Bible in 90 Days

On paying taxes to Caesar

²⁰ So the authorities watched Jesus, and sent people to lie in wait for him. They pretended to be upright folk, but were trying to trap him in something he said, so that they could hand him over to the rule and authority of the governor. ²¹ So they asked him this question.

“Teacher,” they said, “we know that you speak and teach with integrity. You are completely impartial, and you teach God’s way and God’s truth. ²² So: is it right for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?”

²³ Jesus knew they were playing a trick.

²⁴ “Show me a tribute-coin,” he said. “This image . . . and this inscription . . . who do they belong to?”

“Caesar,” they said.

²⁵ “Well, then,” replied Jesus, “you’d better give Caesar back what belongs to him! And give God back what belongs to him.”

²⁶ They couldn’t catch him in anything he said in front of the people. They were amazed at his answer, and had nothing more to say.

Marriage and the resurrection

²⁷ Some of the Sadducees came to Jesus to put their question. (The Sadducees deny that there is any resurrection.)

²⁸ “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that ‘if a man’s brother dies, leaving a widow but no children, the man should marry the widow and raise up a family for his brother.’ ²⁹ Well, now: there were seven brothers; the eldest married a wife, and died without children. ³⁰ The second ³¹ and the third married her, and then each of the seven, and they died without children. ³² Finally the woman died as well. ³³ So, in the resurrection, whose wife will the woman be? The seven all had her as their wife.”

³⁴ “The children of this age,” replied Jesus, “marry and are given in marriage. ³⁵ But those who are counted worthy of a place in the age to come, and of the resurrection of the dead, don’t marry, and they are not given in marriage. ³⁶ This is because they can no longer die; they are the equivalent of angels. They are children of God, since they are children of the resurrection.

³⁷ “But when it comes to the dead being raised, Moses too declares it, in the passage about the burning bush, where scripture describes the Lord as ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ ³⁸ God is God, not of the dead, but of the living. They are all alive to him.”

³⁹ “That was well said, Teacher,” commented some of the scribes, ⁴⁰ since they no longer dared ask him anything else.

David’s son and the widow’s mite

⁴¹ Jesus said to them, “How can people say that the Messiah is the son of David? ⁴² David himself says, in the book of Psalms,

⁴⁴ “David, you see, calls him ‘Lord’; so how can he be his son?”

⁴⁵ As all the people listened to him, he said to the disciples, ⁴⁶ “Watch out for the scribes who like to go about in long robes, and enjoy being greeted in the market-place, sitting in the best seats in the synagogues, and taking the top table at dinners. ⁴⁷ They devour widows’ houses, and make long prayers without meaning them. Their judgment will be all the more severe.”

21 He looked up and saw rich people putting their contributions into the Temple treasury. ² He also saw an impoverished widow putting in two tiny copper coins.

³ “I’m telling you the truth,” he said. “This poor widow has put in more than all of them. ⁴ They all contributed to the collection out of their plenty, but she contributed out of her poverty, and gave her whole livelihood.”

Signs of the end

⁵ Some people were talking about the Temple, saying how wonderfully it was decorated, with its beautiful stones and dedicated gifts.

“Yes,” said Jesus; ⁶ “but the days will come when everything you see will be torn down. Not one stone will be left standing on another.”

⁷ “Teacher,” they asked him, “when will these things happen? What will be the sign that it’s all about to take place?”

⁸ “Watch out that nobody deceives you,” said Jesus. “Yes: lots of people will come using my name, saying ‘I’m the one!’ and ‘The time has come!’ Don’t go following them. ⁹ When you hear about wars and rebellions, don’t be alarmed. These things have to happen first, but the end won’t come at once.

¹⁰ “One nation will rise against another,” he went on, “and one kingdom against another. ¹¹ There will be huge earthquakes, famines and plagues in various places, terrifying omens, and great signs from heaven.

¹² “Before all this happens they will lay hands on you and persecute you. They will hand you over to the synagogues and prisons. They will drag you before kings and governors because of my name. ¹³ That will become an opportunity for you to tell your story. ¹⁴ So settle it in your hearts not to work out beforehand what tale to tell. ¹⁵ I’ll give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your opponents will be able to resist or contradict.

¹⁶ “You will be betrayed by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will kill some of you. ¹⁷ You will be hated by everyone because of my name. ¹⁸ But no hair of your head will be lost. ¹⁹ The way to keep your lives is to be patient.”

The distress of Jerusalem predicted

²⁰ “But,” continued Jesus, “when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you will know that her time of desolation has arrived. ²¹ Then people in Judaea should run off to the hills, people in Jerusalem itself should get out as fast as they can, and people in the countryside shouldn’t go back into the city. ²² Those will be the days of severe judgment, which will fulfill all the biblical warnings. ²³ Woe betide pregnant women, and nursing mothers, in those days! There is going to be huge distress on the earth, and divine anger against this people. ²⁴ The hungry sword will eat them up. They will be taken as prisoners to every nation; and Jerusalem will be trampled by the pagans, until the times of the pagans are done.

²⁵ “There will be signs in the sun, the moon and the stars. On earth the nations will be in distress and confusion because of the roaring and swelling of the sea and its waves. ²⁶ People will faint from fear, and from imagining all that’s going to happen to the world. The powers of the heavens will be shaken. ²⁷ Then they will see ‘the son of man coming on a cloud’ with power and great majesty. ²⁸ When all these things start to happen, stand up and lift up your heads, because the time has come for you to be redeemed.”

