John 1-3

John 1

¹From the first he was the Word, and the Word was in relation with God and was God.

²This Word was from the first in relation with God.

³All things came into existence through him, and without him nothing was.

⁴What came into existence in him was life, and the life was the light of men.

⁵And the light goes on shining in the dark; it is not overcome by the dark.

⁶There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

⁷He came for witness, to give witness about the light, so that all men might have faith through him.

⁸He himself was not the light: he was sent to give witness about the light.

⁹The true light, which gives light to every man, was then coming into the world.

¹⁰He was in the world, the world which came into being through him, but the world had no knowledge of him.

¹¹He came to the things which were his and his people did not take him to their hearts.

¹²To all those who did so take him, however, he gave the right of becoming children of God — that is, to those who had faith in his name:

¹³Whose birth was from God and not from blood, or from an impulse of the flesh and man's desire.

¹⁴And so the Word became flesh and took a place among us for a time; and we saw his glory — such glory as is given to an only son by his father — saw it to be true and full of grace.

¹⁵John gave witness about him, crying, This is he of whom I said, He who is coming after me is put over me because he was in existence before me.

¹⁶From his full measure we have all been given grace on grace.

¹⁷For the law was given through Moses; grace and the true way of life are ours through Jesus Christ.

¹⁸No man has seen God at any time; the only Son, who is on the breast of the Father, he has made clear what God is.

¹⁹And this is the witness of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to him with the question, Who are you?

²⁰He said quite openly and straightforwardly, I am not the Christ.

²¹And they said to him, What then? Are you Elijah? And he said, I am not. Are you the prophet? And his answer was, I am not.

²²So they said to him, Who are you then? We have to give some answer to those who sent us. What have you to say about yourself?

²³He said, I am the voice of one crying in the waste land, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said Isaiah the prophet.

²⁴Those who had been sent came from the Pharisees.

²⁵And they put this question to him, saying, Why then are you giving baptism if you are not the Christ, or Elijah, or the prophet?

²⁶John's answer was: I give baptism with water; but there is one among you of whom you have no knowledge;

²⁷It is he who is coming after me; I am not good enough to undo his shoes.

²⁸These things took place at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was giving baptism.

²⁹The day after, John sees Jesus coming to him and says, See, here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

³⁰This is he of whom I said, One is coming after me who is put over me because he was in existence before me.

³¹I myself had no knowledge of him, but I came giving baptism with water so that he might be seen openly by Israel.

³²And John gave this witness, saying, I saw the Spirit coming down from heaven like a dove and resting on him.

³³I had no knowledge who he was, but he who sent me to give baptism with water said to me, The one on whom you see the Spirit coming down and resting, it is he who gives baptism with the Holy Spirit.

³⁴This I saw myself and my witness is that he is the Son of God.

³⁵The day after, John was there again with two of his disciples;

³⁶And looking at Jesus while he was walking he said, See, there is the Lamb of God!

³⁷Hearing what he said, the two disciples went after Jesus.

³⁸And Jesus, turning round, saw them coming after him and said to them, What are you looking for? They said to him, Rabbi (which is to say, Master), where are you living?

³⁹He said to them, Come and see. They went with him then and saw where he was living; and they were with him all that day: it was then about the tenth hour of the day.

⁴⁰Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two men who, hearing what John said, went after Jesus.

⁴¹Early in the morning he came across his brother and said to him, We have made discovery! It is the Messiah! (which is to say, the Christ).

⁴²And he took him to Jesus. Looking at him fixedly Jesus said, You are Simon, the son of John; your name will be Cephas (which is to say, Peter).

⁴³The day after this, Jesus had a desire to go into Galilee. He came across Philip and said to him, Come and be my disciple.

⁴⁴Now Philip's town was Beth-saida, where Andrew and Peter came from.

⁴⁵Philip came across Nathanael and said to him, We have made a discovery! It is he of whom Moses, in the law, and the prophets were writing, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

⁴⁶Nazareth! said Nathanael, Is it possible for any good to come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, Come and see.

⁴⁷Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and said of him, See, here is a true son of Israel in whom there is nothing false.

⁴⁸Nathanael said to him, Where did you get knowledge of me? In answer Jesus said, Before Philip was talking with you, while you were still under the fig-tree, I saw you.

⁴⁹Nathanael said to him, Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are King of Israel!

⁵⁰In answer Jesus said to him, You have faith because I said to you, I saw you under the fig-tree. You will see greater things than these.

⁵¹And he said to him, Truly I say to you all, You will see heaven opening and God's angels going up and coming down on the Son of man.

John 2

¹On the third day two people were going to be married at Cana in Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there:

²And Jesus with his disciples came as guests.

³When they had not enough wine, the mother of Jesus said to him, They have no wine.

⁴Jesus said to her, Woman, this is not your business; my time is still to come.

⁵His mother said to the servants, Whatever he says to you, do it.

⁶Now six pots of stone, every one taking two or three firkins of water, were placed there for the purpose of washing, as is the way of the Jews.

⁷Jesus said to the servants, Make the pots full of water. And they made them full to the top.

⁸Then he said to them, Now take some, and give it to the master of the feast. So they took it to him.

