Translation:John

Chapter 1
In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things came to be through him, and without him not one thing came to be.

That which came into being in him was life; and the life was the light of the people.

And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not grasp it.

There came a man sent by God, by the name of John.

He came as a witness, to bear witness of the light, so that all might believe through him.

He was not the light, but came to bear witness of the light.

That light was the true light, that enlightens every person coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world existed through him, but the world did not know him.

He came among his own, but his own did not receive him.

But those who did receive him, he empowered to become the children of God, those who believed in his name,

those born, not from blood or from the will of the flesh or from the will of a man, but from God.

And the word became flesh and lived among us, and we beheld his glory, a glory like that of the only-begotten son of a father, full of grace and truth.

John bore witness about him and shouted out saying: "This was the one about whom I said 'The one coming after me has come to be in front of me, for he existed before me'."

For we all received out of his fullness, even grace after grace.

As the Law was given through Moses, so grace and truth came to be through Jesus Christ.

No-one has ever seen God; the only-begotten son in the bosom of the Father is the one who explained him.

And this is the witness of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites out of Jerusalem in order to ask him, 'Who are you?':

he confessed and did not deny anything, but confessed, "I am not the Christ."

Then they asked him, "So who are you? Elijah?"

And he said, "I am not".

"Are you the Prophet?"

And he replied: "No!".

So they said to him: "Who are you? so we can give an answer to those sent us. What do you say about yourself?"

He said: "I am the voice of someone shouting out in the desert, 'Straighten out the way of the Lord,"' just as Isaiah the prophet had said."

Now they that had been sent were from the Pharisees,

and they asked him, saying to him: "So why are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, or Elijah, or the Prophet?"

John replied to them, saying: "I am baptizing with water, but someone has stood up in your midst, whom you do not know.

He comes after me, but I am not worthy even to untie the lace of his shoe."

All this happened in Bethany across Jordan, where John was baptizing.

The following day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Look! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

This is the one about whom I said: 'A man is coming after me, who has come to be in front of me--because he existed before me.

I did not know him, but I came baptizing with water so that he might be revealed to Israel."

And John bore witness, saying: "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it rested on him.

I didn't know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me: 'The one you see the Spirit descending upon, and remaining with him, he is the one who baptizes in Holy Spirit.'

And I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God."

The next day John was standing with two of his disciples.

And he saw Jesus walking and said, "Look! The Lamb of God!"

The two disciples listened to him speaking, and followed Jesus.

Jesus turned and saw them following him. He asked them, "What are you looking for?" They said, "Rabbi (which, translated, means "Teacher"), where are you staying?"

He said to them: "Come and you will see." So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent the day with him. It was about the tenth hour of the day.

Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of these two disciples.

Immediately he went and found his brother Simon and told him, "We've found the Messiah!" (“Messiah” means “Anointed,” or “Christ.”)

He took him to Jesus. Looking straight at him, Jesus said, "You're named Simon, son of John. But now you will be called Cephas," (meaning "Peter").

The day after Jesus decided to go to Galilee, and there he found Philip. Jesus said to him, "Follow me."

Philip came from Bethsaida, the same city as Andrew and Peter.

Philip went and found Nathanael, and told him, "We've found the one written about by Moses in the law, and by the prophets. It's Jesus, the son of Joseph, from Nazareth."

Nathaniel replied, "Really? Can anything good be from Nazareth?" Philip answered, "Just come and see."

As Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him, he commented, "Look, here's a true Israelite, one who is not false!"

"How do you know me?" asked Nathanael. "I saw you even before you were called by Philip, there under the fig tree," Jesus responded.

Nathaniel answered, "Rabbi you are the Son of God, the king of Israel."

"Do you believe in me because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You will see much more than this," replied Jesus.

"In fact, you will see heaven opened up, and God's angels going up and down by means of the Son of man."

Chapter 2
A couple of days later Jesus' mother was attending a marriage in the town of Cana in Galilee.

Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the marriage.

When the wine ran out, Jesus' mother went to him and told him that there was no more wine.

"Woman, what do  I  have  in  this  that  concerns  you? My time hasn't come yet," Jesus told her.

His mother told the servants, "Just do whatever he tells you."

Nearby were six stone jars (used for Jewish ceremonial washing), each holding around thirty gallons.

Jesus told them, "Fill the jars with water." So they filled them right to the top.

Then he told them, "Pour some out, and take it to the master of ceremonies. So they did.

When the master of ceremonies tasted the water that had become wine, not knowing where it came from (only the servants knew), he called the bridegroom over.

"Everyone puts out the best wine first," he told him, "and once people have drunk plenty, then they put out the worse--but you have kept the best wine until now."

This was the first of Jesus' signs, performed in Cana of Galilee. He revealed his glory and his disciples trusted in him.

After this, Jesus went to Capernaum with his mother, brothers, and disciples, where they stayed for a few days.

Since the Jewish Passover would soon be held, Jesus went on to Jerusalem.

In the temple he found the sellers of cattle, sheep, and doves, together with the money-changers sitting doing business.

He made a rope lash and threw everyone out of the Temple, along with the sheep and cattle. He scattered the money-changers coins and turned their tables upside-down.

He commanded the dove-sellers, "Take all this stuff away, and don't make my Father's house a market!"

His disciples called to mind the scripture that says, "The zeal of the Lord shall eat me up!"

The Jews responded, saying to him, "So what sign of proof will you give us since you are doing such things?"

Jesus replied, "Destroy this temple and in three days I'll re-build it!"

Then Jews countered, "This temple took forty-six years to build, and you'll do it in three days?"

But Jesus was speaking of his "body-temple."

After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he said, and they believed in both scripture and Jesus' spoken word.

While he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in him, recognizing the signs which he gave.

But Jesus did not place his trust in them, because he knew all about them.

He didn't need anyone to tell him--he himself knew what people are like.

Chapter 3
Nicodemus, a Pharisee and Jewish leader,

came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher from God, because no one could do the signs you do unless God is with him."

"I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "Unless you are re-born, you can't see God's kingdom."

"How can an old man be re-born?" Nicodemus responded. "He can't go back into his mother's womb to be born a second time, can he?"

"Believe me when I tell you that unless you are born of water and spirit, you can't enter God's kingdom," Jesus told him.

"What's born of flesh is of the flesh," and what's born of the spirit is of the spirit.

Don't be surprised when I told you, 'You must be re-born.'

Wind blows where it wants to, and you hear the sound of it, but you don't know where it's coming from or where it's going--that's what it's like for everyone who is born of the spirit.

"How can such things happen?" Nicodemus replied.

"You're a leading teacher in Israel, and you don't understand these things?" responded Jesus.

"I'm telling you plainly--we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen, but you refuse to accept our evidence.

If you won't accept what I tell you about things here on earth, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

No one has gone up to heaven, but the Son of Man has come down from heaven.

In the same way as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, the Son of man must be lifted up,

so that whoever trusts in him may have eternal life.

God loved the world in this way: He gave his only begotten Son so that whoever trusts in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

God did not send the Son into the world to judge it, but to save the world through him.

Whoever trusts in him is not judged, while the one who does not trust in him is already judged, because he has not believed in the only begotten Son of God.

The judgment is this: the light came to the world, but people loved darkness rather than the light, because their actions are evil.

Everyone doing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, otherwise their actions would be revealed.

But whoever acts according to the truth comes to the light, so that whatever God does in them can be revealed."

Later Jesus and his disciples went to Judea, staying with the people there, and baptizing.

John was also baptizing at Aenon, near Salim, because there was plenty of water there. People came and were baptized.

(At that stage John had not been jailed).

A question came up between John's disciples and a Jew over the purification issue.

Then they came to John and said, "Rabbi, the man you were with beyond Jordan, the one you testified about--look, he's baptizing now, and everyone is running after him!"

"Nobody can receive anything unless it comes from heaven," John replied.

"You yourselves can testify that I said, "I'm not the Messiah--I'm sent as the forerunner.

The one with the bride is the bridegroom. The bridegroom's friend is the one who stands up and is full of joy because he hears the bridegroom's voice. So now my joy is full.

He must increase in importance, but I must decrease.

He who comes from above is above all; he who comes from the earth has an earthly nature and talks about earthly things. He who comes from heaven is over everyone.

He testifies about what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his evidence.

Yet anyone accepting his evidence proves that God is true. For the one God sent speaks God's words because God does not limit the Spirit.

The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands.

Whoever places trust in the Son has eternal life, but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, instead God's punishment stays with him."

Chapter 4
When the Lord knew that the Pharisees were aware that Jesus was making more disciples and baptizing them than John (though it was not Jesus baptizing, but his disciples),  he left Judea and went back to Galilee. To get there he had to pass through Samaria. He arrived at the Samarian city of Sychar, near to the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there. Jesus, tired from the journey, sat beside the well. It was around noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Please, give me a drink." (His disciples had gone to town to buy food).

