Bible in 90 Days

Feeding the five thousand

6 After this Jesus went away beside the sea of Galilee, that is, the sea of Tiberias. ² A large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs he was doing in healing the sick. ³ Jesus went up into the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. ⁴ It was nearly time for the Passover, a Jewish festival.

⁵ Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming to him.

“Where are we going to buy bread,” he said to Philip, “so that they can have something to eat?” ⁶ (He said this to test him. He himself knew what he intended to do.)

⁷ “Even with six months’ pay,” replied Philip, “you wouldn’t be able to buy enough bread for each of them to have just a little!”

⁸ One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, joined in.

⁹ “There’s a lad here,” he said, “who’s got five barley loaves and two fish. But what use are they with this many people?”

¹⁰ “Make the men sit down,” said Jesus.

There was a lot of grass where they were, so the men sat down, about five thousand in all. ¹¹ So Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks and gave them to the people sitting down, and then did the same with the fish, as much as they wanted.

¹² When they were satisfied, he called the disciples.

“Collect up the bits and pieces left over,” he said, “so that we don’t lose anything.”

¹³ So they collected it up, and filled twelve baskets with broken pieces of the five barley loaves left behind by the people who had eaten.

¹⁴ When the people saw the sign that Jesus had done, they said, “This really is the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world.” ¹⁵ So when Jesus realized that they were intending to come and seize him to make him king, he withdrew again, by himself, up the mountain.

Jesus walking on the water

¹⁶ When it was evening, Jesus’ disciples went down to the seashore. ¹⁷ They got into a boat, and went across the sea towards Capernaum. It was already getting dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. ¹⁸ A strong wind blew up, and the sea began to get rough. ¹⁹ They had been rowing for about three or four miles when they saw Jesus walking on the sea, coming towards the boat. They were terrified.

²⁰ But he spoke to them.

“It’s me!” he said. “Don’t be afraid!”

²¹ Then they were eager to take him into the boat; and at once the boat arrived at the land they had been making for.

²² The next day the crowd that had remained on the far side of the lake saw that there had only been the one boat there. They knew that Jesus hadn’t gone with his disciples, but that the disciples had set off by themselves. ²³ But other boats came from Tiberias, near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. ²⁴ When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

²⁵ When they found him beside the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

Bread from heaven

²⁶ This was Jesus’ reply.

“I’m telling you the solemn truth,” he said. “You aren’t looking for me because you saw signs, but because you ate as much bread as you could. ²⁷ You shouldn’t be working for perishable food, but for food that will last to the life of God’s coming age—the food which the son of man will give you, the person whom God the father has stamped with the seal of his approval.”

²⁸ “What should we be doing,” they asked him, “so that we can be doing the work God wants?”

²⁹ “This is the work God wants of you,” replied Jesus, “that you believe in the one he sent.”

³⁰ “Well, then,” they said to him, “what sign are you going to do, so that we can see it and believe you? What work are you doing? ³¹ Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; it says in the Bible that ‘he gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ”

³² “I’m telling you the solemn truth,” Jesus replied. “It wasn’t Moses who gave you the bread from heaven. It was my father who gave you the true bread from heaven. ³³ God’s bread, you see, is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

³⁴ “Master,” they said, “give us this bread—give it to us always!”

³⁵ “I am the bread of life,” replied Jesus. “Anyone who comes to me will never be hungry! Anyone who believes in me will never be thirsty!”

The father’s will

³⁶ “But I told you,” Jesus continued, “that you have indeed seen me—and still you don’t believe! ³⁷ All that the father gives me will come to me; and I won’t reject anyone who comes to me, ³⁸ because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. ³⁹ And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should lose nothing out of everything that he has given me, but that I should raise it up on the last day. ⁴⁰ This is the will of my father, you see: that all who see the son and believe in him should have the life of God’s coming age; and I will raise them up on the last day.”

⁴¹ The Judaeans then grumbled about him because he had said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.”

⁴² “Isn’t this Jesus, Joseph’s son?” they said. “We know his father and mother, don’t we? So how can he say ‘I came down from heaven’?”

⁴³ “Don’t grumble among yourselves,” answered Jesus. ⁴⁴ “No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws them—and I will raise them up on the last day. ⁴⁵ It is written in the prophets, ‘They shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to what comes from the father, and learns from it, comes to me. ⁴⁶ Not that anyone has seen the father except the one who is from God; he has seen the father.”

Eating and drinking the son of man

⁴⁷ “I’m telling you the solemn truth,” Jesus went on. “Anyone who believes in me has the life of God’s coming age. ⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your ancestors in the wilderness ate the manna, and they died. ⁵⁰ This is the bread which comes down from heaven, so that people can eat it and not die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats from this bread, they will live forever. And the bread which I shall give is my flesh, given for the life of the world.”

⁵² This caused a squabble among the Judaeans.

“How can this fellow give us his flesh to eat?” they asked.

⁵³ “I’m telling you the solemn truth,” Jesus replied. “If you don’t eat the flesh of the son of man, and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. ⁵⁴ Anyone who feasts upon my flesh and drinks my blood has the life of God’s coming age, and I will raise them up on the last day. ⁵⁵ My flesh is true food, you see, and my blood is true drink. ⁵⁶ Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I remain in them. ⁵⁷ Just as the living father sent me, and I live because of the father, so the one who eats me will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread which came down from heaven; it isn’t like the bread which the ancestors ate, and died. The one who eats this bread will share the life of God’s new age.”

⁵⁹ He said this in the synagogue, while he was teaching in Capernaum.

Division among Jesus’ followers

⁶⁰ When they heard this, many of Jesus’ disciples said, “This is difficult stuff! Who can bear to listen to it?”

⁶¹ Jesus knew in himself that his disciples were grumbling about what he’d said.

“Does this put you off?” he said. ⁶² “What if you were to see the son of man ascending to where he was before? ⁶³ It’s the spirit that gives life; the flesh is no help. The words that I have spoken to you—they are spirit, they are life. ⁶⁴ But there are some of you who don’t believe.”

