John 1:20–21:25

²⁰And he confessed—and he did not deny, and confessed—“I am not the Christ!” ²¹And they asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not!” “Are you the Prophet?”^h And he answered, “No!” ²²Then they said to him, “Who are you, so that we can give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?”

²³He said,

“I am ‘the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,

“Make straight the way of the Lord,” ’ⁱ

just as Isaiah the prophet said.” ²⁴(And they had been sent from the Pharisees.) ²⁵And they asked him and said to him, “Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

²⁶John answered them, saying, “I baptize with water. In your midst stands one whom you do not know—²⁷the one who comes after me, of whom I am not worthy to untie^j the strap of his sandal!” ²⁸These things took place in Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

²⁹On the next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! ³⁰This one is the one about whom I said, ‘After me is coming a man who is ahead of me, because he existed before me.’ ³¹And I did not know him, but in order that he could be revealed to Israel, because of this I came baptizing with water.”

³²And John testified, saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending like a dove from heaven and remaining upon him. ³³And I did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water, that one said to me, ‘The one upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him—this one is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ ³⁴And I have seen and testify that this one is the Chosen One^k of God.

Two of John’s Disciples Follow Jesus

³⁵On the next day again John was standing there,^* and two of his disciples, ³⁶and looking at Jesus as he^* was walking by, he said, “Look! The Lamb of God!” ³⁷And the two disciples heard him speaking, and they followed Jesus. ³⁸And Jesus, turning around and seeing them following him,^* said to them, “What do you seek?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means when^* translated “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 (it was about the tenth hour).

Andrew Declares Jesus to be the Messiah

⁴⁰Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard John and followed him. ⁴¹This one first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah!” (which is translated “Christ”). ⁴²He brought him to Jesus. Looking at him, Jesus said, “You are Simon the son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which is interpreted “Peter”).

Jesus Calls Philip and Nathanael

⁴³On the next day he wanted to depart for Galilee, and he found Philip. And Jesus said to him, “Follow me!” ⁴⁴(Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the town of Andrew and Peter.) ⁴⁵Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found the one whom Moses wrote about in the law, and the prophets wrote about—Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth!” ⁴⁶And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see!”

⁴⁷Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said about him, “Look! A true Israelite^l in whom is no deceit!” ⁴⁸Nathanael said to him, “From where do you know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you^* were under the fig tree, I saw you.” ⁴⁹Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the king of Israel!” ⁵⁰Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you that 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 all of you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

The Wedding at Cana: Water Turned into Wine

2And on the third day, there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. ²And both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding. ³And when the^* wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine!” ⁴And Jesus said to her, “What does your concern have to do with me,^a woman? My hour has not yet come.” ⁵His mother said to the servants, “Whatever he says to you, do it!”^*

⁶Now six stone water jars were set there, in accordance with the ceremonial cleansing of the Jews, each holding two or three measures.^{b 7}Jesus said to them, “Fill the water jars with water.” And they filled them to the brim. ⁸And he said to them, “Now draw some^* out and take it^* to the head steward. So they took it.^{* 9}Now when the head steward tasted the water which had become wine and did not know where it was from—but the servants who had drawn the water knew—the head steward summoned the bridegroom ¹⁰and said to him, “Everyone^c serves the good wine first, and whenever they are drunk, the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!” ¹¹This beginning of signs Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee, and revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

Jesus’ First Journey to Jerusalem

¹²After this he went down to Capernaum, and his mother and brothers^d and his disciples, and they stayed there a few^e days. ¹³And the Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

The Cleansing of the Temple

¹⁴And he found in the temple courts^* those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated. ¹⁵And he made a whip of cords and^* drove them^* all out of the temple courts,^* both the sheep and the oxen, and he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their^* tables. ¹⁶And to the ones selling the doves he said, “Take these things away from here! Do not make my Father’s house a marketplace!”^{f 17}His disciples remembered that it is written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”^g

¹⁸So the Jews answered and said to him, “What sign do you show to us, because you are doing these things?” ¹⁹Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up!” ²⁰Then the Jews said, “This temple has been under construction^h forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” ²¹But he was speaking about the temple of his body. ²²So when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the saying that Jesus had spoken.

Jesus at the Passover

²³Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in his name because they^* saw his signs which he was doing. ²⁴But Jesus himself did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people,^{i 25}and because he did not need^j anyone to testify^k about man, for he himself knew what was in man.^*

A Meeting with Nicodemus

3Now there was a man of the Pharisees whose name was^a Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. ²This man came to him at night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are^* a teacher who has come from God, for no one is able to perform these signs that you are performing unless God were with him.” ³Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless someone is born from above,^b he is not able to see the kingdom of God.” ⁴Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is an old man? He is not able to enter into his mother’s womb for the second time and be born, can he?”^*

⁵Jesus answered, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless someone is born of water and spirit, he is not able to enter into the kingdom of God. ⁶What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘It is necessary for you to be born from above.’^{c 8}The wind blows wherever it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

⁹Nicodemus answered and said to him, “How can these things be?” ¹⁰Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and you do not understand these things? ¹¹Truly, truly I say to you, we speak what we know, and we testify about what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony! ¹²If I tell you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? ¹³And no one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven—the Son of Man. ¹⁴And just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness,^d thus it is necessary that the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.”^e

God’s Love for the World

¹⁶For in this way God loved the world, so that he gave his one and only Son, in order that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but will have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world in order that he should judge^f the world, but in order that the world should be saved through him. ¹⁸The one who believes in him is not judged,^g but the one who does not believe has already been judged,^h because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. ¹⁹And this is the judgment: that the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. ²⁰For everyone who practices evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds be exposed. ²¹But the one who practices the truth comes to the light, in order that his deeds may be revealed, that they are done in God.

Additional Testimony by John the Baptist About Jesus

²²After these things Jesus and his disciples came into Judean territory, and there he spent time with them and was baptizing. ²³Now John was also baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and they were coming and were being baptized. ²⁴(For John had not yet been thrown into prison.)

²⁵So a dispute occurred on the part of John’s disciples with a Jewⁱ concerning purification. ²⁶And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you on the other side of…