"You're a Jew, and I'm a Samaritan--how can you ask me for a drink?" the woman responded. (Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered her, saying "If you knew God's gift, and the one who is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

"Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep--where are you going to get living water from?" she replied. "Are you better than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it--him and his sons and his cattle?"

"Everyone who drinks water from this well will get thirsty again," Jesus responded. "But whoever drinks the water I give him will never be thirsty again. The water I give becomes in you a fountain of water welling up to eternal life."

"Sir," replied the woman, "Give me this water so I won't be thirsty, and won't have to come here to fetch water!"

"Go and call your husband, then return here," Jesus told her.

The woman answered, "Actually, I don't have a husband."

"True enough," Jesus said. "You say you don't have a husband. You've had five husbands, and the one you're with now is not your husband. So what you say is right!"

"I see you're a prophet, sir," the woman responded. "Now our ancestors worshiped here in this mountain, but you [as a Jew] would say that Jerusalem is the only place to worship.

"Believe me," Jesus countered, "the time is coming when you won't worship the Father either on this mountain or in Jerusalem. You don't know what you're worshiping, while we worship the one we know--for salvation is from the Jews.  But the time is already here when true worshipers will worship the Father rightly--in spirit and truth. Those are the kind of worshipers the Father is looking for.  God is Spirit, so worshipers must worship in that way--in spirit and truth." "Well, I know that the Messiah (Christ) is coming, and when he comes he will explain everything to us," the woman said. "That is who I am," Jesus replied, "the one speaking to you." At that moment the disciples arrived, and were surprised that he was talking with a woman, but no one asked "what are you after?" or "why are you talking with her?" The woman left her water jar there, went back to the city, and told the people, "Come and see someone who told me everything I ever did! Couldn't this be the Messiah?" So they headed out of the city and came to Jesus.

In the meantime, Jesus' disciples pleaded with him, "Rabbi, please eat."

But he replied, "I have food to eat that you don't know about."

The disciples wondered among themselves, "Did someone bring him some food?"

Jesus explained to them, "My 'food' is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to finish his work. Don't you say yourselves, 'another four months, and it will be harvest-time?' Look around and use your eyes--look at the fields, they are ripe, ready for harvest.  The reaper is already being paid, and is gathering a fruitful harvest for eternal life, so that both sower and reaper can rejoice.  Here the proverb is true, "Someone sows, someone else reaps."  I sent you to reap what you haven't worked for, others did the work and you benefited from what they did."

Due to the woman's declaration, "he told me everything I ever did," many Samaritans from that city trusted in him. So when they approached him, they asked him to stay with them. He stayed there for two days. As a result, many placed their trust in him because of what he himself said.

They said to the woman, "We're no longer convinced because of what you told us. Now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that he is truly the Savior of the world." Two days later he went on his way to Galilee. Jesus himself had said that a prophet has no honor in his homeland. But when he arrived in Galilee, the people welcomed him, because they had also gone to the Passover feast and had seen everything he'd done there in Jerusalem. So he returned to Cana in Galilee, where he had turned water into wine. In the town of Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. Hearing that Jesus had returned from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged Jesus to come and heal his son, who was near death.

Jesus answered, "You really won't believe unless you see signs and wonders, will you?"

"Please come down before my child dies," the official told him.

"Go home," Jesus responded. "Your son will live!" The man trusted the word of Jesus, and he left for home.

While he was on his way, his servants met him and told him, "Your son is alive and doing well." He asked them at what time his son began to get better. "Yesterday at one p.m.," they told him. Then the father realized it was the same time Jesus had told him, "Your son will live!" So he and his whole household put their trust in Jesus. This was the second miraculous sign Jesus did, after his return from Judea to Galilee.

Chapter 5
A while later Jesus went up to Jerusalem to attend a Jewish festival. In Jerusalem, near the Sheep Gate, is a pool called in Hebrew Bethzatha, with five porches around it. In these porches lay many sick people--blind, lame, paralyzed. [They waited there for the water to "move," because an angel of the Lord would come down into the pool from time to time and stir up the water: whoever stepped into the pool first after the water was stirred up was healed of whatever disease he had]. One of them had been sick for thirty-eight years. Jesus saw this man lying there, and knew he had been waiting a long time. "Do you want to be healed?" Jesus asked him. The sick man answered, "Sir, I don't have anybody to help me get into the pool when the water is stirred up, so while I'm trying to get there, someone else gets in before me." Jesus said to him, "Get up, take your mat, and walk!" Immediately the man was healed. He took his mat, and walked. This happened on the Sabbath day. So the Jews told the healed man, "It's Sabbath, and it's against the law to carry a mat." "The man who healed me told me to pick up my mat and walk," he replied. "Who told you to carry your mat?" they asked. But the healed man didn't know who it was, because Jesus had merged into the crowd. Later Jesus met him in the Temple, and spoke with him. "Look, now you are well. Don't sin, otherwise something worse may happen to you." The man left, and told the Jews it was Jesus who had healed him. Consequently the Jews persecuted Jesus because of what he did on the Sabbath. But he answered them, "My father continues to work, and so I am working." Because of this the Jews tried even harder to kill him, for not only did he break the Sabbath but also said God was his Father, making himself equal with God. Jesus answered them, "Believe me when I tell you that the Son can't do anything of himself, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever he does the Son does too. For the Father loves the Son, and reveals to him everything he does--and he will demonstrate even greater things that will amaze you.  Just as the Father resurrects and gives life to the dead, the Son also gives life to whoever he wishes.  The Father does not judge anyone, but has given all judgment to the Son,  so that everyone may honor the Son in the same way they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son doesn't honor the Father who sent him.  This is the absolute truth: anyone who hears what I say and trusts the one who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

I emphasize the point: The time has already come when the dead will hear the call of the Son of God, and those who hear will live! Just as the Father possesses the power of life, so also the Son, to whom he gave life-giving power. The Father also gave the right of judgment to him, because he is the Son of man. Don't be shocked at this, for the time is coming when those in the grave will hear his voice and rise--those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. I can't do anything by myself. I simply judge what I hear, and my judgment is right because I'm not doing my own will but the will of the one who sent me. If I make claims about myself, such evidence can't be true; but someone else endorses me, and I know his endorsement of me is true. You asked John, and he testified truly, but I do not need human endorsement--I'm telling you this try to save you. John was blazing, shining light, and you were happy to enjoy his light for a while. But my testimony is greater than John's, because the work the Father has given me to do is exactly what I am doing. This is the evidence that the Father has sent me. And having sent me, the Father speaks on my behalf. You have never heard his voice, and you have never seen him, and what he says you don't hold on to, because you don't believe in the one he sent.

You search through the scriptures, because you think that you will find eternal life in them, but they are speaking of me-- and you don't want to come to me to gain that life. I'm not looking for respect from people, but I can see you don't have the love of God in you. I've come in the name of my Father, and you reject me, while if someone comes in his own name, you accept him. How can you think like that--respecting one another and yet not respecting or looking for the true God? Don't think I'm about to make accusations about you to the Father; the one accusing you is Moses, the one you put your confidence in. If you trust Moses you would trust me, because he was writing about me. But of course if you don't believe what he wrote, why would you believe my words?"

Chapter 6
After all this Jesus left for the far side of the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias). A huge crowd followed him, because they had seen the miracles of healing the sick. Jesus headed up into the hills and sat down with his disciples. (The Jewish festival of the Passover would soon take place.) Looking up and seeing a huge crowd coming his way, he asked Philip, "Where can we buy bread to feed all these?" He said this to check what Philip would do, because he already knew what he was about to do.

Philip responded, "Two hundred denarii would not buy enough loaves for each to take just a little piece." Andrew, another disciple, and Simon Peter's brother, said, "There’s a boy here who has five barley loaves and a couple of fish, but what’s the use of that for so many people?"

Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." (There was plenty of grass there.) So they sat down. The men numbered around five thousand. Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and shared them with the people as they rested—then he did the same with the fishes, sharing as much as they wanted. Once they were full, he told his disciples, "Collect the left-overs, and don’t waste anything."

They did this, and filled twelve baskets with the left-overs of the five barley loaves that nobody could finish eating. When the people saw this miraculous sign, they exclaimed, "This surely must be the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world." Jesus realized that they intended to take him by force so they could proclaim him king. So he left them, and went back to the hills to be by himself.

When it was evening, his disciples walked down to the sea, got into a boat, and headed over the water towards Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus still had not returned to be with them. A strong wind began to blow and the sea grew rough. After rowing three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea, coming towards the boat, and they were scared out of their wits. "It’s me," he told them. "You don't need to be afraid." Then they were happy to take him into the boat, and they immediately arrived at their destination.

