12 After this, he went down to Capernaum,ae together with his mother, his brothers,af and his disciples, and they stayed there only a few days.

CLEANSING THE TEMPLE

13 The Jewish Passoverag was near, and so Jesus went up to Jerusalem.ah 14 In the templeai he found people selling oxen, sheep, and doves, and he also found the money changers sitting there. 15 After making a whip out of cords,aj he drove everyone out of the temple with their sheepak and oxen. He also poured out the money changers’ coins and overturned the tables. 16 He told those who were selling doves, “Get these things out of here! Stop turning my Father’sal houseam into a marketplace!”J,an

17 And his disciples remembered that it is written: Zealao for your house will consumeap me.K,aq

18 So the Jews replied to him, “What sign will you show us for doing these things?”

19 Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple,* a and I will raise it up in three days.”b

20 Therefore the Jews said, “This temple took forty-six years to build,B and will you raise it up in three days?”c

21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body.d 22 So when he was raised from the dead,e his disciples remembered that he had said this,f and they believed the Scriptureg and the statement Jesus had made.

23 While he was in Jerusalemh during the Passover Festival,i many believed in his namej when they saw the signs he was doing. 24 Jesus, however, would not entrust himself to them, since he knew them all 25 and because he did not need anyone to testify about man; for he himself knew what was in man.k

JESUS AND NICODEMUS

3 There was a man from the Phariseesl named Nicodemus,m a rulern of the Jews. 2 This man came to him at night and said, “Rabbi,o we know that you are a teacherp who has come from God,q for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him.”r

3 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again,* s he cannot see the kingdom of God.”t

4 “How can anyone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?”

5 Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is bornu of water and the Spirit,v he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 Whatever is born of the fleshw is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spiritx is spirit. 7 Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be borny again. 8 The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going.z So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”aa

9 “How can these things be?” asked Nicodemus.

10 “Are you a teacherD of Israel and don’t know these things?” Jesus replied. 11 “Truly I tell you,ab we speak what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony. 12  If I have told you about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascendedac into heavenad except the one who descended from heavenae—the Son of Man.E,af

14 “Just as Mosesag lifted up the snake in the wilderness,ah so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him mayF have eternal life.ai 16 For God lovedaj the world in this way:G He gaveH his one and onlyak Son,al so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.am 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemnan the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned,ao because he has not believed in the nameap of the one and only Sonaq of God. 19 This is the judgment: The lightar has come into the world,as and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hatesat the light and avoids it,I so that his deedsau may not be exposed. 21 But anyone who lives byJ the truth comes to the light, so that his worksav may be shown to be accomplished by God.”