Jesus knew from the beginning, you see, those who didn’t believe, and the one who was going to betray him.

⁶⁵ “That’s why I said,” he went on, “that no one can come to me unless it is given to them by the father.”

⁶⁶ From that time on, several of his disciples drew back, and no longer went about with him.

⁶⁷ Jesus turned to the Twelve.

“You don’t want to go away too, do you?” he asked.

⁶⁸ Simon Peter spoke up.

“Master,” he said, “who can we go to? You’re the one who’s got the life-giving words of the age to come! ⁶⁹ We’ve come to believe it—we’ve come to know it!—that you are God’s holy one.”

⁷⁰ “Well,” replied Jesus, “I chose you twelve, didn’t I? And one of you is an accuser!”

⁷¹ He was referring to Judas, son of Simon Iscariot. He was one of the Twelve, and he was going to betray him.

Jesus and his brothers

7 After this, Jesus went about in Galilee. He didn’t want to go about in Judaea, because the Judaeans were after his blood.

² The time came for the Jewish festival of Tabernacles. ³ So Jesus’ brothers approached him.

“Leave this place,” they said, “and go to Judaea! Then your disciples will see the works you’re doing. ⁴ Nobody who wants to become well known does things in secret. If you’re doing these things, show yourself to the world!”

⁵ Even his brothers, you see, didn’t believe in him.

⁶ “My time isn’t here yet,” replied Jesus, “but your time is always here. ⁷ The world can’t hate you, but it hates me, because I am giving evidence against it, showing that its works are evil. ⁸ I tell you what: you go up to the feast. I’m not going up to this feast; my time is not yet complete.”

⁹ With these words, he stayed behind in Galilee.

Disputes about Jesus

¹⁰ But when Jesus’ brothers had gone up to the festival, then he himself went up, not openly, but, so to speak, in secret. ¹¹ The Judaeans were looking for him at the feast.

“Where is he?” they were saying.

¹² There was considerable dispute about him among the crowds.

“He’s a good man!” some were saying.

“No, he isn’t,” others would reply. “He’s deceiving the people!”

¹³ But nobody dared speak about him openly, for fear of the Judaeans.

¹⁴ About the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the Temple and began to teach. ¹⁵ The Judaeans were astonished.

“Where does this fellow get all his learning from?” they asked. “He’s never been trained!”

¹⁶ “My teaching isn’t my own,” replied Jesus. “It comes from the one who sent me! ¹⁷ If anyone wants to do what God wants, they will know whether this teaching is from God, or whether I’m just speaking on my own account. ¹⁸ Anyone who speaks on his own behalf is trying to establish his own reputation. But if what he’s interested in is the reputation of the one who sent him, then he is true, and there is no injustice in him.”

Moses and the Messiah

¹⁹ “Moses gave you the law, didn’t he?” Jesus continued. “But none of you obeys the law. Why are you wanting to kill me?”

²⁰ The crowd responded to this.

“You must have a demon inside you!” they said. “Who is trying to kill you?”

²¹ “Look here,” replied Jesus. “I did one single thing, and you are all amazed. ²² Moses commanded you to practice circumcision (not that it starts with Moses, of course; it comes from the patriarchs), and you circumcise a man on the sabbath. ²³ Well, then, if a man receives circumcision on the sabbath, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, how can you be angry with me if I make an entire man healthy on the sabbath? ²⁴ Don’t judge by appearances! Judge with proper and right judgment!”

²⁵ Some Jerusalem residents commented, “Isn’t this the man they’re trying to kill? ²⁶ Look—he’s speaking quite openly, and nobody is saying anything to him. You don’t suppose our rulers really know he’s the Messiah, do you? ²⁷ The thing is, we know where he comes from—but when the Messiah appears, nobody will know where he comes from.”

²⁸ As Jesus was teaching in the Temple, he shouted out, “You know me! You know where I come from! I haven’t come on my own behalf—but the one who sent me is true, and you don’t know him! ²⁹ I know him, because I come from him, and he sent me!”

³⁰ So they tried to arrest him. But nobody laid hands on him, because his time had not yet come.

Rivers of living water

³¹ Many people from the crowd believed in Jesus.

“When the Messiah comes,” they were saying, “will he do more signs than this man has done?”

³² The Pharisees heard that the crowd was full of this rumor about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent servants to arrest him.

³³ So Jesus said, “I’m just with you for a little while, and then I’m going to the one who sent me. ³⁴ You will look for me and you won’t find me, and you can’t come where I am.”

³⁵ “Where does he think he’s going,” said the Judaeans to one another, “if we won’t be able to find him? He’s not going to go off abroad, among the Greeks, is he, and teach the Greeks? ³⁶ What does he mean when he says, ‘You’ll look for me and you won’t find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you can’t come’?”

³⁷ On the last day of the festival, the great final celebration, Jesus stood up and shouted out, “If anybody’s thirsty, they should come to me and have a drink! ³⁸ Anyone who believes in me will have rivers of living water flowing out of their heart, just like the Bible says!”

³⁹ He said this about the spirit, which people who believed in him were to receive. The spirit wasn’t available yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Where does the Messiah come from?

⁴⁰ When they heard these words, some people in the crowd said, “This man really is ‘the Prophet’!”

⁴¹ “He’s the Messiah!” said some others.

But some of them replied, “The Messiah doesn’t come from Galilee, does he? ⁴² Doesn’t the Bible say that the Messiah is descended from David, and comes from Bethlehem, the city where David was?”

⁴³ So there was a division in the crowd because of him. ⁴⁴ Some of them wanted to arrest him, but nobody laid hands on him.

⁴⁵ So the servants went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees.

“Why didn’t you get him?” they asked.

⁴⁶ “No man ever spoke like this!” the servants replied.

