Gospel according to John (new translation by William Berg)

The Gospel according to John In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was together with God, and the Word was God. That Word was there in the beginning together with God. Through the Word, everything came to be; without it there came to be not a single thing that has come to be. In it was life, and that life was the light of humankind. [1.3-4 alternate version, equally ancient sources & MSS: 1.3 Through the Word, everything came to be; without it there came to be not a single thing. 1.4 What came to be in it was life, and that life has been the light of humankind.] That light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overwhelmed it. A man was born who was sent from God, whose name was John. He was sent as a witness, to give testimony about the light, so that through him all would believe. That one was not the light; but he was there to give testimony about the light. The real light, the light that illuminates every person, was coming into the world. The Word was in the world; the world came to be through it; and the world did not know it! He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him! But as many as have received him, who believe in his name, he has entitled them to become children of God, those who have sprung not from any bloodlines or the will of the flesh or the will of any man, but from God. So the Word became flesh and pitched his tent in our midst, and we witnessed his glory, glory as of the only-begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. John is a witness concerning him; he cries out, “That’s the one I meant! The one coming behind me has been put before me, because he takes precedence over me!” We all partook of the bounty of his fullness, we received favor after favor. For the Torah was given through Moses, but grace and truth were there through Jesus the Messiah. No one has ever seen God; God the son, the only-begotten son who lives in his father’s bosom — he’s the one who made him known. Here is John’s testimony when the Jews sent out priests and Levite sacristans from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”: He stated definitely and irrevocably, “I am not the Anointed One.” Then they asked him, “So what are you? Are you Elijah?” “No,” says he. “Are you the foretold prophet?” “No,” he answered. So they said to him, “Tell us who you are, so that we can bring an answer to those who sent us. How do you describe yourself?” Said he, “I’m the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said.” There were also people who had been sent from the Pharisees. They questioned him, asking “Why then are you baptizing if you’re neither the anointed King nor Elijah nor the foretold prophet?” John’s answer to them: “I baptize in water. In your midst stands one whom you don’t know, “someone who’s coming behind me, and I’m not worthy to loosen his sandal-strap.” This took place in Bethany on the east bank of the Jordan, where John was baptizing. On the next day he sees Jesus coming towards him, and says, “Look, the lamb of God, the one who takes away the world’s sin. “That’s the one about whom I said, ‘The one coming behind me has been put before me, because he takes precedence over me!’ “I didn’t know him, either, but I came baptizing in water for this reason, that he be manifested to Israel!” John gave testimony with these words: “I witnessed the spirit descending like a dove from heaven, and it settled upon him. “I didn’t know him, either, but he who sent me to baptize in water — it was he who said to me, The one on whom you see the spirit descending and settling upon him, that’s the one who baptizes in the holy spirit. “I saw and have testified that that man is the son of God.” The next day, John was standing along with two of his disciples, and catching sight of Jesus as he walked, he says, “Look, the lamb of God!” The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus. Jesus turned and ascertained that they were following. He asks them, “What are you looking for?” They answered him, “Rabbi [translated: teacher ], where are you staying?” He tells them, “Come and see.” So they went and saw where he stays, and they remained with him that day. It was around the tenth hour of the day. One of the two who’d heard what John had said and who’d followed Jesus was Andreas, the brother of Simon (Peter). Andreas goes first to find his brother, the same Simon, and tells him, “We’ve found the Messiah [in Greek, Christos ]!” He brought him to Jesus. Jesus took a good look at him and said, “You’re Simon son of John; you’re going to be called Cephas, ‘Rock’ [in Greek, Petros ].” The next day, he decided to leave for Galilee, where he finds Philip. Jesus tells him, “Follow me!” Philip was from Bethsaida, the same town as Andreas and Peter. Philip finds Nathanael and tells him, “The one Moses and the prophets wrote about in the Torah — we’ve found him! He’s Jesus the son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” To him Nathanael responded, “Can anything good be from Nazareth?” “Come and see,” Philip tells him. Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and says of him, “Look, there’s a real Israelite! No guile in him!” “Where do you know me from?”, Nathanael asks him. Jesus’ response to him: “Before Philip called you, I saw you under that fig tree.” “Then you are the son of God, Rabbi!” responded Nathanael to him. “You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered him, “Just because I told you that I’d seen you under the fig tree, you believe? You’re going to see greater things than that!” Then he tells him, “I swear to you all, I swear that you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” The following day (the third day), a wedding was celebrated in Cana of Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had been invited to the banquet. The wine had given out, and Jesus’ mother tells him, “They’re out of wine.” “Why are you after me, ma’am?” Jesus answers her; “My time hasn’t come yet.” His mother tells the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” There were six stone-hewn water jars on hand there for Jewish purificatory rituals, each holding about a hundred liters. Jesus tells the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” So they filled them to the brim. He then tells them, “Now draw some off and bring it to the caterer.” They did so. As soon as the caterer has tasted the water made into wine — he had no idea where it was from, though the servants who had poured the water knew —, the caterer calls to the bridegroom and tells him, “Everyone else sets out the good wine first, and the worse wine after the guests are tipsy. But you’ve been holding back the good wine till now!” Jesus performed this as the first of his miracles, in Cana of Galilee. He revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him. After that, he, his mother, his brothers, and his disciples went down to Capernaum and stayed there a few days. The Jewish Passover was coming, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple precinct he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, along with the money-exchange agents stationed there, so he made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the precinct, including the sheep and cattle, and he spilled out the money-changers’ coins and overturned their tables, and told the dove-sellers, “Get these things out of here! Stop making my father’s house a house of business!” His disciples were reminded of the scripture, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. The Jews reacted by asking him, “What miracle can you perform for us to justify what you’re doing here?” Jesus’ response: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I’ll resurrect it!” “Forty-six years it took to build this temple, and you’re going to resurrect it in three days?” But Jesus was speaking of the temple of his body. Later, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he said this, and they believed in the scripture and the words of Jesus. At Passover, when he was in Jerusalem for the festival, many believed in his name, because they were witnessing the miracles that he performed. Jesus himself, however, wouldn’t trust himself to them, for he knew them all, and had no need to hear anyone’s testimony about a person. On his own, he got to know what was inside that person. There was a fellow from the Pharisees, Nicodemus by name, who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. This man came to Jesus at night and declared to him, “Rabbi, we know that you’ve come as a teacher from God. No one can perform the miracles that you perform, unless God be with him.” Jesus answered, “I swear, I swear to you, unless a person is born anew, he’s not able to see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus asks him, “How can a person be born anew, once he’s old? You don’t mean that he can enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born? Jesus’ answer: “I swear, I swear to you, unless a person is born of water and the spirit, he’s not able to enter the kingdom of God. “What has been born of the flesh is flesh, and what has been born of the spirit is spirit. “So don’t wonder that I said to you, ‘You have to be born anew.’ “The breath of spirit blows where it’s willing; you hear its voice, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it’s going. Such is everyone born of the spirit.” Nicodemus responded to him by asking, “How can this rebirth happen?” Jesus responded to him by asking, “You’re a teacher of Israel, and you don’t know the answer? “I swear, I swear to you that we’re proclaiming what we know, and we’re bearing witness to what we’ve seen, and you people aren’t accepting our testimony! “If I’ve talked earthly things to you and you aren’t believing, how are you going to believe if ever I talk heavenly things to you? “No one has gotten up to heaven except the one who’s come down from heaven, the Son of Man. “Just as Moses raised up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be raised up “for every believer in him to have life in the coming eon. “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten son, so that all who are faithful to him may not be lost, but may have life for the eon to come. “God, you see, didn’t send the son into the world in order to judge the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. “The one who’s faithful to him is not judged; the one who’s not faithful has already been judged as not having been faithful to the name of God’s only-begotten son “— and this is the basis for that judgment: light has come into the world, and people have loved darkness better than light, for their works are evil. “Anyone who acts contemptibly, you see, hates the light and doesn’t come to face the light, lest his works be examined. “But the one who acts in all honesty comes to face the light, so that his works may be shown to have been accomplished in God.” Afterward, Jesus and his disciples went into Judaean territory. He passed some time there with them and began to baptize. But John was also baptizing in Ainon, near Shalim, because there were many water-sources there; people kept turning up and were getting baptized, since John hadn’t yet been thrown into prison. So an inquiry was initiated by John’s disciples, in company with a Judaean, concerning purificatory ritual. They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, the one who was with you on the other side of the Jordan — the one on whose behalf you bore witness — now he’s baptizing and everyone’s going to him!” John’s response: “No human can receive a single thing unless it be granted to him from heaven. “You yourselves bear witness to my saying, ‘I am not the Anointed One, but I’ve been sent before him.’ “It is the bridegroom who has the bride; the bridegroom’s friend, who stands by him and hears him, takes joyful delight in the bridegroom’s voice. And that has been my joy, a joy that’s now complete. “It is for him now to grow, and for me to fade away. “He who is coming from above is superior to all. He who is from the earth is from the earth, and speaks from the earth. The one coming from heaven is superior to all. “He testifies to what he has seen and heard, yet no one is accepting his testimony. “The one who accepted his testimony certified that God has been true, “for the one that God sent utters the words of God: God sets no limit to the spirit he bestows. “The father loves the son, and has put everything under his control. “The one who is faithful to the son has life in the coming eon. The one who does not heed the son will not see that life; instead, the wrath of God is waiting for him.” When Jesus became aware of what the Pharisees had heard — namely that Jesus was converting and baptizing more disciples than John, even though it wasn’t Jesus himself who was baptizing, but his disciples — he left Judaea and returned once more to Galilee. Now, he had to go back through Samaria, so he came to a town called Shykar, near the place that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob’s Well was there, so Jesus, weary from the journey, went ahead and took a seat by the well. It was around the sixth hour of the day. There comes a woman from Samaria to draw water. Jesus tells her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone off to town to buy food.) So the Samaritan woman asks him, “How can you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? Jews don’t have anything to do with Samaritans!” Jesus’ answer to her: “If you knew the bounty of God, and if you knew who was saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you’d have asked of him, and he’d have given you, living water.” The woman tells him, “Mister, you’ve got no bucket, and the well’s deep. Where are you getting living water? “Or do you think you’re greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and he drank from it himself, as did his children and herds?” Jesus’ answer to her: “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. “The one who drinks of the water I’ll give him won’t be thirsty into the next eon; the water that I’ll be giving him will become in him a source of water that springs up into life for the eon to come.” Says the woman to him, “Mister, give me this water so that I won’t be thirsty and won’t have to come here to draw water!” He tells her, “Go call your husband and come back.” Her answer to him: “I don’t have a husband.” Jesus responds, “You’re right that you don’t have a husband. “You’ve had five husbands, and the one you have now isn’t really your husband. So what you’ve said is correct!” The woman tells him, “Mister, I’m beginning to think you’re a prophet! “So tell me: our forefathers conducted their worship on this mountain here, but you all say that the place to do worship is in Jerusalem?” “Believe me, ma’am,” said Jesus to her, “the time is coming when you will worship the father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. “You all worship what you don’t know; we worship what we know, because salvation is from the Jews. “But the time is coming, and that time is now, when true worshippers will worship the father in the spirit and in truth — and that’s because the father is seeking such people to worship him! “God is spirit, and his worshippers have to worship him in the spirit and in truth.” Says the woman to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the anointed King. When he comes, he will tell us all.” Says Jesus to her, “That’s me, the one who’s talking to you.” At that moment his disciples arrived and started to wonder about his talking with the woman — but of course no one said, “What are you up to? Why are you talking with her?” The woman set aside her water-jar, went off to town, and starts telling people, “Come see the fellow who told me my whole life story! Can he be the Messiah King?” So they came out of the town and were making their way to him. In the meantime, the disciples kept urging him, saying, “Rabbi, have something to eat!” “Me? You can’t imagine what a meal I have to eat!” he told them. The disciples then started to ask each other, “Did someone already bring him something to eat?” Jesus tells them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to bring his work to completion. “Don’t you all say, ‘Another four months, and harvest time is coming’? So look, I’m telling you, lift your gaze and behold the fields growing amber for harvest! Already “the harvester is getting his pay and bringing in the sheaves for life for the coming eon, so that the sower may rejoice together with the harvester! “The old saying, ‘One man sows, another reaps,’ is correct in this sense: “I’ve sent you out to reap what you didn’t work for. Others have done the work, and you’ve come into the fruit of their labor.” From that town many of the Samaritans became believers in him, thanks to the word of the woman who reported, “He told me my whole life story.” So when the Samaritans had all come to him, they invited him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. Many more came to believe because of what he said. They told the woman, “No longer do we believe just on your say-so. We’ve heard him ourselves, and we know that this man really is the savior of the world.” With those two days behind him, he departed from there for Galilee. It was Jesus himself, you see, who testified that a prophet had no honor in his own country. In any event, when he’d come into Galilee this time, the Galilaeans welcomed him, since they’d seen all the things he’d done in Jerusalem during the festival — having gone to the festival themselves. So once more he entered Cana in Galilee, where he’d made the water into wine. There was an officer there whose son lay sick in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judaea, he went to him and asked that he come down and heal his son, because he was at death’s door. Jesus then said to him, “You people, unless you see signs and wonders, there’s no way for you to have faith!” “Master!” says the officer to him, “Come down before my little boy dies!” “Go on,” Jesus tells him; “Your son lives.” The fellow trusted the word that Jesus had spoken to him, and left. When he was already getting back home, his slaves met him with the report that his son lived. So he asked them the hour in which he had gotten better. They then told him that it was yesterday, in the seventh hour of the day, that the fever had left him. The father recognized that it was that very hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son lives.” He himself became a believer, as did his entire household. This was the second miracle that Jesus had performed after coming again out of Judaea into Galilee. After that came another Jewish festival, and Jesus went back to Jerusalem. At the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem, there’s a pool called (in Hebrew) Bethesda, enclosed by five arcades. A number of handicapped would recline in those arcades — the blind, the lame, and people with withered limbs. [Omitted from most MSS: An angel, you see, would on occasion descend on the pool and stir the water. Then the first one in after the water had been stirred would be cured of whatever ailment was afflicting him.] One fellow there had languished in his disability for thirty-eight years. Jesus sees him lying there, and having ascertained that he’s had the problem for a long time, asks him, “Do you really want to get well?” “Mister,” answered the sick man, “I don’t have anyone to push me into the pool when the water’s stirred, and every time I try to get there, somebody else gets in ahead of me.” Jesus tells him, “Get up, pick up your bed and walk!” The fellow got well immediately, picked up his bed and started walking. At that point, the Jews tried to tell the man who’d been cured that “It’s the Sabbath, and you’re not supposed to be carrying your bed!” He answered them back, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your bed and walk!’ ” They asked him, “Who’s the man who told you, ‘Pick up and walk’ ”? The man who’d been cured didn’t know who it was; Jesus had turned away, and there was a crowd in the area. Later, Jesus finds him in the temple precinct and says to him, “Look, you’ve been made well. Sin no more, lest something worse happens to you!” The man went off and reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. And the Jews kept harassing Jesus because he was doing those things on the Sabbath. Jesus gave them an answer: “My father keeps on doing his work right up to this moment, and so do I!” Then the Jews tried harder to find a way to kill him, because he not only kept violating the Sabbath; he also kept calling God his own father, making himself equal to God. So Jesus responded and tried to tell them, I swear, I swear to you, the son can’t do anything by himself unless he’s seen the father doing it. What the father does, the son does in the same way, for the father loves the son and shows him everything that he himself does. He’ll show him even greater works than these you’ve seen, to amaze you! For just as the father raises the dead and gives them life, so the son gives life to those he’s willing to give it. The father, you see, judges no man, but has left all the judgment to the son, so that all may honor the son just as they honor the father. The one who doesn’t honor the son doesn’t honor the father who sent him. I swear, I swear to you that the one who listens to my word, and believes the one who sent me, has life for the eon to come, and isn’t bound for judgment, but has crossed over from death to life. I swear, I swear to you that the time is coming, and the time is now, when the dead will hear the voice of the son of God, and once they’ve heard it, they’ll be alive! For just as the father has life in himself, so he granted to the son to have life in himself. He also gave him authority to pass judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Don’t be surprised that the time is coming when all those in their graves will hear his voice and come out — to a restoration of life, if they’ve done good, or to a restoration of judgment, if they’ve done evil. From myself, I’m unable to do anything. I judge as I’ve been told to judge, and my judgment is fair and just, because I’m seeking to do not my own will, but the will of the one who sent me. If I’m a witness on my own behalf, my testimony is not true testimony. The witness on my behalf is another, so I know that the testimony he gives for me is true. You’ve sent to John, and he’s given testimony to the truth. I myself don’t get my testimony from a human; what I tell you, I’m telling you for your salvation. John was the lamp lit and shining, and you all were willing to rejoice for a while in its light. But it is I who have testimony greater than John’s, because the works that the father has given me to complete, the very works that I’m doing, are the witness on my behalf that the father has sent me. That same father has given testimony on my behalf. You’ve never heard his voice or seen how he looks, and you don’t keep his word for long inside yourselves, because you’re not believing him whom the father sent. Search the scriptures, because you think you have life in them for the coming eon: it’s they that give testimony on my behalf! Yet you’re unwilling to come to me to have life. I’m not out to get honor among humans, but I do see that you don’t have the love of God within yourselves. I’ve come in the name of my father and you’re not accepting me. If another should come in just his own name, you would accept him. Indeed, how can you believe me, when you’re out for honor from each other and not for honor from the one and only God? You don’t imagine, do you, that I’m going to accuse you to the father? The one who’s accusing you is Moses, the very one you’ve been counting on! You see, if you believed Moses, you’d believe me, for it’s about me that he wrote. If, however, you don’t believe his writings, how are you going to believe my words? Thereupon, Jesus went over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (the Sea of Tiberias). A huge crowd continued to follow him, because they were witnessing miracles performed by him on the infirm. Jesus ascended the mountain and took a seat there with his disciples. The Jewish festival of Passover was drawing near. Jesus looks out and sees that a big crowd is coming after him. He asks Philip, “Where are we going to buy bread so those people can eat?” (He was only saying that to test him; he himself knew what he was about to do.) Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread isn’t enough for each of them to have even a little bit.” One of his disciples — Andreas, brother of Simon (Peter) — tells him, “There’s a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what’s that to so many people? Said Jesus, “Have the people recline.” There was lots of grass in the area, so the men — numbering about five thousand — lay down. Then Jesus took the loaves and, after giving thanks, gave them to the men on the grass, and did the same from the fish, as much as they wanted. When they’ve been satisfied, he tells his disciples, “Collect the leftover pieces so that nothing is lost.” So they collected the leftovers, and filled twelve baskets with the pieces from the five barley loaves that had been too much for those who had eaten. After seeing the miracle that he had performed, the people then started saying, “This is truly the prophet who is to come into the world.” So Jesus, after sensing that they were on the point of coming to lay hold of him and make him king, withdrew again up into the mountain, alone. Toward evening his disciples came down to the water, got into a boat, and made for the other side of the sea, for Capernaum. It had already grown dark, and Jesus had never rejoined them. The sea was rough, with a strong wind blowing. Having sailed now three or four miles out, they behold Jesus walking on the water and getting close to the boat, and they’re filled with fear! But he tells them, “It’s me! Don’t be afraid!” Then they were ready and willing to take him aboard. And right away, the boat arrived at the shore where they’d been headed. The day after, the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore realized that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus hadn’t sailed with his disciples; instead, his disciples had sailed off by themselves. From Tiberias came other ferries, close to the place where they had eaten the bread that the Master had given thanks for. As soon as the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got on board the boats and went to Capernaum hoping to find Jesus. They discovered him on the opposite shore, and asked him, “Rabbi, since when have you been here?” Jesus’ answer: “I swear, I swear to you, you’re seeking me out not because you saw a miracle, but because you’ve eaten of the bread and have been satisfied. “So keep working not for food that doesn’t last, but for food that keeps for life in the coming eon, food that the Son of Man will give you. He’s the one, you see, on whom God the father has set his seal.” They then asked him, “What should we be doing to do God’s work?” Jesus’ answer: “God’s work is this: that you believe in the one he sent.” They then asked him, “What sign do you make for us to see and believe you? What miracle are you going to perform? “Our forefathers ate manna in the desert, as is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” And to them Jesus said, “I swear, I swear to you, it’s not Moses who’s given you the bread from heaven! No, it’s my father who gives you the bread from heaven, the true bread! “The bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Then they said to him, “Master, give us this bread every time!” To them Jesus said, “It is I who am the bread of life. The one who comes to me won’t be hungry, and the one who believes in me won’t be thirsty, ever! “But I told you, you’ve seen me, and you’re not believing. “Everything the father gives me will get to me, and there’s no way I’ll cast away the one who comes to me, “because I’ve come down from heaven to do not my own will, but the will of him who sent me. “The will of him who sent me is this: that I not let anything he’s given me be lost to him, but that I raise it up on the last day. “It’s my father’s will, you see, that everyone who witnesses his son and believes in him should have life for the eon to come: it is I who’ll raise him up on the last day.” The Jews then began to grumble about his statement, “I am the bread that’s come down from heaven,” and kept saying, “Isn’t that Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? Now how can he be saying, “I’ve come down from heaven”? Jesus responded and said to them, “Don’t be grumbling among yourselves. “No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him to me, and it will be I who raise him up on the last day. “And they shall be all taught of God is written in the prophets. Everyone who hears and learns from the father is on his way to me “— not that anyone has seen the father, except for the one who is from God; he has seen the father. “I swear, I swear to you, the one who believes has life for the eon to come. “I’m the one who is the bread of life. “Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert — and they died. “But this bread here is the bread that comes down from heaven so that you can eat of it and not die. “It’s I who am the living bread that’s come down from heaven; if you eat of this bread, you’ll live into the next eon. The bread that I’ll give is my flesh, given for the life of the world.” The Jews disputed with one another and said, “How can this fellow give us his flesh to eat?” So then Jesus told them, “I swear, I swear to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. “The one who’s eating my flesh and drinking my blood has life for the eon to come, and I myself will raise him up on the last day, “for my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. “Anyone who is eating my flesh and drinking my blood abides in me, and I in that person. “As the living father has sent me, and as I’m alive because of the father, so also will the one who is eating me be alive because of me. “This bread here is the bread that’s come down from heaven — not like the bread your forefathers ate, and died. No, the one who eats this bread here will live into the next eon.” Those were his words as he taught in the synagogue in Capernaum. Now, when they had heard them, many of his disciples said, “This is a tough doctrine! Who can accept it?” On his own, Jesus knew that his disciples were grumbling about this. To them he said, “Is this a stumbling-block for you? “So then, would it be a stumbling-block if you beheld the Son of Man rising to where he was before? “It’s the spirit that makes things alive; the flesh is no help at all. What I’ve just told you about is spirit, it’s life! “But there are those of you who don’t believe.” Jesus knew from the start, you see, who those were who didn’t believe, and who the one was who was going to hand him over. He went on to say, “This is why I’ve told you that no one can come to me unless it be granted to him from the father.” From that point on, many of his disciples fell back and no longer continued to walk with him. To the twelve Jesus said, “Maybe you want to go, too?” Simon (Peter) answered him, “Master, whom will we go to? You hold the words of life in the eon to come, “and we’ve become believers; we know that you’re God’s holy one!” Jesus’ answer to them: “Was it not I who chose the twelve of you? And one of you is a devil!” He was talking about Judas, son of Shimon, the Iscariot: he was the one who was going to hand him over, though he was one of the twelve. After that, Jesus went from place to place in Galilee because he wasn’t willing to circulate in Judaea: the Judaeans were looking for a way to kill him. On the other hand, the Jewish Tent-pitching festival was coming up. So his brothers said to him, “Set a new course and move on to Judaea! Let your disciples there, too, witness the feats you perform! “No one can be acting covertly and at the same time be trying to get himself into the public eye. If you’re going to do these things, show yourself to the world!” You see, not even his brothers had faith in him. So Jesus tells them, “This isn’t yet my time. But your time is always ripe! “The world can’t hate you, but it does hate me, because I keep testifying to it that its deeds are evil. “You all go ahead to the festival; that’s not the festival I’m going to, because my time is not yet fulfilled.” With that explanation, he stayed back in Galilee. But when his brothers had gone on to the festival, he himself went — not openly, but covertly. Now, the Judaeans were looking for him him at the festival and kept saying, “Where is that fellow?” There was controversy about him among the crowd: some were saying, “He’s a good man;” others said, “Not so — he leads the crowd astray.” No one, however, made any public declarations about him, because of fear of the Judaeans. When the festival was already half over, Jesus ascended to the temple and began to teach. The Judaeans marveled, saying “How does this fellow know scripture without having been taught?” Jesus gave them a response: “My teaching is not mine, but belongs to him who sent me. “If you’re willing to do his will, you’ll recognize in the teaching whether it’s from God, or just me speaking on my own. “The one who speaks on his own is looking for his own glory; the one who’s looking for the glory of the one who sent him — that’s the true teacher; there’s no wrong in him. “Was it not Moses who gave you the Torah? And none of you observe the Torah. So why are you seeking to kill me ?” “You’re crazy!” responded the crowd; “Who’s seeking to kill you?” Jesus’ response to them: “I performed that one feat, and you’re all shocked! “Moses ordered you to circumcise — not because the command came from Moses, but because it came from the forefathers. So you circumcise people on the Sabbath. “If a person receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me when I make a whole person healthy on the Sabbath? “Don’t judge based on appearances, but judge based on fair judgment.” Some of those who lived in Jerusalem were saying, “Isn’t that the one they’re seeking to kill? “Look, he’s speaking out freely and openly, and they don’t say anything to him! Could it be that the Sanhedrin-rulers have recognized that this man is the Messiah? “Wait, we know where this fellow is from, whereas no one knows where the Messiah is from, whenever he may come. At that point Jesus, who was teaching in the temple, gave a shout and said, “You know me, and you know where I’m from. I haven’t come on my own: the one who sent me is real, and he’s the one you don’t know. “I know him, because I’m from him; he’s the one who sent me.” At that point they made an effort to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him; his hour had not yet come. There were many, however, from the crowd who believed in him and were saying, “When the Anointed One comes, will he perform more miracles than the ones this man has performed?” The Pharisees heard these rumblings from the crowd concerning him, so the high priests and Pharisees sent their adjutants to seize him. Now Jesus said, “I have only a little time left to be with you before I go back to the one who sent me. “Then you’ll look and you won’t find me, and you won’t be able to go where I am.” The Judaeans then asked one another, “Where’s this fellow going to go that we won’t find him? Is he talking about following the diaspora into Greek-speaking countries, and teaching the Greeks? “What’s that talk of his about how ‘You’ll look and you won’t find me, and you won’t be able to go where I am?’ ” On the last day of the festival, the big day, Jesus stood there shouting, “Anyone who’s thirsty, let him come to me and drink! “The one who believes in me, as scripture has said, Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” He was talking about the spirit that the believers in him were going to be receiving. The spirit was not yet there, because Jesus had not yet been glorified. Then those in the crowd who had heard these words were saying, “That man really is a prophet!” Others were saying, “That man is the Messiah King!” On the other hand, they said, “Is it possible for the Messiah to come out of Galilee? “Hasn’t scripture said that the Anointed One cometh of the seed of David, and out of Bethlehem, the village where David was?” So a division arose among the crowd on Jesus’ account. Some of their number were wanting to seize him, but no one laid hands on him. Then the adjutants came back to the high priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him along?” The adjutants’ answer: “No human has ever talked like him!” The Pharisees’ response: “Have you been led astray, too? “Have any of the Sanhedrin-rulers become a believer in him, or one of the Pharisees? “No, but that whole crowd that doesn’t know the law — they are accursed!” Nicodemus, the one who came to Jesus before, and who is one of their number, asks them, “Does our law judge a person without first hearing from him and knowing what it is that he’s doing?” Their answer to him: “Don’t tell us you’re from Galilee, too! Do your research and notice that the prophet is not going to be raised up from Galilee!” Then each one went off to his own home. And Jesus went off to the Mount of Olives. At dawn, he was once more in the temple precinct, and all the people were coming to him. He then sat down and started to teach them. The bible scholars and the Pharisees bring before him a woman who had been caught in adultery. They stand her up in their midst, and say to him, “Rabbi, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. “In the Torah, Moses has commanded us to stone such women. So what do you have to say?” They were saying that to test him, on the chance they’d have something to accuse him of. Jesus just