²⁹ He told them this parable. “Look at the fig tree and all the trees. ³⁰ When they are well into leaf, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is upon you. ³¹ In the same way, when you see all these things happening, you will know that God’s kingdom is upon you. ³² I’m telling you the truth; this generation won’t be gone before all of this happens. ³³ Heaven and earth may disappear, but these words of mine won’t disappear.”

Watching for the son of man

³⁴ “So watch out for yourselves,” said Jesus. “Don’t let your hearts grow heavy with dissipation and drunkenness and the cares of this life, letting that day come upon you suddenly, ³⁵ like a trap. It will come, you see, on everyone who lives on the face of the earth. ³⁶ Keep awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that will happen, and to stand before the son of man.”

³⁷ Jesus was teaching in the Temple by day, but at night he went out and stayed in the place called the Mount of Olives. ³⁸ From early morning all the people flocked to him in the Temple, to hear him.

The Last Supper

22 The time came for the Festival of Unleavened Bread, known as Passover. ² The chief priests and the scribes looked for a way to assassinate Jesus, a difficult task because of the crowds.

³ The satan entered into Judas, whose surname was Iscariot, who was one of the company of the Twelve. ⁴ He went and held a meeting with the chief priests and officers, to discuss how he might hand Jesus over. ⁵ They were delighted, and promised to pay him. ⁶ He agreed, and started to look for an opportunity to hand him over to them when the crowds weren’t around.

⁷ The day of Unleavened Bread arrived, the day when people had to kill the Passover lamb. ⁸ Jesus dispatched Peter and John.

“Off you go,” he said, “and get the Passover ready for us to eat.”

⁹ “Where d’you want us to prepare it?” they asked him.

¹⁰ “Listen carefully,” said Jesus. “As you go into the city a man will meet you carrying a jar of water. Follow him, and when he goes into a house, go after him. ¹¹ Then say to the householder there, ‘The teacher says, “Where is the living-room where I can eat the Passover with my disciples?” ’ ¹² And he will show you a large upstairs room, laid out and ready. Make the preparations there.”

¹³ So they went and found it as he had said to them, and they prepared the Passover.

¹⁴ When the time came, Jesus sat down at table with the apostles.

¹⁵ “I have been so much looking forward to eating this Passover with you before I have to suffer,” he said to them. ¹⁶ “For—let me tell you—I won’t eat it again until it’s fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”

¹⁷ Then he took a cup, and gave thanks, and said, “Take this and share it among yourselves. ¹⁸ Let me tell you, from now on I won’t drink from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”

¹⁹ Then he took some bread. He gave thanks, broke it and gave it to them.

“This is my body,” he said, “which is given for you. Do this in memory of me.”

²⁰ So too, after supper, with the cup: “This cup,” he said, “is the new covenant, in my blood which is shed for you.

²¹ “But look here! Someone here is going to betray me. His hand is with mine at this table. ²² The son of man is indeed going, as it is marked out for him; but woe betide that man by whom he is betrayed!”

²³ They began to ask each other which of them was going to do this.

Prediction of Peter’s denial

²⁴ A quarrel began among them: which of them would be seen as the most important?

²⁵ “Pagan kings lord it over their subjects,” said Jesus to them, “and people in power get themselves called ‘Benefactors.’ ²⁶ That’s not how it’s to be with you. The most important among you ought to be like the youngest. The leader should be like the servant. ²⁷ After all, who is the more important, the one who sits at table or the one who waits on him? The one at table, obviously! But I am with you here like a servant.

²⁸ “You are the ones who have stuck it out with me through the trials I’ve had to endure. ²⁹ This is my bequest to you: the kingdom my father bequeathed to me! ³⁰ What does this mean? You will eat and drink at my table, in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

³¹ “Simon, Simon, listen to this. The satan demanded to have you. He wanted to shake you into bits like wheat. ³² But I prayed for you; I prayed that you wouldn’t run out of faith. And, when you turn back again, you must give strength to your brothers.”

³³ “Master,” replied Simon, “I’m ready to go with you to prison—or to death!”

³⁴ “Let me tell you, Peter,” replied Jesus, “before the cock crows today, you will three times deny that you know me.

³⁵ “When I sent you out,” Jesus said to them, “without purse or bag or sandals, were you short of anything?”

“Nothing,” they replied.

³⁶ “But now,” he said, “anyone who has a purse should take it, and the same with a bag. And anyone who doesn’t have a sword should sell his cloak and buy one. ³⁷ Let me tell you this: when the Bible says, ‘He was reckoned with the lawless,’ it must find its fulfillment in me. Yes; everything about me must reach its goal.”

³⁸ “Look, Master,” they said, “we’ve got a couple of swords here.”

“That’s enough!” he said to them.

Jesus is arrested

³⁹ So off they went. Jesus headed, as usual, for the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him.

⁴⁰ When he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you won’t come into the trial.”

⁴¹ He then withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down to pray.

⁴² “Father,” he said, “if you wish it—please take this cup away from me! But it must be your will, not mine.” ⁴³ An angel appeared to him from heaven, strengthening him. ⁴⁴ By now he was in agony, and he prayed very fervently. And his sweat became like clots of blood, falling on the ground. ⁴⁵ Then he got up from praying, and came to the disciples and found them asleep because of sorrow.

⁴⁶ “Why are you sleeping?” he said to them. “Get up and pray, so that you won’t come into the trial.”

⁴⁷ While he was still speaking, a crowd appeared. The man named Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him, ⁴⁸ but Jesus said to him, “Judas! Are you going to betray the son of man with a kiss?”

⁴⁹ Jesus’ followers saw what was about to happen.

“Master!” they said. “Shall we go in with the swords?” ⁵⁰ And one of them struck the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear.