⁴⁷ “You don’t mean to say you’ve been taken in too?” answered the Pharisees. ⁴⁸ “None of the rulers or the Pharisees have believed in him, have they? ⁴⁹ But this rabble that doesn’t know the law—a curse on them!”

⁵⁰ Nicodemus, who went to Jesus earlier, and who was one of their own number, spoke up.

⁵¹ “Our law doesn’t condemn a man, does it, unless first you hear his side of the story and find out what he’s doing?”

⁵² “Oh, so you’re from Galilee too, are you?” they answered him. “Check it out and see! No prophet ever rises up from Galilee!”

Adultery and hypocrisy

⁵³ They all went off home,

8 and Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. ² In the morning he went back to the Temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them.

³ The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught out in adultery. They stood her out in the middle.

⁴ “Teacher,” they said to him. “This woman was caught in the very act of adultery. ⁵ In the law, Moses commanded us to stone people like this. What do you say?”

⁶ They said this to test him, so that they could frame a charge against him.

Jesus squatted down and wrote with his finger on the ground. ⁷ When they went on pressing the question, he got up and said to them, “Whichever of you is without sin should throw the first stone at her.”

⁸ And once again he squatted down and wrote on the ground.

⁹ When they heard that, they went off one by one, beginning with the oldest. Jesus was left alone, with the woman still standing there.

¹⁰ Jesus looked up.

“Where are they, woman?” he asked. “Hasn’t anybody condemned you?”

¹¹ “Nobody, sir,” she replied.

“Well, then,” said Jesus, “I don’t condemn you either! Off you go—and from now on don’t sin again!”

The light of the world

¹² Jesus spoke to them again.

“I am the light of the world,” he said. “People who follow me won’t go around in the dark; they’ll have the light of life!”

¹³ “You’re giving evidence in your own case!” said the Pharisees. “Your evidence is false!”

¹⁴ “Even if I do give evidence about myself,” replied Jesus to them, “my evidence is true, because I know where I came from and where I’m going to. But you don’t know where I come from or where I’m going to. ¹⁵ You are judging in merely human terms; I don’t judge anyone. ¹⁶ But even if I do judge, my judgment is true, because I’m not a lone voice; I have on my side the father who sent me. ¹⁷ It is written in your law that the evidence of two people is true. ¹⁸ I’m giving evidence about myself, and the father who sent me is giving evidence about me.”

¹⁹ “Where is your father?” they said to him.

“You don’t know me,” replied Jesus, “and you don’t know my father! If you had known me, you would have known my father as well.”

²⁰ He said all this in the treasury, while he was teaching in the Temple. Nobody arrested him, though, because his time hadn’t yet come.

From below or from above

²¹ So Jesus spoke to them once more.

“I am going away,” he said. “You will look for me, and you will die in your sin. You can’t come where I’m going.”

²² “Is he going to kill himself?” asked the Judaeans. “Is that what he means when he says we can’t come where he’s going?”

²³ “You come from below,” Jesus said to them, “but I come from above. You are from this world, I am not from this world. ²⁴ I told you that you would die in your sins; you see, that’s what will happen to you if you don’t believe that I am the one.”

²⁵ “Who are you?” they asked.

“What I’ve been telling you from the beginning,” replied Jesus. ²⁶ “There are plenty of things I could say about you, yes, and against you too! But the one who sent me is true, and I tell the world what I heard from him.”

²⁷ They didn’t understand that he was talking about the father.

²⁸ So Jesus said to them, “When you’ve lifted up the son of man, then you will know that I’m the one, and that I never act on my own initiative; I say exactly what the father taught me. ²⁹ And the one who sent me is with me. He hasn’t left me alone, because I always do what pleases him.”

The truth will make you free

³⁰ As Jesus said all this, several people believed in him.

³¹ So Jesus spoke to the Judaeans who had believed in him.

“If you remain in my word,” he said, “you will truly be my disciples. ³² You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

³³ “We are Abraham’s descendants!” they replied. “We’ve never been anyone’s slaves! How can you say that ‘you’ll become free’?”

³⁴ “I’m telling you the solemn truth,” Jesus replied. “Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. ³⁵ The slave doesn’t live in the house forever; the son lives there forever. ³⁶ So, you see, if the son makes you free, you will be truly free.”

Children of Abraham—or of the devil

³⁷ “I know you’re Abraham’s descendants,” Jesus went on. “But you’re trying to kill me, because my word doesn’t find a place among you. ³⁸ I am speaking of what I have seen with the father; and you, too, are doing what you heard from your father.”

³⁹ “Abraham is our father!” they replied.

“If you really were Abraham’s children,” replied Jesus, “you would do what Abraham did! ⁴⁰ But now you’re trying to kill me—me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God! That’s not what Abraham did. ⁴¹ You’re doing the works of your father.”

“There wasn’t anything immoral about the way we were born!” they replied. “We’ve got one father, and that’s God!”

⁴² “If God really was your father,” replied Jesus, “you would love me, because I came from God, and here I am. I didn’t come on my own initiative, you see, but he sent me. ⁴³ Why don’t you understand what I’m saying? It can only be because you can’t hear my word. ⁴⁴ You are from your father—the devil! And you’re eager to get on with what he wants. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he’s never remained in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells lies, he speaks what comes naturally to him, because he is a liar—in fact, he’s the father of lies! ⁴⁵ But because I speak the truth, you don’t believe me. ⁴⁶ Which of you can bring a charge of sin against me? If I speak the truth, why don’t you believe me? ⁴⁷ The one who is from God speaks God’s words. That’s why you don’t listen, because you’re not from God.”

Before Abraham, “I Am”

⁴⁸ This was the Judaeans’ response to Jesus.

“Haven’t we been right all along,” they said, “in saying you’re a Samaritan, and that you’ve got a demon inside you?”