looked down and, completely detached, began with his finger to draw in the dirt. When they persisted in questioning him, he looked up and told them, “Let the one among you who is sinless be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then he looked down again and continued to draw in the dirt. When they’d heard that, being under the scrutiny of their own consciences, they began to withdraw, one by one, starting with the elders all the way down to the least and last. Finally, there was only Jesus left, and the woman on display. Jesus looked up and beheld no one there but the woman. To her he said, “Lady, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, Master,” said she. “Nor do I condemn you,” said Jesus; “Go, and don’t sin any more.” Once more, then, Jesus talked to them: “I am the light of the world! If you’re following me, you can’t be walking in darkness; instead, you’ll have the light of life! So the Pharisees told him, “You’re testifying on your own behalf, so your testimony isn’t credible.” “Even if I testify on my own behalf,” responded Jesus to them, “My testimony is true, because I do know where I came from and where I go, and you don’t know where I’m coming from and where I’m going. “You judge according to the flesh; me, I’m judging nobody. “And if I do judge, my judgment will be true, because I am not alone: there’s myself and the father who sent me. “In your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is credible. “I am witnessing on my behalf, and the father who sent me is witnessing on my behalf.” Then they asked him, “Where is your father?” Jesus answered, “You don’t know me, and you don’t know my father. If you knew me, you would also know my father.” He made those statements while teaching in the temple precinct, by the treasury. No one seized him, because his time had not yet come. Then once more he said to them, “I am going, and you’ll be looking for me, and you’ll die in your error. You can’t come where I’m going.” So the Judaeans were thinking, “Is he going to kill himself — because he says, ‘You can’t come where I’m going’?” He also declared to them, “You are from what’s below, and I am from what’s above. You are from this world, and I am not from this world. “That’s why I told you that you would die in your errors; for if you don’t believe that I am who I am, you’ll die in your errors.” So they asked him, “All right, who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Exactly what I stated to you from the start. “About yourselves I could be saying much and judging much, but the one who sent me is the reliable one, and I only tell the world what I’ve heard from him.” They didn’t know that he was talking to them of his father. So Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, you’ll know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself, but say what the father taught me to say. “He who sent me is with me. He has never left me alone, because I always do what pleases him.” As he was speaking those words, many became believers in him, so Jesus addressed the Judaeans who had believed him: “If you abide in my word, you’re truly my disciples. “You’ll recognize the truth, and the truth will set you free.” The people’s reaction was this: “We’re the seed of Abraham! We’ve never been enslaved to anyone! How can you say, ‘You’ll be set free’?” “I swear, I swear to you,” he answered them, “anyone who commits a sin is a slave. “The slave doesn’t live in the household into the coming eon, but the son lives into that eon. “So if the son sets you free, you’ll be really and truly free. “I’m aware that you’re the seed of Abraham. Nevertheless, you’re seeking to kill me, because my word finds no room in your hearts. “What I talk about is what I’ve seen at my father’s side, just as what you do is what you’ve learned from your father.” “Our father is Abraham,” they answered him. Jesus tells them, “If you’re Abraham’s children, you should be doing Abraham’s work. “But here you’re seeking to kill me, a man who’s told you the truth that I’ve heard from God. What you’re doing is not what Abraham did! “You’re doing the work of your own father!” They then told him, “We, at least, were not begotten illegitimately! And we all have one father, God.” To them Jesus said, “If God were your father, you would love me, for I went out from God to come here. I’ve come, you see, not on my own; it was he who sent me. “Why can’t you understand what I say? Because you’re not able to hear my word! “The father you’re from is the devil, and you keep wanting to fulfill the wishes of your father. He’s been a murderer from the start, and doesn’t stand for the truth, because there’s no truth in him. When he speaks falsehood, he speaks from his own nature, because he’s a liar, and the father of falsehood. “You don’t believe me because I’m telling the truth. “Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I’m telling the truth, why aren’t you believing me? “The one who’s from God listens to what God says. That’s why you don’t hear — you’re not from God!” In their turn, the Judaeans said to him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you’re a Samaritan, and possessed?” Jesus answered, “I’m not possessed; rather, I’m honoring my father, and you’re dishonoring me. “But I’m not seeking my own glory; there is one who is seeking it, and judging. “I swear, I swear to you, if a person keeps my word, that person will never see death for an eon to come.” The Judaeans told him, “Now we know for sure that you’re possessed! Abraham died, and the prophets died, and you say, ‘If a person keeps my word, that person will never taste death for an eon to come.’ “Are you greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? And the prophets are dead! Who are you making yourself out to be?” Jesus’ answer: “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. My father is the one who glorifies me — my father, whom you yourselves say is our God. “You didn’t recognize him, but I know him; if ever I say I don’t know him, I’ll be the same as you, a liar. But I do know him, and I keep his word. “Abraham your father was full of joy to see my day; he saw it and was glad!” The Judaeans then said to him, “You don’t yet have fifty years, and you’ve seen Abraham?” “I swear, I swear to you,” Jesus told them, “Before Abraham was born, I am!” Now they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and left the temple. Along his way, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. His disciples asked him the question, “Rabbi, whose sin was it — his or his parents’ — that he was born blind?” “Neither he nor his parents sinned,” was Jesus’ answer; “he was born blind so that the works of God might be manifested in him. “We’re obliged to perform the work of the one who sent me as long as there’s daylight. But the night is coming, when no one can work. “For the time that I’m in the world, I’m the light of the world.” With those words, he spat on the ground and made mud with the spit, smeared the mud on the eyes of the blind man, and told him, “Go wash in the pool of Shiloam (which means outflow).” So off he went and washed himself, and returned home with his sight! His neighbors, and all the people who had seen him formerly as a beggar, now said, “Isn’t that the fellow who used to sit and beg?” Some said, “Yes, that’s the one!” Others said, “No, but he looks like him.” The man himself said, “I’m the one!” So they asked him, “How were your eyes opened?” “The man called Jesus,” he answered, “made mud and smeared it on my eyes and told me, ‘Go to Shiloam and wash.’ So I went off and washed myself, and I could see.” “Where is he?”, they asked him. “I don’t know,” says he. They bring him, the man once blind, to the Pharisees. It turned out that the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened his eyes was the Sabbath. So now it was the Pharisees who were asking him how he had come to see. He told them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I can see.” So some of the Pharisees started to claim, “This Jesus fellow is not of God: he doesn’t keep the Sabbath!” Others were saying, “How can anyone sinful perform such miracles?” A division arose among them, so again they question the blind one: “What do you yourself think of his opening your eyes?” “He’s a prophet!”, said he. At that point, the Judaeans didn’t believe his story about being blind and now sighted, so they summoned the parents of the man who was now able to see and interrogated them with the words, “Is this your son, whom you claim was born blind? So how is it that he now sees?” His parents then answered, “We know that he’s our son, and that he was born blind. “How it is that he now sees, we don’t know. Question him — he’s an adult, he’ll speak on his own behalf.” His parents said that because they feared the Judaeans: the Judaeans had already agreed among themselves that if anyone should declare Jesus to be the anointed King, he would be expelled from the synagogue — which is why his parents said, “He’s an adult, question him.” So they summoned for a second time the man who had been blind, and told him, “Give glory to God: we have found out that that man is a sinner.” “Whether he’s a sinner or not, I don’t know,” the fellow answered; “I just know one thing: I was blind, and now I see.” They then asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered them, “I’ve told you already; didn’t you hear me? Why do you want to hear it again? Could it be that you, too, want to become his disciples?” At that point, they heaped abuse on him and said, “You’re his disciple, but as for us, we’re Moses’ disciples! “What we know is that God talked to Moses; as for that fellow, we don’t even know where he’s from.” The man’s response to them: “It’s amazing that you don’t know where he’s from, and yet he’s the one who opened my eyes! “We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but if you’re God-fearing and do his will, he hears you. “It’s unheard of in our eon for anyone to have opened the eyes of a person born blind. “If that man were not from God, he couldn’t have done anything.” They reacted to him by saying, “You were born in sin from head to toe, and you’re trying to teach us?” Then they threw him out. Jesus heard that they’d thrown him out. When he found him, Jesus asked, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered by asking, “And who is he, Master, that I should believe in him?” Jesus told him, “You’ve met him. The one who’s talking to you, that’s him.” “I believe, Master,” said he, and worshipped him. Jesus said, “I’ve come into this world for judgment, so that those who don’t see may see, and those who see may go blind.” Those of the Pharisees who were with him heard those words, and asked him, “Do you mean that we, too, are blind?” Jesus told them, “If you were blind, you wouldn’t have sin. As it is, you can say, ‘We see;’ but your sin remains. “I swear, I swear to you, anyone who doesn’t enter the sheepfold through the gate, but instead climbs in another way — that person is a thief, a rustler! “The one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the flock. “The gatekeeper opens for him, the sheep heed his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and brings them out. “When he’s driven out all of his own flock, he goes ahead of them. The sheep follow him because they know his voice. “There’s no way they’ll follow a stranger; no, they’ll run away from him because they don’t recognize strangers’ voices.” Jesus drew this comparison for them, but they had no idea what it was that he was telling them about. So again Jesus said, “I swear, I swear to you that I am the sheepfold gate. “All those who came before were thieves and rustlers, and the sheep didn’t heed them. “I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come and go freely and find pasturage. “The thief is only coming to steal, slaughter, and destroy. I’ve come so that the sheep may have life, and have it in abundance. “I’m the good shepherd: the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. “The hired man who’s not the shepherd, and to whom the sheep don’t belong, beholds the wolf coming, abandons the sheep, and runs off, and the wolf snatches and scatters them. “That’s because the man is a hireling, and doesn’t care about the sheep. “I’m the good shepherd: I know my sheep, and my sheep know me, “just as the father knows me and I know the father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. “I have other sheep that are not from this sheepfold. I have to bring them as well; they’ll heed my voice, and there will be one herd and one shepherd. “The father loves me because I lay down my life to get my life back