John 7:1–8:30

THE UNBELIEF OF JESUS’ BROTHERS

7 After this, Jesus traveled in Galilee,an since he did not want to travel in Judeaao because the Jewsap were trying to kill him.aq 2 The Jewish Festival of SheltersD,ar was near. 3 So his brothersas said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples can see your worksat that you are doing. 4 For no one does anything in secret while he’s seeking public recognition. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 (For not even his brothers believed in him.)

6 Jesus told them, “My timeau has not yet arrived, but your time is always at hand. 7 The world cannot hateav you, but it does hate me because I testify about it—that its works are evil. 8 Go up to the festival yourselves. I’m not going up to this festival,E because my time has not yet fully come.” 9 After he had said these things, he stayed in Galilee.

JESUS AT THE FESTIVAL OF SHELTERS

10 After his brothers had gone up to the festival, then he also went up, not openly but secretly. 11 The Jews were looking for him at the festival and saying, “Where is he?” 12 And there was a lot of murmuring about him among the crowds. Some were saying, “He’s a goodaw man.” Others were saying, “No, on the contrary, he’s deceivingax the people.” 13 Still, nobody was talking publicly about him for fear of the Jews.

14 When the festival was already half over, Jesus went up into the templea and began to teach. 15 Then the Jews were amazed and said, “How is this man so learned,b since he hasn’t been trained?”

16 Jesus answered them, “My teaching isn’t mine but is from the one who sent me.c 17 If anyone wants to do his will,d he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own. 18 The one who speaks on his own seeks his own glory;e but he who seeks the gloryf of the one who sent him is true,g and there is no unrighteousness in him.h 19 Didn’t Mosesi give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law.j Why are you trying to kill me?”

20 “You have a demon!” the crowd responded. “Who is trying to kill you?”

21 “I performed one work,k and you are all amazed,” Jesus answered. 22 “This is why Moses has given you circumcisionl—not that it comes from Moses but from the fathersm—and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath.n 23 If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbatho so that the law of Mosesp won’t be broken, are you angry at me because I made a man entirely well on the Sabbath? 24 Stop judgingq according to outward appearances; rather judge according to righteous judgment.”

THE IDENTITY OF THE MESSIAH

25 Some of the people of Jerusalemr were saying, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? 26 Yet, look, he’s speaking publicly and they’re saying nothing to him. Can it be true that the authoritiess know he is the Messiah?t 27 But we know where this man is from.u When the Messiah comes, nobody will know where he is from.”

28 As he was teaching in the temple,v Jesus cried out, “You know me and you know where I am from. Yet I have not come on my own, but the one who sent mew is true. You don’t know him;x 29 I know him because I am from him, and he sent me.”y

30 Then they tried to seize him. Yet no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. 31 However, many from the crowd believed in him and said, “When the Messiah comes, he won’t perform more signs than this man has done,z will he?”

32 The Phariseesaa heard the crowd murmuring these things about him, and so the chief priestsab and the Pharisees sent servants* to arrest him.

33 Then Jesus said, “I am only with you for a short time.ac Then I’m going to the one who sent me.ad 34 You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”ae

35 Then the Jewsaf said to one another, “Where does he intend to go that we won’t find him? He doesn’t intend to go to the Jewish people dispersedB,ag among the Greeksah and teach the Greeks, does he? 36 What is this remark he made: ‘You will look for me, and you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come’ai?”

THE PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT

37 On the last and most important day of the festival,aj Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to meC,ak and drink.al 38 The one who believes in me,am as the Scripturean has said, will have streams of living waterao flowap from deep within him.” 39 He said this about the Spirit.aq Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit,ar for the SpiritD had not yet been givenE because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

THE PEOPLE ARE DIVIDED OVER JESUS

40 When some from the crowd heard these words, they said, “This truly is the Prophet.”as 41 Others said, “This is the Messiah.” But some said, “Surely the Messiah doesn’t come from Galilee, does he? 42 Doesn’t the Scriptureat say that the Messiah comes from David’sau offspringF and from the town of Bethlehem,av where David lived?” 43 So the crowd was dividedaw because of him. 44 Some of them wanted to seize him,ax but no one laid hands on him.

DEBATE OVER JESUS’S CLAIMS

45 Then the servantsay came to the chief priestsaz and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him?”

46 The servants answered, “No man ever spoke like this!”A,ba

47 Then the Pharisees responded to them, “Are you fooledbb too? 48 Have any of the rulersbc or Pharisees believed in him? 49 But this crowd, which doesn’t know the law, is accursed.”

50 Nicodemusbd—the one who came to him previously and who was one of them—said to them, 51 “Our law doesn’t judge a man before it hears from him and knows what he’s doing, does it?”a

52 “You aren’t from Galileeb too, are you?” they replied. “Investigate and you will see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”c

[The earliest * do not include 7:53–8:11.]*

[53 Then each one went to his house. 8 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.d

AN ADULTERESS FORGIVEN

2 At dawn he went to the templee again, and all the people were coming to him.f He sat downg and began to teach them.

3 Then the scribes and the Phariseesh brought a woman caught in adultery,i making her stand in the center. 4 “Teacher,” they said to him, “this woman was caught in the act of committing adultery.j 5 In the law Mosesk commanded us to stone such women.l So what do you say?” 6 They asked this to trap him,m in order that they might have evidence to accuse him.

Jesus stooped down and started writing on the ground with his finger. 7 When they persisted in questioning him, he stood up and said to them, “The one without sinn among youo should be the first to throw a stone at her.”p 8 Then he stooped down again and continued writing on the ground. 9 When they heard this, they left one by one, starting with the older men. Only he was left, with the woman in the center. 10 When Jesus stood up, he said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

11 “No one, Lord,”* she answered.

“Neither do I condemn you,”q said Jesus. “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.”]

THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

12 Jesus spoke to them again: “I amr the lights of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”t

13 So the Pharisees said to him, “You are testifying about yourself. Your testimony is not valid.”

14 “Even if I testify about myself,” Jesus replied, “my testimony is true, because I know where I came from and where I’m going. But you don’t know where I come from or where I’m going.u 15 You judgev by human standards.D,w I judge no one.x 16 And if I do judge, my judgment is true, because it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.y 17 Even in your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true.z 18 I am the one who testifiesaa about myself, and the Father who sent me testifies about me.”

19 Then they asked him, “Where is your Father?”

“You know neither me nor my Father,”ab Jesus answered. “If you knew me, you would also know my Father.”ac 20 He spoke these words by the treasury,ad while teaching in the temple. But no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come.

JESUS PREDICTS HIS DEPARTURE

21 Then he said to them again, “I’m going away;ae you will look for me, and you will die in your sin.af Where I’m going, you cannot come.”ag

22 So the Jews said again, “He won’t kill himself, will he, since he says, ‘Where I’m going, you cannot come’ah?”

23 “You are from below,” he told them, “I am from above.ai You are of this world;aj I am not of this world.ak 24 Therefore I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.”

25 “Who are you?” they questioned.

“Exactly what I’ve been telling you from the very beginning,” Jesus told them. 26 “I have many things to say and to judge about you, but the one who sent meal is true, and what I have heard from him—these things I tell the world.”am

27 They did not know he was speaking to them about the Father. 28 So Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man,an then you will know that I amao he, and that I do nothing on my own.ap But just as the Father taught me, I say these things. 29 The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone,aq because I always do what pleases him.”

TRUTH AND FREEDOM

30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him.