⁵¹ “Enough of that!” said Jesus, and healed the ear with a touch.

⁵² Then Jesus spoke to the arresting party—the chief priests, the Temple guards, and the elders.

“Anyone would think I was a brigand,” he said, “seeing you coming out like this with swords and clubs! ⁵³ Every day I’ve been in the Temple with you and you never laid hands on me. But your moment has come at last, and so has the power of darkness.”

Peter denies Jesus

⁵⁴ So they arrested Jesus, took him off, and brought him into the high priest’s house. Peter followed at a distance. ⁵⁵ They lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat around it, and Peter sat in among them.

⁵⁶ A servant-girl saw him sitting by the fire. She stared hard at him. “This fellow was with him!” she said.

⁵⁷ Peter denied it. “I don’t know him, woman,” he said.

⁵⁸ After a little while another man saw him and said, “You’re one of them!”

“No, my friend, I’m not,” replied Peter.

⁵⁹ After the space of about an hour, another man insisted, “It’s true! This man was with him; he’s a Galilean too!”

⁶⁰ “My good fellow,” said Peter, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” And at once, while he was still speaking, the cock crowed. ⁶¹ The master turned and looked at Peter, and Peter called to mind the words the master had spoken to him: “Before the cock crows, this very day, you will deny me three times.” ⁶² And he went outside and wept bitterly.

⁶³ The men who were holding Jesus began to make fun of him and knock him about. ⁶⁴ They blindfolded him.

“Prophesy!” they told him. “Who is it that’s hitting you?”

⁶⁵ And they said many other scandalous things to him.

⁶⁶ When the day broke, the official assembly of the people, the chief priests and the scribes came together, and they took him off to their council.

⁶⁷ “If you are the Messiah,” they said, “tell us!”

“If I tell you,” he said to them, “you won’t believe me. ⁶⁸ And if I ask you a question, you won’t answer me. ⁶⁹ But from now on the son of man will be seated at the right hand of God’s power.”

⁷⁰ “So you’re the son of God, are you?” they said.

“You say that I am,” he said to them.

⁷¹ “Why do we need any more witnesses?” they said. “We’ve heard it ourselves, from his own mouth!”

Jesus before Pilate and Herod

23 The whole crowd of them got up and took Jesus to Pilate.

² They began to accuse him. “We found this fellow,” they said, “deceiving our nation! He was forbidding people to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he is the Messiah—a king!”

³ So Pilate asked Jesus, “You are the king of the Jews?”

“You said it,” replied Jesus.

⁴ “I find no fault in this man,” said Pilate to the chief priests and the crowds. ⁵ But they became insistent.

“He’s stirring up the people,” they said, “teaching them throughout the whole of Judaea. He began in Galilee, and now he’s come here.”

⁶ When Pilate heard that, he asked if the man was indeed a Galilean. ⁷ When he learned that he was from Herod’s jurisdiction he sent him to Herod, who happened also to be in Jerusalem at that time.

⁸ When Herod saw Jesus he was delighted. He had been wanting to see him for quite some time now, since he’d heard about him, and had hoped to see him perform some sign or other. ⁹ He questioned him this way and that, but Jesus gave no answer at all. ¹⁰ The chief priests and the scribes stood by, accusing him vehemently. ¹¹ Herod and his soldiers treated Jesus with contempt; they ridiculed him by dressing him up in a splendid robe, and sent him back to Pilate. ¹² And so it happened, that very day, that Herod and Pilate became friends with each other. Up until then, they had been enemies.

Pilate pressured by the crowds

¹³ So Pilate called the chief priests, the rulers and the people.

¹⁴ “You brought this man before me,” he said to them, “on the grounds that he was leading the people astray. Look here, then: I examined him in your presence and I found no evidence in him of the charges you’re bringing against him. ¹⁵ Nor did Herod; he sent him back to me. Look: there is no sign that he’s done anything to deserve death. ¹⁶ So I’m going to flog him and let him go.”

¹⁸ “Take him away!” they shouted out all together. “Release Barabbas for us!” ¹⁹ (Barabbas had been thrown into prison because of an uprising that had taken place in the city, and for murder.) ²⁰ Pilate spoke to them again, with the intention of letting Jesus go, ²¹ but they shouted back, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”

²² “Why?” he said for the third time. “What’s he done wrong? I can’t find anything he’s done that deserves death, so I’m going to beat him and let him go.”

²³ But they went on shouting out at the tops of their voices, demanding that he be crucified; and eventually their shouts won the day. ²⁴ Pilate gave his verdict that their request should be granted. ²⁵ He released the man they asked for, the one who’d been thrown into prison because of rebellion and murder, and gave Jesus over to their demands.

²⁶ As they led him away, they grabbed a man from Cyrene called Simon, who was coming in to the city from the countryside, and they forced him to carry the crossbeam behind Jesus.

The crucifixion

²⁷ A great crowd of the people followed Jesus, including women who were mourning and wailing for him. ²⁸ Jesus turned and spoke to them.

“Daughters of Jerusalem,” he said, “don’t cry for me. Cry for yourselves instead! Cry for your children! ²⁹ Listen: the time is coming when you will say, ‘A blessing on the barren! A blessing on wombs that never bore children, and breasts that never nursed them!’ ³⁰ At that time people will start to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’ ³¹ Yes: if this is what they do with the green tree, what will happen to the dry one?”

³² Two other criminals were taken away with him to be executed. ³³ When they came to the place called The Skull, they crucified him there, with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.

³⁴ “Father,” said Jesus, “forgive them! They don’t know what they’re doing!”