again. “Nobody takes it from me; I lay it down of my own accord. I have the power to lay it down, and the power to get it back again. That’s the assignment I’ve received from my father.” Once more, because of those words, dissension arose among the Judaeans. Many of them were saying, “He’s possessed of a demon! He’s crazy! Why are you listening to him?” Others said, “Those aren’t the sayings of a person possessed! Are you telling us that a demon can open the eyes of the blind?” At that time there came the festival of Hannukah in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus went walking in the Stoa of Solomon, in the temple precinct. The Judaeans surrounded him on all sides and kept asking him, “How long are you going to keep us holding our breath? Tell us outright whether you’re the Messiah King!” Said Jesus in answer to them, “I’ve told you and you’re not believing it. The deeds that I do in the name of my father — those bear witness on my behalf. “Still you people aren’t believing, and it’s because you’re not from my sheepfold. “My sheep heed my voice. I know them, and they follow me, “And I’m giving them life in the eon to come: they won’t be lost for the next eon, and no one’s going to snatch them from my hand. “What my father has given me is more important than anything. [Variant reading: My father, who gave them to me, is greater than all.] Nobody can snatch anything from the father’s hand! “I and the father are one.” Once again the Judaeans picked up stones to kill him by stoning. Jesus’ response to them: “I’ve shown you many good deeds that have proceeded from the father. For which of those deeds are you stoning me?” “We’re not stoning you for a good deed. We’re stoning you for blasphemy, and for the fact that you, a human, are setting yourself up as God.” Jesus’ response to them: “Doesn’t this stand written in your Bible: I said, Ye are gods ? “If scripture could say that those to whom the word of God has come are gods — and scripture can’t be erased —, “then can you say that I, whom the father sanctified and sent into the world, am blaspheming when I say I’m a son of God? “If I’m not doing my father’s works, don’t believe in me; “but if I’m doing them, even if you don’t believe in me, believe in the works, so that you may know once and for all that the father is in me and that I am in the father.” Again they tried to seize him and again he escaped their hands. He went back across the Jordan to the spot where John had first started baptizing, and stayed there. Many people kept coming to him and saying that, though John had never performed a miracle, still everything that he had said about this man was true. In that place, many became believers in Jesus. Lazarus of Bethany was ill. He came from the village of Mary and her sister Martha — Mary being the one who anointed the Master with sweet oil, and wiped his feet with her hair. It was her brother Lazarus who was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, saying, “Master, someone you love here is sick.” When he’d heard, Jesus said, “This is not a sickness to death; this is a sickness that’s for the glory of God, so that God’s son may be glorified through it.” Jesus did cherish Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Now, after he’d heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed where he was for two days longer, and only then tells his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judaea.” “Rabbi,” the disciples tell him, “the Judaeans were just now looking to stone you, and you’re going back there?” Jesus answered, “Aren’t there twelve hours of daylight? If you walk when it’s daytime, you don’t stumble, because you have the light of this world before your eyes. “But if you walk at night, you stumble, because the light is not with you.” After he’s said that, he tells them, “Our friend Lazarus has gone to bed, but I’m off to awaken him.” The disciples then said to him, “But, Master, if he’s gone to bed, he’ll recover!” Jesus, however, had been speaking of Lazarus’ death, while they thought he was talking about going to bed to sleep. So at that point Jesus spoke openly to them: “Lazarus is dead, and I’m glad on your account that I wasn’t there, so that you may be believers! Come, let’s go to him.” Then Thomas, nicknamed the Twin, told his fellow disciples, “Come on, let’s all go and die with the Master!” Now when Jesus arrived, he found that he had already been four days in the tomb. Bethany was close to Jerusalem, about two miles away, and a good number of Judaeans had come to Martha and Mary to offer condolences on their brother. Now when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, while Mary went on sitting in the house. Martha said then to Jesus, “Master, if you’d been here my brother wouldn’t have died. “But I know that whatever you may ask of God even now, God will give you!” “Your brother will rise again,” Jesus tells her. “I know,” Martha says to him, “that he will rise again in the resurrection on the final day…” To her Jesus said, “I am the resurrection, I am life. The one who believes in me will live even if he dies. “Anyone who has life and believes in me can’t possibly die, even into the next eon. Do you believe that?” “Yes, Master,” she tells him; “I’m one who believes that you’re the Anointed One, the son of God come into the world.” With those words, she went off and called her sister Mary, took her aside, and said, “The Rabbi is here and is asking for you.” As soon as she heard, Mary hurriedly got up and went to him. Jesus hadn’t yet got into the village, but was still at the spot where Martha had met him. Now the Judaeans who were with her in the house consoling her, when they saw that Mary had gotten up and left in a hurry, followed her out, assuming that she was going to the tomb to mourn there. Then Mary, when she’d come to where Jesus was and caught sight of him, fell at his feet declaring to him, “Master, if you’d been here my brother wouldn’t have died!” Then, when he saw her crying, and saw the Judaeans who had accompanied her also crying, Jesus gasped and recoiled inwardly, then shuddered. “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Master,” they tell him. Jesus burst into tears. The Judaeans then started saying, “Look how he loved him.” Some of them remarked, “This man who opened the blind man’s eyes, couldn’t he have done something as well to keep his friend from dying?” Then Jesus, once more gasping and recoiling, goes up to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone blocked the entrance. Jesus says, “Take away the stone.” The dead man’s sister Martha tells him, “Master, he already smells; he’s been four days dead.” To her Jesus says, “Haven’t I told you that, if you believe, you’ll see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me! “(I knew that you always hear me; I said that for the sake of the crowd standing around, so that they’ll believe that you sent me.)” After saying that, he shouted at the top of his voice, “Lazarus, come out here!” The dead man came out wrapped hand and foot in bandages, his face covered by a cloth. Jesus tells them, “Unwrap him and let him go!” Of the Judaeans who had come to Mary’s house and had seen what Jesus had done, many became believers in him. But others of them went off to the Pharisees and reported to them what Jesus had done. So the high priests and Pharisees gathered a council, and said, “What are we to do? This fellow is performing many miracles! “If we let him go on like this, everyone’s going to believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away from us both our place of worship and our nation.” One of them — Caiaphas, the chief high priest for that year — said to them, “You people know nothing, “nor do you realize how much it stands to your benefit that one man should die for the people, rather than that the whole nation should perish.” (He didn’t make that statement through his own power. Instead, he was giving inspired prophesy, as chief high priest for that year, that Jesus would die on behalf of the people, and not only on behalf of the people, but also so that all God’s scattered children might be gathered together as one.) So from that day forward they plotted to kill him. Therefore Jesus no longer walked openly among the Judaeans, but withdrew from there into the region next to the desert, to the town called Ephraim. There he passed the time with his disciples. The Jewish Passover was drawing near. Many people had gone up to Jerusalem from the country before Passover in order to purify themselves. Now, they were looking for Jesus and were saying to each other as they stood in the temple precinct, “What do you think? Is it possible that he’ll come to the festival?” The high priests and Pharisees had issued an order that if anyone knew where Jesus was, they should report it, so that they might seize him. Six days before Passover, Jesus had gone to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus raised from the dead. They then gave a banquet for him there: Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those who reclined to eat with him. Mary took a liter of real spikenard oil — very costly — and anointed Jesus’ feet, then wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the smell of the sweet oil. Says Judas the Iscariot, one of his disciples — the one who’s about to give him up —, “Why is it that this sweet oil wasn’t sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief: as keeper of the money-box, he would pilfer the deposits. So Jesus said, “Let her be: say that she’s kept it for the day of my embalming! “The poor you always have with you; me you don’t always have.” A great number of Judaeans had found out that he was there, and came not only because of Jesus but also to have a look at Lazarus, whom he’d raised from the dead. Now the high priests plotted to kill Lazarus as well, because many Judaeans were going there on his account and were becoming believers in Jesus. Two days later, the great crowd that had come for the festival, having heard that Jesus was coming into Jerusalem, took up palm fronds and went out to meet him. They shouted, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord! As for Jesus, he found a young donkey and seated himself on it, just as it’s written — Fear not, daughter of Sion; behold, the King cometh, sitting on an ass’s colt. His disciples didn’t connect these things at first, but when Jesus had been glorified, they recalled that they had been written about him, and that people had done those things for him. The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead was now giving testimony, and the crowd that came to meet him did so because they’d heard that he had performed that miracle. The Pharisees then said to each other, “You see that we’ve accomplished nothing. Look at the crowd that’s gone off to follow him!” Among those going up to worship at the festival were some Greek-speaking people. They approached Philip, the one from Bethsaida in Galilee, and made inquiry of him, saying, “Mister, we want to see Jesus!” Philip goes and tells Andreas, and both Andreas and Philip talk to Jesus. Here is Jesus’ response to them all: The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I swear, I swear to you, unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it stays alone by itself; but if it dies, it bears a lot of fruit. The one who loves his life loses it, and the one who hates his life in this world preserves it for life in the eon to come. If anyone is serving me, let him follow me, so that wherever I am, there my servant will be. If anyone is serving me, the father will hold him in honor. Now my soul is in turmoil. What am I to say? Father, save me from this hour! But — and this is why I arrived at this hour — Father, glorify your name! Just then a voice came from the sky: I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again! Then the crowd that had been standing there listening said that there had been thunder; others were saying, “An angel has spoken to him!” Jesus gave an answer: “That voice did not come on my account, but on yours. “Now is to be the judgment of this world, now the ruler of this world will be cast out! “As for me, if I am raised up from the earth, I’ll draw everyone toward me.” He was saying that to signify by what death he was to die. The crowd responded to him: “We have learned from the Bible that the Messiah King abides into the next eon; what do you mean when you say that the Son of Man has to be raised up? Who is this Son of Man?” Jesus then said to them, “The light is with you only a short time longer. Keep walking as long as you have the light, lest the darkness catch up with