John 4-5

New International Version

Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman

4 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John^(A)— ² although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. ³ So he left Judea^(B) and went back once more to Galilee.

⁴ Now he had to go through Samaria.^{(C) 5} So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.^{(D) 6} Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

⁷ When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”^{(E) 8} (His disciples had gone into the town^(F) to buy food.)

⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan^(G) woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.^[a])

¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”^(H)

¹¹ “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well^(I) and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.^(J) Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water^(K) welling up to eternal life.”^(L)

¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty^(M) and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

¹⁶ He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

¹⁷ “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸ The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet.^{(N) 20} Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain,^(O) but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”^(P)

²¹ “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming^(Q) when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.^{(R) 22} You Samaritans worship what you do not know;^(S) we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.^{(T) 23} Yet a time is coming and has now come^(U) when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit^(V) and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit,^(W) and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

²⁵ The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ)^(X) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

²⁶ Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”^(Y)

The Disciples Rejoin Jesus

²⁷ Just then his disciples returned^(Z) and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

²⁸ Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did.^(AA) Could this be the Messiah?”^{(AB) 30} They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

³¹ Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi,^(AC) eat something.”

³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat^(AD) that you know nothing about.”

³³ Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”

³⁴ “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will^(AE) of him who sent me and to finish his work.^{(AF) 35} Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.^{(AG) 36} Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests^(AH) a crop for eternal life,^(AI) so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. ³⁷ Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’^(AJ) is true. ³⁸ I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

Many Samaritans Believe

³⁹ Many of the Samaritans from that town^(AK) believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.”^{(AL) 40} So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. ⁴¹ And because of his words many more became believers.

⁴² They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”^(AM)

Jesus Heals an Official’s Son

⁴³ After the two days^(AN) he left for Galilee. ⁴⁴ (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.)^{(AO) 45} When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival,^(AP) for they also had been there.

⁴⁶ Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine.^(AQ) And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. ⁴⁷ When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea,^(AR) he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.

⁴⁸ “Unless you people see signs and wonders,”^(AS) Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”

⁴⁹ The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

⁵⁰ “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.”

The man took Jesus at his word and departed. ⁵¹ While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. ⁵² When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”

⁵³ Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household^(AT) believed.

⁵⁴ This was the second sign^(AU) Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.

The Healing at the Pool

5 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. ² Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate^(AV) a pool, which in Aramaic^(AW) is called Bethesda^[b] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. ³ Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. ^{[4] [c] 5} One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷ “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

⁸ Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”^{(AX) 9} At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,^{(AY) 10} and so the Jewish leaders^(AZ) said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”^(BA)

¹¹ But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

¹² So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

¹³ The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

¹⁴ Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning^(BB) or something worse may happen to you.” ¹⁵ The man went away and told the Jewish leaders^(BC) that it was Jesus who had made him well.

The Authority of the Son

¹⁶ So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. ¹⁷ In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father^(BD) is always at his work^(BE) to this very day, and I too am working.” ¹⁸ For this reason they tried all the more to kill him;^(BF) not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.^(BG)

¹⁹ Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself;^(BH) he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. ²⁰ For the Father loves the Son^(BI) and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these,^(BJ) so that you will be amazed. ²¹ For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life,^(BK) even so the Son gives life^(BL) to whom he is pleased to give it. ²² Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son,^{(BM) 23} that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.^(BN)

²⁴ “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me^(BO) has eternal life^(BP) and will not be judged^(BQ) but has crossed over from death to life.^{(BR) 25} Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come^(BS) when the dead will hear^(BT) the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. ²⁶ For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life^(BU) in himself. ²⁷ And he has given him authority to judge^(BV) because he is the Son of Man.

²⁸ “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming^(BW) when all who are in their graves will hear his voice ²⁹ and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.^{(BX) 30} By myself I can do nothing;^(BY) I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just,^(BZ) for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.^(CA)

Testimonies About Jesus

³¹ “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true.^{(CB) 32} There is another who testifies in my favor,^(CC) and I know that his testimony about me is true.

³³ “You have sent to John and he has testified^(CD) to the truth. ³⁴ Not that I accept human testimony;^(CE) but I mention it that you may be saved.^{(CF) 35} John was a lamp that burned and gave light,^(CG) and you chose for a time to enjoy his light.

³⁶ “I have testimony weightier than that of John.^(CH) For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing^(CI)—testify that the Father has sent me.^{(CJ) 37} And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me.^(CK) You have never heard his voice nor seen his form,^{(CL) 38} nor does his word dwell in you,^(CM) for you do not believe^(CN) the one he sent.^{(CO) 39} You study^[d] the Scriptures^(CP) diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life.^(CQ) These are the very Scriptures that testify about me,^{(CR) 40} yet you refuse to come to me^(CS) to have life.

⁴¹ “I do not accept glory from human beings,^{(CT) 42} but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. ⁴³ I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. ⁴⁴ How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God^[e]?^(CU)

⁴⁵ “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses,^(CV) on whom your hopes are set.^{(CW) 46} If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.^{(CX) 47} But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”^(CY)