They divided his clothes, casting lots for them.

³⁵ The people stood around watching. The rulers hurled abuse at him.

“He rescued others,” they said, “let him try rescuing himself, if he really is the Messiah, God’s chosen one!”

³⁶ The soldiers added their taunts, coming up and offering him cheap wine.

³⁷ “If you’re the king of the Jews,” they said, “rescue yourself!”

³⁸ The charge was written above him: “This is the King of the Jews.”

³⁹ One of the bad characters who was hanging there began to insult him. “Aren’t you the Messiah?” he said. “Rescue yourself—and us, too!”

⁴⁰ But the other one told him off. “Don’t you fear God?” he said. “You’re sharing the same fate that he is! ⁴¹ In our case it’s fair enough; we’re getting exactly what we asked for. But this fellow hasn’t done anything out of order.

⁴² “Jesus,” he went on, “remember me when you finally become king.”

⁴³ “I’m telling you the truth,” replied Jesus, “you’ll be with me in paradise, this very day.”

The death and burial of Jesus

⁴⁴ By the time of the sixth hour, darkness came over all the land. ⁴⁵ The sunlight vanished until the ninth hour. The veil of the Temple was ripped down the middle. ⁴⁶ Then Jesus shouted out at the top of his voice, “Here’s my spirit, Father! You can take care of it now!” And with that he died.

⁴⁷ The centurion saw what happened, and praised God.

“This fellow,” he said, “really was in the right.”

⁴⁸ All the crowds who had come together for the spectacle saw what happened, and they went away beating their breasts. ⁴⁹ Those who knew Jesus, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, remained at a distance and watched the scene.

⁵⁰ Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the council. He was a good and righteous man, ⁵¹ and had not given his consent to the court’s verdict or actions. He was from Arimathea, a town in Judaea, and he was longing for God’s kingdom. ⁵² He approached Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. ⁵³ He took it down, wrapped it in a shroud, and put it in a tomb hollowed out of the rock, where no one had ever been laid. ⁵⁴ It was the day of Preparation, and the sabbath was beginning.

⁵⁵ The women who had followed Jesus, the ones who had come with him from Galilee, saw the tomb and how the body was laid. ⁵⁶ Then they went back to prepare spices and ointments. On the sabbath they rested, as the commandment specified.

The resurrection

24 The women went to the tomb in the very early morning of the first day of the week, carrying the spices they had prepared. ² They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³ and when they went in they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus.

⁴ As they were at a loss what to make of it all, suddenly two men in shining clothes stood beside them. ⁵ The women were terrified, and bowed their faces towards the ground.

But the men said to them, “Why look for the living with the dead? ⁶ He isn’t here—he’s been raised! Don’t you remember? While you were still in Galilee he told you that ⁷ the son of man must be handed over into the hands of sinners, and be crucified, and rise again on the third day.”

⁸ And they remembered his words.

⁹ They went back, away from the tomb, and told all this to the eleven and all the others. ¹⁰ It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and the others with them. They said this to the apostles; ¹¹ and this message seemed to them just stupid, useless talk, and they didn’t believe them.

¹² Peter, though, got up and ran to the tomb. He stooped down and saw only the grave-clothes. He went back home, perplexed at what had happened.

On the road to Emmaus

¹³ That very day, two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, which lay about seven miles from Jerusalem. ¹⁴ They were discussing with each other all the various things that had taken place. ¹⁵ As they were discussing, and arguing with each other, Jesus himself approached and walked with them. ¹⁶ Their eyes, though, were prevented from recognizing him.

¹⁷ “You’re obviously having a very important discussion on your walk,” he said; “what’s it all about?”

They stood still, a picture of gloom. ¹⁸ Then one of them, Cleopas by name, answered him.

“You must be the only person around Jerusalem,” he said, “who doesn’t know what’s been going on there these last few days.”

¹⁹ “What things?” he asked.

“To do with Jesus of Nazareth,” they said to him. “He was a prophet. He acted with power and he spoke with power, before God and all the people. ²⁰ Our chief priests and rulers handed him over to be condemned to death, and they crucified him. ²¹ But we were hoping that he was going to redeem Israel!

“And now, what with all this, it’s the third day since it happened. ²² But some women from our group have astonished us. They went to his tomb very early this morning, ²³ and didn’t find his body. They came back saying they’d seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. ²⁴ Some of the folk with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they didn’t see him.”

²⁵ “You are so senseless!” he said to them. “So slow in your hearts to believe all the things the prophets said to you! Don’t you see? ²⁶ This is what had to happen: the Messiah had to suffer, and then come into his glory!”

²⁷ So he began with Moses, and with all the prophets, and explained to them the things about himself throughout the whole Bible.

Jesus revealed at Emmaus

²⁸ They drew near to the village where they were heading. Jesus gave the impression that he was going further, ²⁹ but they urged him strongly not to.

“Stay with us,” they said. “It’s nearly evening; the day is almost gone.” And he went in to stay with them.

³⁰ As he was sitting at table with them he took the bread and gave thanks. He broke it and gave it to them. ³¹ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight.

³² Then they said to each other, “Don’t you remember how our hearts were burning inside us, as he talked to us on the road, as he opened up the Bible for us?”

³³ And they got up then and there and went back to Jerusalem. There they found the eleven gathered together, and the people with them.

³⁴ They were saying, “The Lord really has been raised! He’s appeared to Simon!” ³⁵ Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

Jesus’ promise and ascension

³⁶ As they were saying this, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and said, “Peace be with you.” ³⁷ They were terrified and alarmed, and thought they were seeing a ghost.

