John 7–8

7TH CHAPTER

Jesus Goes to the Festival of Booths

¹Jesus later traveled throughout Galilee. He didn’t want to travel in Judea because Jews there wanted to kill him. 

²The time for the Jewish Festival of Booths was near. ³So Jesus’ brothers told him, “Leave this place, and go to Judea so that your disciples can see the things that you’re doing. ⁴No one does things secretly when he wants to be known publicly. If you do these things, you should let the world see you.” ⁵Even his brothers didn’t believe in him. 

⁶Jesus told them, “Now is not the right time for me to go. Any time is right for you. ⁷The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I say that what everyone does is evil. ⁸Go to the festival. I’m not going to this festival right now. Now is not the right time for me to go.” 

⁹After saying this, Jesus stayed in Galilee. ¹⁰But after his brothers had gone to the festival, Jesus went. He didn’t go publicly but secretly. 

¹¹The Jews were looking for Jesus in the crowd at the festival. They kept asking, “Where is that man?” ¹²The crowds argued about Jesus. Some people said, “He’s a good man,” while others said, “No he isn’t. He deceives the people.” ¹³Yet, no one would talk openly about him because they were afraid of the Jews. 

¹⁴When the festival was half over, Jesus went to the temple courtyard and began to teach. ¹⁵The Jews were surprised and asked, “How can this man be so educated when he hasn’t gone to school?” 

¹⁶Jesus responded to them, “What I teach doesn’t come from me but from the one who sent me. ¹⁷Those who want to follow the will of God will know if what I teach is from God or if I teach my own thoughts. ¹⁸Those who speak their own thoughts are looking for their own glory. But the man who wants to bring glory to the one who sent him is a true teacher and doesn’t have dishonest motives. ¹⁹Didn’t Moses give you his teachings? Yet, none of you does what Moses taught you. So why do you want to kill me?” 

²⁰The crowd answered, “You’re possessed by a demon! Who wants to kill you?” 

²¹Jesus answered them, “I performed one miracle, and all of you are surprised by it. ²²Moses gave you the teaching about circumcision (although it didn’t come from Moses but from our ancestors). So you circumcise a male on a day of rest—a holy day. ²³If you circumcise a male on the day of rest—a holy day, to follow Moses’ Teachings, why are you angry with me because I made a man entirely well on the day of rest—a holy day? ²⁴Stop judging by outward appearance! Instead, judge correctly.” 

²⁵Some of the people who lived in Jerusalem said, “Isn’t this the man they want to kill? ²⁶But look at this! He’s speaking in public, and no one is saying anything to him! Can it be that the rulers really know that this man is the Messiah? ²⁷However, we know where this man comes from. When the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.” 

²⁸Then, while Jesus was teaching in the temple courtyard, he said loudly, “You know me, and you know where I come from. I didn’t decide to come on my own. The one who sent me is true. He’s the one you don’t know. ²⁹I know him because I am from him and he sent me.” 

³⁰The Jews tried to arrest him but couldn’t because his time had not yet come. 

³¹However, many people in the crowd believed in him. They asked, “When the Messiah comes, will he perform more miracles than this man has?” 

³²The Pharisees heard the crowd saying things like this about him. So the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest Jesus. 

³³Jesus said, “I will still be with you for a little while. Then I’ll go to the one who sent me. ³⁴You will look for me, but you won’t find me. You can’t go where I’m going.” 

³⁵The Jews said among themselves, “Where does this man intend to go so that we won’t find him? Does he mean that he’ll live with the Jews who are scattered among the Greeks and that he’ll teach the Greeks? ³⁶What does he mean when he says, ‘You will look for me, but you won’t find me,’ and ‘You can’t go where I’m going’?” 

³⁷On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus was standing ⸤in the temple courtyard⸥. He said loudly, “Whoever is thirsty must come to me to drink. ³⁸As Scripture says, ‘Streams of living water will flow from deep within the person who believes in me.’ ” ³⁹Jesus said this about the Spirit, whom his believers would receive. The Spirit was not yet evident, as it would be after Jesus had been glorified. 

⁴⁰After some of the crowd heard Jesus say these words, they said, “This man is certainly the prophet.” ⁴¹Other people said, “This man is the Messiah.” Still other people asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? ⁴²Doesn’t Scripture say that the Messiah will come from the descendants of David and from the village of Bethlehem, where David lived?” ⁴³So the people were divided because of Jesus. ⁴⁴Some of them wanted to arrest him, but they couldn’t. 

⁴⁵When the temple guards returned, the chief priests and Pharisees asked them, “Why didn’t you bring Jesus?” 