The following day the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the sea noticed that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not left with his disciples—in fact they had left without him. Then other boats came from Tiberias, arriving near to the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord blessed it. So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor is disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. Once they found him on the other side of the sea, they asked him, "Rabbi, when did you get here?"

“Accept the truth,” answered Jesus, “you’re looking for me not because you saw the signs, but because you filled up on the bread you ate. Don’t concentrate your efforts on perishable food, but on lasting food that gives eternal life, which the Son of man will give you—because on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”

So they asked him, “What should we do in order to do what God wants?”

“What God wants,” Jesus replied, “is that you trust the one he sent.”

They said to him, “What sign of proof are you going to do that we can see and trust you? What’s your mission? Our forefathers ate manna in the desert, fulfilling the scripture, ‘He gave them food to eat from heaven.’”

Jesus replied, “Most definitely it wasn’t Moses who gave you bread from heaven. Rather it’s my Father who gives you the true bread of heaven,  for the bread of God is the one who comes from heaven to give life to the world.”

“Lord, always give us this kind of bread,” they responded.

“I am the bread of life,” said Jesus. “Whoever comes to me certainly won’t go hungry. And whoever trusts in me will never be thirsty—absolutely not. But as I told you, you have seen me, and yet you still don’t trust me. Everyone the Father gives to me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will not reject. For I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. The will of the one who sent me is this: that I should not lose anyone he has given to me, but that they shall be resurrected when the end comes. My Father’s will is that everyone who sees the Son and trusts in him should have eternal life, and I will raise them up when the end comes.”

Then the Jews began complaining about him because he said, “I am the bread that comes from heaven,” and they said, “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph? We know both his father and mother! How can he now say, “I have come down from heaven”?

“Don’t grumble among yourselves,” Jesus responded, “Nobody can come to me unless the Father who sent me attracts them, and I will raise them up when the end comes. As the prophets wrote, “They shall all be taught by God.” Everyone who hears and learns from the Father comes to me. Of course, no one has seen God, except he who comes from God—he has seen the Father. Believe me when I tell you, whoever trusts in him has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate manna in the desert and they still died. This is the bread that comes from heaven, and if anyone eats it they won’t die. I am the living bread from heaven, and if anyone eats this bread he’ll live forever. The bread I provide is my body which gives the world life.

Then the Jews fought among themselves, arguing, “How can this man give us his body to eat?”

“The plain truth is that unless you eat the Son of man’s body and drink his blood, you cannot have life in you. Whoever eats my body and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up when the end comes. For my body is the true food, and my blood is the true drink. Whoever eats my body and drinks my blood lives in me, and in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so too whoever feeds on me will live because of me. Now this is the bread from heaven—not the kind your forefathers ate, and still died. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

Jesus taught all this at a synagogue in Capernaum. Many of his disciples who were listening said, “These are hard teachings—who can take it?”

So Jesus, realizing that his disciples were complaining about it, told them, “Are you offended by this? If you were to see the Son going back up to where he was before, what then? The spirit is what gives life, the body counts for nothing—what I’ve told you, now this is spirit and life. Some of you don’t trust me.” (Jesus knew from the beginning who didn’t trust him, and who was betraying him).

“That’s why I told you that no one can come to me unless Father grants it,” Jesus said.

As a result, many of Jesus’ disciples turned back and did not walk with him anymore. So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Don’t you also want to leave?”

Simon Peter answered, “Lord, who should we go to? You are one who has the words of eternal life. We trust in you, and we are sure that you are God’s Holy One.”

“Didn’t I choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil,” Jesus replied. (Jesus was speaking about Judas, son of Simon Iscariot. He would be the one of the Twelve to betray Jesus).

Chapter 7
Following this, Jesus traveled around Galilee. He did not want to travel through Judea, because the Jews were trying to kill him. The Jewish festival of the Tabernacles was approaching.

So his brothers told him, “You should leave and go to Judea, so your followers can see what you’re doing— because no one does things in secret if he himself wants to be known publicly. If you want to do all this, then put yourself on display before the world.” (For his brothers really didn’t believe in him).

“It’s not the right time for me, yet,” Jesus told them, “but it’s always the right time for you! The world can’t hate you, but it does hate me, because I give evidence that its actions are evil. You go on up to the festival—I’m not going to this festival because the time isn’t right for me.” After he told them this he remained behind in Galilee.

Once his brothers had left to go to the festival, Jesus also went, but in secret. At the festival the Jews were looking for him, asking “Where is he?” There was a lot of muttering about him in the crowds. Some said, “He’s a good man,” while others said, “No—he deceives people.” But nobody spoke openly about him because they were afraid of the Jews.

Halfway through the festival Jesus went to the Temple and started teaching. The Jews were astonished. “How is it that this man has so much knowledge when he has not been taught?” they asked.

Jesus answered them, “My teaching doesn’t come from me but from the one who sent me. If anyone who wants to do the will of God—they will know whether my teaching comes from God or whether I’m just speaking for myself. Anyone speaking for himself wants self-glorification, but the one who glorifies the one who sent him is truthful, and there is no deceit in him. Didn’t Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law! Why are you trying to kill me?”

“You’re mad!” the crowd replied, “Nobody’s trying to kill you?”

Jesus said,” Because of one thing I did you’re shocked. Moses told you to circumcise. (Not that it really came form Moses, but your forefathers). And on the sabbath you perform circumcision. If you are circumcising on the sabbath so that the law of Moses is not broken, why are you angry with me for healing someone on the sabbath? Don’t judge according to appearances, but judge rightly."

Then some of the people of Jerusalem asked, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? But notice how openly he’s speaking, and they don’t say anything to him. Surely the authorities don’t think that this is the Messiah? But then again we know where he comes from. When the Messiah arrives, no one knows where he comes from.”

As he was teaching in the Temple Jesus called out, “So you know me and you know where I’m from? But I did not come for my own sake. The one who sends me is true, but you don’t know him. I know him, because I come from him and he is the one who sent me.”

They tried to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him because his time had not yet come. Even so many of the crowd put their trust in him, saying “The Messiah comes, would he perform more signs than this man?” When the Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him, they and the chief priests sent officers to arrest him.

“I still have a little time with you,” said Jesus, “and then I go to the one who sent me. You’ll look for me, but won’t find me, and where I am you can’t come.”

The Jews said to each other, “Where is he going to go so that we won’t find him? Does he intend to go to those scattered among the Greeks—and teach the Greeks? What did he mean when he said, ‘You’ll look for me, but won’t find me, and where I am you can’t come’?”

At the highpoint of the festival, on the last day, Jesus stood up and announced in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, come to me and drink. Whoever trusts in me, as scripture says, will have rivers of living water flowing out from the heart.” He was talking about the Spirit which those who trusted in him were about to receive. (The Spirit was not yet present because Jesus was not yet glorified).

When they heard these words, some of the crowd said, “This man is beyond doubt the prophet!”

But others said, “Is the Messiah supposed to come from Galilee? Doesn’t scripture say that the Messiah is from the line of David, and from David’s village of Bethlehem?”

So a split developed in the crowd about him, and while some wanted to arrest him, nobody laid a hand on him.

When the officers returned, the chief priests and the Pharisees asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”

“He talks like nobody ever talked before,” the officers replied.

“Have you been taken in too?” the Pharisees asked them. “Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in him? This crowd that knows nothing about teachings of the law is damnable.”

Nicodemus, (the one who had gone to see Jesus before), asked them, “Does our law condemn a man without a hearing and discovering what he did?”

“You’re a Galilean too, are you?” they replied. “Go and investigate and you’ll find that no prophet comes from Galilee!”

[Note: Many early manuscripts do not contain John 7:53-8:11]

Then they all went to their homes,

Chapter 8
while Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he returned to the temple where he sat down and taught all the people who came to him. The religious teachers and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught committing adultery and made her stand centre stage.

“Teacher, we found this woman in the very act of adultery,” they told him.

Moses in the Law commanded us to stone such people to death. So what do you say?”

They were only saying this to pressurize Jesus into something they could use to condemn him. But Jesus just bent down and wrote [ALT: drew] with his finger on the ground.

Since they went on demanding an answer, he stood up and told them, “Let your innocent one cast the first stone onto her.” He then bent down again and continued to write [ALT: draw] on the ground.

Hearing this, they began to leave, one by one, starting with the eldest. Jesus was left alone, with the woman still standing surrounded by the crowd. Jesus stood up and asked her, “Where are they? Didn’t anybody condemn you?”

“No-one did, Lord” she replied.

“Then I don’t condemn you either,” Jesus told her. “Go on your way—and don’t sin any more.” [ALT: Leave—and leave your sin behind too!]

Jesus then spoke to the people. “I am the world’s light. Anyone following me won’t be wandering around in the dark but will have life’s light. [ALT:living light, light that brings life]

“You’re making claims about yourself,” the Pharisees retorted. “That doesn’t prove anything!”