³⁸ “Why are you so disturbed?” he said. “Why do these questionings come up in your hearts? ³⁹ Look at my hands and feet; it really is me, myself. Touch me and see! Ghosts don’t have flesh and bones like you can see I have.”

⁴⁰ With these words, he showed them his hands and feet.

⁴¹ While they were still in disbelief and amazement from sheer joy, he said to them, “Have you got something here to eat?” ⁴² They gave him a piece of baked fish, ⁴³ which he took and ate in front of them.

⁴⁴ Then he said to them, “This is what I was explaining to you when I was still with you. Everything written about me in the law of Moses, and in the prophets and the Psalms, had to be fulfilled.” ⁴⁵ Then he opened their minds to understand the Bible.

⁴⁶ “This is what is written,” he said. “The Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, ⁴⁷ and in his name repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, must be announced to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. ⁴⁸ You are the witnesses for all this. ⁴⁹ Now, look: I’m sending upon you what my father has promised. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

⁵⁰ Then he took them out as far as Bethany, and lifted up his hands and blessed them. ⁵¹ As he was blessing them, he was separated from them and carried into heaven.

⁵² They worshiped him, and went back to Jerusalem with great joy. ⁵³ They spent all their time in the Temple, praising God.

The Word made flesh

1 In the beginning was the Word. The Word was close beside God, and the Word was God. ² In the beginning, he was close beside God.

³ All things came into existence through him; not one thing that exists came into existence without him. ⁴ Life was in him, and this life was the light of the human race. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

⁶ There was a man called John, who was sent from God. ⁷ He came as evidence, to give evidence about the light, so that everyone might believe through him. ⁸ He was not himself the light, but he came to give evidence about the light.

⁹ The true light, which gives light to every human being, was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. ¹¹ He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. ¹² But to anyone who did accept him, he gave the right to become God’s children; yes, to anyone who believed in his name. ¹³ They were not born from blood, or from fleshly desire, or from the intention of a man, but from God.

¹⁴ And the Word became flesh, and lived among us. We gazed upon his glory, glory like that of the father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

¹⁵ John gave evidence about him, loud and clear.

“This is the one,” he said, “that I was speaking about when I told you, ‘The one who comes after me ranks ahead of me, because he was before me.’ ”

¹⁶ Yes; it’s out of his fullness that we have all received, grace indeed on top of grace. ¹⁷ The law, you see, was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus the Messiah. ¹⁸ Nobody has ever seen God. The only-begotten God, who is intimately close to the father—he has brought him to light.

The evidence of John

¹⁹ This is the evidence John gave, when the Judaeans sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”

²⁰ He was quite open about it; he didn’t try to deny it. He said, quite openly, “I am not the Messiah.”

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

“No, I’m not,” he replied.

“Are you the Prophet?”

“No.”

²² “Well, then, who are you?” they said. “We’ve got to take some kind of answer back to the people who sent us. Who do you claim to be?”

²³ “I’m a voice calling in the desert,” he said, “ ‘Straighten out the road for the master!’ ”—just as the prophet Isaiah said.

²⁴ The people who had been sent were from the Pharisees. ²⁵ They continued to question him.

“So why are you baptizing,” they asked, “if you aren’t the Messiah, or Elijah, or the Prophet?”

²⁶ “I’m baptizing with water,” John replied. “But there is someone standing among you that you don’t know, ²⁷ someone who is to come after me. I’m not good enough to undo his sandal-strap.”

²⁸ This took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

The lamb and the spirit

²⁹ The next day, John saw Jesus coming towards him.

“Look!” he said. “There’s God’s lamb! He’s the one who takes away the world’s sin! ³⁰ He’s the one I was speaking about when I said, ‘There’s a man coming after me who ranks ahead of me, because he was before me!’ ³¹ I didn’t know who it would be, but this was the reason I came to baptize with water—so that he could be revealed to Israel.”

³² So John gave this evidence: “I saw the spirit coming down like a dove out of heaven and remaining on him. ³³ I didn’t know who it would be; but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘When you see the spirit coming down and resting on someone, that’s the person who will baptize with the holy spirit.’ ³⁴ Well, that’s what I saw, and I’ve given you my evidence: he is the son of God.”

The first disciples

³⁵ The following day John was again standing there, with two of his disciples. ³⁶ He saw Jesus walking by, and said, “Look! There goes God’s lamb!”

³⁷ The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.

³⁸ Jesus turned and saw them following him.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“Rabbi,” they said (the word means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”

³⁹ “Come and see,” he replied.

So they came, and saw where he was staying, and stayed with him that day. It was late in the afternoon.

⁴⁰ One of the two who heard what John said and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. ⁴¹ The first person he found was his own brother Simon.

“We’ve found the Messiah!” he said (that means “the anointed one,” like our word “Christ”). ⁴² He brought him to Jesus.

Jesus looked at him.

“So,” he said, “you’re Simon, John’s son, are you? We’d better call you Cephas!” (That means “the Rock,” like our word “Peter.”)

Philip and Nathanael

⁴³ The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee, where he found Philip.

“Follow me,” he said to him.

⁴⁴ Philip came from Bethsaida, the town where Andrew and Peter hailed from. ⁴⁵ Philip found Nathanael.

“We’ve found him!” he said. “The one Moses wrote about in the law! And the prophets, too! We’ve found him! It’s Jesus, Joseph’s son, from Nazareth!”

⁴⁶ “Really?” replied Nathanael. “Are you telling me that something good can come out of Nazareth?”

“Come and see,” replied Philip.

⁴⁷ Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him.

“Here he comes,” he said. “Look at him! He’s a real Israelite. Genuine through and through.”

