Category: John

[1:1] In the beginning the Word already existed; the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

[1:2] From the very beginning the Word was with God.

[1:3] Through him God made all things; not one thing in all creation was made without him.

[1:4] The Word was the source of life, and this life brought light to people.

[1:5] The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never put it out.

[1:6] God sent his messenger, a man named John,

[1:7] who came to tell people about the light, so that all should hear the message and believe.

[1:8] He himself was not the light; he came to tell about the light.

[1:9] This was the real light—the light that comes into the world and shines on all people.

[1:10] The Word was in the world, and though God made the world through him, yet the world did not recognize him.

[1:11] He came to his own country, but his own people did not receive him.

[1:12] Some, however, did receive him and believed in him; so he gave them the right to become God's children.

[1:13] They did not become God's children by natural means, that is, by being born as the children of a human father; God himself was their Father.

[1:14] The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us. We saw his glory, the glory which he received as the Father's only Son.

[1:15] John spoke about him. He cried out, “This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘He comes after me, but he is greater than I am, because he existed before I was born.’”

[1:16] Out of the fullness of his grace he has blessed us all, giving us one blessing after another.

[1:17] God gave the Law through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

[1:18] No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is the same as God and is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

[1:19] The Jewish authorities in Jerusalem sent some priests and Levites to John to ask him, “Who are you?”

[1:20] John did not refuse to answer, but spoke out openly and clearly, saying: “I am not the Messiah.”

[1:21] “Who are you, then?” they asked. “Are you Elijah?” “No, I am not,” John answered. “Are you the Prophet?” they asked. “No,” he replied.

[1:22] “Then tell us who you are,” they said. “We have to take an answer back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

[1:23] John answered by quoting the prophet Isaiah: “I am ‘the voice of someone shouting in the desert: Make a straight path for the Lord to travel!’”

[1:24] The messengers, who had been sent by the Pharisees,

[1:25] then asked John, “If you are not the Messiah nor Elijah nor the Prophet, why do you baptize?”

[1:26] John answered, “I baptize with water, but among you stands the one you do not know.

[1:27] He is coming after me, but I am not good enough even to untie his sandals.”

[1:28] All this happened in Bethany on the east side of the Jordan River, where John was baptizing.

[1:29] The next day John saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “There is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

[1:30] This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘A man is coming after me, but he is greater than I am, because he existed before I was born.’

[1:31] I did not know who he would be, but I came baptizing with water in order to make him known to the people of Israel.”

[1:32] And John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven and stay on him.

[1:33] I still did not know that he was the one, but God, who sent me to baptize with water, had said to me, ‘You will see the Spirit come down and stay on a man; he is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’

[1:34] I have seen it,” said John, “and I tell you that he is the Son of God.”

[1:35] The next day John was standing there again with two of his disciples,

[1:36] when he saw Jesus walking by. “There is the Lamb of God!” he said.

[1:37] The two disciples heard him say this and went with Jesus.

[1:38] Jesus turned, saw them following him, and asked, “What are you looking for?” They answered, “Where do you live, Rabbi?” (This word means “Teacher.”)

[1:39] “Come and see,” he answered. (It was then about four o'clock in the afternoon.) So they went with him and saw where he lived, and spent the rest of that day with him.

[1:40] One of them was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.

[1:41] At once he found his brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah.” (This word means “Christ.”)

[1:42] Then he took Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “Your name is Simon son of John, but you will be called Cephas.” (This is the same as Peter and means “a rock.”)

[1:43] The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Come with me!” (

[1:44] Philip was from Bethsaida, the town where Andrew and Peter lived.)

[1:45] Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one whom Moses wrote about in the book of the Law and whom the prophets also wrote about. He is Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”

[1:46] “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” answered Philip.

[1:47] When Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, he said about him, “Here is a real Israelite; there is nothing false in him!”

[1:48] Nathanael asked him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you when you were under the fig tree before Philip called you.”

[1:49] “Teacher,” answered Nathanael, “you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”

[1:50] Jesus said, “Do you believe just because I told you I saw you when you were under the fig tree? You will see much greater things than this!”

[1:51] And he said to them, “I am telling you the truth: you will see heaven open and God's angels going up and coming down on the Son of Man.”

[2:1] Two days later there was a wedding in the town of Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there,

[2:2] and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.

[2:3] When the wine had given out, Jesus' mother said to him, “They are out of wine.”

[2:4] “You must not tell me what to do,” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.”

[2:5] Jesus' mother then told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

[2:6] The Jews have rules about ritual washing, and for this purpose six stone water jars were there, each one large enough to hold between twenty and thirty gallons.