“Even if I’m making claims about myself, I’m still speaking the truth,” Jesus replied, “because I know where I came from or where I’m going. You don’t know where I came from or where I’m going. You base your judgments on human reasoning; I’m not judging anyone. And if I did judge, my judgment would be true because I am not doing this alone—the father who sent me is with me. Even in your own law it’s written that the testimony of two witnesses is true. I’m telling the truth about myself, and the Father who sent me tells the truth about me too."

“Where is this father of yours?” they asked him.

“You don’t know me or my father,” Jesus replied. “If you knew me you’d know my father as well.”

Jesus said this while he was teaching in the treasury of the Temple. No one arrested him because it wasn’t the time for that.

Jesus told them again, “I’m going away, and you’ll look for me, but you’ll die in your sin. You can’t come where I’m going.”

The Jewish leaders wondered out loud, “Does he mean he’s going to kill himself when he says that we can’t go where he’s going?”

“You’re from below, I’m from above; you’re of this world, I’m not of this world,” Jesus explained. “I’m telling you: you will die in your sins. For unless you trust in who I truly am, [ALT: the “I am”], you will die in your sins."

“Who are you then?” they asked.

“What I told you from the beginning,” Jesus responded. “I could say much about you and judge you. But the one who sent me is truthful, and what I’m telling you in this world is what I heard from him.”

They didn’t understand that he was telling them about the Father. So Jesus told them: “Once you’ve lifted up the Son of man you’ll know that I am who I say I am, and that whatever I do is not from me, but that I speak what the Father taught me. The one who sent me is with me—he has not abandoned me, because I always do what pleases him.” Because of what Jesus said many placed their trust in him.

To those Jews who trusted in him, Jesus said, “You are truly my followers if you keep to my teaching. “You will know the truth, and the truth will free you.”

“We’re Abraham’s descendants, and we’ve never been anyone’s slaves,” they retorted. “How can you say that we’ll be freed?”

“I’m telling you the truth,” Jesus answered. “Everyone who sins is a slave of sin. A slave doesn’t remain in the home forever, but the son does. If you’re set free by the son, then you’re truly free. I realize you’re Abraham’s descendants—and yet you’re trying to kill me because you won’t accept what I’m telling you. I tell you what the father has revealed to me, while you do what you think you heard from the father.”

“Abraham is our father,” they countered.

“If Abraham was your father you’d follow his example,” Jesus observed. “For now you are trying to kill me, the man who has told you the truth I heard from God. Abraham would not have acted like that. What you’re doing reveals the kind of father you have.”

“At least we’re not illegitimate,” they answered back. “God is our father!”

“If God really was your father you would love me. I came from God. I didn’t come on my own behalf, but for the one who sent me. Why don’t you understand what I’m telling you? Because you just can’t hear it! Your father is the Devil, and you love to follow your father’s desires. From the beginning he was a murderer. He never stood for the truth, because there was never any truth in him. When he lies he reveals his own lying character—he’s a liar, the father of lies. But because I tell you the truth, you don’t trust me. Who of you finds me guilty of sin? If I’m telling you the truth, why don’t you trust me? Whoever belongs to God hears what God is saying."

“Aren’t we right in saying that you’re a Samaritan who's got a demon?” said the Jews in response.

“I don’t have a demon,” Jesus replied. “I honor my father, but you dishonor me. I’m not here to glorify myself. But there is one who searches and judges. I’m telling you the truth, anyone who follows what I say won’t see death, even into eternity.”

“Now we’re sure you have a demon,” said the Jews. “Abraham died, and the prophets died, and you’re telling us if someone follows your beliefs they won’t taste death, even into eternity? Are you claiming to be greater than our father Abraham, who died, and the prophets did too? Who do you think you are?”

“If I make glorious claims about myself, that’s nothing,” Jesus agreed. “But it is God himself who endorses me, the one you claim, ‘He is our God.’ You don’t know him, but I know him. If I were to say, ‘I don’t know him,’ I would be a liar, just like you. But I do know him, and trust his word. Your father Abraham looked forward to see my time, and was delighted when he saw it.”

“You’re not even fifty, and you’ve seen Abraham,” they scoffed.

“In absolute truth I’m telling you that before Abraham ever existed, I have always been.”

They picked up stones to kill him, but Jesus was hidden from their sight and he left the Temple.

Chapter 9
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man born blind. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned—this man or his parents, so that he was born blind?”

“Neither,” Jesus replied. “Not the man, not his parents sinned. Rather that God’s actions could be demonstrated in him. We need to carry out the plans of the one who sent me while it is daytime. The night is coming when no-one can do anything. While I’m here I am the world’s light.”

Having spoken, Jesus then spat on the ground and made a paste with the spittle, which he placed on the man’s eyes. Then Jesus told him, “Off you go—wash in the Pool of Siloam.” (Siloam means “sent”). So the man went and washed, and returned seeing.

His neighbors, and those who knew him by sight as a beggar, asked, “Isn’t he the one who used to sit and beg?” Some said he was, others said no, he only looked like him. The man said, “Yes, it’s me!”

“So how come you can see?” they asked him.

“It was a man called Jesus,” the man answered. “He made a mud paste and put it on my eyes. Then he told me to go and wash in Siloam. So I did and I could see.”

“Where’s he gone?” they asked.

“I don’t know,” he said.

So they brought the man born blind to the Pharisees. (It was the Sabbath when Jesus healed the man born blind). So the Pharisees asked him again how he could now see. “He put paste on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.”

Some of the Pharisees responded, “This man isn’t from God because he doesn’t keep the Sabbath.” But others wondered, “How could a sinner do such amazing things?” So they argued about it.

“What’s your opinion, then?” they asked the man. “It’s your eyes he healed.”

“He must be a prophet,” the man replied.

The Jewish leaders would not believe that the man had been born blind, but now could see, until they had examined the man’s parents.

“Is this your son, the one you say was born blind?” they demanded to know. “How is it that now he can see?”

“We recognize this is our son, the one born blind,” his parents answered.

“How he can see now, or who healed him, we don’t know. He’s old enough, ask him.” The parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders who had already announced that anyone claiming Jesus was the Messiah would be thrown out of the synagogue. (That’s why his parents said, ‘He’s old enough, ask him.’)

They interrogated the healed blind man a second time, telling him, “Give God the glory! This man Jesus we know to be a sinner.”

“Sinner or not, I don’t know,” the man responded. “But I do know that I was blind and now I can see.”

“What did he do to you?” they asked. “How did he make your eyes see?”

“I told you already. Didn’t you hear,” replied the man. “Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?”

“You can be his disciple,” they told him with curses. “We’re Moses’ disciples. We know God spoke to Moses, but as for this person, we don’t know where he’s from.”

“That’s amazing,” the man said to them. “You don’t know where he’s from but he made my eyes see. We’re sure that God doesn’t hear sinners, but someone who worships God and follows his will would surely be heard. Never in all of time has there been a story of a man born blind being healed. This man couldn’t do anything unless he was from God.”

“You were born completely sinful, and yet you dare to teach us,” they replied. And they banned him from the synagogue.

When Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, he went and found the man. “Do you trust in the Son of man,” Jesus asked him.

“Who is he, Lord, so I can put my trust in him?” the man replied.

“You’ve seen him—he’s the one speaking with you!” Jesus told him.

“I trust you Lord,” he said, and worshipped Jesus.

“I’ve come into the world for judgment,” Jesus said. “I’ve come that those are blind may see, and the one who think they see will become blind.

The Pharisees who were with Jesus asked him, “Are you calling us blind?”

“If you realized you were blind, then your sin could be healed, “Jesus told them. “But because you say you see, your sin remains.”

Chapter 10
"I’m telling you the truth, someone who doesn’t come in through the sheepfold’s gate, but climbs over in another place, is a thief and a robber. He who comes in through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.  The gatekeeper opens the door for him, and the sheep recognize his voice. He calls his sheep by name, and leads them out.  Once he has brought them out, he walks in front and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.  They will not follow someone else. They run away from him because they do not know his voice."

Jesus told this parable, but his listeners did not understand what he was saying. So Jesus repeated, “I’m telling you the truth, I am the gate of the sheepfold. Everybody who came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever comes through me will be healed, and wherever they go they will find what they need to sustain them. 1 The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came to bring them life, abundant life. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd is willing to give up his life for the sheep. The hired hand sees the wolf coming abandons the sheep and runs away because they do not belong to him. The wolf attacks and scatters the flock, and the hired hand runs off because he does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know those who are mine, and they know me, just as the Father knows me and I know him. I am willing to give my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not from this sheepfold and I must lead them. They will hear my voice and they will be one flock with one shepherd.

"That’s why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so I may take it up again. No one takes it from me; I choose to give it up. I have the authority to surrender it, and to reclaim it. That is what my father told me to do."

