001:001 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
001:002 He was in the beginning with God.
001:003 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing that exists came into being.
001:004 In Him was Life, and that Life was the Light of men.
001:005 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overpowered it.
001:006 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
001:007 He came as a witness, in order that he might give testimony
concerning the Light—so that all might believe through him.
001:008 He was not the Light, but he existed that he might give
testimony concerning the Light.
001:009 The true Light was that which illumines every man by its coming
into the world.
001:010 He was in the world, and the world came into existence through Him,
and the world did not recognize Him.
001:011 He came to the things that were His own, and His own people
gave Him no welcome.
001:012 But all who have received Him, to them—that is, to those who
trust in His name—He has given the privilege of becoming
children of God;
001:013 who were begotten as such not by human descent, nor through
an impulse of their own nature, nor through the will of a
human father, but from God.
001:014 And the Word came in the flesh, and lived for a time in our midst,
so that we saw His glory—the glory as of the Father's only Son,
sent from His presence. He was full of grace and truth.
001:015 John gave testimony concerning Him and cried aloud, saying,
"This is He of whom I said, `He who is coming after me has
been put before me,' for He was before me."
001:016 For He it is from whose fulness we have all received,
and grace upon grace.
001:017 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came
through Jesus Christ.
001:018 No human eye has ever seen God: the only Son, who is in
the Father's bosom—He has made Him known.
001:019 This also is John's testimony, when the Jews sent to him a deputation of Priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him who he was.
001:020 He avowed—he did not conceal the truth, but avowed, "I am
not the Christ."
001:021 "What then?" they inquired; "are you Elijah?" "I am not," he said.
"Are you the Prophet?" "No," he answered.
001:022 So they pressed the question. "Who are you?"
they said—"that we may take an answer to those who sent us.
What account do you give of yourself?"
001:023 "I am the voice," he replied, "of one crying aloud,
`Make straight the Lord's way in the Desert,' fulfilling the words
of the Prophet Isaiah."
001:024 They were Pharisees who had been sent.
001:025 Again they questioned him. "Why then do you baptize," they said,
"if you are neither the Christ nor Elijah nor the Prophet?"
001:026 "I baptize in water only," John answered, "but in your midst
stands One whom you do not know—
001:027 He who is to come after me, and whose sandal-strap I am not
worthy to unfasten."
001:028 This conversation took place at Bethany beyond the Jordan,
where John was baptizing.
001:029 The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him and exclaimed,
"Look, that is the Lamb of God who is to take away the sin
of the world!
001:030 This is He about whom I said, `After me is to come One who has
been put before me, because He was before me.'
001:031 I did not yet know Him; but that He may be openly shown to Israel
is the reason why I have come baptizing in water."
001:032 John also gave testimony by stating: "I have seen the Spirit
coming down like a dove out of Heaven; and it remained upon Him.
001:033 I did not yet know Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, "`The One on whom you see the Spirit coming down, and remaining, He it is who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.'
001:034 "This I have seen, and I have become a witness that He is the Son of God."
001:035 Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples,
001:036 when he saw Jesus passing by, and said, "Look! that is the Lamb of God!"
001:037 The two disciples heard his exclamation, and they followed Jesus.
001:038 Then Jesus turned round, and seeing them following He asked them,
"What is your wish?" "Rabbi," they replied—`Rabbi'
means `Teacher'—"where are you staying?"
001:039 "Come and you shall see," He said. So they went and saw where He
was staying, and they remained and spent that day with Him.
It was then about ten o'clock in the morning.
001:040 Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard
John's exclamation and followed Jesus.
001:041 He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him,
"We have found the Messiah!"—that is to say, the Anointed One.
001:042 He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said,
"You are Simon, son of John: you shall be called Cephas"—
that is to say, Peter (or `Rock').
001:043 The next day, having decided to leave Bethany and go into Galilee, Jesus found Philip, and invited him to follow Him.
001:044 (Now Philip came from Bethsaida, the same town as Andrew and Peter.)
001:045 Then Philip found Nathanael, and said to him, "We have found him about whom Moses in the Law wrote, as well as the Prophets—Jesus, the son of Joseph, a man of Nazareth."
001:046 "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" replied Nathanael.
"Come and see," said Philip.
001:047 Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, and said of him, "Look! here
is a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceitfulness!"
001:048 "How do you know me?" Nathanael asked. "Before Philip called you,"
said Jesus, "when you were under the fig-tree I saw you."
001:049 "Rabbi," cried Nathanael, "you are the Son of God,
you are Israel's King!"