⁴⁹ “I haven’t got a demon!” replied Jesus. “I am honoring my father, and you are dishonoring me. ⁵⁰ I’m not looking for my own glory; there is one who is looking after that, and he will be the judge. ⁵¹ I’m telling you the solemn truth: anyone who keeps my word will never, ever see death.”

⁵² “Now we know that you really have got a demon!” replied the Judaeans. “Look here: Abraham died! So did the prophets! And here are you, saying, ‘Anyone who keeps my word will never, ever taste death.’ ⁵³ You’re not suggesting, are you, that you’re greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets! Who are you making yourself out to be?”

⁵⁴ “If I do give myself glory,” replied Jesus, “my glory is nothing. My father is the one who brings me glory—the one you say is ‘our God’; ⁵⁵ and you don’t know him! I know him, though. If I were to say I didn’t know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I keep his word. ⁵⁶ Your father Abraham celebrated the fact that he would see my day. He saw it and was delighted.”

⁵⁷ “You’re not yet fifty years old!” responded the Judaeans. “Have you seen Abraham?”

⁵⁸ “I’m telling you the solemn truth,” replied Jesus. “Before Abraham existed, I Am.”

⁵⁹ So they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus hid, and left the Temple.

The man born blind

9 As Jesus was going along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth.

² “Teacher,” his disciples asked him, “whose sin was it that caused this man to be born blind? Did he sin, or did his parents?”

³ “He didn’t sin,” replied Jesus, “nor did his parents. It happened so that God’s works could be seen in him. ⁴ We must work the works of the one who sent me as long as it’s still daytime. The night is coming, and nobody can work then! ⁵ As long as I’m in the world, I’m the light of the world.”

⁶ With these words, he spat on the ground, and made some mud out of his spittle. He spread the mud on the man’s eyes.

⁷ “Off you go,” he said to him, “and wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means “sent”). So he went off and washed. When he came back, he could see.

⁸ His neighbors, and the people who used to see him begging, remarked on this.

“Isn’t this the man,” they said, “who used to sit here and beg?”

⁹ “Yes, it’s him!” said some of them.

“No, it isn’t!” said some others. “It’s somebody like him.”

But the man himself spoke.

“Yes, it’s me,” he said.

¹⁰ “Well, then,” they said to him, “how did your eyes get opened?”

¹¹ “It was the man called Jesus!” he replied. “He made some mud, then he spread it on my eyes, and told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went, and washed, and I could see!”

¹² “Where is he?” they asked.

“I don’t know,” he replied.

The blind man’s parents

¹³ They took the man who had been blind and brought him to the Pharisees. ¹⁴ (The day Jesus had made the mud, and opened his eyes, was a sabbath.) ¹⁵ So the Pharisees began to ask him again how he had come to see.

“He put some mud on my eyes,” he said, “and I washed, and now I can see!”

¹⁶ “The man can’t be from God,” some of the Pharisees began to say. “He doesn’t keep the sabbath!”

“Well, but,” replied some of the others, “how can a man who is a sinner do signs like these?”

And they were divided.

¹⁷ So they spoke to the blind man again.

“What have you got to say about him?” they asked. “He opened your eyes, after all.”

“He’s a prophet,” he replied.

¹⁸ The Judaeans didn’t believe that he really had been blind and now could see. So they called the parents of the newly sighted man, ¹⁹ and put the question to them.

“Is this man really your son,” they asked, “the one you say was born blind? How is it that he can now see?”

²⁰ “Well,” replied his parents, “we know that he is indeed our son, and that he was born blind. ²¹ But we don’t know how it is that he can now see, and we don’t know who it was that opened his eyes. Ask him! He’s grown up. He can speak for himself.”

²² His parents said this because they were afraid of the Judaeans. The Judaeans, you see, had already decided that if anyone declared that Jesus was the Messiah, they should be put out of the synagogue. ²³ That’s why his parents said, “He’s grown up, so you should ask him.”

Is Jesus from God?

²⁴ So for the second time they called the man who had been blind.

“Give God the glory!” they said. “We know that this man is a sinner.”

²⁵ “I don’t know whether he’s a sinner or not,” replied the man. “All I know is this: I used to be blind, and now I can see.”

²⁶ “What did he do to you?” they asked. “How did he open your eyes?”

²⁷ “I told you already,” replied the man, “and you didn’t listen. Why d’you want to hear it again? You don’t want to become his disciples too, do you?”

²⁸ “You’re his disciple,” they scoffed, “but we are Moses’s disciples. ²⁹ We know that God spoke to Moses, but we don’t know where this man comes from.”

³⁰ “Well, here’s a fine thing!” replied the man. “You don’t know where he’s from, and he opened my eyes! ³¹ We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners; but if anyone is devout, and does his will, he listens to them. ³² It’s never, ever been heard of before that someone should open the eyes of a person born blind. ³³ If this man wasn’t from God, he couldn’t do anything.”

³⁴ “You were born in sin from top to toe,” they replied, “and are you going to start teaching us?” And they threw him out.

Seeing and not seeing

³⁵ Jesus heard that they had thrown the man out. He found him and spoke to him.

“Do you believe in the son of man?” he asked.

³⁶ “Who is he, sir,” asked the man, “so that I can believe in him?”

³⁷ “You have seen him,” replied Jesus. “In fact, it’s the person who’s talking to you.”

³⁸ “Yes, sir,” said the man; “I do believe.” And he worshiped him.

³⁹ “I came into the world for judgment,” said Jesus, “so that those who can’t see would see, and so that those who can see would become blind.”

⁴⁰ Some of the Pharisees were nearby, and they heard this.

“So!” they said. “We’re blind too, are we?”

⁴¹ “If you were blind,” replied Jesus, “you wouldn’t be guilty of sin. But now, because you say, ‘We can see,’ your sin remains.”

