believed whatE Jesus said to him and departed.

51 While he was still going down, his servants met him saying that his boy was alive. 52 He asked them at what time he got better. “Yesterday at one in the afternoonF the fever left him,” they answered. 53 The fatherw realized this was the very hour at which Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” So he himself believed, along with his whole household.

54 Now this was also the second signx Jesus performed after he came from Judea to Galilee.y

THE THIRD SIGN: HEALING THE SICK

5 After this, a Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.z 2 By the Sheep Gateaa in Jerusalem there is a pool, called BethesdaG in Aramaic, which has five colonnades. 3 Within these lay a large number of the disabled—blind, lame, and paralyzed.*

5 One man was there who had been disabled for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and realized he had already been there a long time,ab he said to him, “Do you want to get well?”

7 “Sir,”ac the disabled man answered, “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, someone goes down ahead of me.”

8 “Get up,” Jesus told him, “pick up your mat and walk.” 9 Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk.

Now that day was the Sabbath,ad 10 and so the Jewsae said to the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath.af The law prohibits you from picking up your mat.”

11 He replied, “The man who made me wellag told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

12 “Who is this man who told you, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’?” they asked. 13 But the man who was healed did not know who it was,ah because Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.A

14 After this, Jesus found him in the templeai and said to him, “See, you are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.” 15 The man went and reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.a 16 Therefore, the Jews began persecutingb JesusB because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.c

HONORING THE FATHER AND THE SON

17 Jesus responded to them, “My Fatherd is still working, and I am working also.” 18 This is why the Jews began trying all the more to kill him:e Not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God.

19 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, the Son is not able to do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the FatherC does, the Son likewise does these things.f 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing, and he will show him greater worksg than these so that you will be amazed. 21 And just as the Father raisesh the dead and gives them life, so the Son also gives life to whom he wants.i 22 The Father,j in fact, judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 so that all people may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.k Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.l

LIFE AND JUDGMENT

24 “Truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal lifem and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life.

25 “Truly I tell you, an hour is coming, and is now here,n when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.o 26 For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he has granted to the Sonp to have life in himself. 27 And he has granted him the right to pass judgment,q because he is the Son of Man.r 28 Do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done good things, to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked things, to the resurrection of condemnation.

30 “I can do nothing on my own. I judge only as I hear, and my judgments is just,t because I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me.u

WITNESSES TO JESUS

31 “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. 32 There is another who testifies about me, and I know that the testimony he gives about me is true.v 33 You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth.w 34 I don’t receive human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved. 35 JohnA,x was a burning and shining lamp,y and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.z

36 “But I have a greater testimony than John’s because of the works that the Father has given me to accomplish.aa These very works I am doing testify about me that the Father has sentab me. 37 The Father who sent me has himself testifiedac about me. You have not heard his voice at any time, and you haven’t seen his form.ad 38 You don’t have his word residing in you, because you don’t believe the one he sent. 39 You pore over the Scripturesae because you think you have eternal life in them, and yet they testify about me.af 40 But you are not willingag to come to meah so that you may have life.

41 “I do not accept gloryai from people, 42 but I know you—that you have no love for Godaj within you. 43 I have come in my Father’s name,ak and yet you don’t accept me.al If someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. 44 How can you believe, since you accept glory from one another but don’t seek the glory that comes from the onlyam God?an 45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. Your accuser is Moses,ao on whom you have set your hope. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me. 47 But if you don’t believe what he wrote,ap how will you believe my words?”aq