John 5-6

John 5

¹After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

²Now in Jerusalem near the sheep-market there is a public bath which in Hebrew is named Beth-zatha. It has five doorways.

³In these doorways there were a great number of people with different diseases: some unable to see, some without the power of walking, some with wasted bodies.

⁵One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.

⁶When Jesus saw him there on the floor it was clear to him that he had been now a long time in that condition, and so he said to the man, Is it your desire to get well?

⁷The ill man said in answer, Sir, I have nobody to put me into the bath when the water is moving; and while I am on the way down some other person gets in before me.

⁸Jesus said to him, Get up, take your bed and go.

⁹And the man became well straight away, and took up his bed and went. Now that day was the Sabbath.

¹⁰So the Jews said to the man who had been made well, It is the Sabbath; and it is against the law for you to take up your bed.

¹¹He said to them, But he who made me well, said to me, Take up your bed and go.

¹²Then they put to him the question: Who is the man who said to you, Take it up and go?

¹³Now he who had been made well had no knowledge who it was, Jesus having gone away because of the number of people who were in that place.

¹⁴After a time Jesus came across him in the Temple and said to him, See, you are well and strong; do no more sin for fear a worse thing comes to you.

¹⁵The man went away and said to the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

¹⁶And for this reason the Jews were turned against Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.

¹⁷But his answer was: My Father is still working even now, and so I am working.

¹⁸For this cause the Jews had an even greater desire to put Jesus to death, because not only did he not keep the Sabbath but he said God was his Father, so making himself equal with God.

¹⁹So Jesus made answer and said, Truly I say to you, The Son is not able to do anything himself; he is able to do only what he sees the Father doing; whatever the Father does the Son does it in the same way.

²⁰For the Father has love for the Son and lets him see everything which he does: and he will let him see greater works than these so that you may be full of wonder.

²¹In the same way, as the Father gives life to the dead, even so the Son gives life to those to whom he is pleased to give it.

²²The Father is not the judge of men, but he has given all decisions into the hands of the Son;

²³So that all men may give honour to the Son even as they give honour to the Father. He who gives no honour to the Son gives no honour to the Father who sent him.

²⁴Truly I say to you, The man whose ears are open to my word and who has faith in him who sent me, has eternal life; he will not be judged, but has come from death into life.

²⁵Truly I say to you, The time is coming, it has even now come, when the voice of the Son of God will come to the ears of the dead, and those hearing it will have life.

²⁶For even as the Father has life in himself, so he has given to the Son to have life in himself.

²⁷And he has given him authority to be judge because he is the Son of man.

²⁸Do not be surprised at this: for the time is coming when his voice will come to all who are in the place of the dead,

²⁹And they will come out; those who have done good, into the new life; and those who have done evil, to be judged.

³⁰Of myself I am unable to do anything: as the voice comes to me so I give a decision: and my decision is right because I have no desire to do what is pleasing to myself, but only what is pleasing to him who sent me.

³¹If I gave witness about myself, my witness would not be true.

³²There is another who gives witness about me and I am certain that the witness he gives about me is true.

³³You sent to John and he gave true witness.

³⁴But I have no need of a man's witness: I only say these things so that you may have salvation.

³⁵He was a burning and shining light, and for a time you were ready to be happy in his light.

³⁶But the witness which I have is greater than that of John: the work which the Father has given me to do, the very work which I am now doing, is a witness that the Father has sent me.

³⁷And the Father himself who sent me has given witness about me. Not one of you has ever given ear to his voice; his form you have not seen.

³⁸And you have not kept his word in your hearts, because you have not faith in him whom he has sent.

³⁹You make search in the holy Writings, in the belief that through them you get eternal life; and it is those Writings which give witness about me.

⁴⁰And still you have no desire to come to me so that you may have life.

⁴¹I do not take honour from men;

⁴²But I have knowledge of you that you have no love for God in your hearts.

⁴³I have come in my Father's name, and your hearts are not open to me. If another comes with no other authority but himself, you will give him your approval.

⁴⁴How is it possible for you to have faith while you take honour one from another and have no desire for the honour which comes from the only God?

⁴⁵Put out of your minds the thought that I will say things against you to the Father: the one who says things against you is Moses, on whom you put your hopes.

⁴⁶If you had belief in Moses you would have belief in me; for his writings are about me.

⁴⁷If you have no belief in his writings, how will you have belief in my words?

John 6

¹After these things Jesus went away to the other side of the sea of Galilee — that is, the sea of Tiberias.

²And a great number of people went after him because they saw the signs which he did on those who were ill.

³Then Jesus went up the mountain and was seated there with his disciples.

⁴Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near.

⁵Lifting up his eyes, Jesus saw a great number of people coming to where he was, and he said to Philip, Where may we get bread for all these people?

⁶This he said, testing him: for he had no doubt what he himself would do.

⁷Philip made answer, Bread to the value of two hundred pence would not be enough even to give everyone a little.

⁸One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to Jesus,

⁹There is a boy here with five barley cakes and two fishes: but what is that among such a number?

¹⁰Jesus said, Let the people be seated. Now there was much grass in that place. And those seated on the grass were about five thousand.

¹¹Then Jesus took the cakes and having given praise to God, he gave them to the people who were seated, and the fishes in the same way, as much as they had need of.

¹²And when they had had enough, Jesus said to his disciples, Take up the broken bits which are over, so that nothing may be wasted.

¹³So they took them up: twelve baskets full of broken bits of the five cakes which were over after the people had had enough.

