John 1:20–21:25

^20qHe confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” ²¹And they asked him, “What then? ^rAre you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you ^sthe Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” ²²So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” ²³He said, “I am ^tthe voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight⁸ the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”

²⁴(Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) ²⁵They asked him, ^u“Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” ²⁶John answered them, ^v“I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, ²⁷even ^whe who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” ²⁸These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

Behold, the Lamb of God

²⁹The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, ^xthe Lamb of God, who ^ytakes away the sin ^zof the world! ³⁰This is he of whom I said, ^a‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ³¹I myself did not know him, but ^bfor this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” ³²And John ^cbore witness: ^d“I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and ^eit remained on him. ³³I myself did not know him, but ^fhe who sent me to baptize ^gwith water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, ^hthis is he who baptizes ^gwith the Holy Spirit.’ ³⁴And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son⁹ of God.”

Jesus Calls the First Disciples

³⁵The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, ³⁶and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, ⁱthe Lamb of God!” ³⁷The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. ³⁸Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, ^j“What are you seeking?” And they said to him, ^k“Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” ³⁹He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.^{10 40l}One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus¹¹ was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. ⁴¹He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found ^mthe Messiah” (which means Christ). ⁴²He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of ⁿJohn. You shall be called ^oCephas” (which means ^pPeter¹²).

Jesus Calls Philip and Nathanael

^43qThe next day Jesus decided ^rto go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” ⁴⁴Now ^sPhilip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. ⁴⁵Philip found ^tNathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom ^uMoses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus ^vof Nazareth, ^wthe son of Joseph.” ⁴⁶Nathanael said to him, ^x“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” ⁴⁷Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, ^yan Israelite indeed, ^zin whom there is no deceit!” ⁴⁸Nathanael said to him, “How ^ado you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” ⁴⁹Nathanael answered him, ^b“Rabbi, ^cyou are the Son of God! You are the ^dKing of Israel!” ⁵⁰Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” ⁵¹And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you,¹³ you will see ^eheaven opened, and ^fthe angels of God ascending and descending on ^gthe Son of Man.”

The Wedding at Cana

2On ^hthe third day there was a wedding at ⁱCana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. ²Jesus also was invited to the wedding with ^jhis disciples. ³When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” ⁴And Jesus said to her, ^k“Woman, ^lwhat does this have to do with me? ^mMy hour has not yet come.” ⁵His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

⁶Now there were six stone water jars there ⁿfor the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty ^ogallons.^{1 7}Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. ⁸And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. ⁹When the master of the feast tasted ^pthe water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom ¹⁰and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” ¹¹This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested ^qhis glory. And ^rhis disciples believed in him.

¹²After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and ^shis brothers² and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

^13tThe Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus ^uwent up to Jerusalem. ^14vIn the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. ¹⁵And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make ^wmy Father’s house a house of trade.” ¹⁷His disciples remembered that it was written, ^x“Zeal for your house will consume me.”

¹⁸So the Jews said to him, ^y“What sign do you show us for doing these things?” ¹⁹Jesus answered them, ^z“Destroy this temple, and in three days ^aI will raise it up.” ²⁰The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple,³ and will you raise it up in three days?” ²¹But he was speaking about ^bthe temple of his body. ²²When therefore he was raised from the dead, ^chis disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed ^dthe Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Jesus Knows What Is in Man

²³Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name ^ewhen they saw the signs that he was doing. ²⁴But Jesus ^fon his part did not entrust himself to them, because ^ghe knew all people ²⁵and needed no one to bear witness about man, for ^ghe himself knew what was in man.

You Must Be Born Again

3Now there was a man of the Pharisees named ^hNicodemus, ⁱa ruler of the Jews. ²This man came to Jesus^{1 j}by night and said to him, ^k“Rabbi, ^lwe know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do ^munless God is with him.” ³Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is ⁿborn ^oagain² he cannot ^psee the kingdom of God.” ⁴Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” ⁵Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born ^qof water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ^6rThat which is born of the flesh is ^sflesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.^{3 7t}Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You⁴ must be born ^uagain.’ ^8vThe wind⁵ blows ^wwhere it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

⁹Nicodemus said to him, ^x“How can these things be?” ¹⁰Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel ^yand yet you do not understand these things? ¹¹Truly, truly, I say to you, ^zwe speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but ^zyou⁶ do not receive our testimony. ¹²If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? ^13aNo one has ^bascended into heaven except ^che who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.^{7 14}And ^das Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man ^ebe lifted up, ¹⁵that whoever believes ^fin him ^gmay have eternal life.⁸

For God So Loved the World

¹⁶“For ^hGod so loved ⁱthe world,^{9 j}that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not ^kperish but have eternal life. ¹⁷For ^lGod did not send his Son into the world ^mto condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸ⁿWhoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not ^obelieved in the name of the only Son of God. ^19pAnd this is the judgment: ^qthe light has come into the world, and ^rpeople loved the darkness rather than the light because ^stheir works were evil. ^20tFor everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, ^ulest his works should be exposed. ²¹But whoever ^vdoes what is true ^wcomes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

John the Baptist Exalts Christ

²²After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and ^xwas baptizing. ²³John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized ²⁴(for ^yJohn had not yet been put in prison).

²⁵Now a discussion arose between some of John’s disciples and a Jew over ^zpurification. ²⁶And they came to John and said to him, ^a“Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, ^bto whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and ^call are going to him.” ²⁷John answered, ^d“A person cannot receive even one thing ^eunless it is given him ^ffrom heaven. ²⁸You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ^g‘I am not the Christ, but ^hI have been sent before him.’ ²⁹ⁱThe one who has the bride is the bridegroom. ^jThe friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, ^krejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. ^30lHe must increase, but I must decrease.”¹⁰

^31mHe who comes from above ⁿis above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and ^ospeaks in an earthly way. ^pHe…