John

¹Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals.

²Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool called Bethesda in Aramaic, which has five covered colonnades.

³Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.

⁴From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the water. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had.

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

⁶When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"

⁷"Sir," the disabled man replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me."

⁸Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk."

⁹At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath.

¹⁰So the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat."

¹¹But he replied, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.'"

¹²So they asked him, "Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?"

¹³The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

¹⁴Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you."

¹⁵The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.

¹⁶So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him.

¹⁷In his defense Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working."

¹⁸For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

¹⁹Jesus gave them this answer: "Truly, truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does."

²⁰"For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed."

²¹"For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it."

²²"Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son,"

²³"so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him."

²⁴"Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life."

²⁵"Truly, truly, I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live."

²⁶"For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself."

²⁷"And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man."

²⁸"Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice"

²⁹"and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned."

³⁰"By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me."

³¹"If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid."

³²"There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is true."

³³"You sent to John and he testified to the truth."

³⁴"Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it so that you may be saved."

³⁵"John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light."

³⁶"I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me."

³⁷"And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form,"

³⁸"nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent."

³⁹"You study the scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very scriptures that testify about me,"

⁴⁰"yet you refuse to come to me to have life."

⁴¹"I do not accept glory from human beings,"

⁴²"but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts."

⁴³"I have come in my Father's name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in their own name, you will accept them."

⁴⁴"How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?"

⁴⁵"But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set."

⁴⁶"If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me."

⁴⁷"But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?"