The Jewish leaders were divided because of what Jesus said. Many said, “He has a demon and is crazy. Why listen to him?” Others said, “A person who was demon-possessed wouldn’t be talking like this. A demon wouldn’t heal the blind.”

Winter had come, and it was the time of the festival of dedication in Jerusalem. Jesus was walking in the temple, at Solomon’s colonnade The Jewish leaders surrounded him and said: “How long will you keep us in suspense? Tell us clearly if you are the Messiah!”

“I already told you and you refuse to believe it,” replied Jesus. “What I’m doing in my father’s name should be proof enough about me. You don’t put your believe me because you are not my sheep. My sheep recognize my voice. I know them and they follow me. To them I give eternal life, and they will never be lost, and no one will take them from my hand. My father who gave them to me is greater than all; no one can take them from his hand. The father and I are one.”

The Jewish leaders picked up stones to stone him.

“I revealed to you many good things from the father,” Jesus said. “Which of these good deeds are you stoning me for?”

“We’re not stoning you for a good deed,” the Jewish leaders replied, “but because you are a man claiming to be God. That’s blasphemy!”

“Isn’t it written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’?” Jesus answered them. “If the inspired writer called them gods (and scripture can’t be changed), are you saying the one who the father blessed and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said ‘I am the Son of God?’  If I’m not doing what my father wants, don’t believe me. But if that is what I’m doing, even though you don’t believe me, believe because of the evidence—so you may recognize and understand that the father is in me, and I in the father.

Again they tried to arrest him, but he escaped from them. He went back across the Jordan to where John had begun baptizing, and stayed there. Many people came to him. “John wasn’t a miracle worker," they said among themselves, "but everything he said about Jesus has come true.” Many believed in Jesus there.

Chapter 11
Lazarus from Bethany was sick—he was from the same village as Mary and her sister Martha.

Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with ointment and dried his feet with her hair, and it was her brother Lazarus who was sick. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, saying, “Lord, the one you love has fallen sick.” When Jesus heard the news, he said, “This illness will not end in death. It is to prove God right, and consequently to prove the Son of God right.”

Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. But when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two days more. Then he said to the disciples, “Let’s return to Judaea.”

“But Teacher, a little while ago the Jewish leaders were trying to stone you,” his disciples said. “Do you really want to return there?”

“There are twelve hours of daylight, aren’t there?” Jesus replied.

“Anyone who walks during the day won’t stumble because they have the light of this world. But anyone who walks around at night will stumble because they don’t have light.” Telling them this, he continued, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen sleep but I will go there to wake him up.”

“If he’s asleep then he’ll get better,” his disciples replied.

Jesus was talking about the death of Lazarus, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

So Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. I’m glad for your sake that I was not there, because now you will believe in me. But let us go to him.”

Thomas, (called Didymus), told the rest of the disciples, “We should go too so we can die with him.”

Once they arrived Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was only two miles from Jerusalem, and many of the Jews had come to comfort Mary and Martha in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, but Mary remained at home.

“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died,” Martha told Jesus.

“But still I know that God will give you whatever you ask.”

“Your brother will rise again,” Jesus said to her.

“I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the end-time,” Martha replied.

“I am the resurrection, and the life,” said Jesus. “Anyone who trusts in me will live, even though they die. Anyone who lives and believes in me won’t ever die. Do you believe this?”

“Yes, Lord, I believe you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come to this world,” she replied.

After saying this, she went and called her sister Mary to one side. “The Teacher’s here, and he’s asking for you,” she said.

Hearing this, Mary got up quickly and went to him. Jesus hadn’t yet arrived at the village but was still at the place Martha had met him. The Jews who had been with Mary comforting her in the house saw her get up quickly and go out. They followed her, thinking she was going to the tomb to mourn. When Mary arrived at the place and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews with her weeping too, he was very sad and upset.

“Where have you laid him?” he asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

Jesus cried.

“See how much he loved him,” the Jews said.

But some of them said, “Couldn’t he who healed the blind have kept this man from dying?”

Deeply troubled, Jesus went to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone rolled over the entrance. “Remove the stone,” he said.

“But Lord,” said Martha, the dead man’s sister, “it’s been four days already. There will be a bad smell.”

“Didn’t I tell you that if you trusted you could see the wonder of God?” Jesus replied.

So they removed the stone. Jesus looked up, and prayed, “Father, thank you that you have heard me. I know you always hear me, but I said this because of the people standing here that they may believe that you sent me.”

Saying this, he shouted in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped in linen grave-clothes, and with a cloth over his face.

“Take off the grave-clothes so he can go free,” Jesus said to them.

Consequently many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and who saw what Jesus did, believed in him. 4 But some of the others went to the Pharisees and reported what Jesus had done.

The chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin council. “What are we doing? This man is performing many miracles,  and if we allow him to go on like this, everybody will believe in him. Then the Romans will take away both our positions and our nation,” they said.

“You don’t know anything!” said Caiaphas, high priest for that year. “You don’t understand that it’s better for you that one man die for the people so that the whole nation doesn’t perish.” He didn’t say this of himself, but as chief priest for the year he “prophesied” that Jesus was about to die for the nation. In fact not only for the Jewish nation, but for all the children of God scattered abroad, to bring them back together into unity.

From that time onward they plotted to take Jesus’ life. As a result Jesus no longer moved openly among the Jews. Instead he went to an isolated area, a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples.

It was soon time for the Jewish Passover, and many went up from the countryside to Jerusalem to prepare themselves for the Passover. They were looking for Jesus and talked about him in the Temple, asking, “Do you think he’ll come to the festival?” This was because the chief priests and the Pharisees had issued orders that anyone who knew where Jesus was should report it so they could arrest him.

Chapter 12
Six days before the Passover Jesus went to Bethany where Lazarus lived who had been raised from the dead. They prepared a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus sat at the table with Jesus. Mary brought a liter of pure nard and poured it over Jesus’ feet, and then wiped them dry with her hair. The house was filled with the scent.

But one of Jesus’ disciples, Judas Iscariot, who would betray Jesus, said, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a great deal!” He wasn’t saying this because he really cared about the poor, but because he was a thief. As the one in charge of the money bag he used to take for himself from what was given.

“Leave her to do what she wishes,” said Jesus. “She is doing this to prepare for the time of my burial. You will always have the poor with you, but you won’t always have me.”

A large crowd learnt where he was and went there, not only because of Jesus but also because they wanted to see Lazarus, who Jesus had raised from the dead. As a result the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus because on account of him many people were going over to Jesus and believing in him.

The next day, the large crowd heard that Jesus was going to Jerusalem. They took palm branches, and welcomed him, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord, and the king of Israel.” Jesus found a young donkey, and sat on it, fulfilling the scripture, “Do not fear, daughter of Zion. See, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt.” Jesus’ disciples did not understand these things when they happened. Only after he appeared in glory did they realize what the prophecy mean and how this applied to him).

The crowd that had been with Jesus when he called out Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead were telling their story. Because they had heard about this wonderful miracle was why so many went to meet Jesus. So the Pharisees said to each other, “You see how we’re getting nowhere. Look how the whole world is following him.”

Some Greeks who were among those attending the festival to worship came to Philip of Bethsaida in Galilee. “Sir, we would like to see Jesus,” they said. Philip went to tell Andrew, then they both went to Jesus and told him.

“The time has come for the Son of man to be glorified,” said Jesus. “I’m telling you the truth: unless a grain of wheat is sown in the ground and dies, it remains just one grain. But if it dies, it produces many grains. Whoever loves their life will lose it, while whoever hates life in this world will have eternal life. Whoever wants to serve me needs to follow me. My servant will be where I am, and the Father will honor anyone who works for me. I am very troubled, and wonder what to say. ‘Father, save me from what’s about to happen’? But what’s about to happen is why I came. Father, exalt your name.”

A voice came from heaven, saying, “I have exalted it, and will exalt it again.” The crowd there heard it. Some said it was thunder, while others said an angel had spoken to him.

“This voice was not for my benefit, but for yours,” said Jesus. “Now is the judgment time of this world, and the prince of this world will be expelled. But I will draw everyone to me when I am lifted up from the earth.” He said this to show what kind of death he was about to die.

The crowd said, “The Law tells us that the Messiah lives forever. So how can you say the Son of man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of man?”

“The light is among you yet a short while,” Jesus replied. “Walk while you have the light lest darkness come upon you. Anyone who walks around in the dark doesn’t know where one’s going. Trust in the light while you still have it, so that you can become children of light.” After Jesus saying this, Jesus left and hid from them.

Even after these convincing miracles Jesus had done before them, they did not believe in Jesus. This fulfilled the word of Isaiah the prophet who said, “Lord, who believed our report? To whom has Lord’s power been revealed?”

