He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that everyone might believe through him.

He himself was not the light, but he came to testify about the light.

He was in the world, and the world was created by him, but the world did not recognize him.

He came to what was his own, but his own people did not receive him.

But to all who have received him -- those who believe in his name -- he has given the right to become God's children

John testified about him and shouted out, "This one was the one about whom I said, 'He who comes after me is greater than I am, because he existed before me.'"

He confessed -- he did not deny but confessed -- "I am not the Christ!"

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

This is the one about whom I said, 'After me comes a man who is greater than I am, because he existed before me.'

I did not recognize him, but I came baptizing with water so that he could be revealed to Israel."

Gazing at Jesus as he walked by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!"

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.

He first found his own brother Simon and told him, "We have found the Messiah!" (which is translated Christ).

On the next day Jesus wanted to set out for Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me."

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

He continued, "I tell all of you the solemn truth -- you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

His mother told the servants, "Whatever he tells you, do it."

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

Jesus did this as the first of his miraculous signs, in Cana of Galilee. In this way he revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there a few days.

He found in the temple courts those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers sitting at tables.

So he made a whip of cords and drove them all out of the temple courts, with the sheep and the oxen. He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.

To those who sold the doves he said, "Take these things away from here! Do not make my Father's house a marketplace!"

So after he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the saying that Jesus had spoken.

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.

Jesus replied, "I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother's womb and be born a second time, can he?"

Jesus answered, "I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus replied, "How can these things be?"

If I have told you people about earthly things and you don't believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

After this, Jesus and his disciples came into Judean territory, and there he spent time with them and was baptizing.

So they came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, the one who was with you on the other side of the Jordan River, about whom you testified -- see, he is baptizing, and everyone is flocking to him!"

The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands by and listens for him, rejoices greatly when he hears the bridegroom's voice. This then is my joy, and it is complete.

He must become more important while I become less important."

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

For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he does not give the Spirit sparingly.

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

he left Judea and set out once more for Galilee.

But he had to pass through Samaria.

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

Jacob's well was there, so Jesus, since he was tired from the journey, sat right down beside the well. It was about noon.

So the Samaritan woman said to him, "How can you -- a Jew -- ask me, a Samaritan woman, for water to drink?" (For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered her, "If you had known the gift of God and who it is who said to you, 'Give me some water to drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."

Surely you're not greater than our ancestor Jacob, are you? For he gave us this well and drank from it himself, along with his sons and his livestock."

He said to her, "Go call your husband and come back here."

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

Jesus said to her, "I, the one speaking to you, am he."

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?"

"Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Surely he can't be the Messiah, can he?"

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

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."

So when the Samaritans came to him, they began asking him to stay with them. He stayed there two days,

After the two days he departed from there to Galilee.

So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him because they had seen all the things he had done in Jerusalem at the feast (for they themselves had gone to the feast).

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.

When he heard that Jesus had come back from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and begged him to come down and heal his son, who was about to die.

While he was on his way down, his slaves met him and told him that his son was going to live.

So he asked them the time when his condition began to improve, and they told him, "Yesterday at one o'clock in the afternoon the fever left him."

Then the father realized that it was the very time Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live," and he himself believed along with his entire household.

Jesus did this as his second miraculous sign when he returned from Judea to Galilee.

When Jesus saw him lying there and when he realized that the man had been disabled a long time already, he said to him, "Do you want to become well?"

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

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

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

For this reason the Jewish leaders were trying even harder to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was also calling God his own Father, thus making himself equal with God.

So Jesus answered them, "I tell you the solemn truth, the Son can do nothing on his own initiative, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.

For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he does, and will show him greater deeds than these, so that you will be amazed.

For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes.

For just as the Father has life in himself, thus he has granted the Son to have life in himself,

and he has granted the Son authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.

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

You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth.

He was a lamp that was burning and shining, and you wanted to rejoice greatly for a short time in his light.

nor do you have his word residing in you, because you do not believe the one whom he sent.

How can you believe, if you accept praise from one another and don't seek the praise that comes from the only God?

If you believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me.

But if you do not believe what Moses wrote, how will you believe my words?"

A large crowd was following him because they were observing the miraculous signs he was performing on the sick.

Then Jesus, when he looked up and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, said to Philip, "Where can we buy bread so that these people may eat?"

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

Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed the bread to those who were seated. He then did the same with the fish, as much as they wanted.

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.

But he said to them, "It is I. Do not be afraid."

Jesus replied, "This is the deed God requires -- to believe in the one whom he sent."

Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'"

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.

Then the Jews who were hostile to Jesus began complaining about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven,"

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'?"

(Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God -- he has seen the Father.)

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats from this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."

Then the Jews who were hostile to Jesus began to argue with one another, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

Jesus said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

When Jesus was aware that his disciples were complaining about this, he said to them, "Does this cause you to be offended?

Then what if you see the Son of Man ascending where he was before?

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