001:050 "Because I said to you, `I saw you under the fig-tree,'"
replied Jesus, "do you believe? You shall see greater
things than that."
001:051 "I tell you all in most solemn truth," He added, "that you
shall see Heaven opened wide, and God's angels going up,
and coming down to the Son of Man."
002:001 Two days later there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there,
002:002 and Jesus also was invited and His disciples.
002:003 Now the wine ran short; whereupon the mother of Jesus said
to Him, "They have no wine."
002:004 "Leave the matter in my hands," He replied; "the time for me
to act has not yet come."
002:005 His mother said to the attendants, "Whatever he tells you
to do, do it."
002:006 Now there were six stone jars standing there (in accordance with the Jewish regulations for purification), each large enough to hold twenty gallons or more.
002:007 Jesus said to the attendants, "Fill the jars with water."
And they filled them to the brim.
002:008 Then He said, "Now, take some out, and carry it to the President
of the feast."
002:009 So they carried some to him. And no sooner had the President tasted the water now turned into wine, than—not knowing where it came from, though the attendants who had drawn the water knew— he called to the bridegroom
002:010 and said to him, "It is usual to put on the good wine first,
and when people have drunk freely, then that which is inferior.
But you have kept the good wine till now."
002:011 This, the first of His miracles, Jesus performed at Cana
in Galilee, and thus displayed His glorious power; and His
disciples believed in Him.
002:012 Afterwards He went down to Capernaum—He, and His mother,
and His brothers, and His disciples; and they made a
short stay there.
002:013 But the Jewish Passover was approaching, and for this Jesus
went up to Jerusalem.
002:014 And He found in the Temple the dealers in cattle and sheep
and in pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there.
002:015 So He plaited a whip of rushes, and drove all—both sheep
and bullocks—out of the Temple. The small coin of the brokers
He upset on the ground and overturned their tables.
002:016 And to the pigeon-dealers He said, "Take these things away.
Do not turn my Father's house into a market."
002:017 This recalled to His disciples the words of Scripture, "My zeal
for Thy House will consume me."
002:018 So the Jews asked Him, "What proof of your authority do you
exhibit to us, seeing that you do these things?"
002:019 "Demolish this Sanctuary," said Jesus, "and in three days I
will rebuild it."
002:020 "It has taken forty-six years," replied the Jews, "to build
this Sanctuary, and will you rebuild it in three days?"
002:021 But He was speaking of the Sanctuary of His body.
002:022 When however He had risen from among the dead, His disciples
recollected that He had said this; and they believed
the Scripture and the teaching which Jesus had given them.
002:023 Now when He was in Jerusalem, at the Festival of the Passover,
many became believers in Him through watching the miracles
He performed.
002:024 But for His part, Jesus did not trust Himself to them,
because He knew them all,
002:025 and did not need any one's testimony concerning a man,
for He of Himself knew what was in the man.
003:001 Now there was one of the Pharisees whose name was Nicodemus—
a ruler among the Jews.
003:002 He came to Jesus by night and said, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher from God; for no one can do these miracles which you are doing, unless God is with him.
003:003 "In most solemn truth I tell you," answered Jesus, "that unless a man is born anew he cannot see the Kingdom of God."
003:004 "How is it possible," Nicodemus asked, "for a man to be born
when he is old? Can he a second time enter his mother's womb
and be born?"
003:005 "In most solemn truth I tell you," replied Jesus, "that unless
a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter
the Kingdom of God.
003:006 Whatever has been born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever
has been born of the Spirit is spirit.
003:007 Do not be astonished at my telling you, `You must all
be born anew.'
003:008 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear its sound,
but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going.
So is it with every one who has been born of the Spirit."
003:009 "How is all this possible?" asked Nicodemus.
003:010 "Are you," replied Jesus, "`the Teacher of Israel,' and yet do you not understand these things?
003:011 In most solemn truth I tell you that we speak what we know, and give testimony of that of which we were eye-witnesses, and yet you all reject our testimony.
003:012 If I have told you earthly things and none of you believe me, how will you believe me if I tell you of things in Heaven?
003:013 There is no one who has gone up to Heaven, but there is One who has come down from Heaven, namely the Son of Man whose home is in Heaven.
003:014 And just as Moses lifted high the serpent in the Desert,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
003:015 in order that every one who trusts in Him may have the Life
of the Ages."
003:016 For so greatly did God love the world that He gave His only Son, that every one who trusts in Him may not perish but may have the Life of Ages.
003:017 For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
003:018 He who trusts in Him does not come up for judgement.