Because of this, they could not believe, as Isaiah also says, “He blinded their eyes, and hardened their hearts, so that they wouldn’t see with their eyes, and wouldn’t think in their hearts, and would not turn—for I would heal them.”  Isaiah said this since he saw the glory of Jesus, and said this about him.

Though many of the leaders believed in him then, they did not confess it because they did not want to be put out of the synagogue by the Pharisees. Or, they favored man's praise over God’s.

Jesus cried out, “Anyone who believes in me doesn’t believe in me but in the one who sent me. Anyone who sees me sees the one who sent me. I have come to the world as a light, so anyone who believes in me will not stay in darkness. And I wouldn’t judge anyone who might hear my teachings but not observe them, for I have come that I might save the world, not that I might judge it. Anyone who rejects me and does not accept my words will be judged in accordance with what I have said at the judgment at the end time. I am not speaking on my own behalf, but on behalf of the Father who sent me. He told me what to say, and what to teach. I know that his command brings eternal life. That is why I say what the Father has told me!”

Chapter 13
It was now just before the Passover festival, and Jesus recognized that his time had come. He was to about to leave this world and go to his Father. Having loving his own in this world, he now revealed to them the fullness of his love. Dinner was being served, and the devil had already persuaded Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had placed everything in his hands, that he was from God and going back to God. Jesus stood up from the dinner and took off his outer clothes. He took a towel and put it around him. Then he poured water in a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet. He used the towel he was wearing to dry them. He came to Simon Peter, who asked Jesus, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

“What I’m going to do you won’t realize now,” Jesus replied. “But later you’ll understand.”

“You will never wash my feet!” Peter objected.

“If I do not wash you, you won’t have anything to do with me,” Jesus answered.

“Lord, wash not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!” Peter responded.

Someone who’s already bathed only needs to wash their feet and they are entirely clean,” Jesus told him. “You are clean, though not all of you.” He knew who was going to betray him. That is why he said “Not all of you are clean.”

After Jesus had washed their feet, he got dressed again, sat down, and asked them, “Do you understand what I just did for you? You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Teacher and Lord, washed your feet, you should follow the example I gave you of washing each others’ feet. You should do as I did. Believe me, a servant isn’t greater than his master, and the one sent is not greater than the sender. If you understand these things, then it will be good for you if you do them. I’m not talking about all of you. I know the ones I chose. But this has happened to fulfill scripture: “The one who shares my food has turned and kicked me. [literally, “lifted up his heel against me.”] I’m telling you this now, before it happens, so when it does happen you will believe that I am the One. I’m telling you the truth, whoever welcomes the one I send welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.”

After saying this, Jesus was deeply troubled, and spoke with passion. “Without a shadow of a doubt I’m telling you that one of you will betray me.”

The disciples looked at one another in shock, wondering who it was Jesus was speaking of. One of the disciples, whom Jesus loved, was at the table, reclining close to Jesus. Simon Peter motioned to him to find out who Jesus was speaking of. The disciple leaned closer to Jesus and asked, “Lord, who is it?”

“I’ll dip some bread and give it to him. He’s the one,” Jesus replied.

So after dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, son of Simon Iscariot. Once Judas accepted this, Satan entered him. “Whatever you’re going to do, do it quickly,” Jesus told him.

Nobody at the table understood what Jesus meant. Some thought that since Judas was in charge of the money that Jesus had told him to go and buy what was needed for the festival, or to donate money to the poor. After he had taken the piece of bread Judas immediately left. It was already dark.

After Judas had left, Jesus said, “The Son of man is exalted now, and through him God is exalted. If God is glorified through him, then God will similarly glorify the Son himself, and will glorify him immediately. My children, I will be with you just a short while longer. You will look for me, and as I told the Jews, I’m telling you the same thing—you cannot come where I’m going. I give you a new command: love each other. Love each other in the same way I have loved you. If you love one another everyone will know that you are my disciples.”

“Where are you going, Lord?” asked Simon Peter.

“You cannot follow me where I’m going, not now,” Jesus answered. “You will follow me later.”

“Lord, why can’t I follow you now? Peter asked. “I will give my life for you.”

“Will you really give your life for me?” Jesus asked. “The truth is that before the cock crows at dawn you will deny me three times.”

Chapter 14
“Don’t be anxious in your hearts. You trust in God; trust in me too. There’s many rooms in my father’s house, and I’m going to prepare a place for you. If it weren’t so I would have told you. Once I go there and prepare your place, then I’ll return for you and take you with me, so where I am, you’ll be also. You know where I’m going, and the way there.”

“Lord, we don’t know where you’re going so how can we know the way?” Thomas asked.

“I am the way, the truth, and the life,” Jesus said. “Nobody comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have also known my Father. From now on, you do know him and you have seen him.”

“Lord, reveal the Father to us, and that would be enough,” Philip responded.

“Have I been with you so long Philip, and yet you still don’t know me?” Jesus replied. “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. So how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? My teachings don’t come from myself, rather the Father does his work through me. Believe me when I tell you that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me. Otherwise believe me because of the things that I have done.

“I tell you the truth: whoever trusts in me will do the same things I do. In fact he will do even greater things than I do, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father’s glory may be revealed through the Son. Ask anything in my name, and I’ll do it! If you love me, you will keep my commandments. I will ask the Father, and he will give you the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, who will be with you always. The world cannot accept the Spirit because it does not see him and does not know him. But you know him because he lives with you, and will be within you.

“I will not leave you as orphans: I will come back for you. Soon the world will not see me any longer, but you will. Because I live you will live too. On that day you will know that I am in the Father, and you are in me, and I in you. Whoever loves me follows my commands, and whoever loves me will be loved by my Father. I too will love them, and will show myself to them.”

Judas (not Iscariot) asked, “Lord, why will you reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”

“Anyone who loves me will obey my teachings,” Jesus replied. “My Father will love them, and we will come to them, and make our home with them. Whoever doesn’t love me will not accept my teachings. The words you hear are not my own, but come from the Father who sent me.

“I have told you this while I’m still with you. The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, who the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of everything I have explained to you. “I leave you peace. I give you my peace—nothing like what the world gives. Don’t be anxious in your hearts, and don’t be afraid.

“You heard me tell you that I would go away, and that I would come back for you. If you really love me, you should be happy, because I’m going to the Father, for the Father is greater than me. I’ve explained this to you before it happens, so that when it does happen, you will be convinced. I don’t have much longer to talk to you, for the prince of this world comes—but he has no claim on me. I’m doing this so that the whole world might know that I love the Father, and that I follow his commands. Come, let us go.”

Chapter 15
"I am the true vine and my father is the gardener. He trims each of my branches that is not fruitful. He prunes every fruitful branch so it can bear more fruit.  You are already cleansed in this way by what I have told you.  Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch produces fruit unless it remain as part of the vine, it’s the same for you. You must remain in me.

"I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. You can do nothing without me. Whoever does not remain in me is like a withered branch that is trimmed, collected up, and thrown into the fire to be burned.  If you remain in me, and my teachings remains in you, then ask for whatever you need, and it will be given you.  My Father is glorified if you produce much fruit as my disciples.

"Just as the Father loved me, I loved you. Remain in my love. You will remain in my love as long as you follow commands, just as I follow my Father’s commands, and remain in his love.  I’ve told you this so that you may have my joy, and that your joy may be complete.  My command is this: love one another as I have loved you.  No one has greater love than this, than that they lay down their life for their friends.  You are my friends if you follow my commands.  I don’t call you servants any longer, because a servant doesn’t understand what the master is doing. Instead I call you friends, because everything I understood from my Father I have made known to you.  You didn’t choose me, but I chose you and  I planned for you to produce lasting fruit. Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.  This is my command: love one another.

"If the world hates you, bear in mind that the world first hated me. If you were part of the world, the world would love you as one of its own. But you are not like that—I chose you out of the world. That’s why the world hates you.

"Bear in mind what I told you, that a servant isn’t more important than the master. If people persecuted me, they will persecute you too. If they followed my teaching, they will follow your teaching as well. Whatever way they treat you will be because of me, for they don’t know anything about the one who sent me.  If I hadn’t come and told them, they wouldn’t be guilty of sin. But now they have no excuse.  Anyone who hates me hates my Father as well.  If I had not given them proof through what I did, things that no one ever did before, they wouldn’t be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and have rejected both me and my Father.  Of course this fulfilled what scripture says, 'They hated me for no reason.'

"But when the Comforter comes, the One I will send you from the Father, he will testify about me. He is the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father. You will also testify about me, because you have been with me from the beginning."

Chapter 16
"I have explained all this to you this so you won’t give up. They will expel you from the synagogues—in fact the time is soon coming when whoever kills you will think they are serving God.  They will do these things because they don’t know the Father, and they don’t know me either. I’m saying this to you now so that when these things happen you’ll remember that I told you.  I didn’t tell you this from the beginning because I was with you.  Now I’m going to the one who sent me, and yet none of you asks me, 'Where are you going?'  Now that I’ve told you, you’re very sad.