The good shepherd

10 “I’m telling you the solemn truth,” said Jesus. “Anyone who doesn’t come into the sheepfold by the gate, but gets in by some other way, is a thief and a brigand. ² But the one who comes in through the gate is the sheep’s own shepherd. ³ The doorkeeper will open up for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out. ⁴ When he has brought out all that belong to him, he goes on ahead of them. The sheep follow him, because they know his voice. ⁵ They won’t follow a stranger; instead, they will run away from him, because they don’t know the stranger’s voice.”

⁶ Jesus spoke this parable to them, but they didn’t understand what it was he was saying to them.

⁷ So he spoke to them again.

“I’m telling you the solemn truth,” he said. “I am the gate of the sheep. ⁸ All the people who came before me were thieves and brigands, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. ⁹ I am the gate. If anyone comes in by me, they will be safe, and will go in and out and find pasture. ¹⁰ The thief only comes to steal, and kill, and destroy. I came so that they could have life—yes, and have it full to overflowing.”

The shepherd and the sheep

¹¹ “I am the good shepherd,” Jesus continued. “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹² But supposing there’s a hired servant, who isn’t himself the shepherd, and who doesn’t himself own the sheep. He will see the wolf coming, and leave the sheep, and run away. Then the wolf will snatch the sheep and scatter them. ¹³ He’ll run away because he’s only a hired servant, and doesn’t care about the sheep.

¹⁴ “I am the good shepherd. I know my own sheep, and my own know me— ¹⁵ just as the father knows me and I know the father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶ And I have other sheep, too, which don’t belong to this sheepfold. I must bring them, too, and they will hear my voice. Then there will be one flock, and one shepherd.

¹⁷ “That’s why the father loves me, because I lay down my life, so that I can take it again. ¹⁸ Nobody takes it from me; I lay it down of my own accord. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to receive it back again. This is the command I received from my father.”

The Messiah and the father

¹⁹ So there was again a division among the Judaeans because of what Jesus had said.

²⁰ “He’s demon-possessed!” some were saying. “He’s raving mad! Why listen to him?”

²¹ “No,” said some others, “that’s not how demon-possessed people talk. Anyway, how could a demon open a blind man’s eyes?”

²² It was the Feast of the Dedication in Jerusalem. It was winter, ²³ and Jesus was walking in the Temple, in Solomon’s Porch. ²⁴ The Judaeans surrounded him.

“How much longer are you going to keep us in suspense?” they asked. “If you are the Messiah, say so out loud!”

²⁵ “I told you,” replied Jesus, “and you didn’t believe. The works which I’m doing in my father’s name give evidence about me. ²⁶ But you don’t believe, because you don’t belong to my sheep.

²⁷ “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸ I give them the life of the coming age. They will never, ever perish, and nobody can snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹ My father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and nobody can snatch them out of my father’s hand. ³⁰ I and the father are one.”

Blasphemy!

³¹ So the Judaeans once more picked up stones to stone him.

³² “I’ve shown you many fine deeds from the father,” Jesus replied to them. “Which of these deeds are you stoning me for?”

³³ “We’re not stoning you for good deeds,” replied the Judaeans, “but because of blasphemy! Here you are, a mere man, and you’re making yourself into God!”

³⁴ “It’s written in your law, isn’t it,” replied Jesus to them, “ ‘I said, you are gods?’ ³⁵ Well, if the law calls people ‘gods,’ people to whom God’s word came (and you can’t set the Bible aside), ³⁶ how can you accuse someone of blasphemy when the father has placed him apart and sent him into the world, and he says, ‘I am the son of God’?

³⁷ “If I’m not doing the works of my father, don’t believe me. ³⁸ But if I am doing them, well—even if you don’t believe me, believe the works! That way you will know and grasp that the father is in me, and I am in the father.”

³⁹ So again they tried to arrest him. But Jesus managed to get away from them.

⁴⁰ He went off once more across the Jordan, to the place where John had been baptizing at the beginning, and he stayed there. ⁴¹ Several people came to him.

“John never did any signs,” they said, “but everything that John said about this man was true.”

⁴² And many believed in him there.

The death of Lazarus

11 There was a man in Bethany named Lazarus, and he became ill. Bethany was the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ² (This was the Mary who anointed the Lord with myrrh, and wiped his feet with her hair. Lazarus, who was ill, was her brother.)

³ So the sisters sent messengers to Jesus.

“Master,” they said, “the man you love is ill.”

⁴ When Jesus got the message, he said, “This illness won’t lead to death. It’s all about the glory of God! The son of God will be glorified through it.”

⁵ Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. ⁶ So when he heard that he was ill, he stayed where he was for two days.

⁷ Then, after that, he said to the disciples, “Let’s go back to Judaea.”

⁸ “Teacher,” replied the disciples, “the Judaeans were trying to stone you just now! Surely you don’t want to go back there!”

⁹ “There are twelve hours in the day, aren’t there?” replied Jesus. “If you walk in the day, you won’t trip up, because you’ll see the light of this world. ¹⁰ But if anyone walks in the night, they will trip up, because there is no light in them.”

¹¹ When he had said this, Jesus added: “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. But I’m going to wake him up.”

¹² “Master,” replied the disciples, “if he’s asleep, he’ll be all right.”

¹³ (They thought he was referring to ordinary sleep; but Jesus had in fact been speaking of his death.)

¹⁴ Then Jesus spoke to them plainly.

“Lazarus,” he said, “is dead. ¹⁵ Actually, I’m glad I wasn’t there, for your sakes; it will help your faith. But let’s go to him.”

¹⁶ Thomas, whose name was the Twin, addressed the other disciples.

“Let’s go too,” he said. “We may as well die with him.”

The resurrection and the life

¹⁷ So when Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. ¹⁸ Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away. ¹⁹ Many of the Judaeans had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother.

²⁰ When Martha heard that Jesus had arrived, she went to meet him. Mary, meanwhile, stayed sitting at home.

²¹ “Master!” said Martha to Jesus. “If only you’d been here! Then my brother wouldn’t have died! ²² But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask him.”

²³ “Your brother will rise again,” replied Jesus.

