John 7–8

Jesus’ Brothers Don’t Believe

7After this, Jesus traveled around Galilee. He did not want to travel in Judea, because some evil people there wanted to kill him. ²It was time for the Feast of Shelters. ³So Jesus’ brothers said to him, “You should leave here and go to Judea so your followers there can see the miracles you do. ⁴Anyone who wants to be well known does not hide what he does. If you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” ⁵(Even Jesus’ brothers did not believe in him.)

⁶Jesus said to his brothers, “The right time for me has not yet come, but any time is right for you. ⁷The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I tell it the evil things it does. ⁸So you go to the feast. I will not go yet ⁿ to this feast, because the right time for me has not yet come.” ⁹After saying this, Jesus stayed in Galilee.

¹⁰But after Jesus’ brothers had gone to the feast, Jesus went also. But he did not let people see him. ¹¹At the feast some people were looking for him and saying, “Where is that man?”

¹²Within the large crowd there, many people were whispering to each other about Jesus. Some said, “He is a good man.”

Others said, “No, he fools the people.” ¹³But no one was brave enough to talk about Jesus openly, because they were afraid of the elders.

Jesus Teaches at the Feast

¹⁴When the feast was about half over, Jesus went to the Temple and began to teach. ¹⁵The people were amazed and said, “This man has never studied in school. How did he learn so much?”

¹⁶Jesus answered, “The things I teach are not my own, but they come from him who sent me. ¹⁷If people choose to do what God wants, they will know that my teaching comes from God and not from me. ¹⁸Those who teach their own ideas are trying to get honor for themselves. But those who try to bring honor to the one who sent them speak the truth, and there is nothing false in them. ¹⁹Moses gave you the law, ⁿ but none of you obeys that law. Why are you trying to kill me?”

²⁰The people answered, “A demon has come into you. We are not trying to kill you.”

²¹Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed. ²²Moses gave you the law about circumcision. (But really Moses did not give you circumcision; it came from our ancestors.) And yet you circumcise a baby boy on a Sabbath day. ²³If a baby boy can be circumcised on a Sabbath day to obey the law of Moses, why are you angry at me for healing a person’s whole body on the Sabbath day? ²⁴Stop judging by the way things look, but judge by what is really right.”

Is Jesus the Christ?

²⁵Then some of the people who lived in Jerusalem said, “This is the man they are trying to kill. ²⁶But he is teaching where everyone can see and hear him, and no one is trying to stop him. Maybe the leaders have decided he really is the Christ. ²⁷But we know where this man is from. Yet when the real Christ comes, no one will know where he comes from.”

²⁸Jesus, teaching in the Temple, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. But I have not come by my own authority. I was sent by the One who is true, whom you don’t know. ²⁹But I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”

³⁰When Jesus said this, they tried to seize him. But no one was able to touch him, because it was not yet the right time. ³¹But many of the people believed in Jesus. They said, “When the Christ comes, will he do more miracles than this man has done?”

The Leaders Try to Arrest Jesus

³²The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering these things about Jesus. So the leading priests and the Pharisees sent some Temple guards to arrest him. ³³Jesus said, “I will be with you a little while longer. Then I will go back to the One who sent me. ³⁴You will look for me, but you will not find me. And you cannot come where I am.”

³⁵Some people said to each other, “Where will this man go so we cannot find him? Will he go to the Greek cities where our people live and teach the Greek people there? ³⁶What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘You cannot come where I am’?”

Jesus Talks About the Spirit

³⁷On the last and most important day of the feast Jesus stood up and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. ³⁸If anyone believes in me, rivers of living water will flow out from that person’s heart, as the Scripture says.” ³⁹Jesus was talking about the Holy Spirit. The Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been raised to glory. But later, those who believed in Jesus would receive the Spirit.

The People Argue About Jesus

⁴⁰When the people heard Jesus’ words, some of them said, “This man really is the Prophet.” ⁿ

⁴¹Others said, “He is the Christ.”

Still others said, “The Christ will not come from Galilee. ⁴²The Scripture says that the Christ will come from David’s family and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived.” ⁴³So the people did not agree with each other about Jesus. ⁴⁴Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one was able to touch him.

