Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory -- the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father.

No one has ever seen God. The only one, himself God, who is in closest fellowship with the Father, has made God known.

Now this was John's testimony when the Jewish leaders sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?"

So they asked him, "Then who are you? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not!" "Are you the Prophet?" He answered, "No!"

(Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.)

Jesus answered, "Come and you will see." So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. Now it was about four o'clock in the afternoon.

(Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the town of Andrew and Peter.)

Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and exclaimed, "Look, a true Israelite in whom there is no deceit!"

Nathanael asked him, "How do you know me?" Jesus replied, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you."

Now on the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there,

When the wine ran out, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no wine left."

Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washing, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.

Then he told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the head steward," and they did.

When the head steward tasted the water that had been turned to wine, not knowing where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), he called the bridegroom

and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the cheaper wine when the guests are drunk. You have kept the good wine until now!"

Now the Jewish feast of Passover was near, so Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

Now while Jesus was in Jerusalem at the feast of the Passover, many people believed in his name because they saw the miraculous signs he was doing.

But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people.

He did not need anyone to testify about man, for he knew what was in man.

Now a certain man, a Pharisee named Nicodemus, who was a member of the Jewish ruling council,

came to Jesus at night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs that you do unless God is with him."

The wind blows wherever it will, and you hear the sound it makes, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."

I tell you the solemn truth, we speak about what we know and testify about what we have seen, but you people do not accept our testimony.

No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven -- the Son of Man.

Now this is the basis for judging: that the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil.

Now a dispute came about between some of John's disciples and a certain Jew concerning ceremonial washing.

John replied, "No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven.

He testifies about what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony.

Now when Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that he was winning and baptizing more disciples than John

Now he came to a Samaritan town called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

"Sir," the woman said to him, "you have no bucket and the well is deep; where then do you get this living water?

The woman replied, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "Right you are when you said, 'I have no husband,'

for you have had five husbands, and the man you are living with now is not your husband. This you said truthfully!"

You people worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, because salvation is from the Jews.

But a time is coming -- and now is here -- when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such people to be his worshipers.

The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (the one called Christ); "whenever he comes, he will tell us everything."

Now at that very moment his disciples came back. They were shocked because he was speaking with a woman. However, no one said, "What do you want?" or "Why are you speaking with her?"

But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about."

So the disciples began to say to one another, "No one brought him anything to eat, did they?"

Now many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the report of the woman who testified, "He told me everything I ever did."

They said to the woman, "No longer do we believe because of your words, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this one really is the Savior of the world."

(For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.)

Now he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had made the water wine. In Capernaum there was a certain royal official whose son was sick.

Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool called Bethzatha in Aramaic, which has five covered walkways.

Now a man was there who had been disabled for thirty-eight years.

The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I am trying to get into the water, someone else goes down there before me."

Immediately the man was healed, and he picked up his mat and started walking. (Now that day was a Sabbath.)

But the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped out, since there was a crowd in that place.

Now because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began persecuting him.

So he told them, "My Father is working until now, and I too am working."

I tell you the solemn truth, a time is coming -- and is now here -- when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

There is another who testifies about me, and I know the testimony he testifies about me is true.

"But I have a testimony greater than that from John. For the deeds that the Father has assigned me to complete -- the deeds I am now doing -- testify about me that the Father has sent me.

but I know you, that you do not have the love of God within you.

(Now the Jewish feast of the Passover was near.)

(Now Jesus said this to test him, for he knew what he was going to do.)

Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." (Now there was a lot of grass in that place.) So the men sat down, about five thousand in number.

Now when the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus performed, they began to say to one another, "This is certainly the Prophet who is to come into the world."

Then Jesus, because he knew they were going to come and seize him by force to make him king, withdrew again up the mountainside alone.

Now when evening came, his disciples went down to the lake,

By now a strong wind was blowing and the sea was getting rough.

Now this is the will of the one who sent me -- that I should not lose one person of every one he has given me, but raise them all up at the last day.

and they said, "Isn't this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'?"

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.

Jesus said to them, "I tell you the solemn truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves.

The Spirit is the one who gives life; human nature is of no help! The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

So Jesus added, "Because of this I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has allowed him to come."

We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God!"

(Now he said this about Judas son of Simon Iscariot, for Judas, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.)

Now the Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near.

For no one who seeks to make a reputation for himself does anything in secret. If you are doing these things, show yourself to the world."

However, no one spoke openly about him for fear of the Jewish leaders.

Then the Jewish leaders were astonished and said, "How does this man know so much when he has never had formal instruction?"

If anyone wants to do God's will, he will know about my teaching, whether it is from God or whether I speak from my own authority.

The person who speaks on his own authority desires to receive honor for himself; the one who desires the honor of the one who sent him is a man of integrity, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

Yet here he is, speaking publicly, and they are saying nothing to him. Do the rulers really know that this man is the Christ?

But we know where this man comes from. Whenever the Christ comes, no one will know where he comes from."

Then Jesus, while teaching in the temple courts, cried out, "You both know me and know where I come from! And I have not come on my own initiative, but the one who sent me is true. You do not know him,

but I know him, because I have come from him and he sent me."

So then they tried to seize Jesus, but no one laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come.

(Now he said this about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive, for the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.)

Others said, "This is the Christ!" But still others said, "No, for the Christ doesn't come from Galilee, does he?

Some of them were wanting to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.

The officers replied, "No one ever spoke like this man!"

But this rabble who do not know the law are accursed!"

They replied, "You aren't from Galilee too, are you? Investigate carefully and you will see that no prophet comes from Galilee!"

(Now they were asking this in an attempt to trap him, so that they could bring charges against him.) Jesus bent down and wrote on the ground with his finger.

Now when they heard this, they began to drift away one at a time, starting with the older ones, until Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.

Jesus stood up straight and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?"

She replied, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "I do not condemn you either. Go, and from now on do not sin any more."]]

Jesus answered, "Even if I testify about myself, my testimony is true, because I know where I came from and where I am going. But you people do not know where I came from or where I am going.

Then they began asking him, "Who is your father?" Jesus answered, "You do not know either me or my Father. If you knew me you would know my Father too."

(Jesus spoke these words near the offering box while he was teaching in the temple courts. No one seized him because his time had not yet come.)

Then Jesus said, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and I do nothing on my own initiative, but I speak just what the Father taught me.

and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

I know that you are Abraham's descendants. But you want to kill me, because my teaching makes no progress among you.

But now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth I heard from God. Abraham did not do this!

Jesus replied, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come from God and am now here. I have not come on my own initiative, but he sent me.

You people are from your father the devil, and you want to do what your father desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.

Then the Judeans responded, "Now we know you're possessed by a demon! Both Abraham and the prophets died, and yet you say, 'If anyone obeys my teaching, he will never experience death.'