“But I am telling you the truth. It is better for you that I go, because if I don’t the Comforter will not come to you. If I go away, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convince the world regarding sinning, regarding living right, and regarding judging. Regarding sinning, because they don’t believe in me; regarding living right, because I’m going to the Father and you will not see me any more;  regarding judging, because the ruler of this world has been revealed.

“There is much more to tell you, but you couldn’t bear it yet. But when the Spirit of truth comes, he will lead you to understand the truth. He won’t be speaking on his own behalf, but he speaks of what he hears, and he will tell to you what is still to come. He brings glory to me because whatever he takes from me he makes known to you

“Everything that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said that whatever the Spirit takes from me he makes known to you.

“In a short while you won’t see me any more, but short while after that you will see me.”

Some of his disciples said to each other, “What does he mean, ‘In a short while you won’t see me any more, but short while after that you will see me? or ‘For I’m going to the Father’? They kept on asking, ‘What does he mean by ‘in a short while’? We don’t understand what he’s talking about.”

Jesus noticed that they wanted to ask him about this. “Are you puzzling over my comment, “In a short while you won’t see me any more, but short while after that you will see me?” he asked them. “I tell you the truth: you will cry and mourn, but the world will rejoice. You will weep, but your sadness will be turned into joy. A pregnant woman in labor suffers pain because the time to give birth has come, but once the baby is born, she forgets about the pain because of the happiness of bringing a child into the world. You may be sad now, but I will see you again, and you will be so happy. No one can take away your happiness.

“At that time you won’t need to ask me for anything. I’m telling you the truth, whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. Until now you haven’t asked for anything in my name. Ask and you shall receive, and your joy will be made complete.

“Even though I’ve spoken to you using figures of speech, the time will come when I won’t use such language when I speak to you, and I will tell you about the Father clearly.

“At that time you will ask in my name. I’m not telling you that I will plead with the Father on your behalf, because the Father loves you himself, because you loved me and believed that I came from God. I came from the Father into the world, and now I go from the world to my Father.”

“Now you’re really speaking clearly,” the disciples said. “You’re not using indirect language. Now we are convinced that you do know everything, and nobody can question you. Because of this we’re certain that you came from God.”

“Did it really take until now for you to believe?” Jesus replied. “But watch out, a time is coming, in fact it’s here now, when you will be scattered, each one to your different homes, and you will all leave me. Yet I’m not alone, because the Father is with me. I’ve told you these things so that through me you may have peace. You will have a great deal of trouble in this world, but be confident—I have defeated the world!”

Chapter 17
Jesus finished speaking, and then looked up to heaven.

“Father, the time has come to glorify the Son so that the Son may glorify you,” he prayed. “For you gave him authority over everyone so that he might eternal life to all you have given to him. This is eternal life: to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ who you sent. I glorified you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. Now Father, glorify me with same glory I had with you before the beginning of the world.

“I revealed you to those you gave me from this world. They belonged to you, you gave them to me, and they have followed what you said. Now they understand that everything you gave me comes from you. The words you gave me I have shared with them. They accepted what you said, and they know definitely that I came from you, and believe that you did send me. I’m praying for them—not for all the world, but for those you gave me because they belong to you. All I have is yours, and what you have is mine, and I am glorified through them.

“I will stay here in this world no longer, and I am coming to you—but they will stay here. Holy Father, protect them because of your reputation, the reputation of your name that you gave to me, so that they may be as one, just as we are one. While I was with them I took care of them in your name—your reputation that you gave to me. I protected them so that no one was lost, except the son of ruin, so as to fulfill Scripture. “Now I’m coming to you, and I’m saying this while I am still here in this world so they might be experience the completeness of my joy. I gave them your word, and the world hates them because they are not from this world, just as I am nor from this world. I’m not asking for you to take them from the world, rather that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of this world any more than I am. May they become righteous through the truth; your word is truth. In the same way you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. Because of them I dedicate myself to holiness, so that they may also be truly dedicated to holiness.

"I am not praying for them alone, but also for those who believe in me because of their witness. May they all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you. May they too be in us so that the world may believe you did send me.  The glory that you gave me I have given to them, so that they may be in unity, just as we are.   I am in them and you are in me, so that they may be totally united—to let the whole world know that you did send me, and that you love them, just as you love me.

"Father, I wish that those you gave me would be there with me, so they can see my glory which you gave to me, for you loved me before the world was made. Father of righteousness, the world does not know you, but I know you, and these here with me know that you sent me.  I have revealed you to them, and will continue to reveal you, so that the love you have for me might be in them, and that I may live in them."

Chapter 18
After Jesus had finished speaking, he crossed the Kidron stream with his disciples. There was a garden there and they went in. Judas knew the spot because he had often gone there with Jesus and the other disciples. So Judas took a detachment of soldiers together with guards from the chief priests and the Pharisees. They went with torches, lamps, and weapons.

Jesus, who knew everything that was going to happen to him, went out to them.

“Who are you looking for?” he asked. “Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied.

“I’m he,” said Jesus. Judas, the one betraying him, stood with them. When Jesus said “I’m he,” they stepped backwards, and fell down on the ground.

He asked them once more, “Who are you looking for?”

“Jesus of Nazareth,” they said again.

“I already told you that I am he,” Jesus replied. “If you are looking for me, then you can let these others go.” This happened to fulfill his statement, “I have not lost a single one of those you gave to me.”

Then Simon Peter pulled out a sword and struck Malchus, the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. Jesus ordered Peter, “Put your sword away! Shouldn’t I drink the cup the Father has given to me?” Then the soldiers with their commanding officer and the Jewish guards arrested Jesus, and bound him. First they took him to Annas, who was Caiphas’ father-in-law, the current high priest. Caiphas was the one who had recommended to the Jewish leaders that it was better for one man to die for the people.

Simon Peter with another disciple followed Jesus. Since this disciple was known to the high priest, he entered the high priest’s courtyard with Jesus. Peter had to wait outside, standing by the door. So this disciple (the one who was known to the high priest) returned and spoke to the doorkeeper, and took Peter inside. The woman at the door asked Peter, “You’re one of his disciples, aren’t you?”

“I’m not,” he replied.

Because it was cold, the servants and officials had made a fire and were standing there warming themselves. Peter stood with them, warming himself. The chief priest started questioning Jesus about his disciples, and what he taught. “I’ve spoken openly to everyone,” Jesus responded. “I always taught in the synagogues and in the Temple where all the Jewish people gather. I have said nothing in secret. So why are you questioning me? Ask those who were listening what I told them. Look, they know what I said.”

When he said this, one of the guards standing nearby hit Jesus on the face, saying, “Is that any way to talk to the high priest?”

“If I said something wrong, explain what was wrong. But what I said was right, why hit me?” Jesus replied.

Annas sent him, still bound, to the high priest Caiaphas.

While Simon Peter was standing warming himself, they asked him, “Aren’t you one of his disciples?”

“No, I’m not,” denied Peter.

One of the high priest’s servants, who was related to the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Didn’t I see you with him in the garden?” Peter denied it again. Immediately the cock crowed.

Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium, the Roman palace. It was early morning. They didn’t go into the palace because they did not want to become unclean. They wanted to eat the Passover.

So Pilate came out to meet them, and asked, “What charges do you bring against this man?”

“If he wasn’t guilty we wouldn’t have handed him over to you,” they replied.

“Well, you take him then and judge him by your law,” Pilate told them.

“We’re not permitted to put anyone to death,” they replied, fulfilling Jesus’ prophecy about the way he would die.

Pilate went back into the palace. He called for Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”

“Does that question come from you, or was it others who suggested it to you?” Jesus replied.

“You think I’m a Jew?” Pilate responded. “It’s your people and high priests who have handed you over to me. What have you done?”

“My kingdom is not of this world,” Jesus answered. “If it was of this world, my followers would have fought to stop the Jews arresting me. But my kingdom is of another world.”

“So you’re a king, then?” Pilate asked.

“It’s you who say I am a king,” Jesus replied. “I was born, and I came to the world, to witness to the truth. Everyone who is for the truth listens to me.”

“What’s truth?” Pilate asked. Saying this he went back out to the Jewish leaders and told them, “I don’t find him guilty of any charge. But since it’s a Passover tradition for me to release a prisoner to you, do you want me to release the King of the Jews?”

“No, we don’t want him. We want Barabbas,” they shouted back. (Barabbas was a murdering rebel).

Chapter 19
Then Jesus was flogged on Pilate’s orders. Soldiers made a crown of thorns and placed it on his head, and clothed him with a purple cloak. They kept on going to him and saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and hitting him.

Pilate went out again and said to the people, “Look, I’m bringing him out here so you know I do not find him guilty of any charge.”

