John 3–4

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 her?”

²⁸So the woman left her water jar, and went into the city and ^*said to the men,

²⁹“Come, see a man ^awho told me all the things that I have done; ^bis this not the ¹Christ?”

³⁰They went out of the city, and were coming to Him.

³¹Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, “^aRabbi, eat.”

³²But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”

³³So the ^adisciples were saying to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?”

³⁴Jesus ^*said to them, “My food is to ^ado the will of Him who sent Me and to ^bfinish His work.

³⁵“Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white ^afor harvest.

³⁶“Even now he who reaps is receiving ^awages and is gathering ^bfruit for ^clife eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.

³⁷“For in this case the saying is true, ‘^aOne sows and another reaps.’

³⁸“I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.”

Many Samaritans Believe

³⁹From ^athat city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who bore witness, “^bHe told me all the things that I have done.”

⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.

⁴¹And many more believed because of His word;

⁴²and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is truly ^athe Savior of the world.”

⁴³And after ^athe two days He went from there into Galilee.

⁴⁴For Jesus Himself bore witness that ^aa prophet has no honor in his own country.

⁴⁵So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, ^ahaving seen all the things that He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they themselves also went to the feast.

Jesus Heals a Royal Official’s Son

⁴⁶Then He came again to ^aCana of Galilee ^bwhere He had made the water wine. And there was a royal official whose son was sick at ^cCapernaum.

⁴⁷When he heard that Jesus had come ^aout of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and was asking Him to come down and heal his son; for he was about to die.

⁴⁸So Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see ^1asigns and ^bwonders, you will never believe.”

⁴⁹The royal official ^*said to Him, “¹Sir, come down before my child dies.”

⁵⁰Jesus ^*said to him, “^aGo; your son lives.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way.

⁵¹And while he was still going down, his slaves met him, saying that his ¹son was alive.

⁵²So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. Then they said to him, “Yesterday at the ¹seventh hour the fever left him.”

⁵³So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives”; and he himself…