⁴⁶The temple guards answered, “No human has ever spoken like this man.” 

⁴⁷The Pharisees asked the temple guards, “Have you been deceived too? ⁴⁸Has any ruler or any Pharisee believed in him? ⁴⁹This crowd is cursed because it doesn’t know Moses’ Teachings.” 

⁵⁰One of those Pharisees was Nicodemus, who had previously visited Jesus. Nicodemus asked them, ⁵¹“Do Moses’ Teachings enable us to judge a person without first hearing that person’s side of the story? We can’t judge a person without finding out what that person has done.” 

⁵²They asked Nicodemus, “Are you saying this because you’re from Galilee? Study ⸤the Scriptures⸥, and you’ll see that no prophet comes from Galilee.”^a

⁵³Then each of them went home. 

8TH CHAPTER

A Woman Caught in Adultery

¹Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. ²Early the next morning he returned to the temple courtyard. All the people went to him, so he sat down and began to teach them. 

³The experts in Moses’ Teachings and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught committing adultery. They made her stand in front of everyone ⁴and asked Jesus, “Teacher, we caught this woman in the act of adultery. ⁵In his teachings, Moses ordered us to stone women like this to death. What do you say?” ⁶They asked this to test him. They wanted to find a reason to bring charges against him. 

Jesus bent down and used his finger to write on the ground. ⁷When they persisted in asking him questions, he straightened up and said, “The person who is sinless should be the first to throw a stone at her.” ⁸Then he bent down again and continued writing on the ground. 

⁹One by one, beginning with the older men, the experts in Moses’ Teachings and Pharisees left. Jesus was left alone with the woman. ¹⁰Then Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Where did they go? Has anyone condemned you?” 

¹¹The woman answered, “No one, sir.” 

Jesus said, “I don’t condemn you either. Go! From now on don’t sin.” 

Jesus Speaks with the Pharisees about His Father

¹²Jesus spoke to the Pharisees again. He said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will have a life filled with light and will never live in the dark.” 

¹³The Pharisees said to him, “You testify on your own behalf, so your testimony isn’t true.” 

¹⁴Jesus replied to them, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is true because I know where I came from and where I’m going. However, you don’t know where I came from or where I’m going. ¹⁵You judge the way humans do. I don’t judge anyone. ¹⁶Even if I do judge, my judgment is valid because I don’t make it on my own. I make my judgment with the Father who sent me. ¹⁷Your own teachings say that the testimony of two people is true. ¹⁸I testify on my own behalf, and so does the Father who sent me.” 

¹⁹The Pharisees asked him, “Where is your father?” 

Jesus replied, “You don’t know me or my Father. If you knew me, you would also know my Father.” 

²⁰Jesus spoke these words while he was teaching in the treasury area of the temple courtyard. No one arrested him, because his time had not yet come. 

²¹Jesus spoke to the Pharisees again. He said, “I’m going away, and you’ll look for me. But you will die because of your sin. You can’t go where I’m going.” 

²²Then the Jews asked, “Is he going to kill himself? Is that what he means when he says, ‘You can’t go where I’m going’?” 

²³Jesus said to them, “You’re from below. I’m from above. You’re from this world. I’m not from this world. ²⁴For this reason I told you that you’ll die because of your sins. If you don’t believe that I am the one, you’ll die because of your sins.” 

²⁵The Jews asked him, “Who did you say you are?” 

Jesus told them, “I am who I said I was from the beginning. ²⁶I have a lot I could say about you and a lot I could condemn you for. But the one who sent me is true. So I tell the world exactly what he has told me.” ²⁷(The Jews didn’t know that he was talking to them about the Father.) 

²⁸So Jesus told them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you’ll know that I am the one and that I can’t do anything on my own. Instead, I speak as the Father taught me. ²⁹Besides, the one who sent me is with me. He hasn’t left me by myself. I always do what pleases him.” 

³⁰As Jesus was saying this, many people believed in him. ³¹So Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him, “If you live by what I say, you are truly my disciples. ³²You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 

³³They replied to Jesus, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and we’ve never been anyone’s slaves. So how can you say that we will be set free?” 

³⁴Jesus answered them, “I can guarantee this truth: Whoever lives a sinful life is a slave to sin. ³⁵A slave doesn’t live in the home forever, but a son does. ³⁶So if the Son sets you free, you will be absolutely free. ³⁷I know that you’re Abraham’s descendants. However, you want to kill me because you don’t like what I’m saying. ³⁸What I’m saying is what I have seen in my Father’s presence. But you do…