you. The one who goes on walking in the dark doesn’t know where he’s going. “As long as you have the light, go on believing in the light, so that you become the children of light.” Thus spoke Jesus. He then went away and was hidden from their sight. But after he had performed so many miracles before their eyes, they still didn’t believe in him — which was to fulfill the prophet Isaiah’s word. He had said, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? They weren’t capable of believing because, again, Isaiah had said, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. So said Isaiah, because he had seen Jesus’ glory, and talked about him. Nevertheless, many became believers in him, even from among those who were Council members. Of course, because of the Pharisees, they couldn’t declare their belief, lest they be expelled from the synagogue. They cared more, you see, for the opinion of humans than for the opinion of God. And Jesus had cried out these words: The one who believes in me believes not in me but in the one who has sent me, and the one who looks upon me looks upon the one who has sent me! I am light: I came into the world so that every believer in me should not remain in darkness. If a person hears my words and doesn’t keep them, I don’t judge that person. I didn’t come to judge the world but to save the world. A person who rejects me without accepting what I say is given his judge: the word that I’ve spoken is what will judge him on the last day, because I haven’t spoken from my own self; what I say and what I preach were given to me as a commandment by the one who sent me, the father. I know that his commandment means life in the eon to come. So what I preach, I preach just as the father has instructed me. Having known before the festival of Passover that his hour had come to pass out of this world and go to the father, Jesus, who had cared for those in the world who belonged to him, cared for them right up to the end. At their Passover meal, after the devil has put it into Judas’ heart that he, the son of Shimon the Iscariot, should hand him over, Jesus, knowing that the father has put everything into his hands, and that he came from God and is going to God, gets up from the meal, sets aside his outer garment, takes a towel, and wraps it around his waist. Next, he pours water into the wash-basin and has set about washing the disciples’ feet and drying them with the towel wrapped around his waist. Now he comes to Simon (Peter). Peter says to him, “You, Master, washing my feet?” Jesus’ response to him: “What I’m doing you don’t understand right now, but you’ll know later.” Peter declares to him, “From now into the next eon, you’re not going to be washing my feet!” Jesus’ answer: “If I don’t wash you, you’ll get no share of me.” Simon (Peter) says to him, “Then, Master, don’t just wash my feet — wash my hands and head as well!” Jesus says to him, “If you’ve been to the baths, you don’t need to wash anything but your feet; the rest of you is clean. You’re all clean — well, not all.” He knew, you see, about the one who was giving him up — which is why he said, “Not all of you are clean.” Now, when he’d finished washing their feet, had put on his outer garment, and had reclined once more, he asked them, “Do you realize what I’ve been doing for you? “You call me ‘Rabbi’ and ‘Master,’ and properly so, because that’s what I am. “Therefore, if I, your master and teacher, have washed your feet, then you, too, are obliged to wash each other’s feet. “I’ve given you an example, so that you may do just as I’ve done for you. “I swear, I swear to you, there’s no slave higher than his master, nor is there an emissary higher than the one who has sent him. “If you know about this, you’re blessed whenever you act upon it. “I know the ones I’ve chosen, so I’m not talking about every one of you: let the scripture be fulfilled that says, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me. “From now on I’m going to tell you what will happen before it happens, so that when it happens, you’ll know that I am who I am. “I swear, I swear to you, anyone welcoming the one I send is welcoming me, and anyone welcoming me is welcoming the one who has sent me.” After saying these things, Jesus was overcome with emotion, and testified: “I swear, I swear to you that one of you will give me up!” The disciples began to look at each other, having no idea about whom he was speaking. One of his disciples, the one whom Jesus loved, was reclining on Jesus’ lap. Simon (Peter) motions to that disciple to find out who it might be that Jesus was talking about. So laying his head back against Jesus’ chest, he asks him, “Who is it, Master?” Jesus answers, “It’s the one to whom I’ll pass a piece of bread that I’ve dipped.” Then he dips the bread and hands it to Judas, son of Shimon the Iscariot. And into Judas, an instant after he had taken the bread, went Satan. Jesus then tells him, “What you’re doing, do quickly!” None of those reclining there knew why he said that to him. Some were thinking that, because Judas was keeper of the money-box, Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the festival,” or telling him to give something to the poor. In any case, Judas left right away, still holding the piece of bread. Night had come. Now that he’s gone, Jesus announces: “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him, “and God will glorify him in himself, and will glorify him immediately. “My dear little ones, I have only a short time left with you. You’ll look for me, and — as I told the Judaeans, and I’m telling you now — where I’m going you won’t be able to come. “I’m giving you a new commandment: cherish each other so that you, too, cherish each other as I’ve cherished you. “If you have that love in common, that’s how everyone will know that you’re my disciples.” Simon (Peter) asks him, “Master, where are you going?” “Where I’m going,” Jesus answers him, “you can’t follow me, but you’ll follow me later.” Peter asks him, “Master, why can’t I follow you now? I’ll lay down my life for you!” “You’ll lay down your life for me?”, answers Jesus. “I swear, I swear to you, the cock won’t crow before you’ve denied me three times! “Don’t let your hearts be overwhelmed! Believe in God, believe in me. “In my father’s house are many dwellings (if not, I would have told you), and the fact is that I’m going to prepare a place for you. “If I go and prepare a place for you, I’m coming back to take you with me to my dwelling, so that you may be where I am. “And you do know the way that I’m going!” Thomas tells him, “Master, we don’t know where you’re going; how can we know the way? To him Jesus says, “I’m the way, I’m the truth, I’m the life. No one comes to the father except through me. “If you’ve known me, you’d know the father, too. From now on, you know him and you’ve seen him.” Philip says to him, “Master, show us the father, and it will be enough for us.” Jesus says to him, I’ve spent so much time with you all, and you don’t know me, Philip? If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the father! How can you say, “Show us the father”? Don’t you believe that I’m in the father, and the father’s in me? The things I say to you I don’t speak from myself; the father, who lives in me, is working in me! Believe, all of you, that I’m in the father and that the father’s in me. If for no other reason, believe because of the works themselves! I swear, I swear to you, the one who believes in me will himself perform the works that I do, and will do better than those — for I’m on my way to the father, and whatever you ask in my name I will do, so that the father may be glorified in the son. Any time you ask for something in my name, I’ll do it. If you love me, you’ll keep my commandments. And I’m going to ask the father to give you another counselor, to be with you into the coming eon, the spirit of truth, which the world can’t accept, because the world doesn’t see it or recognize it. You recognize it, because it lives and abides in you. I won’t leave you orphans, I’m coming to you. In a little while, the world won’t see me any more. But you’ll see me, because I have life and you’ll have life! On that day you will all know that I’m in my father, and you’re in me, and I’m in you. The one who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my father, and I will love that person and will show myself to him. Judah (not the Iscariot) asks him, “Master, how are we to understand that you intend to show yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus’ answer to him: If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my father will love him; we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. A person who doesn’t love me does not keep my words; the word that you hear is not mine, but the father’s who sent me. Those are the words that I’ve spoken to you while I’ve been with you. But the counselor, the holy spirit, that the father will send in my name, is the one that will teach you everything, and will remind you of everything that I told you. I leave you peace: I’m giving you my peace. I don’t give it the way the world gives it: don’t let your heart be in turmoil, don’t let it be troubled. You heard that I said to you, “I’m going away and I’m coming back to you.” If you loved me you’d be happy that I’m going to the father, because the father is greater than me. Now, too, I’ve told you before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe. I won’t be speaking much with you any longer: the prince of this world approaches — though he plays no role with me except to show the world that I love the father and do just as the father has commanded me. Up now, let’s be off from here … I am the true grapevine, and my father is the vintner. Any branch on me that doesn’t bear fruit, he takes away, and any branch that bears fruit, he prunes so that it may bear more fruit. You have already been pruned through the word that I’ve preached to you. Abide in me, and I’ll abide in you. As the branch can’t bear fruit on its own unless it abide on the grapevine, so neither can you, unless you abide in me. I’m the vine, and you’re the branches. The one who abides in me, and I in him — he bears a lot of fruit, because without me, you can do nothing. If a person doesn’t abide in me, he’s been cast off and dried up like a severed branch. They gather them up and throw them into the fire, and they’re burned. If you abide in me and if the words I’ve spoken abide in you, whatever you want to ask will be done for you. It was for this that my father was glorified, that you bear much fruit and turn into my true disciples. As my father has loved me, so I too have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you’ll abide in my love, just as I’ve kept the commandments of my father, and I abide in his love. I’ve left you with these words so that you may have my joy within you, and your own joy may thus be complete. My commandment is this: love each other as I’ve loved you. No one has a greater love than this, that he lays down his life for his friends. If you do what I command you, you’re my friends: I can’t now call you my slaves, since a slave has no knowledge of what his master is doing. I’m now calling you friends, since I’ve made known to you everything that I’ve heard from my father. You didn’t choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, and have your fruit abide, so that whatever you ask of the father in my name he may give to you. All that I command you is this: love each other. If the world hates you, realize that it’s hated me first, before you. If you were of the world, the world would be loving its own. Because you’re not of the world, because instead I picked you out of the world — that’s why the world hates you. Keep in mind what I told you — that the slave is not higher than his master. If they’ve persecuted me, they’ll persecute you. If they’ve kept my word, they’ll keep yours, too. They’ll do all those things to you because of my name, because they don’t know the one who sent me. If I hadn’t come and preached to them, they would have had no sin; but as it is, they have no excuse for their sin. The one who hates me hates my father, too. If I hadn’t performed among them the feats that no one else had performed, they would have had no sin. But as it is, they have seen them, and have hated both me and my father. However, that’s to fulfill the words inscribed in their Bible: “They hated me without a cause.” When the counselor comes — the one I’m going to send you from the father, the spirit of truth that proceeds from the father — that one will give testimony about me. You, too, give testimony! — for you’ve been with me