⁹After tasting the water which had now become wine, the master of the feast (having no idea where it came from, though it was clear to the servants who took the water out) sent for the newly-married man,

¹⁰And said to him, Every man first puts out his best wine and when all have had enough he puts out what is not so good; but you have kept the good wine till now.

¹¹This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and let his glory be seen openly; and his disciples put their faith in him.

¹²After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples, and they were there not more than two or three days.

¹³The time of the Passover of the Jews was near and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

¹⁴And there in the Temple he saw men trading in oxen and sheep and doves, and he saw the changers of money in their seats:

¹⁵And he made a whip of small cords and put them all out of the Temple, with the sheep and the oxen, sending in all directions the small money of the changers and overturning their tables;

¹⁶And to those who were trading in doves he said, Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a market.

¹⁷And it came to the minds of the disciples that the Writings say, I am on fire with passion for your house.

¹⁸Then the Jews put this question to him: What sign of authority have you to give us, seeing that you do these things?

¹⁹And Jesus said to them, Send destruction on this Temple and I will put it up again in three days.

²⁰The Jews said, The building of this Temple took forty-six years; and you will put it up in three days!

²¹But his words were about that holy building which was his body.

²²So when he had come back again from the dead, the memory of these words came back to the disciples, and they had faith in the holy Writings and in the word which Jesus had said.

²³Now while he was in Jerusalem at the feast of the Passover, a great number of people came to have faith in his name, after seeing the signs which he did.

²⁴But Jesus did not have faith in them, because he had knowledge of them all.

²⁵He had no need for any witness about man; for he himself had knowledge of what was in man.

John 3

¹Now there was among the Pharisees a man named Nicodemus, who was one of the rulers of the Jews.

²He came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we are certain that you have come from God as a teacher, because no man would be able to do these signs which you do if God was not with him.

³Jesus said to him, Truly, I say to you, Without a new birth no man is able to see the kingdom of God.

⁴Nicodemus said to him, How is it possible for a man to be given birth when he is old? Is he able to go into his mother's body a second time and come to birth again?

⁵Jesus said in answer, Truly, I say to you, If a man's birth is not from water and from the Spirit, it is not possible for him to go into the kingdom of God.

⁶That which has birth from the flesh is flesh, and that which has birth from the Spirit is spirit.

⁷Do not be surprised that I say to you, It is necessary for you to have a second birth.

⁸The wind goes where its pleasure takes it, and the sound of it comes to your ears, but you are unable to say where it comes from and where it goes: so it is with everyone whose birth is from the Spirit.

⁹And Nicodemus said to him, How is it possible for these things to be?

¹⁰And Jesus, answering, said, Are you the teacher of Israel and have no knowledge of these things?

¹¹Truly, I say to you, We say that of which we have knowledge; we give witness of what we have seen; and you do not take our witness to be true.

¹²If you have no belief when my words are about the things of earth, how will you have belief if my words are about the things of heaven?

¹³And no one has ever gone up to heaven but he who came down from heaven, the Son of man.

¹⁴As the snake was lifted up by Moses in the waste land, even so it is necessary for the Son of man to be lifted up:

¹⁵So that whoever has faith may have in him eternal life.

¹⁶For God had such love for the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever has faith in him may not come to destruction but have eternal life.

¹⁷God did not send his Son into the world to be judge of the world; he sent him so that the world might have salvation through him.

¹⁸The man who has faith in him does not come up to be judged; but he who has no faith in him has been judged even now, because he has no faith in the name of the only Son of God.

¹⁹And this is the test by which men are judged: the light has come into the world and men have more love for the dark than for the light, because their acts are evil.

²⁰The light is hated by everyone whose acts are evil and he does not come to the light for fear that his acts will be seen.

²¹But he whose life is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his acts have been done by the help of God.

²²After these things Jesus and his disciples went into the land of Judaea, and there he was with them for some time, giving baptism.

²³Now John was then giving baptism at Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and people came and were given baptism.

²⁴For at this time John had not been put into prison.

²⁵Then a question came up between John's disciples and a Jew about washing.

²⁶And they went to John and said to him, Rabbi, the man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan, the man to whom you gave witness, is now giving baptism, and everyone is going to him.

²⁷And this was John's answer: A man is unable to have anything if it is not given to him from heaven.

²⁸You yourselves give witness that I said, I am not the Christ. What I said was, I am sent before the Christ.

²⁹He who has the bride is the husband: but the husband's friend, whose place is by his side and whose ears are open to him, is full of joy because of the husband's voice: such is my joy, and it is complete.

³⁰He has to become greater while I become less.

³¹He who comes from heaven is greater than all others: he who comes from earth is of the earth, and of the earth are his words: he who comes from heaven is over all.

³²He gives witness of what he has seen and of what has come to his ears; and no man takes his witness as true.

³³He who so takes his witness has made clear his faith that God is true.

³⁴For he whom God has sent says God's words; and God does not give him the Spirit by measure.

³⁵The Father has love for the Son and has put all things into his hands.

³⁶He who has faith in the Son has eternal life; but he who has not faith in the Son will not see life; God's wrath is resting on him.