John 2:13–4:45

First Passover—Cleansing the Temple

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

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

15 And 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;

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

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

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

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

20 aThe Jews then said, “It took bforty-six years to build this 1temple, and will You raise it up in three days?”

21 But He was speaking of athe 1temple of His body.

22 So 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.

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

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

25 and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, afor He Himself knew what was in man.

Chapter 3

The New Birth

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

2 this 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.”

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

4 Nicodemus * said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?”

5 Jesus 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 is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

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

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

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

10 Jesus 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 btestify of what we have seen, and byou do not accept our testimony.

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

13 “aNo one has ascended into heaven, but bHe who descended from heaven: cthe Son of Man.

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

15 so that whoever 1believes will ain Him have eternal life.

16 “For God so aloved the world, that He bgave His 1conly 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 “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 for fear that his deeds will be exposed.

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

John’s Last Testimony

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

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

24 for aJohn had not yet been thrown into prison.

25 Therefore there arose a discussion on the part of John’s disciples with a Jew about apurification.

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

27 John 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. aHe who comes from heaven is above all.

32 “What He has seen and heard, of that He atestifies; and ano one receives His testimony.

33 “He who has received His testimony 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

1 Therefore when athe Lord 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),

3 He left aJudea and went away bagain into Galilee.

4 And He had to pass through aSamaria.

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

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

The Woman of Samaria

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

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

9 Therefore the aSamaritan woman * said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For bJews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

10 Jesus 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.”

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

12 “You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who agave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

21 Jesus * 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.”

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

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

27 At this point His adisciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why do You speak with her?”

28 So the woman left her waterpot, 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; bthis is not 1the Christ, is it?”

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

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

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

33 So the adisciples were saying to one another, “No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?”

34 Jesus * said to them, “My food is to ado the will of Him who sent Me and to baccomplish 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 “Already 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.”

The Samaritans

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

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

41 Many more believed…