¹⁴And when the people saw the sign which he had done, they said, Truly, this is the prophet who is to come into the world.

¹⁵Now when Jesus saw that the people were about to come and take him by force to make him a king, he went away again up the mountain by himself.

¹⁶When evening came the disciples went down to the sea;

¹⁷And they took a boat and went across the sea in the direction of Capernaum. By then it was dark and still Jesus had not come to them.

¹⁸The sea was getting rough because of a strong wind which was blowing.

¹⁹After they had gone three or four miles they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near to the boat; and they had great fear.

²⁰But he said to them, It is I, have no fear.

²¹Then they readily took him into the boat: and straight away the boat was at the land to which they were going.

²²The day after, the people who were on the other side of the sea saw that only one small boat had been there, that Jesus had not gone in that boat with the disciples, but that the disciples had gone away by themselves.

²³Some other boats, however, came from Tiberias near to the place where they had taken the bread after the Lord had given praise.

²⁴So when the people saw that Jesus was not there, or his disciples, they got into those boats and went over to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

²⁵And when they came across him on the other side of the sea they said, Rabbi, when did you come here?

²⁶Jesus, answering them, said, Truly I say to you, You come after me, not because you saw signs, but because you were given the bread and had enough.

²⁷Let your work not be for the food which comes to an end, but for the food which goes on for eternal life, which the Son of man will give to you, for on him has God the Father put his mark.

²⁸Then they said to him, How may we do the works of God?

²⁹Jesus, answering, said to them, This is to do the work of God: to have faith in him whom God has sent.

³⁰So they said, What sign do you give us, so that we may see and have faith in you? What do you do?

³¹Our fathers had the manna in the waste land, as the Writings say, He gave them bread from heaven.

³²Jesus then said to them, Truly I say to you, What Moses gave you was not the bread from heaven; it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.

³³The bread of God is the bread which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.

³⁴Ah, Lord, they said, give us that bread for ever!

³⁵And this was the answer of Jesus: I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never be in need of food, and he who has faith in me will never be in need of drink.

³⁶But it is as I said to you: you have seen me, and still you have no faith.

³⁷Whatever the Father gives to me will come to me; and I will not send away anyone who comes to me.

³⁸For I have come down from heaven, not to do my pleasure, but the pleasure of him who sent me.

³⁹And this is the pleasure of him who sent me, that I am not to let out of my hands anything which he has given me, but I am to give it new life on the last day.

⁴⁰This, I say, is my Father's pleasure, that everyone who sees the Son and has faith in him may have eternal life: and I will take him up on the last day.

⁴¹Now the Jews said bitter things about Jesus because of his words, I am the bread which came down from heaven.

⁴²And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we have seen? How is it then that he now says, I have come down from heaven?

⁴³Jesus made answer and said, Do not say things against me, one to another.

⁴⁴No man is able to come to me if the Father who sent me does not give him the desire to come: and I will take him up from the dead on the last day.

⁴⁵The writings of the prophets say, And they will all have teaching from God. Everyone whose ears have been open to the teaching of the Father comes to me.

⁴⁶Not that anyone has ever seen the Father; only he who is from God, he has seen the Father.

⁴⁷Truly I say to you, He who has faith in me has eternal life.

⁴⁸I am the bread of life.

⁴⁹Your fathers took the manna in the waste land — and they are dead.

⁵⁰The bread which comes from heaven is such bread that a man may take it for food and never see death.

⁵¹I am the living bread which has come from heaven: if any man takes this bread for food he will have life for ever: and more than this, the bread which I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world.

⁵²Then the Jews had an angry discussion among themselves, saying, How is it possible for this man to give us his flesh for food?

⁵³Then Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, If you do not take the flesh of the Son of man for food, and if you do not take his blood for drink, you have no life in you.

⁵⁴He who takes my flesh for food and my blood for drink has eternal life: and I will take him up from the dead at the last day.

⁵⁵My flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.

⁵⁶He who takes my flesh for food and my blood for drink is in me and I in him.

⁵⁷As the living Father has sent me, and I have life because of the Father, even so he who takes me for his food will have life because of me.

⁵⁸This is the bread which has come down from heaven. It is not like the food which your fathers had: they took of the manna, and are dead; but he who takes this bread for food will have life for ever.

⁵⁹Jesus said these things in the Synagogue while he was teaching at Capernaum.

⁶⁰Then, hearing this, a number of his disciples said, This is a hard saying; who is able to take in such teaching?

⁶¹When Jesus became conscious that his disciples were protesting about what he said, he said to them, Does this give you trouble?

⁶²What then will you say if you see the Son of man going up to where he was before?

⁶³The spirit is the life giver; the flesh is of no value: the words which I have said to you are spirit and they are life.

⁶⁴But still some of you have no faith. For it was clear to Jesus from the first who they were who had no faith, and who it was who would be false to him.

⁶⁵And he said, This is why I said to you, No man is able to come to me if he is not given the power to do so by the Father.

⁶⁶Because of what he said, a number of the disciples went back and would no longer go with him.

⁶⁷So Jesus said to the twelve, Have you a desire to go away?

⁶⁸Then Simon Peter gave this answer: Lord, to whom are we to go? you have the words of eternal life;

⁶⁹And we have faith and are certain that you are the Holy One of God.

⁷⁰Then Jesus said, Did I not make a selection of you, the twelve, and one of you is a son of the Evil One?

⁷¹He was talking of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. It was he who was to be false to Jesus — one of the twelve.