John 3–4

JESUS AND NICODEMUS

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

³Jesus 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?”

⁵Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born^u of water and the Spirit,^v he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶Whatever is born of the flesh^w is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit^x is spirit. ⁷Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born^y again. ⁸The 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 teacher^B 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? ¹³No one has ascended^ac into heaven^ad except the one who descended from heaven^ae—the Son of Man.^Caf

¹⁴“Just as Moses^ag lifted up the snake in the wilderness,^ah so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵so that everyone who believes in him may^D have eternal life.^{ai 16}For God loved^aj the world in this way:^E He gave^F his one and only^ak 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 condemn^an the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned,^ao because he has not believed in the name^ap of the one and only Son^aq of God. ¹⁹This is the judgment: The light^ar has come into the world,^as and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰For everyone who does evil hates^at the light and avoids it,^G so that his deeds^au may not be exposed. ²¹But anyone who lives by^H the truth comes to the light, so that his works^av may be shown to be accomplished by God.”

JESUS AND JOHN THE BAPTIST

²²After this, Jesus and his disciples went to the Judean countryside, where he spent time with them and baptized.

²³John^aw also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water there. People were coming and being baptized, ²⁴since John had not yet been thrown into prison.^ax

²⁵Then a dispute arose between John’s disciples^ay and a Jew^A about purification.^{az 26}So they came to John and told him, “Rabbi,^ba the one you testified about, and who was with you across the Jordan,^bb is baptizing—and everyone is going to him.”^bc

²⁷John responded, “No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven. ²⁸You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah,^bd but I’ve been sent ahead of him.’^{be 29}He who has the bride^a is the groom. But the groom’s friend, who stands by and listens for him, rejoices greatly^B at the groom’s voice. So this joy^a of mine is complete. ³⁰He must increase, but I must decrease.”

THE ONE FROM HEAVEN

³¹The one who comes from above^b is above all. The one who is from the earth is earthly and speaks in earthly terms.^C The one who comes from heaven is above all.^{c 32}He testifies^d to what he has seen and heard, and yet no one accepts his testimony. ³³The one who has accepted his testimony has affirmed that God is true.^{e 34}For the one whom God sent speaks God’s words, since he^D gives the Spirit^f without measure. ³⁵The Father loves the Son^g and has given all things into his hands.^{h 36}The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son^E will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him.ⁱ

JESUS AND THE SAMARITAN WOMAN

4When Jesus^F learned that the Pharisees^j had heard he was making^k and baptizing more disciples than John^{l 2}(though Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were), ³he left Judea^m and went again to Galilee.^{n 4}He had to travel through Samaria;^{o 5}so he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property^G that Jacob^p had given his son Joseph.^{q 6}Jacob’s well^r was there, and Jesus, worn out from his journey, sat down at the well. It was about noon.^H

⁷A woman of Samaria came to draw water.^s

“Give me a drink,” Jesus said to her, ⁸because his disciples had gone into town to buy food.

⁹“How is it that you, a Jew,^t ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan^u woman?” she asked him. For Jews do not associate with^I Samaritans.^J

¹⁰Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God,^v and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.”^w

¹¹“Sir,”^x said the woman, “you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do you get this ‘living water’? ¹²You aren’t greater than our father Jacob,^y are you? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.”

¹³Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. ¹⁴But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again.^z In fact, the water I will give him will become a well^Aaa of water springing up in him for eternal life.”^ab

¹⁵“Sir,” the woman said to him, “give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and come here to draw water.”

¹⁶“Go call your husband,” he told her, “and come back here.”

¹⁷“I don’t have a husband,” she answered.

“You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,’ ” Jesus said. ¹⁸“For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”

¹⁹“Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that you are a prophet. ²⁰Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain,^ac but you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”^ad

²¹Jesus told her, “Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²²You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews.^{ae 23}But an hour is coming, and is now here,^af when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. ²⁴God is spirit,^ag and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.”^ah

²⁵The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah^ai is coming” (who is called Christ^aj). “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

²⁶Jesus told her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.”^ak

THE RIPENED HARVEST

²⁷Just then his disciples arrived, and they were amazed that he was talking with a woman. Yet no one said, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

²⁸Then the woman left her water jar, went into town, and told the people, ²⁹“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”^{al 30}They left the town and made their way to him.^am

³¹In the meantime the disciples kept urging him, “Rabbi,^an eat something.”

³²But he said, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”

³³The disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?”

³⁴“My food is to do the will of him^a who sent me^b and to finish his work,”^c Jesus told them. ³⁵“Don’t you say, ‘There are still four more months, and then comes the harvest’? Listen to what I’m telling you: Open^C your eyes and look at the fields, because they are ready^D for harvest. ³⁶The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life,^d so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. ³⁷For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’^{e 38}I sent you to reap what you didn’t labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited from^A their labor.”

THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD

³⁹Now many Samaritans^f from that town believed in him because of what the woman said^B when she testified,^g “He told me everything I ever did.” ⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to him,^h they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. ⁴¹Many more believed because of what he said.^{C 42}And they told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said, since we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Saviorⁱ of the world.”^D

A GALILEAN WELCOME

⁴³After two days he left there for Galilee.^{j 44}(Jesus himself had testified^k that a prophet has no honor in his own country.^l) ⁴⁵When^m they entered Galilee, the Galileansⁿ welcomed him because they had seen everything he did in Jerusalem^o during the festival.^p For they also had gone to the festival.

THE SECOND SIGN: HEALING AN OFFICIAL’S SON

⁴⁶He went again to Cana^q of Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. There was a certain royal official whose son was ill at Capernaum.^{r 47}When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea^s into Galilee, he went to him and pleaded with him to come down and heal his son, since he was about to die.

⁴⁸Jesus told him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders,^t you will not believe.”^u

⁴⁹“Sir,”^v the official said to him, “come down before my boy dies.”

⁵⁰“Go,” Jesus told him, “your son will live.” The man believed what^E Jesus said to him and departed.

⁵¹While he was still going down, his servants met him saying that his boy was alive. ⁵²He asked them at what time he got better. “Yesterday at one in the afternoon^F the fever left him,” they answered. ⁵³The father^w realized this was the very hour at which Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” So he himself believed, along with his whole household.

⁵⁴Now this was also the second sign^x Jesus performed after he came from Judea to Galilee.^y