⁴⁸ “How did you get to know me?” asked Nathanael.

“Oh,” replied Jesus, “I saw you under the fig tree, before Philip spoke to you.”

⁴⁹ “Rabbi,” replied Nathanael, “you’re the son of God! You’re the king of Israel!”

⁵⁰ “Wait a minute,” said Jesus. “Are you telling me that you believe just because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You’ll see a lot more than that!

⁵¹ “In fact,” he went on, “I’m telling you the solemn truth. You’ll see heaven opened, and God’s angels going up and down upon the son of man.”

Water into wine

2 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, ² and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.

³ The wine ran out.

Jesus’ mother came over to him.

“They haven’t got any wine!” she said.

⁴ “Oh, Mother!” replied Jesus. “What’s that got to do with you and me? My time hasn’t come yet.”

⁵ His mother spoke to the servants.

“Do whatever he tells you,” she said.

⁶ Six stone water-jars were standing there, ready for use in the Jewish purification rites. Each held about twenty or thirty gallons.

⁷ “Fill the jars with water,” said Jesus to the servants. And they filled them, right up to the brim.

⁸ “Now draw some out,” he said, “and take it to the chief steward.” They did so.

⁹ When the chief steward tasted the water that had turned into wine (he didn’t know where it had come from, but the servants who had drawn the water knew), he called the bridegroom.

¹⁰ “What everybody normally does,” he said, “is to serve the good wine first, and then the worse stuff when people have had plenty to drink. But you’ve kept the good wine till now!”

¹¹ This event, in Cana of Galilee, was the first of Jesus’ signs. He displayed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

¹² After this, he went down to Capernaum, with his mother, his brothers and his disciples. He remained there for a few days.

Jesus in the Temple

¹³ It was nearly time for the Judaean Passover, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

¹⁴ In the Temple he found people selling cows, sheep and doves, and the money-changers sitting there. ¹⁵ He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the Temple—sheep, cows and all. He spilt the money-changers’ coins onto the ground, and knocked over their tables.

¹⁶ “Take these things away!” he said to the people selling doves. “You mustn’t turn my father’s house into a market!”

¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it was written, “The zeal of your house has eaten me up.”

¹⁸ The Judaeans had this response for him. “What sign are you going to show us,” they said, “to explain why you’re doing this?”

¹⁹ “Destroy this Temple,” replied Jesus, “and I’ll raise it up in three days.”

²⁰ “It’s taken forty-six years to build this Temple,” responded the Judaeans, “and are you going to raise it up in three days?” ²¹ But he was speaking about the “temple” of his body. ²² So when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Bible and the word which Jesus had spoken.

²³ While he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, several people came to trust in his name, because they had seen the signs he did. ²⁴ But Jesus didn’t entrust himself to them. He knew everything, ²⁵ and had no need for anyone to give him information about people. He himself knew what was inside people.

Jesus and Nicodemus

3 There was a man of the Pharisees called Nicodemus, a ruler of the Judaeans. ² He came to Jesus by night.

“Rabbi,” he said to him. “We know that you’re a teacher who’s come from God. Nobody can do these signs that you’re doing, unless God is with him.”

³ “Let me tell you the solemn truth,” replied Jesus. “Unless someone has been born from above, they won’t be able to see God’s kingdom.”

⁴ “How can someone possibly be born,” asked Nicodemus, “when they’re old? You’re not telling me they can go back a second time into the mother’s womb and be born, are you?”

⁵ “I’m telling you the solemn truth,” replied Jesus. “Unless someone is born from water and spirit, they can’t enter God’s kingdom. ⁶ Flesh is born from flesh, but spirit is born from spirit. ⁷ Don’t be surprised that I said to you, You must be born from above. ⁸ The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear the sound it makes; but you don’t know where it’s coming from or where it’s going to. That’s what it’s like with someone who is born from the spirit.”

⁹ “How can this be so?” asked Nicodemus.

¹⁰ “Well, well!” replied Jesus. “You’re a teacher of Israel, and yet you don’t know about all this? ¹¹ I’m telling you the solemn truth: we’re talking about things we know about. We’re giving evidence about things we’ve seen. But you won’t admit our evidence. ¹² If I told you earthly things and you don’t believe, how will it be if I tell you heavenly things? Are you going to believe then? ¹³ And nobody has gone up into heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the son of man.”

The snake and the love of God

¹⁴ “So, just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, in the same way the son of man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ so that everyone who believes in him may share in the life of God’s new age. ¹⁶ This, you see, is how much God loved the world: enough to give his only, special son, so that everyone who believes in him should not be lost but should share in the life of God’s new age. ¹⁷ After all, God didn’t send the son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world could be saved by him.

¹⁸ “Anyone who believes in him is not condemned. But anyone who doesn’t believe is condemned already, because they didn’t believe in the name of God’s only, special son. ¹⁹ And this is the condemnation: that light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light, because what they were doing was evil. ²⁰ For everyone who does evil hates the light; people like that don’t come to the light, in case their deeds get shown up and reproved. ²¹ But people who do the truth come to the light, so that it can become clear that what they have done has been done in God.”

The bridegroom and his friend

²² After this, Jesus and his disciples went into the countryside of Judaea, and he stayed there with them and baptized. ²³ John, too, was baptizing at Aenon, close to Salim. There was plenty of water there, and people came to him and were baptized. ²⁴ This, of course, was before John had been put into prison.

²⁵ There was, perhaps inevitably, a dispute between the disciples of John and a Judaean, on the subject of purification. ²⁶ They came to John.