from the start. I’ve told you all this so that no obstacle will stand in your way. They’ll expel you from the synagogues. In fact, there’ll come a time when anyone who kills you may think he’s offering a service to God. They’ll do those things because they don’t know the father or me. But I’ve told you all this so that, when the time comes, you may remember that it was I who said it to you. I didn’t speak of it from the beginning, because I was still with you. But now I’m going to the one who sent me, and none of you is asking me, “Where are you going?” But because I’ve told you all this, your hearts are full of distress. But I’m telling you the truth: it’s good for you that I leave. If I don’t leave, the counselor won’t come to you. If I go, I’ll send him to you. When he’s come, he’ll convict the world in regard to sin, justice, and judgment: in regard to sin, because they don’t believe in me; in regard to justice, because now I’m going back to the father and you’re no longer able to see me; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world has been judged. I have much more to say to you all, but you aren’t able to bear it just now. When he comes — the spirit of truth — he will guide you through the whole truth. You see, he won’t speak on his own initiative, but will tell whatever he’ll hear, and will report to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he’ll take what comes from me and he’ll report it to you. Everything the father has is mine — which is why I’ve said that he takes what comes from me and will report it to you. You’re looking at me just a short while yet, and again a short while and you’ll see me again. Now some of his disciples said to each other, “What’s this that he’s telling us, ‘Just a short while and you’re not looking at me, and again a short while and you’ll see me’ and ‘Because now I’m going back to the father’? Thus they kept saying, “What is this ‘short while’? We have no idea what he’s saying!” Jesus knew what they were wanting to ask him; he told them, Are you trying to find out from each other why I said, “Just a short while and you’re not looking at me, and again a short while and you’ll see me”? I swear, I swear to you that you will weep and mourn, while the world will rejoice. You’ll be distressed, but your distress will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth she feels distress, because her hour has come; but when she’s given birth to the baby, she no longer remembers the pain, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So you now feel distress. But I’ll see you again; your hearts will feel joy, and no one can take your joy away from you. On that day, you won’t be asking me for a thing. I swear, I swear to you, if you ask the father for anything in my name, he’ll give it to you. Up to now you’ve asked for nothing in my name. Ask and you’ll receive, so that your joy may be full. I’ve talked to you about these things in metaphors; the time is coming when I’ll no longer talk to you in metaphors, but will openly report to you about the father. On that day you’ll ask in my name, and I’m telling you that I won’t be making the request of the father on your behalf. The father himself, you see, loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the father and have come into the world, and again I’m leaving the world and going back to the father. His disciples are saying, “There now, you’re speaking openly, you’re not talking in any metaphor! “Now we know that you know all things, and that you have no need for anyone to make a request of you. That proves it: we do believe that you came from God!” Jesus answered them, “Are you just now believing? “Look out: the hour is coming — it’s already come — when each of you will be scattered to his own, and you’ll leave me to myself. Of course, I’m not by myself; my father is with me. “I’ve told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Trouble is what you have in the world, but take heart: I’ve conquered the world.” After speaking those words, Jesus lifted his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the time has come. Glorify your son, so that the son may glorify you, as you’ve given him power over all mortality, so that to every mortal you’ve given him he may give life in the eon to come. That’s what life in the coming eon is: knowing you, the only true God, and the one you sent, Jesus the Anointed One. I’ve glorified you on earth by accomplishing the task that you gave me to do. And now, for your part, glorify me together with yourself, Father, with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. I’ve shown forth your name to the people whom you picked from the world and gave to me. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they kept your word. Now they realize that all things that you’ve given me come from you. They realize that I gave them the words you gave me. They were accepting them, and they knew in fact that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I’m making a prayer on their behalf — I’m not making it on the world’s behalf, but on behalf of those you gave me, because they’re yours, and all that’s mine is yours, and all that’s yours is mine, and I’ve been glorified in them. Since I’m no longer in the world, and they are in the world, and I’m coming to you, holy Father, keep them under the name that you’ve given me, so that they may be one, just as you and I are one. When I was with them, I kept them in your name, the name you had given me, and I watched over them, and none of them were ruined — except for the Child of Ruin, who was lost in order that the scripture might be fulfilled. Now I’m coming to you, and while I’m still in the world I’m saying these things so that they may have my joy fulfilled within them. I’ve given them your word, and the world is bound to hate them because they’re not of the world, just as I’m not of the world. I’m not praying that you lift them out of the world, but that you keep them from evil. They’re not of the world, just as I’m not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth: your word is the truth. As you’ve sent me into the world, so I’ve sent them into the world. For their sake I sanctify myself, so that they, too, may be sanctified in the truth. I’m not praying on their behalf only, but also on behalf of those who are believers in me through their word, so that all may become one, like you, Father, in me and I in you; so that they, too, may be in us; so that the world may believe that you sent me. I’ve also given them the glory that you’ve given me, so that they may be one as you and I are one, I in them and you in me, so that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you’ve sent me and have loved them as you’ve loved me. Father, the people you’ve given me — I want them also to be with me where I am, so that they may behold my glory, the glory you’ve given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Kind father, the world does not know you, but I know you, and these know you sent me. I made your name known to them, and will continue to do so, so that the love you’ve had for me may be within them, and I may be within them. After those words Jesus went out with his disciples to the other side of the Vale of Cedron, where there was a garden. He and his disciples went in there. Judas, who was giving him up, also knew that spot, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. So now Judas, having taken a cohort of soldiers and underlings from the high priests and Pharisees, comes there with lanterns, torches, and weapons. Then Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, has come out and asks them, “Who are you looking for?” Their answer to him: “Jesus the Nazarene.” “I’m the one,” says he to them. Judas, who was giving him up, was standing right there with them. Now, as soon as he’d told them, “I’m the one,” they drew back and fell down. So once more he asked them, “Who are you looking for?”, and they said, “Jesus the Nazarene!” Jesus answered, “I told you I’m the one; so if it’s me you’re seeking, let those men go.” This was so that the word that he had spoken might be fulfilled: “I lost none of those whom you gave to me.” Now Simon (Peter), who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s slave, cutting off his right ear (the slave’s name was Malchus). Then Jesus told Peter, “Put the sword back in its sheath! Am I not to drink the cup that the father has given me?” So the cohort with its commandant and Jewish subordinates arrested Jesus, bound him, and brought him first to Annas, since he was father-in-law to Caiaphas, who was chief high priest for that year. (It was Caiaphas who’d advised the Judaeans that it would be a good thing for one person to die for the people.) Simon (Peter) and another disciple followed Jesus. That disciple was an acquaintance of the high priest, and so was able to get into the high priest’s courtyard with Jesus, while Peter stood at the door outside. Then the other disciple, the high priest’s acquaintance, came out, spoke to the maid who was the door-keeper, and brought Peter in. Now the maid asks Peter, “Would you be another of that man’s disciples?” “Not I,” says he. The slaves and servants had made a charcoal fire and were standing there warming themselves, because it was cold. Peter was also standing with them trying to get warm. Now the high priest interrogated Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. Jesus’ reply to him: “I myself have spoken openly to all. Always I’ve taught in the synagogue and in the temple precinct, where all the Jews gather together, and I’ve done no clandestine preaching. “Why ask me? Ask those who’ve heard what I preached to them. Look into it! They know what I said.” When he’d said that, one of the attendants standing beside him said, “Is that any way to answer the high priest?” and gave Jesus a slap. Jesus answered him, “If I spoke wrongly, give evidence of the wrong. If I spoke rightly, why are you hitting me?” Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the chief high priest. Simon (Peter) was standing and warming himself. Now they asked him, “Might you also be one of his disciples?” He denied it, saying, “No, I’m not.” One of the high priest’s slaves, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asks him, “Didn’t I see you in the garden with him?” So Peter denied it one more time. Right away, the cock crowed. Now they bring Jesus from Caiaphas to the governor’s palace. It was early morning. The Jews didn’t enter the palace, so that they might not be polluted before getting to eat their Passover meal. Therefore, Pilatus came outside to meet them, and speaks: “What accusation do you bring against this person?” Their reply to him: “If this fellow were not a wrongdoer, we wouldn’t have turned him over to you.” So Pilatus said to them, “You take him then, and judge him according to your own law.” “But we don’t have the power to execute anyone,” said the Jews to him. (This was so that Jesus’ word might be fulfilled when he indicated by what sort of death he was to die.) So Pilatus went back into the palace and summoned Jesus. “Are you the King of the Jews?”, he asked him. Jesus answered, “Are you asking this on your own, or have others told you about me?” “Do you think I’m a Jew?”, answered Pilatus; “Your people and the high priests have turned you over to me. What is it that you’ve done?” Jesus answered, “My kingship does not come from this world. If my kingship were from this world, my subordinates would have fought to keep me from being handed over to the Judaeans. As it is, my kingship does not come from here.” “Then you are a king?”, said Pilatus to him. Jesus answered, “It’s you who are saying that I’m a king. As for me, I was born and came into the world for one purpose, to testify to the truth. Everyone who lives by the truth hears my voice.” “The truth? What’s that?”, Pilatus asks him. Having said that, he went back out before the Jews, and tells them, “I find no guilt in him. “Now, you have a custom that, during Passover, I release one man to you. Therefore, would you like me to release the King of the Jews to you?” Then they let out a roar again, saying “No, not him! Bar Abba!” (Bar Abba was a highwayman.) So at that point Pilatus took Jesus and flogged him. The soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and set it on his head, and threw a purple vestment around him. They went up to him and said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and then gave him slaps. Once more Pilatus came outside and says to them, “Look, I’m bringing him out to you, to let you know that I find no guilt in him.” Then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple