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

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

-- children not born by human parents or by human desire or a husband's decision, but by God.

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.

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!"

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?"

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

On the next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

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

Then John testified, "I saw the Spirit descending like a dove from heaven, and it remained on him.

And I did not recognize him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'The one on whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining -- this is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.'

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.

Nathanael replied, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip replied, "Come and see."

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."

Jesus said to him, "Because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these."

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."

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

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

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 then the Jewish leaders responded, "What sign can you show us, since you are doing these things?"

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.

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?"

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."

Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."

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.

For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed.

But the one who practices the truth comes to the light, so that it may be plainly evident that his deeds have been done in God.

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

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.

The one who believes in the Son has eternal life. The one who rejects the Son will not see life, but God's wrath remains on him.

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.)

The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water."

The woman said to him, "Sir, I see that you are a prophet.

Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you people say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem."

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

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?"

Don't you say, 'There are four more months and then comes the harvest?' I tell you, look up and see that the fields are already white for harvest!

The one who reaps receives pay and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that the one who sows and the one who reaps can rejoice together.

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

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 Jesus said to him, "Unless you people see signs and wonders you will never believe!"

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."

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?"

So the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath, and you are not permitted to carry your mat."

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

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.

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.

(I do not accept human testimony, but I say this so that you may be saved.)

but you are not willing to come to me so that you may have life.

I have come in my Father's name, and you do not accept me. If someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him.

After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (also called the Sea of Tiberias).

So Jesus went on up the mountainside and sat down there with his disciples.

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?"

One of Jesus' disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him,

"Here is a boy who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what good are these for so many people?"

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.

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."

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

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.

Jesus replied, "I tell you the solemn truth, you are looking for me not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate all the loaves of bread you wanted.

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'?"

This is the bread that has come down from heaven, so that a person may eat from it and not die.

Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so the one who consumes me will live because of me.

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

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

So Jesus said to the twelve, "You don't want to go away too, do you?"

So Jesus' brothers advised him, "Leave here and go to Judea so your disciples may see your miracles that you are performing.

So Jesus replied, "My time has not yet arrived, but you are ready at any opportunity!

So the Jewish leaders were looking for him at the feast, asking, "Where is he?"

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

So Jesus replied, "My teaching is not from me, but from the one who sent me.

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.

But if a male child is circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses is not broken, why are you angry with me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath?

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

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

The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things about Jesus, so the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.

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

Don't the scriptures say that the Christ is a descendant of David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?"

So there was a division in the crowd because of Jesus.

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

In the law Moses commanded us to stone to death such women. What then do you say?"

(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.