Just as the living Father has sent me and I live because of the Father, so whoever keeps on eating me will live because of me.

This is the bread that comes down out of heaven; not as your forefathers ate the manna, and yet died. Whoever continues to eat this bread will live forever."

He said this as He taught in the synagogue at Capernaum.

So many of His disciples, when they heard it, said, "This teaching is hard to take in. Who can listen to it?"

But as Jesus naturally knew that His disciples were grumbling about this, He said to them, "Is this shocking to you?

The Spirit is what gives life; the flesh does not help at all. The truths that I have told you are spirit and life.

So He continued, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me, unless it is granted to him by my Father."

As a result of this many of His disciples turned their backs on Him and stopped accompanying Him.

Jesus answered them, "Did I not myself select you as the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil."

for no one does anything in secret when he is trying to be known to the public. If you are going to do this, show yourself publicly to the world."

Then Jesus said to them, "It is not yet time for me to do so, but anytime is suitable for you.

It is impossible for the world to hate you; it is I whom it hates, because I continue to testify that its works are wicked.

Go up to the feast yourselves; I am not going up to it yet, for it is not quite time for me to go."

But after His brothers had gone up to the feast, then He went up too, not publicly but, as it were, privately.

Now the Jews at the feast were looking for Him and kept asking, "Where is He?"

Jesus answered them, "My teaching is not my own, but it comes from Him who sent me.

If anyone is willing to keep on doing God's will, he will know whether my teaching comes from God, or merely expresses my own ideas.

Whoever utters merely his own ideas is seeking his own honor, but whoever seeks the honor of him who sent him is sincere, and there is no dishonesty in him.

Did not Moses give you the law? And yet not one of you is keeping that law. If so, why are you trying to kill me?"

The crowd answered, "You are certainly under the power of a demon! Who is trying to kill you?"

Then some of the people of Jerusalem said, "Is not this the man they are trying to kill?

Just look! He is talking in public, and yet they do not say a word to Him! It cannot be that the authorities have really learned that He is the Christ, can it?

But we know where this man is from; when the Christ comes, however, no one will know where He is from."

So Jesus, as He was teaching in the temple, cried out, "Yes, you do know me and you do know where I come from, and I have not come on my own authority, but the One who has sent me exists as the Real One, whom you do not know.

The Jews then said to one another, "Where is He about to go that we shall not find Him? He is not going to our people scattered among the Greeks, and going to teach the Greeks, is He?

On the last day, the great day, of the feast, Jesus stood and cried aloud, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

Whoever continues to believe in me will have, as the Scripture says, rivers of living water continuously flowing from within him."

So some of the people, when they heard this, said, "This is surely the prophet."

Others said, "This is the Christ." But still others said, "The Christ does not come from Galilee, does He?

Do not the Scriptures say that the Christ is to spring from David and to come from the village of Bethlehem where David lived?"

The officers answered, "No man ever talked as He does!"

But this mob, which knows nothing about the law, is bound to be accursed!"

"Our law does not condemn a man before it hears what he has to say and finds out what he is doing, does it?"

In our law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now, what do you say?"

When the questioners persisted, Jesus straightened up and said to them, "Let the one of you who is sinless be the first one to cast a stone at her."

The Pharisees then said to Him, "You are testifying to yourself; your testimony is not true."

Jesus answered them, "Even if I do testify to myself, my testimony is true, because I know where I have come from and where I am going. But you do not know where I come from or where I am going.

Even if I should judge, my decision is fair, because I am not alone, but there are two of us, I and the Father who has sent me.

Even in your own law it is written, 'The testimony of two persons is true.'

Then they began to say to Him, "Where is your Father?" Jesus answered, "You do not know either me or my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father too."

He said these things in the treasury as He was teaching in the temple, and yet no one ventured to arrest Him, because the time had not yet come for Him.

Then the Jews began to say, "He is not going to kill Himself, is He? Is that why He said, 'Where I am going you can never come'?"

I have much to say about you and much to condemn in you, but He who sent me is truthful, and I am telling the world only what I have learned from Him."

Yes, He who sent me is ever with me; I am not alone, because I always practice what pleases Him."

They answered Him, "We are Abraham's descendants and we never have been anybody's slaves. How can you say to us, 'You will be set free'?"

Jesus answered them, "I most solemnly say to you, everyone who lives in sin is a slave of sin.

I know that you are Abraham's descendants, and yet you are trying to kill me, because there is no room in you for my teaching.

They answered Him, "Our father is Abraham." Jesus said to them, "If you are Abraham's children, you must be practicing what Abraham did.