[2:7] Jesus said to the servants, “Fill these jars with water.” They filled them to the brim,

[2:8] and then he told them, “Now draw some water out and take it to the man in charge of the feast.” They took him the water,

[2:9] which now had turned into wine, and he tasted it. He did not know where this wine had come from (but, of course, the servants who had drawn out the water knew); so he called the bridegroom

[2:10] and said to him, “Everyone else serves the best wine first, and after the guests have drunk a lot, he serves the ordinary wine. But you have kept the best wine until now!”

[2:11] Jesus performed this first miracle in Cana in Galilee; there he revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

[2:12] After this, Jesus and his mother, brothers, and disciples went to Capernaum and stayed there a few days.

[2:13] It was almost time for the Passover Festival, so Jesus went to Jerusalem.

[2:14] There in the Temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and pigeons, and also the moneychangers sitting at their tables.

[2:15] So he made a whip from cords and drove all the animals out of the Temple, both the sheep and the cattle; he overturned the tables of the moneychangers and scattered their coins;

[2:16] and he ordered those who sold the pigeons, “Take them out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!”

[2:17] His disciples remembered that the scripture says, “My devotion to your house, O God, burns in me like a fire.”

[2:18] The Jewish authorities came back at him with a question, “What miracle can you perform to show us that you have the right to do this?”

[2:19] Jesus answered, “Tear down this Temple, and in three days I will build it again.”

[2:20] “Are you going to build it again in three days?” they asked him. “It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple!”

[2:21] But the temple Jesus was speaking about was his body.

[2:22] So when he was raised from death, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and what Jesus had said.

[2:23] While Jesus was in Jerusalem during the Passover Festival, many believed in him as they saw the miracles he performed.

[2:24] But Jesus did not trust himself to them, because he knew them all.

[2:25] There was no need for anyone to tell him about them, because he himself knew what was in their hearts.

[3:1] There was a Jewish leader named Nicodemus, who belonged to the party of the Pharisees.

[3:2] One night he went to Jesus and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher sent by God. No one could perform the miracles you are doing unless God were with him.”

[3:3] Jesus answered, “I am telling you the truth: no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born again.”

[3:4] “How can a grown man be born again?” Nicodemus asked. “He certainly cannot enter his mother's womb and be born a second time!”

[3:5] “I am telling you the truth,” replied Jesus, “that no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.

[3:6] A person is born physically of human parents, but is born spiritually of the Spirit.

[3:7] Do not be surprised because I tell you that you must all be born again.

[3:8] The wind blows wherever it wishes; you hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. It is like that with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

[3:9] “How can this be?” asked Nicodemus.

[3:10] Jesus answered, “You are a great teacher in Israel, and you don't know this?

[3:11] I am telling you the truth: we speak of what we know and report what we have seen, yet none of you is willing to accept our message.

[3:12] You do not believe me when I tell you about the things of this world; how will you ever believe me, then, when I tell you about the things of heaven?

[3:13] And no one has ever gone up to heaven except the Son of Man, who came down from heaven.”

[3:14] As Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the desert, in the same way the Son of Man must be lifted up,

[3:15] so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

[3:16] For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life.

[3:17] For God did not send his Son into the world to be its judge, but to be its savior.

[3:18] Those who believe in the Son are not judged; but those who do not believe have already been judged, because they have not believed in God's only Son.

[3:19] This is how the judgment works: the light has come into the world, but people love the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds are evil.

[3:20] Those who do evil things hate the light and will not come to the light, because they do not want their evil deeds to be shown up.

[3:21] But those who do what is true come to the light in order that the light may show that what they did was in obedience to God.

[3:22] After this, Jesus and his disciples went to the province of Judea, where he spent some time with them and baptized.

[3:23] John also was baptizing in Aenon, not far from Salim, because there was plenty of water in that place. People were going to him, and he was baptizing them. (

[3:24] This was before John had been put in prison.)

[3:25] Some of John's disciples began arguing with a Jew about the matter of ritual washing.

[3:26] So they went to John and told him, “Teacher, you remember the man who was with you on the east side of the Jordan, the one you spoke about? Well, he is baptizing now, and everyone is going to him!”

[3:27] John answered, “No one can have anything unless God gives it.

[3:28] You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.’

[3:29] The bridegroom is the one to whom the bride belongs; but the bridegroom's friend, who stands by and listens, is glad when he hears the bridegroom's voice. This is how my own happiness is made complete.

[3:30] He must become more important while I become less important.”