²⁴ “I know he’ll rise again,” said Martha, “in the resurrection on the last day.”

²⁵ “I am the resurrection and the life,” replied Jesus. “Anyone who believes in me will live, even if they die. ²⁶ And anyone who lives and believes in me will never, ever die. Do you believe this?”

²⁷ “Yes, Master,” she said. “This is what I’ve come to believe: that you are the Messiah, the son of God, the one who was to come into the world.”

Jesus goes to the tomb

²⁸ With these words, Martha went back and called her sister Mary.

“The teacher has come,” she said to her privately, “and he’s asking for you.”

²⁹ When she heard that, she got up quickly and went to him. ³⁰ Jesus hadn’t yet arrived in the village. He was still in the place where Martha had met him.

³¹ The Judaeans who were in the house with Mary, consoling her, saw her get up quickly and go out. They guessed that she was going to the tomb to weep there, and they followed her.

³² When Mary came to where Jesus was, she saw him and fell down at his feet.

“Master!” she said. “If only you’d been here, my brother wouldn’t have died!”

³³ When Jesus saw her crying, and the Judaeans who had come with her crying, he was deeply stirred in his spirit, and very troubled.

³⁴ “Where have you laid him?” he asked.

“Master,” they said, “come and see.”

³⁵ Jesus burst into tears.

³⁶ “Look,” said the Judaeans, “see how much he loved him!”

³⁷ “Well, yes,” some of them said, “but he opened the eyes of a blind man, didn’t he? Couldn’t he have done something to stop this fellow from dying?”

The raising of Lazarus

³⁸ Jesus was once again deeply troubled within himself. He came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was placed in front of it.

³⁹ “Take away the stone,” said Jesus.

“But, Master,” said Martha, the dead man’s sister, “there’ll be a smell! It’s the fourth day already!”

⁴⁰ “Didn’t I tell you,” said Jesus, “that if you believed you would see God’s glory?”

⁴¹ So they took the stone away. Jesus lifted up his eyes.

“Thank you, Father,” he said, “for hearing me! ⁴² I know you always hear me, but I’ve said this because of the crowd standing around, so that they may believe that you sent me.”

⁴³ With these words, he gave a loud shout: “Lazarus—come out!”

⁴⁴ And the dead man came out. He was tied up, hand and foot, with strips of linen, and his face was wrapped in a cloth.

“Untie him,” said Jesus, “and let him go.”

⁴⁵ The result of all this was that several of the Judaeans who had come to Mary, and who had seen what he had done, believed in him. ⁴⁶ But some of them went off to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

The plan of Caiaphas

⁴⁷ So the chief priests and the Pharisees called an assembly.

“What are we going to do?” they asked. “This man is performing lots of signs. ⁴⁸ If we let him go on like this, everyone is going to believe in him! Then the Romans will come and take away our holy place, and our nation!”

⁴⁹ But one of them, Caiaphas, the high priest that year, addressed them.

“You know nothing at all!” he said. ⁵⁰ “You haven’t worked it out! This is what’s best for you: let one man die for the people, rather than the whole nation being wiped out.”

⁵¹ He didn’t say this of his own accord. Since he was high priest that year, it was a prophecy. It meant that Jesus would die for the nation; ⁵² and not only for the nation, but to gather into one the scattered children of God. ⁵³ So from that day on they plotted how to kill him.

⁵⁴ So Jesus didn’t go around openly any longer among the Judaeans. He went away from there to the region by the desert, to a town called Ephraim. He stayed there with the disciples.

⁵⁵ The time came for the Judaeans’ Passover. Lots of people went up to Jerusalem from the countryside, before the Passover, to purify themselves. ⁵⁶ They were looking for Jesus. As they stood there in the Temple, they were discussing him with one another.

“What d’you think?” they were saying. “Do you suppose he won’t come to the festival?”

⁵⁷ The chief priests and the Pharisees had given the order that if anyone knew where he was, they should tell them, so that they could arrest him.

Mary and her ointment

12 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany. Lazarus was there, the man he had raised from the dead. ² So they made a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was among the company at table with him.

³ Then Mary took a pound of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She anointed Jesus’ feet with it, and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the smell of the perfume.

⁴ At this, Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was going to betray him), spoke up.

⁵ “Why wasn’t this ointment sold?” he asked. “It would have fetched a year’s wages! You could have given it to the poor!”

⁶ (He didn’t say this because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief. He kept the common purse, and used to help himself to what was in it.)

⁷ “Let her alone,” replied Jesus. “She’s been keeping it for the day of my burial! ⁸ You always have the poor with you, but you won’t always have me.”

Jesus enters Jerusalem

⁹ When the great crowd of Judaeans discovered that Jesus was there, they came to Bethany not just because of Jesus, but to see Lazarus, the one he had raised from the dead. ¹⁰ So the chief priests planned to kill Lazarus as well, ¹¹ because many of the Judaeans were distancing themselves on account of him, and were believing in Jesus.

¹² On the next day, the large crowd that had come up for the festival heard that Jesus had come to Jerusalem. ¹³ They took palm branches and went out to meet him.

“Hosanna!” they shouted. “Welcome in the name of the Lord! Welcome to Israel’s king!”

¹⁴ Jesus found a little donkey and sat on it. As the Bible says,

¹⁶ His disciples didn’t understand this to begin with. But when Jesus was glorified, they remembered that these things had been written about him, and that these things had been done to him. ¹⁷ The crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb, and raised him from the dead, told their story. ¹⁸ That’s why the crowd went out to meet him, because they heard that he had done this sign.

¹⁹ The Pharisees conferred.

“You see?” they said to each other. “It’s impossible. There’s nothing you can do. Look—the world has gone off after him!”

The seed must die

²⁰ Some Greeks had come up with all the others to worship at the festival. ²¹ They went to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee.

“Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.”

²² Philip went and told Andrew, and Andrew and Philip went together to tell Jesus.