Then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and purple cloak. “Look, here is the man,” said Pilate.

When the chief priests and officials saw him, they shouted out, “Crucify, crucify!” “You take him and crucify him. I don’t find him guilty of anything,” Pilate replied.

“We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God,” the Jewish leaders responded.

When Pilate heard this he was more concerned than ever, and went back into the palace.

“Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus. But Jesus didn’t answer. “Why don’t you answer me?” Pilate asked. “Don’t you realize that I have the authority to either have you released or to crucify you?”

“The only authority you have over me is what’s given to you from above,” Jesus replied. “So the one who handed me over to you commits the worse sin.”

Consequently Pilate began trying to find a way to set him free, but the Jewish leaders shouted, “You’re no friend of Caesar if you set this man free. Anyone who makes himself king opposes Caesar.” When he heard this, Pilate took Jesus outside and sat down on the seat of judgment at a place called Stone Pavement (Gabbatha in Hebrew). It was midday on the Passover preparation day.

“Look, this is your king,” he told the Jewish leaders.

“Execute him, execute him, crucify him,” they shouted.

“Do you want me to crucify your king?” Pilate asked.

“Our only king is Caesar,” the chief priests replied.

So he handed Jesus over to them to be killed on a cross.

They took Jesus away, and carrying the cross himself, went to the “Place of the Skull,” (Golgotha in Hebrew). There they crucified him, together with two others, one on each side with Jesus in the middle.

Pilate had a notice written and placed it on the cross. It said, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” Many of the Jews read the sign because the place where Jesus was crucified was near to the city. The notice was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.

Then the high priests of the Jews told Pilate, “Don’t write ‘the King of the Jews,’ but that ‘this man said I am the King of the Jews.’”

“What I’ve written is what I’ve written,” Pilate replied.

Then the soldiers, once they had nailed Jesus to the cross, took his clothes and divided them among the four of them, so that each soldier had his share. There was also a seamless robe, woven in one piece. They said to each other, “Don’t let’s split it up, instead let’s decide by throwing a dice who should get it.” This fulfilled the scripture that says, “They shared my clothes between them, and threw dice for my robe.” This was what the soldiers did.

Standing near the cross was the mother of Jesus, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing beside her, he told his mother, "Woman, this is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “This is your mother.” From that time on the disciple took her into his home.

Knowing that everything had been completed, and to fulfill scripture, Jesus said, “I’m thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge full of the vinegar and put it on a hyssop stalk, and held it to his lips. After he took the vinegar, Jesus said, “It’s finished.” He bowed his head, and breathed his last.

Since it was Preparation day, and to avoid having the bodies remain on the cross during the Sabbath day (and this was a high Sabbath), the Jewish leaders asked Pilate if they could break their legs of the crucified, so that the bodies could be removed. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first one, and then the other, but when they came to Jesus they saw he had died already, so they did not break his legs. Instead one of the soldiers stabbed his spear into Jesus’ side, and out came blood mixed with water.

The one who saw what happened testifies, and his testimony is true. He knows that he says is true and he testifies so you too may believe. This happened to fulfill the scripture, “Not one of his bones will be broken.” Another scripture says, “They shall look upon the one they pierced.”

Later on, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. Joseph was a secret disciple of Jesus, for fear of the Jews. He came and took down the body. With him was Nicodemus (the one who had first met Jesus at night), who brought about one hundred liters of myrrh and aloe mixture. They took Jesus body, wrapped it with linen and the spice mixture, as is the custom of Jews to bury the dead.. Close by where Jesus was crucified was a garden. In the garden was a new tomb where no one had been buried before. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and the tomb was close by, that’s where they buried Jesus.

Chapter 20
And on the first day from the sabbath, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and noticed that the stone had been moved away from the tomb. So she ran to Simon Peter and the disciple Jesus loved, saying, "They've taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don't know where they've placed him." Peter and the other disciple went to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple was quicker and got to the tomb first. He bent down to looked inside and saw the grave-clothes lying there, but he didn't enter. Simon Peter arrived afterwards, and went inside. He saw the linen grave-clothes lying there, and the cloth that had covered Jesus' head was folded up and placed separately from the other grave-clothes. Then the other disciple who arrived at the tomb first went in as well. He saw, and was convinced, because until then they had not understand the scripture that Jesus would rise again. Then the disciples left for their homes.

But Mary stayed at the tomb, weeping. While she wept, she bent down and looked into the tomb. She saw two angels clothed in white. They sat where Jesus' body had been. One sat at the head, the other at the foot.

"Why are you crying?" they asked her.

"Because they've taken my Lord away, and I don't know where they've placed him." Saying this, she turned around, and saw Jesus standing there. But she didn't recognize him.

"Why are you crying?" he asked her. "Who are you looking for?"

Thinking he must be the gardener, she asked him, "Sir, if you've taken him away, please let me know where you've placed him so I can get him."

Jesus said to her, "Mary."

She turned towards him and said in Hebrew, "Rabboni," meaning "Teacher."

"Don't detain me," Jesus told her, "because I haven't yet ascended to my Father. Instead, go and tell my brothers that I am going to my Father and your Father, my God and your God. So Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I've seen the Lord," and she told them what he had told her.

That same day at evening, being the first day from the sabbath, as the disciples assembled behind bolted doors for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus appeared, standing among them. "Peace to you," he told them. After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were elated to see the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you! Just as the Father sent me, so I'm sending you." After he had spoken, he breathed on them, saying, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone's sins, they are forgiven; if you do not, then their sins remain."

Thomas (also called Didymus), one of the twelve disciples, wasn't with the others when Jesus appeared. They told him, "We have seen the Lord!"

"I won't believe it--unless I see for myself the nail prints in his hands and touch them with my finger, and put my hand in his side," he responded.

A week later the disciples were together again, meeting indoors, and Thomas was with them. The doors were closed. Jesus appeared, standing among them. "Peace to you!" he said. Then he told Thomas, "Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into my side. Don't going on doubting--believe!

Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord, and my God,"

"You believe because you've seen me," said Jesus. "How happy are those that have not seen me, but still believe."

In front of the disciples, Jesus did many other miraculous signs that are not recorded in this book. But these are written here so that you may be believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you will have life in his name.

Chapter 21
After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias. It was like this. Simon Peter, Thomas Didymus, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and Zebedee’s sons, plus two others, were together.

“I’m going to go fishing,” Simon Peter told them.

“We’ll come with you,” the others replied. So they went and got in the boat, but they caught nothing that night.

Early the next morning, Jesus was standing on the shore, but the disciples did not realize it was him. Jesus called to them, “My friends, have you caught anything to eat?”

“No,” they replied.

“Throw the net out on the right side of the boat, and you’ll find some there,” he told them. So they threw out the net, and they couldn’t pull it in because it was so heavy with fish.

The disciple who Jesus loved told Peter, “It’s the Lord.”

As soon as Peter heard it was the Lord he put on his robe (because he’d taken it off) and jumped into the sea. The other disciples brought the boat in, pulling the net full of fish, because they were not far from shore (about 100 yards). When they got to the shore they saw a charcoal fire cooking fish, and some bread.

“Bring some of the fish you’ve caught,” he said to them. Simon Peter went and pulled the net ashore, full of fish. They counted 153 good-sized fish, and even then the net hadn’t torn.

“Come and eat breakfast,” Jesus told them. None of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” because they realized it was the Lord. Jesus took the bread and broke out, and shared out the fish as well. This was the third time Jesus had appeared to the disciples after his resurrection.

After breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than all this?”

“Yes, Lord, you know I love you,” he answered.

“Then feed my lambs,” Jesus told him.

“Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Jesus asked a second time.

“Yes, Lord, you know I love you,” Peter replied.

“Then take care of my sheep,” Jesus said to him. “Do you love me?” Jesus asked a third time.

Peter was saddened that Jesus asked him for the third time if he loved him. “Lord, you know everything, you know I love you,” Peter told him.

“Then feed my sheep,” said Jesus.

“I tell you the truth,” said Jesus. “When you were young, you got dressed by yourself, and went where you wanted to. But when you grow old, you’ll have to hold out your hands and someone will dress you and take you where you don’t want to go. (Jesus said this to explain how by the way he would die he would glorify God.) Then he told Peter, “Follow me.”

As Peter turned around he saw the disciple Jesus loved following behind them. (This was the one who had also reclined on Jesus’ chest during the last supper, and asked, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”)

“What will happen to him, Lord?” Peter asked Jesus.

“If I want him to remain here until I return, is that your concern? You follow me!” (Because of this, some of the brothers thought that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say to him that he wouldn’t die, just that “If I want him to remain here until I return, is that your concern?”)

This is the disciple who witnesses to all these things and recorded them. We know that his testimony is true. Jesus did many more things, and if everything were written down, I don’t believe that the whole world could contain all the books needed.