vestment. Pilatus tells them, “Here’s the fellow.” Now when they saw him, the high priests and their underlings roared, “Crucify! Crucify!” Pilatus tells them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him! As for me, I find no guilt in him.” The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and in our law he must die because he made himself a son of God!” Now when Pilatus heard this argument, he really started to worry. Going back into the palace, he asks Jesus, “Where are you from?”, but Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilatus says to him, “Oh, you won’t talk to me? You don’t know that I have the power to set you free and the power to crucify you?” Jesus’ reply to him: “You wouldn’t have any power over me unless it had been given you from above; that’s why the one who handed me over to you has a greater sin.” Following that exchange, Pilatus tried to find a way to release him; but the Jews kept on with their uproar, declaring, “If you release him, you’re no friend of Caesar; anyone who makes himself king is opposing Caesar.” After hearing those words, Pilatus brought Jesus out, and took a seat upon the tribunal on what’s called the Mosaic Floor (in Hebrew, Gabbatha). It was the Passover’s Day of Preparation, around the sixth hour. He tells the Jews, “There is your King!” “Up and away with him!” they shouted; “Crucify him!” Said Pilatus to them, “Am I to crucify your king?” “We have no king but Caesar!”, replied the high priests. At that point, then, he gave him up to them to be crucified. So they took hold of Jesus. Taking up the cross for himself, he went off to what’s called the Place of the Skull, called Golgotha in Hebrew, where they crucified him, and two others with him: one here and one there, with Jesus in the middle. Pilatus also inscribed a placard and fixed it to the cross: it read JESUS THE NAZARENE THE KING OF THE JEWS. Many of the Jews then read that placard, since the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city. It had been written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. Now, the high priests of the Jews tried to tell Pilatus, “Don’t be writing ‘The King of the Jews’! Instead, write ‘He said, “I’m King of the Jews.” ’ ” “What I’ve written, I’ve written,” answered Pilatus. When they had crucified Jesus, the soldiers then took his garments and shared them four ways, one share for each soldier; and then there was the tunic, which was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. So they said to one another, “Let’s not divide it; let’s cast lots for it, to see whose it will be.” This was so that the scripture might be fulfilled that says, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. So that’s what the soldiers did. But Jesus’ mother, with her sister, and Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala were standing beside the cross. Jesus, upon seeing his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing there, tells his mother, “Lady, there is your son!” Then he tells the disciple, “There is your mother!” And from that hour, the disciple took her into his own household. After that, knowing that everything has already been accomplished, Jesus says (so that the scripture may be fulfilled), “I am thirsty!” There was a jar there full of vinegar. They filled a sponge with the vinegar, wrapped the sponge around a rod of hyssop, and brought it close to his mouth. Then, when he had taken the vinegar, Jesus said, “It’s accomplished!”, and, dropping his head, breathed his last. Now since it was Preparation Day, the Jews asked Pilatus to let them break the convicts’ legs and take them away, so that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the Sabbath: that Sabbath was a day of great religious importance. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and the second who had been crucified together with Jesus. Coming to Jesus, when they saw that he was already dead, they didn’t break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear. Blood and water came out immediately. The one who has seen it has borne witness, and his witness is true. He knows that he’s telling the truth, and that you, too, can believe it. That was done, you see, so that the scripture might be fulfilled: A bone of him shall not be broken — and again the other scripture: They shall look on him whom they pierced. After that, Joseph, from Arimathaea, a disciple of Jesus (though covertly, through fear of the Jews), asked Pilatus to let him take Jesus’ body; Pilatus gave him that permission. So he went and removed his body. Nicodemus (who first came to him at night) also went bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloe, about seventy-five pounds of it. So they took Jesus’ body and wrapped it, together with the aromatics, in linen cloths, as was the Jewish custom for laying out the dead. There was a garden near where he had been crucified, and in the garden was a new tomb in which as yet no one had been buried. So on account of it being the Day of Preparation, they laid Jesus there because the tomb was nearby. On the first day after the Sabbath, Mary of Magdala comes early in the morning, when it’s still dark, to the tomb. She sees that the stone has been removed from the entrance to the tomb. She then runs away and goes to Simon (Peter) and the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and tells them, “They took the Master away from the tomb! We don’t know where they put him!” Peter and the other disciple went off and came to the tomb. They were both running together, but the other disciple was running faster, ahead of Peter, and was first to get to the tomb. He stoops to look inside and sees the linen cloths lying there, but didn’t enter. Then Peter gets there after him, and entered the tomb. He, too, beholds the linen cloths lying there, and the towel that had covered his head — not lying with the linens, but rolled up in a separate place. So then the other disciple, who had been the first to get to the tomb, went in. He saw, and he believed. You see, they had as yet no knowledge of the scripture saying that Jesus had to rise from the dead. Now the disciples went off again to their own people, but Mary kept standing outside, in front of the tomb, and wept. As she was weeping, then, she had a look into the tomb, and beholds two angels, dressed in white, sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet of the place where Jesus’ body had been. “Ma’m,” they ask her, “why are you weeping?” To them she says, “They took away my Master, and I don’t know where they put him.” After saying that, she turns around and beholds Jesus standing there, though she hasn’t recognized that it’s Jesus. “Ma’m,” he asks her, “why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?” Thinking it’s the gardener, she says to him, “Mister, if it was you who took him up, tell me where you put him, and I’ll get him.” Jesus says to her, “Mary.” She turns again and says to him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (that is, teacher ). Jesus tells her, “Don’t hold on to me; I haven’t yet ascended to the father. Go to my brothers and sisters and tell them that I’m ascending to my father and your father, to my God and your God.” Mary of Magdala goes and reports to the disciples, “I’ve seen the Master, and this is what he told me …” It was late on that first day after the Sabbath. For fear of the Judaeans, the doors of the place where the disciples stayed were locked. Jesus came and stood in their midst. “Peace to you!”, he tells them. With those words, he showed them his hands and his side. Then, once they’d recognized the Master, the disciples rejoiced. Once again, then, he said to them, “Peace to you! As my father has sent me, I too am sending you.” With those words, he breathed upon them and tells them, “Receive the holy spirit! “If you forgive anyone’s sins, let them be forgiven them; if you do not forgive, let them not be forgiven.” Thomas, one of the twelve, called “The Twin”, was not with them when Jesus came, so the other disciples told him, “We’ve seen the Master!” But he told them, “Unless I see in his hands the punch-hole of the nails, and unless I put my finger into the punch-hole of the nails, and put my hand into his side, there’s no way I’ll believe!” And after eight days, Jesus’ disciples were again inside, and Thomas among them. Jesus comes, though the doors are locked, and stands in their midst with the greeting, “Peace to you!” Next he says to Thomas, “Bring your finger here; here are my hands! Bring your hand here and put it into my side! And become not unbelieving but believing.” Thomas answered with the words, “My Master and my God!” To him Jesus says, “Have you believed because you’ve seen me? Blessed are people who may not have seen, and still believe.” Now Jesus performed many other miracles in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this scroll; those described here have been written so that you may believe that it is Jesus who is the Messiah King, the son of God, and so that, having believed, you may have life in his name. Later on, Jesus showed himself once again to the disciples on the Lake of Tiberias; and this is how he did it: Gathered together were Simon (Peter), Thomas (The Twin), Nathanael (from Cana of Galilee), the sons of Zebadaiah, and two others of his disciples. Peter tells them, “I’m going fishing.” “We’re coming with you,” they tell him. They went out and got into the boat, but during that night they caught nothing. Dawn was already breaking and Jesus was standing on the beach. The disciples, however, weren’t aware that it was Jesus. “Caught anything to eat, boys?”, Jesus asks them. “Not a one!”, they answer him. “Cast the net over the right side of the boat,” he told them, “and you’ll find them.” So they made the cast, and found that they didn’t have the strength to pull the net back in — so many were the fish! The disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It’s the Master!” Peter, on hearing that it was the Master, put on and tied up his outer garment (he’d been naked), and threw himself into the water. As for the other disciples, they rowed back in, since they weren’t far from shore (about a hundred yards), dragging the netful of fish behind them. Then, when they’ve gotten out onto dry land, they see a charcoal fire set up, with fish on it, and bread. Jesus tells them, “Bring over some of the fish you just caught.” Peter went up and dragged the net onto dry land. It was full of big fish, a hundred and fifty three of them. In spite of their being so many, the net wasn’t torn. Jesus tells them, “Come have breakfast!” Not one of the disciples dared put the question to him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Master. Jesus comes, takes the bread, and gives it to them; he does likewise with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus had been shown to the disciples since his resurrection from the dead. Now when they’ve had breakfast, Jesus asks Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these do?” Peter tells him, “Yes, Master, you know that I love you.” Jesus tells him, “Feed my lambs.” Again he asks him a second time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter tells him, “Yes, Master, you know that I love you.” Jesus tells him, “Tend my sheep.” He asks him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was upset that he had asked him a third time. “You are all-knowing; you know that I love you!” Jesus tells him, “Feed my sheep. “I swear, I swear to you, when you were younger, you put on your belt and walked wherever you wanted. But when you’re getting old, you’ll stretch out your arms, and another will put a belt on you and bring you where you don’t want.” This he said signifying by what death Peter was to glorify God. Having said that, he tells him, “Follow me!” Peter turns and sees the disciple whom Jesus loved following behind — the one who let his head fall against Jesus’ chest at the last meal, and who said, “Master, who is it that’s giving you up?” Seeing him, Peter asks Jesus, “Master, what about him?” Jesus tells him, “If I want him to stay until I come back, what’s it to you? You, follow me!” This statement spread to the brothers and sisters as a promise that that disciple wasn’t going to die. But Jesus didn’t say to Peter, “He won’t die.” Instead, he said, “If I want him to stay until I come back.” It is that very disciple who gives testimony to these things, and who wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true. There are many other things that Jesus did. If they were written down one after another, I doubt that the world would have room for all the scrolls of writing!