²³ “The time has come,” said Jesus in reply. “This is the moment for the son of man to be glorified. ²⁴ I’m telling you the solemn truth: unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains all by itself. If it dies, though, it will produce lots of fruit. ²⁵ If you love your life, you’ll lose it. If you hate your life in this world, you’ll keep it for the life of the coming age.

²⁶ “If anyone serves me, they must follow me. Where I am, my servant will be too. If anyone serves me, the father will honor them.”

The hour has come

²⁷ “Now my heart is troubled,” Jesus went on. “What am I going to say: ‘Father, save me from this moment’? No! It was because of this that I came to this moment. ²⁸ Father, glorify your name!”

“I have glorified it,” came a voice from heaven, “and I will glorify it again.”

²⁹ “That was thunder!” said the crowd, standing there listening.

“No,” said others. “It was an angel, talking to him.”

³⁰ “That voice came for your sake, not mine,” replied Jesus. ³¹ “Now comes the judgment of this world! Now this world’s ruler is going to be thrown out! ³² And when I’ve been lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.”

³³ He said this in order to point to the kind of death he was going to die.

³⁴ So the crowd spoke to him again.

“We heard in the law,” they said, “that the Messiah will last forever. How can you say that the son of man must be lifted up? Who is this ‘son of man’?”

³⁵ “The light is among you a little while longer,” replied Jesus. “Keep walking while you have the light, in case the darkness overcomes you. People who walk in the dark don’t know where they’re going. ³⁶ While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may be children of light.”

With these words, Jesus went away and was hidden from them.

Glory and blindness

³⁷ They didn’t believe in him, even though he had done so many signs in front of their eyes. ³⁸ This was so that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled:

³⁹ That’s why they couldn’t believe. As Isaiah again put it,

⁴¹ Isaiah said this because he saw his glory, and spoke about him.

⁴² Even so, however, quite a few of the rulers did believe in him. But, because of the Pharisees, they didn’t declare their faith, for fear of being put out of the synagogue. ⁴³ This was because they loved the praise of humans more than the praise of God.

The final challenge

⁴⁴ “Anyone who believes in me,” shouted Jesus in a loud voice, “doesn’t believe in me, but in the one who sent me! ⁴⁵ Anyone who sees me sees the one who sent me! ⁴⁶ I’ve come into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me won’t need to stay in the dark.

⁴⁷ “If anyone hears my words and doesn’t keep them, I’m not going to judge them. That wasn’t why I came. I came to save the world, not to judge it. ⁴⁸ Anyone who rejects me and doesn’t hold on to my words has a judge. The word which I have spoken will judge them on the last day.

⁴⁹ “I haven’t spoken on my own authority. The father who sent me gave me his own command about what I should say and speak. ⁵⁰ And I know that his command is the life of the coming age. What I speak, then, is what the father has told me to speak.”

Washing the disciples’ feet

13 It was before the festival of Passover. Jesus knew that his time had come, the time for him to leave this world and go to the father. He had always loved his own people in the world; now he loved them right through to the end.

² It was suppertime. The devil had already put the idea of betraying him into the heart of Judas, son of Simon Iscariot. ³ Jesus knew that the father had given everything into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God. ⁴ So he got up from the supper-table, took off his clothes, and wrapped himself in a towel. ⁵ Then he poured water into a bowl, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel he was wrapped in.

⁶ He came to Simon Peter.

“Master,” said Peter, “what’s this? You, washing my feet?”

⁷ “You don’t understand yet what I’m doing,” replied Jesus, “but you’ll know afterwards.”

⁸ “I’m not going to have you washing my feet!” said Peter. “Never!”

“If I don’t wash you,” replied Jesus, “you don’t belong to me.”

⁹ “All right then, Master,” said Simon Peter, “but not only my feet—wash my hands and my head as well!”

¹⁰ “Someone who has washed,” said Jesus to him, “doesn’t need to wash again, except for their feet. They are clean all over. And you are clean—but not all of you.”

¹¹ Jesus knew, you see, who was going to betray him. That’s why he said, “You are not all clean.”

Like master, like servant

¹² So when he had washed their feet, he put on his clothes and sat down again.

“Do you know what I’ve done to you?” he asked. ¹³ “You call me ‘Teacher,’ and ‘Master,’ and you’re right. That’s what I am. ¹⁴ Well, then: if I, as your master and teacher, washed your feet just now, you should wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ I’ve given you a pattern, so that you can do things in the same way that I did to you.

¹⁶ “I’m telling you the solemn truth,” he continued. “The slave isn’t greater than the master. People who are sent are not greater than the person who sends them. ¹⁷ If you know these things, God’s blessing on you if you do them.

¹⁸ “I’m not talking about all of you,” he went on. “I know the ones I have chosen. What the Bible says has to come true: ‘The person who ate my bread lifted up his heel against me.’ ¹⁹ I’m telling you this now, before it happens, so that when it does happen you may believe that I am who I am. ²⁰ I’m telling you the solemn truth: anyone who welcomes someone I send, welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me, welcomes the one who sent me.”

Judas goes out

²¹ After saying this, Jesus was troubled in spirit. He explained why.

“I’m telling you the solemn truth,” he said. “One of you will betray me.”

²² The disciples looked at each other in shock, wondering who he could be talking about. ²³ One of the disciples, the one Jesus specially loved, was reclining at table close beside him. ²⁴ Simon Peter motioned to him to ask who it was he was talking about. ²⁵ So, leaning back against Jesus’ chest, he asked him, “Who is it, Master?”

²⁶ “It’s the one I’m going to give this piece of bread to,” said Jesus, “when I’ve dipped it in the dish.”

So he dipped the piece of bread, and gave it to Judas, son of Simon Iscariot. ²⁷ After the bread, the satan entered into him.

“Do it quickly, won’t you?” said Jesus to him.