Why is it that you misunderstand what I say? It is because you cannot listen to what I teach.

You sprang from the devil, your real father, and you want to practice your father's wishes. He was a murderer from the very start, and he does not stand by the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks out of his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.

Whoever is sprung from God listens to what God says. This is why you do not listen to me: you are not sprung from God."

However, I am not seeking honor for myself; there is One who is seeking it for me, and He is judge.

Then the Jews said to Him, "Now we know that you are under the power of a demon. Abraham is dead; the prophets too, and yet you say, 'If anyone follows my teaching, he will never experience death.'

You are not greater than our forefather Abraham, are you? He is dead and the prophets are dead. Who do you claim to be?"

Jesus answered, "If I glorify myself, such glory amounts to nothing. It is the Father who glorifies me; and you claim that He is your God.

Your forefather Abraham exulted in the hope of seeing my day. He has seen it and is glad of it."

As He passed along, He saw a man who had been blind from his birth.

So His disciples asked Him, "Teacher, for whose sin was this man born blind, his own or that of his parents?"

We must continue to do the works of Him who sent me while it is daylight. Night is coming when no one can do any work.

Now his neighbors and those who saw that he was formerly blind, kept saying, "Is not this the man who used to sit and beg?"

Some said, "Yes, it is he." Others said, "No, but it surely does look like him." He himself said, "I am the man."

Then they asked him, "Where is He?" He answered, "I do not know."

Then again they asked the blind man, "What do you say about Him yourself, since He has made your eyes to see?" He answered, "He is a prophet."

and asked them, "Is this your son, and do you affirm that he was born blind? If so, how is it then that he now can see?"

His parents answered, "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind.

But we do not know how it is that he now can see, or who it was that made his eyes to see. Ask him; he is of age; he can speak for himself."

His parents said this, because they were afraid of the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone owned Jesus as the Christ, he should be shut out of the synagogues.

This is why his parents said, "He is of age, ask him."

So a second time they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, "Give God the praise; we know this man is a sinner."

Then he answered, "I do not know whether He is a sinner. I do know one thing, that once I was blind but now I can see."

The man answered them, "Well, there is something strange about this! You do not know where He comes from! And yet He has made my eyes to see!

Then they retorted, "You were born in total depravity, and yet you are trying to teach us!" And so they turned him out of the synagogue.

He answered, "Who is He, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in Him."

"I most solemnly say to you, whoever does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs over at some other place is a thief and a robber.

But the one who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

All who came as such before me are thieves and robbers, but the true sheep would not listen to them.

The hired man, who is not a shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf carries off some of the sheep and scatters the flock.

This is because he is a hired man and does not care a straw for the sheep.

just as the Father knows me and I know the Father, and I am giving my own life for my sheep.

This is why the Father loves me, because I am giving my own life to take it back again.

No one has taken it from me, but I am giving it as a free gift. I have the right to give it and I have the right to take it back. I have gotten this order from my Father."

Many of them said, "He is under the power of a demon and is going crazy. Why are you listening to Him?"

Others said, "These are not the words of a man who is under the power of a demon. A demon cannot make the eyes of the blind see, can he?"

So the Jews surrounded Him and kept asking Him, "How much longer are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are really the Christ, tell us so plainly."

My father who gave them to me is stronger than all, and no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.

The Jews retorted, "It is not for a good deed but for blasphemy we are going to stone you; namely, because you, although a mere man, claim to be God."

Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, "You are gods"'?

If I am not doing the things that my Father is doing, do not believe me.

But if I am doing so, even if you will not believe me, believe the deeds, that you may come to know and continue to know that the Father is in union with me and I am in union with the Father."

It was the Mary who poured the perfume upon the Lord and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.

So the sisters sent this message to Jesus, "Lord, listen! the one you love so well is sick."

When Jesus received the message, He said, "This sickness is not to end in death but is to honor God, that the Son of God through it may be honored."

After that He said to His disciples, "Let us go back to Judea."

So Jesus then told them plainly: "Lazarus is dead,

and I am glad for your sake that I was not there so that you may come to have real faith in me. But let us go to him."

Then Thomas the Twin said to his fellow-disciples, "Let us go too, and die with Him."

Now Bethany is only about two miles from Jerusalem,

On saying this she went back and called her sister Mary, whispering to her, "The Teacher is here and is asking for you."

As soon as she heard it, she jumped up and started to Jesus,

Now Jesus sighed again and continued to sigh as He went to the grave. It was a cave with a stone lying over the mouth of it.