“Rabbi,” they said. “Remember the man who was with you beyond the Jordan, the one you gave evidence about? Well, look! He’s baptizing, and everyone’s going to him!”

²⁷ “Nobody can receive anything unless heaven first gives it,” replied John. ²⁸ “You yourselves can bear me out that I said I wasn’t the Messiah, but that I was sent ahead of him. ²⁹ It’s the bridegroom who gets the bride. The bridegroom’s friend, who stands nearby and hears him, is very happy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. So, you see, my joy is now complete. ³⁰ He must increase, but I must decrease.”

³¹ The one who comes from above is over everything. The one who is from the earth has an earthly character, and what he says has “earth” written all over it. The one who comes from heaven is above all. ³² He gives evidence about what he has heard and seen, and nobody accepts his evidence. ³³ The one who does accept his evidence has put his signature to the fact that God is true. ³⁴ The one God sent, you see, speaks God’s words, because he gives the spirit lavishly. ³⁵ The father loves the son and has given everything into his hand. ³⁶ Anyone who believes in the son shares in the life of God’s new age. Anyone who doesn’t believe in the son won’t see life, but God’s wrath rests on him.

The woman of Samaria

4 So when Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that he was making more disciples than John, and was baptizing them ² (Jesus himself didn’t baptize people; it was his disciples who were doing it), ³ he left Judaea and went back to Galilee.

⁴ He had to go through Samaria, ⁵ and he came to a town in Samaria named Sychar. It was near the place which Jacob gave to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, tired from the journey, sat down there by the well. It was about midday.

⁷ A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus spoke to her.

“Give me a drink,” he said. ⁸ (The disciples had gone off into the town to buy food.)

⁹ “What!” said the Samaritan woman. “You, a Jew, asking for a drink from me, a woman, and a Samaritan at that?” (Jews, you see, don’t have any dealings with Samaritans.)

¹⁰ “If only you’d known God’s gift,” replied Jesus, “and who it is that’s saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you’d have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

¹¹ “But sir,” replied the woman, “you haven’t got a bucket! And the well’s deep! So how were you thinking of getting living water? ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself, with his sons and his animals?”

¹³ “Everyone who drinks this water,” Jesus replied, “will get thirsty again. ¹⁴ But anyone who drinks the water I’ll give them won’t ever be thirsty again. No: the water I’ll give them will become a spring of water welling up to the life of God’s new age.”

¹⁵ “Sir,” the woman said, “give me this water! Then I won’t be thirsty anymore, and I won’t have to come here to draw from the well.”

Jesus and the woman

¹⁶ “Well then,” said Jesus to the woman, “go and call your husband and come here.”

¹⁷ “I haven’t got a husband,” replied the woman.

“You’re telling me you haven’t got a husband!” replied Jesus. ¹⁸ “The fact is, you’ve had five husbands, and the one you’ve got now isn’t your husband. You were speaking the truth!”

¹⁹ “Well, sir,” replied the woman, “I can see you’re a prophet . . . ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain. And you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”

²¹ “Believe me, woman,” replied Jesus, “the time is coming when you won’t worship the father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. ²² You worship what you don’t know. We worship what we do know; salvation, you see, is indeed from the Jews. ²³ But the time is coming—indeed, it’s here already!—when true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth. Yes; that’s the kind of worshipers the father is looking for. ²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

²⁵ “I know that Messiah is coming,” said the woman, “the one they call ‘the anointed.’ When he comes, he’ll tell us everything.”

²⁶ “I’m the one—the one speaking to you right now,” said Jesus.

Sower and reaper rejoice together

²⁷ Just then Jesus’ disciples came up. They were astonished that he was talking with a woman; but nobody said “What did you want?” or “Why were you talking with her?” ²⁸ So the woman left her water-jar, went into the town and spoke to the people.

²⁹ “Come on!” she said. “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! You don’t think he can be the Messiah, do you?”

³⁰ So they left the town and were coming out to him.

³¹ Meanwhile the disciples were nagging him.

“Come on, Rabbi!” they were saying. “You must have something to eat!”

³² “I’ve got food to eat that you know nothing about,” he said.

³³ “Nobody’s brought him anything to eat, have they?” said the disciples to one another.

³⁴ “My food,” replied Jesus, “is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to finish his work! ³⁵ Don’t you have a saying, ‘Another four months, then comes harvest’? Well, let me tell you, raise your eyes and see! The fields are white! It’s harvest time already! ³⁶ The reaper earns his pay, and gathers crops for the life of God’s coming age, so that sower and reaper can celebrate together. ³⁷ This is where that saying comes true, ‘One sows, another reaps.’ ³⁸ I sent you to reap what you didn’t work for. Others did the hard work, and you’ve come into the results.”

³⁹ Several Samaritans from that town believed in Jesus because of what the woman said in evidence about him, “He told me everything I did.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them. And he stayed there two days.

⁴¹ Many more believed because of what he said.

⁴² “We believe, too,” they said to the woman, “but it’s no longer because of what you told us. We’ve heard him ourselves! We know that he really is the one! He’s the savior of the world!”

The official’s son

⁴³ After the two days in Samaria, Jesus went off from there to Galilee. ⁴⁴ Jesus himself gave evidence, after all, that a prophet isn’t honored in his own country. ⁴⁵ So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all the things he had done in Jerusalem at the festival, they having been at the festival themselves.

⁴⁶ So he went once more to Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine.

There was a royal official in Capernaum whose son was ill. ⁴⁷ He heard that Jesus had come from Judaea into Galilee, and he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, since he was at the point of death.

⁴⁸ “Unless you see signs and miracles,” replied Jesus, “you won’t ever believe.”

⁴⁹ “Sir,” replied the official, “come down before my child dies!”

⁵⁰ “Off you go!” said Jesus. “Your son will live!”

The man believed the word which Jesus had spoken to him, and he set off. ⁵¹ But while he was still on his way down to Capernaum, his servants met him with the news that his son was alive and well.

⁵² So he asked them what time he had begun to get better.

“Yesterday afternoon, about one o’clock,” they said. “That’s when the fever left him.”

⁵³ So the father knew that it had happened at the very moment when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live!” He himself believed, and so did all his household.

⁵⁴ This was now the second sign Jesus did, when he came out of Judaea into Galilee.

The healing of the disabled man

5 After this there was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

² In Jerusalem, near the Sheep Gate, there is a pool which is called, in Hebrew, Bethesda. It has five porticoes, ³ where several sick people were lying. They were blind, lame and paralyzed.

⁵ There was a man who had been there, in the same sick state, for thirty-eight years. ⁶ Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been there a long time already.

“Do you want to get well?” he asked him.

⁷ “Well, sir,” the sick man replied, “I don’t have anyone to put me into the pool when the water gets stirred up. While I’m on my way there, someone else gets down before me.”

⁸ “Get up,” said Jesus, “pick up your mattress and walk!”

⁹ At once the man was healed. He picked up his mattress and walked.

God’s son breaks the sabbath!

The day all this happened was a sabbath. ¹⁰ So the Judaeans confronted the man who had been healed.

“It’s the sabbath!” they said. “You shouldn’t be carrying your mattress!”

¹¹ “Well,” he replied, “the man who cured me told me to pick up my mattress and walk!”

¹² “Oh, really?” they said. “And who is this man, who told you to pick it up and walk?”

¹³ But the man who’d been healed didn’t know who it was. Jesus had gone away, and the place was crowded.

¹⁴ After this Jesus found the man in the Temple.

“Look!” he said. “You’re better again! Don’t sin anymore, or something worse might happen to you!”

¹⁵ The man went off and told the Judaeans that it was Jesus who had healed him. ¹⁶ That was why the Judaeans began to persecute Jesus, because he did these things on the sabbath.

¹⁷ This was Jesus’ response to them.

“My father,” he said, “is going on working, and so am I!”

¹⁸ So for this reason the Judaeans were all the more eager to kill him, because he not only broke the sabbath, but spoke of God as his own father, making himself equal to God.

The coming judgment

¹⁹ So Jesus made this response to them.

“I’m telling you the solemn truth,” he said. “The son can do nothing by himself. He can only do what he sees the father doing. Whatever the father does, the son does too, and in the same way. ²⁰ The father loves the son, you see, and shows him all the things that he’s doing. Yes: he will show him even greater things than these, and that’ll amaze you! ²¹ For, just as the father raises the dead and gives them life, in the same way the son gives life to anyone he chooses.

²² “The father doesn’t judge anyone, you see; he has handed over all judgment to the son, ²³ so that everyone should honor the son just as they honor the father. Anyone who doesn’t honor the son doesn’t honor the father who sent him.

²⁴ “I’m telling you the solemn truth: anyone who hears my word, and believes in the one who sent me, has the life of God’s coming age. Such a person won’t come into judgment; they will have passed out of death into life. ²⁵ I’m telling you the solemn truth: the time is coming—in fact, it’s here already!—when the dead will hear the voice of God’s son, and those who hear it will live. ²⁶ You see, just as the father has life in himself, in the same way he has given the son the privilege of having life in himself. ²⁷ He has even given him authority to pass judgment, because he is the son of man.

²⁸ “Don’t be surprised at this. The time is coming, you see, when everyone in the tombs will hear his voice. ²⁹ They will come out—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.”

The evidence in support of Jesus

³⁰ “I can’t do anything on my own authority,” Jesus went on. “I judge on the basis of what I hear. And my judgment is just, because I’m not trying to carry out my own wishes, but the wishes of the one who sent me.

³¹ “If I give evidence about myself, my evidence isn’t true. ³² There is someone else who gives evidence about me, and I know that the evidence he brings about me is true. ³³ You sent messengers to John, and he gave evidence about the truth. ³⁴ Not that I need evidence from human beings; but I’m saying this so that you may be saved.

³⁵ “John was a burning, bright lamp, and you were happy to celebrate in his light for a while. ³⁶ But I have greater evidence on my side than that of John. The works which the father has given me to complete—these works, which I’m doing, will provide evidence about me, evidence that the father has sent me. ³⁷ And the father who sent me has given evidence about me. You’ve never heard his voice; you’ve never seen his form. ³⁸ What’s more, you haven’t got his word abiding in you, because you don’t believe in the one he sent.”

Jesus and Moses

³⁹ “You study the Bible,” Jesus continued, “because you suppose that you’ll discover the life of God’s coming age in it. In fact, it’s the Bible which gives evidence about me! ⁴⁰ But you won’t come to me so that you can have life.

⁴¹ “I’m not accepting glory from human beings; ⁴² but I know that you haven’t got the love of God within you. ⁴³ I have come in the name of my father, and you won’t receive me. If someone else comes in his own name, you will receive him! ⁴⁴ How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another, and you’re not looking for the glory which comes from the one and only God?

⁴⁵ “Don’t think that I’m going to accuse you to the father. There is someone who accuses you, namely Moses, the one you look to in hope! ⁴⁶ You see, if you’d believed Moses, you would have believed me—because it was me he was writing about. ⁴⁷ But if you don’t believe his writings, how are you going to believe my words?”