John 4-5

Holman Christian Standard Bible

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

4 When Jesus^[a] knew that the Pharisees^(A) heard He was making^(B) and baptizing more disciples than John^{(C) 2} (though Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were), ³ He left Judea^(D) and went again to Galilee.^{(E) 4} He had to travel through Samaria,^{(F) 5} so He came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property^[b] that Jacob^(G) had given his son Joseph.^{(H) 6} Jacob’s well^(I) was there, and Jesus, worn out from His journey, sat down at the well. It was about six in the evening.^[c]

⁷ A woman of Samaria came to draw water.^(J)

“Give Me a drink,” Jesus said to her, ⁸ for His disciples had gone into town to buy food.

⁹ “How is it that You, a Jew,^(K) ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan^(L) woman?” she asked Him. For Jews do not associate with^[d] Samaritans.^[e]

¹⁰ Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God,^(M) and who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would ask Him, and He would give you living water.”^(N)

¹¹ “Sir,”^(O) said the woman, “You don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do You get this ‘living water’? ¹² You aren’t greater than our father Jacob,^(P) are You? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.”

¹³ Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. ¹⁴ But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again—ever!^(Q) In fact, the water I will give him will become a well^[f](R) of water springing up within him for eternal life.”^(S)

¹⁵ “Sir,” the woman said to Him, “give me this water so I won’t get thirsty and come here to draw water.”

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

¹⁷ “I don’t have a husband,” she answered.

“You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,’” Jesus said. ¹⁸ “For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”

¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that You are a prophet. ²⁰ Our fathers worshiped on this mountain,^[g](T) yet you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”^(U)

²¹ Jesus told her, “Believe Me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans^[h] worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews.^{(V) 23} But an hour is coming, and is now here,^(W) when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship Him. ²⁴ God is spirit,^(X) and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”^(Y)

²⁵ The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah^[i](Z) is coming” (who is called Christ^(AA)). “When He comes, He will explain everything to us.”

²⁶ “I am He,”^(AB) Jesus told her, “the One speaking to you.”

The Ripened Harvest

²⁷ Just then His disciples arrived, and they were amazed that He was talking with a woman. Yet no one said, “What do You want?” or “Why are You talking with her?”

²⁸ Then the woman left her water jar, went into town, and told the men, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could this be the Messiah?”^{(AC) 30} They left the town and made their way to Him.^(AD)

³¹ In the meantime the disciples kept urging Him, “Rabbi,^(AE) eat something.”

³² But He said, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”

³³ The disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought Him something to eat?”

³⁴ “My food is to do the will of Him^(AF) who sent Me^(AG) and to finish His work,”^(AH) Jesus told them. ³⁵ “Don’t you say, ‘There are still four more months, then comes the harvest’? Listen to what I’m telling you: Open^[j] your eyes and look at the fields, for they are ready^[k] for harvest. ³⁶ The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life,^(AI) so the sower and reaper can rejoice together. ³⁷ For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’^{(AJ) 38} I sent you to reap what you didn’t labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited from^[l] their labor.”

The Savior of the World

³⁹ Now many Samaritans^(AK) from that town believed in Him because of what the woman said^[m] when she testified,^(AL) “He told me everything I ever did.” ⁴⁰ Therefore, when the Samaritans came to Him,^(AM) they asked Him to stay with them, and He stayed there two days. ⁴¹ Many more believed because of what He said.^{[n] 42} And they told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Savior^(AN) of the world.”^[o]

A Galilean Welcome

⁴³ After two days He left there for Galilee.^{(AO) 44} Jesus Himself testified^(AP) that a prophet has no honor in his own country.^{(AQ) 45} When^(AR) they entered Galilee, the Galileans^(AS) welcomed Him because they had seen everything He did in Jerusalem^(AT) during the festival.^(AU) For they also had gone to the festival.

The Second Sign: Healing an Official’s Son

⁴⁶ Then He went again to Cana^(AV) of Galilee, where He had turned the water into wine. There was a certain royal official whose son was ill at Capernaum.^{(AW) 47} When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea^(AX) into Galilee, he went to Him and pleaded with Him to come down and heal his son, for he was about to die.

⁴⁸ Jesus told him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders,^(AY) you will not believe.”^(AZ)

⁴⁹ “Sir,”^(BA) the official said to Him, “come down before my boy dies!”

⁵⁰ “Go,” Jesus told him, “your son will live.” The man believed what^[p] Jesus said to him and departed.

⁵¹ While he was still going down, his slaves met him saying that his boy was alive. ⁵² He asked them at what time he got better. “Yesterday at seven in the morning^[q] the fever left him,” they answered. ⁵³ The father^(BB) realized this was the very hour at which Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” Then he himself believed, along with his whole household.

⁵⁴ This, therefore, was the second sign^(BC) Jesus performed after He came from Judea to Galilee.^(BD)

The Third Sign: Healing the Sick

5 After this, a Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.^{(BE) 2} By the Sheep Gate^(BF) in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda^[r] in Hebrew, which has five colonnades.^{[s] 3} Within these lay a large number of the sick—blind, lame, and paralyzed [—waiting for the moving of the water, ⁴ because an angel would go down into the pool from time to time and stir up the water. Then the first one who got in after the water was stirred up recovered from whatever ailment he had].^[t]

⁵ One man was there who had been sick for 38 years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had already been there a long time,^(BG) He said to him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷ “Sir,”^(BH) the sick man answered, “I don’t have a man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, someone goes down ahead of me.”

⁸ “Get up,” Jesus told him, “pick up your mat and walk!” ⁹ Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk.

Now that day was the Sabbath,^{(BI) 10} so the Jews^(BJ) said to the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath!^(BK) It’s illegal for you to pick up your mat.”

¹¹ He replied, “The man who made me well^(BL) told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”

¹² “Who is this man who told you, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’?” they asked. ¹³ But the man who was cured did not know who it was,^(BM) because Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.^[u]

¹⁴ After this, Jesus found him in the temple complex^(BN) and said to him, “See, you are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.” ¹⁵ The man went and reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.^(BO)

Honoring the Father and the Son

¹⁶ Therefore, the Jews began persecuting^(BP) Jesus^[v] because He was doing these things on the Sabbath.^{(BQ) 17} But Jesus responded to them, “My Father^(BR) is still working, and I am working also.” ