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

Then they said to him, "Who are you? Tell us so that we can give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?"

(Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.)

So they asked John, "Why then are you baptizing if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?"

When John's two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.

Jesus turned around and saw them following and said to them, "What do you want?" So they said to him, "Rabbi" (which is translated Teacher), "where are you staying?"

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.

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

Jesus told the servants, "Fill the water jars with water." So they filled them up to the very top.

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

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

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.

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!"

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?"

So they left the town and began coming to him.

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

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

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."

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).

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."

They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, 'Pick up your mat and walk'?"

so that all people will honor the Son just as they honor the Father. The one who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

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

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.

When they were all satisfied, Jesus said to his disciples, "Gather up the broken pieces that are left over, so that nothing is wasted."

So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with broken pieces from the five barley loaves left over by the people who had eaten.

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.

Then, when they had rowed about three or four miles, they caught sight of Jesus walking on the lake, approaching the boat, and they were frightened.

Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat came to the land where they had been heading.

But some boats from Tiberias came to shore near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks.

So when the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

When they found him on the other side of the lake, they said to him, "Rabbi, when did you get here?"

So then they said to him, "What must we do to accomplish the deeds God requires?"

So they said to him, "Then what miraculous sign will you perform, so that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?

So they said to him, "Sir, give us this bread all the time!"

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'?"

It is written in the prophets, 'And they will all be taught by God.' Everyone who hears and learns from the Father comes to me.

Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.

Then many of his disciples, when they heard these things, said, "This is a difficult saying! Who can understand it?"

Then some of the residents of Jerusalem began to say, "Isn't this the man they are trying to kill?

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

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

When they heard these words, some of the crowd began to say, "This really is the Prophet!"

None of the rulers or the Pharisees have believed in him, have they?

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

The experts in the law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught committing adultery. They made her stand in front of them

(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.

When they persisted in asking him, he stood up straight and replied, "Whoever among you is guiltless may be the first to throw a stone at her."

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?"

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."

So they said to him, "Who are you?" Jesus replied, "What I have told you from the beginning.

(They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father.)

"We are descendants of Abraham," they replied, "and have never been anyone's slaves! How can you say, 'You will become free'?"

They answered him, "Abraham is our father!" Jesus replied, "If you are Abraham's children, you would be doing the deeds of Abraham.

You people are doing the deeds of your father." Then they said to Jesus, "We were not born as a result of immorality! We have only one Father, God himself."

Then they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out from the temple area.

So they asked him, "How then were you made to see?"

They said to him, "Where is that man?" He replied, "I don't know."

They brought the man who used to be blind to the Pharisees.

So again they asked the man who used to be blind, "What do you say about him, since he caused you to see?" "He is a prophet," the man replied.

Now the Jewish religious leaders refused to believe that he had really been blind and had gained his sight until at last they summoned the parents of the man who had become able to see.

They asked the parents, "Is this your son, whom you say was born blind? Then how does he now see?"

(His parents said these things because they were afraid of the Jewish religious leaders. For the Jewish leaders had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Christ would be put out of the synagogue.

Then they summoned the man who used to be blind a second time and said to him, "Promise before God to tell the truth. We know that this man is a sinner."

Then they said to him, "What did he do to you? How did he cause you to see?"

They heaped insults on him, saying, "You are his disciple! We are disciples of Moses!

They replied, "You were born completely in sinfulness, and yet you presume to teach us?" So they threw him out.

Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, so he found the man and said to him, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"

When he has brought all his own sheep out, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they recognize his voice.

They will never follow a stranger, but will run away from him, because they do not recognize the stranger's voice."

Jesus told them this parable, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.

I have other sheep that do not come from this sheepfold. I must bring them too, and they will listen to my voice, so that there will be one flock and one shepherd.

My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one will snatch them from my hand.

Then they attempted again to seize him, but he escaped their clutches.

(Now Jesus had been talking about his death, but they thought he had been talking about real sleep.)

Then the people who were with Mary in the house consoling her saw her get up quickly and go out. They followed her, because they thought she was going to the tomb to weep there.

He asked, "Where have you laid him?" They replied, "Lord, come and see."

So they took away the stone. Jesus looked upward and said, "Father, I thank you that you have listened to me.

I knew that you always listen to me, but I said this for the sake of the crowd standing around here, that they may believe that you sent me."

So from that day they planned together to kill him.

Thus they were looking for Jesus, and saying to one another as they stood in the temple courts, "What do you think? That he won't come to the feast?"

(Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where Jesus was should report it, so that they could arrest him.)

So they prepared a dinner for Jesus there. Martha was serving, and Lazarus was among those present at the table with him.

Now a large crowd of Judeans learned that Jesus was there, and so they came not only because of him but also to see Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead.

So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him. They began to shout, "Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel!"

(His disciples did not understand these things when they first happened, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about him and that these things had happened to him.)

Because they had heard that Jesus had performed this miraculous sign, the crowd went out to meet him.

Philip went and told Andrew, and they both went and told Jesus.

Although Jesus had performed so many miraculous signs before them, they still refused to believe in him,

For this reason they could not believe, because again Isaiah said,

"He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, so that they would not see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and turn to me, and I would heal them."

Nevertheless, even among the rulers many believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they would not confess Jesus to be the Christ, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue.

For they loved praise from men more than praise from God.

Some thought that, because Judas had the money box, Jesus was telling him to buy whatever they needed for the feast, or to give something to the poor.)

Remember what I told you, 'A slave is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they obeyed my word, they will obey yours too.