John 2–4

CHAPTER 2

The Wedding at Cana

¹And on ^athe third day there was a wedding in ^bCana of Galilee, and the ^cmother of Jesus was there;

²and both Jesus and His ^adisciples 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, “^aWoman, ^1bwhat do I have to do with you? ^cMy hour has not yet come.”

⁵His ^amother ^*said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”

⁶Now there were six stone water jars set there ^afor the Jewish custom of purification, containing ¹two or three measures each.

⁷Jesus ^*said to them, “Fill the water jars with water.” So they filled them up to the brim.

⁸And He ^*said to them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” So they took it to him.

⁹Now when the headwaiter tasted the water ^awhich had become wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter ^*called the bridegroom,

¹⁰and ^*said to him, “Every man serves the good wine first, and when the people ^ahave ¹drunk freely, then the inferior wine; but you have kept the good wine until now.”

¹¹Jesus did this in Cana of ^aGalilee as the beginning of His ^1bsigns, and manifested His ^cglory, and His disciples believed in Him.

¹²After this He went down to ^aCapernaum, He and His ^bmother and His ^cbrothers and His ^ddisciples; and they stayed there a few days.

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

^13aAnd the Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus ^bwent up to Jerusalem.

^14aAnd He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables.

¹⁵And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables;

¹⁶and to those who were selling ^athe doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making ^bMy Father’s house a ¹place of business.”

¹⁷His ^adisciples remembered that it was written, “^bZeal for Your house will consume me.”

^18aThe Jews then said to Him, “^bWhat sign do You show us ¹as your authority for doing these things?”

¹⁹Jesus answered them, “^aDestroy this ¹sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up.”

^20aThe Jews then said, “It took ^bforty-six years to build this sanctuary, and will You raise it up in three days?”

²¹But He was speaking about ^athe sanctuary of His body.

²²So when He was raised from the dead, His ^adisciples ^bremembered that He said this; and they believed ^cthe Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.

²³Now when He was in Jerusalem at ^athe Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, ^bwhen they saw His signs which He was doing.

²⁴But Jesus, ¹on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for ^aHe knew all men,

²⁵and because He had no need that anyone bear witness concerning man, ^afor He Himself knew what was in man.

CHAPTER 3

You Must Be Born Again

¹Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named ^aNicodemus, a ^bruler of the Jews;

²this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “^aRabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these ^1bsigns that You do unless ^cGod is with him.”

³Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one ^ais born ¹again he cannot see ^bthe 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 of ^awater and the Spirit he cannot enter into ^bthe kingdom of God.

⁶“^aThat which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit.

⁷“Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born ¹again.’

⁸“^aThe wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit.”

⁹Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”

¹⁰Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you ^athe teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?

¹¹“Truly, truly, I say to you, ^awe speak of what we know and ^bbear witness of what we have seen, and ^cyou do not accept our witness.

¹²“If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

¹³“^aAnd no one has ascended into heaven, but ^bHe who descended from heaven, ^cthe Son of Man.

¹⁴“And as ^aMoses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must ^bthe Son of Man ^cbe lifted up;

¹⁵so that whoever believes will ^ain Him have eternal life.

¹⁶“For God ¹so ^aloved the world, that He ^bgave His ^2conly begotten Son, that whoever ^dbelieves in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

¹⁷“For God ^adid not send the Son into the world ^bto judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

¹⁸“^aHe who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of ^bthe ¹only begotten Son of God.

¹⁹“And this is the judgment, that ^athe Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for ^btheir deeds were evil.

²⁰“^aFor everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light lest his deeds be exposed.

²¹“But he who ^apractices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been done by God.”

John the Baptist’s Last Witness

²²After these things Jesus and His ^adisciples came into the land of Judea, and there He was spending time with them and ^bbaptizing.

²³And John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and people were coming and were being baptized—

²⁴for ^aJohn had not yet been thrown into prison.

²⁵Therefore there arose a debate between John’s disciples and a Jew about ^apurification.

²⁶And they came to John and said to him, “^aRabbi, He who was with you ^bbeyond the Jordan, to whom you ^chave borne witness, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him.”

²⁷John answered and said, “^aA man can receive nothing unless it ^bhas been given him from heaven.

²⁸“You yourselves ¹are my witnesses that I said, ‘^aI am not the ²Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him.’

²⁹“He who has the bride is ^athe bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this ^bjoy of mine has been made full.

³⁰“He must increase, but I must decrease.

³¹“^aHe who comes from above is above all, ^bhe who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. ^cHe who comes from heaven is above all.

³²“What He has seen and heard, of that He ^abears witness; and ^bno one receives His witness.

³³“He who has received His witness ^ahas set his seal to this, that God is true.

³⁴“For He whom God has ^asent speaks the words of God; ^1bfor He gives the Spirit without measure.

³⁵“^aThe Father loves the Son and ^bhas given all things into His hand.

³⁶“He who ^abelieves in the Son has eternal life; but he who ^bdoes not ¹obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

CHAPTER 4

Jesus Goes to Galilee

¹Therefore when ^aJesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and ^bbaptizing more disciples than John

²(although ^aJesus Himself was not baptizing, but His ^bdisciples were),

³He left ^aJudea and went away ^bagain into Galilee.

⁴And He had to pass through ^aSamaria.

⁵So He ^*came to a city of ^aSamaria called Sychar, near ^bthe field that ^cJacob gave to his son Joseph;

⁶and Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about ¹the sixth hour.

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

⁷A woman of Samaria ^*came to draw water. Jesus ^*said to her, “Give Me a drink.”

⁸For His ^adisciples had gone away into ^bthe city to buy food.

⁹Therefore the ^aSamaritan woman ^*said to Him, “How do You, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, being a Samaritan woman?” (For ^bJews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

¹⁰Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you ^aliving water.”

¹¹She ^*said to Him, “¹Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where then do You get that ^aliving water?

¹²“Are You greater than our father Jacob, who ^agave us this well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?”

¹³Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again;

¹⁴but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him ^awill never thirst—ever; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to ^beternal life.”

¹⁵The woman ^*said to Him, “¹Sir, ^agive me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come back here to draw.”

¹⁶He ^*said to her, “Go, call your husband and come back here.”

¹⁷The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus ^*said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’;

¹⁸for you had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.”

¹⁹The woman ^*said to Him, “¹Sir, I see that You are ^aa prophet.

²⁰“^aOur fathers worshiped on ^bthis mountain, and you people say that ^cin Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”

²¹Jesus ^*said to her, “Woman, believe Me, ^aan hour is coming when ^bneither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

²²“^aYou worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for ^bsalvation is from the Jews.

²³“But ^aan hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father ^bin spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.

²⁴“God is ¹spirit, and those who worship Him must worship ^ain spirit and truth.”

²⁵The woman ^*said to Him, “I know that ^aMessiah is coming (^bHe who is called ¹Christ); when He comes, He will declare all things to us.”

²⁶Jesus ^*said to her, “^aI who speak to you am He.”

²⁷And at this point His ^adisciples came, and they were marveling that He was speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You speaking with…