Some Leaders Won’t Believe

⁴⁵The Temple guards went back to the leading priests and the Pharisees, who asked, “Why didn’t you bring Jesus?”

⁴⁶The guards answered, “The words he says are greater than the words of any other person who has ever spoken!”

⁴⁷The Pharisees answered, “So Jesus has fooled you also! ⁴⁸Have any of the leaders or the Pharisees believed in him? No! ⁴⁹But these people, who know nothing about the law, are under God’s curse.”

⁵⁰Nicodemus, who had gone to see Jesus before, was in that group. ⁿ He said, ⁵¹“Our law does not judge a person without hearing him and knowing what he has done.”

⁵²They answered, “Are you from Galilee, too? Study the Scriptures, and you will learn that no prophet comes from Galilee.”

⁵³And everyone left and went home.

The Woman Caught in Adultery

8Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. ²But early in the morning he went back to the Temple, and all the people came to him, and he sat and taught them. ³The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery. They forced her to stand before the people. ⁴They said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught having sexual relations with a man who is not her husband. ⁵The law of Moses commands that we stone to death every woman who does this. What do you say we should do?” ⁶They were asking this to trick Jesus so that they could have some charge against him.

But Jesus bent over and started writing on the ground with his finger. ⁷When they continued to ask Jesus their question, he raised up and said, “Anyone here who has never sinned can throw the first stone at her.” ⁸Then Jesus bent over again and wrote on the ground.

⁹Those who heard Jesus began to leave one by one, first the older men and then the others. Jesus was left there alone with the woman standing before him. ¹⁰Jesus raised up again and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one judged you guilty?”

¹¹She answered, “No one, sir.”

Then Jesus said, “I also don’t judge you guilty. You may go now, but don’t sin anymore.”

Jesus Is the Light of the World

¹²Later, Jesus talked to the people again, saying, “I am the light of the world. The person who follows me will never live in darkness but will have the light that gives life.”

¹³The Pharisees said to Jesus, “When you talk about yourself, you are the only one to say these things are true. We cannot accept what you say.”

¹⁴Jesus answered, “Yes, I am saying these things about myself, but they are true. I know where I came from and where I am going. But you don’t know where I came from or where I am going. ¹⁵You judge by human standards. I am not judging anyone. ¹⁶But when I do judge, I judge truthfully, because I am not alone. The Father who sent me is with me. ¹⁷Your own law says that when two witnesses say the same thing, you must accept what they say. ¹⁸I am one of the witnesses who speaks about myself, and the Father who sent me is the other witness.”

¹⁹They asked, “Where is your father?”

Jesus answered, “You don’t know me or my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father, too.” ²⁰Jesus said these things while he was teaching in the Temple, near where the money is kept. But no one arrested him, because the right time for him had not yet come.

The People Misunderstand Jesus

²¹Again, Jesus said to the people, “I will leave you, and you will look for me, but you will die in your sins. You cannot come where I am going.”

²²So the Jews asked, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he said, ‘You cannot come where I am going’?”

²³Jesus said, “You people are from here below, but I am from above. You belong to this world, but I don’t belong to this world. ²⁴So I told you that you would die in your sins. Yes, you will die in your sins if you don’t believe that I am he.”

²⁵They asked, “Then who are you?”

Jesus answered, “I am what I have told you from the beginning. ²⁶I have many things to say and decide about you. But I tell people only the things I have heard from the One who sent me, and he speaks the truth.”

²⁷The people did not understand that he was talking to them about the Father. ²⁸So Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, you will know that I am he. You will know that these things I do are not by my own authority but that I say only what the Father has taught me. ²⁹The One who sent me is with me. I always do what is pleasing to him, so he has not left me alone.” ³⁰While Jesus was saying these things, many people believed in him.

Freedom from Sin

³¹So Jesus said to the Jews who believed in him, “If you continue to obey my teaching, you are truly my followers. ³²Then you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

³³They answered, “We are Abraham’s children, and we have never been anyone’s slaves. So why do you say we will be free?”

³⁴Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, everyone who lives in sin is a slave to sin. ³⁵A slave does not stay with a family forever, but a son belongs to the family forever. ³⁶So if the Son makes you free, you will be…