²⁸ None of the others at the table knew what he meant. ²⁹ Because Judas kept the common purse, some were thinking that he meant, “Buy what we need for the festival,” or that he was to give something to the poor.

³⁰ So when Judas had taken the bread, he went out at once. It was night.

Love one another

³¹ When Judas had gone out, Jesus began to speak.

“Now the son of man is glorified!” he said. “Now God is glorified in him! ³² And if God is glorified in him, God will glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. ³³ Children, I’m only with you a little longer. You will look for me, and, as I said to the Judaeans that where I was going they couldn’t come, so I’m saying the same to you now.

³⁴ “I’m giving you a new commandment, and it’s this: love one another! Just as I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ This is how everybody will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for each other.”

³⁶ Simon Peter spoke up.

“Master,” he said, “where are you going?”

“Where I’m going,” replied Jesus, “you can’t follow me just now. You will follow later, though.”

³⁷ “Master,” Peter replied, “why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you!”

³⁸ “Will you really lay down your life for me?” smiled Jesus. “I’m telling you the solemn truth: by the time the cock crows you will have disowned me three times.”

The way, the truth, the life

14 “Don’t let your hearts be troubled,” Jesus continued. “Trust God—and trust me, too! ² There is plenty of room to stay in my father’s house. If that wasn’t the case, I’d have told you, wouldn’t I? I’m going to get a place ready for you! ³ And if I do go and get a place ready for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, so that you can be there, where I am. ⁴ And as to where I’m going—you know the way!”

⁵ “Actually, Master,” said Thomas to him, “we don’t know where you’re going, so how can we know the way?”

⁶ “I am the way,” replied Jesus, “and the truth and the life! Nobody comes to the father except through me. ⁷ If you had known me, you would have known my father. From now on you do know him! You have seen him.”

⁸ “Just show us the father, then, Master,” said Philip to Jesus, “and that’ll be good enough for us!”

⁹ “Have I been with you for such a long time, Philip,” replied Jesus, “and still you don’t know me? Anyone who has seen me has seen the father! How can you say, ‘Show us the father’? ¹⁰ Don’t you believe that I am in the father, and the father is in me? The words I’m speaking to you, I’m not speaking on my own initiative. It’s the father, who lives within me, who is doing his own works. ¹¹ You must trust me that I am in the father and the father is in me. If not, then trust because of all the things you’ve seen done.”

Another helper

¹² “I’m telling you the solemn truth,” Jesus continued. “Anyone who trusts in me will also do the works that I’m doing. In fact, they will do greater works than these, because I’m going to the father! ¹³ And whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, so that the father may be glorified in the son. ¹⁴ If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.

¹⁵ “If you love me,” he went on, “you will keep my commands. ¹⁶ Then I will ask the father, and he will give you another helper, to be with you forever. ¹⁷ This other helper is the spirit of truth. The world can’t receive him, because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you know him, because he lives with you, and will be in you.

¹⁸ “I’m not going to leave you bereft. I am coming to you. ¹⁹ Not long from now, the world won’t see me anymore; but you will see me. Because I live, you will live too. ²⁰ On that day you will know that I am in my father, and you in me, and I in you.

²¹ “Anyone who has my commandments and keeps them—that’s the person who loves me. Anyone who loves me will be loved by my father, and I will love them and show myself to them.”

My peace I give to you

²² Judas spoke up. (This was the other Judas, not Iscariot.)

“Master,” he said, “how will it be that you will show yourself to us and not to the world?”

²³ “If anyone loves me,” Jesus replied, “they will keep my word. My father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. ²⁴ Anyone who doesn’t love me won’t keep my word. And the word which you hear isn’t mine. It comes from the father, who sent me.

²⁵ “I’ve said all this to you while I’m here with you. ²⁶ But the helper, the holy spirit, the one the father will send in my name, he will teach you everything. He will bring back to your mind everything I’ve said to you.

²⁷ “I’m leaving you peace. I’m giving you my own peace. I don’t give gifts in the way the world does. Don’t let your hearts be troubled; don’t be fearful. ²⁸ You heard that I said to you, ‘I’m going away, and I’m coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be happy that I’m going to the father—because the father is greater than me. ²⁹ And now I’ve told you before it happens, so that when it does happen, you may believe.

³⁰ “I haven’t got much more to say to you. The ruler of the world is coming. He has nothing to do with me. ³¹ But all this is happening so that the world may know that I love the father, and that I’m doing what the father has told me to do.

“Get up. Let’s be going.”

The true vine

15 “I am the true vine,” said Jesus, “and my father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t bear fruit; and he prunes every branch that does bear fruit, so that it can bear more fruit. ³ You are already clean. That’s because of the word that I’ve spoken to you.

⁴ “Remain in me, and I will remain in you! The branch can’t bear fruit by itself, but only if it remains in the vine. In the same way, you can’t bear fruit unless you remain in me. ⁵ I am the vine, you are the branches. People who remain in me, and I in them, are the ones who bear plenty of fruit. Without me, you see, you can’t do anything.

⁶ “If people don’t remain in me, they are thrown out, like a branch, and they wither. People collect the branches and put them on the fire, and they are burned. ⁷ If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want, and it will happen for you. ⁸ My father is glorified in this: that you bear plenty of fruit, and so become my disciples.”

Obeying and loving

⁹ “As the father loved me,” Jesus continued, “so I loved you. Remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my father’s commands, and remain in his love. ¹¹ I’ve said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and so that your joy may be full.

¹² “This is my command: love one another, in the same way that I loved you. ¹³ No one has a love greater than this, to lay down your life for your friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends, if you do what I tell you. ¹⁵ I’m not calling you ‘servants’ any longer; servants don’t know what their master is doing. But I’ve called you ‘friends,’ because I’ve let you know everything I heard from my father.

¹⁶ “You didn’t choose me. I chose you, and I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. Then the father will give you whatever you ask in my name. ¹⁷ This is my command to you: love one another.”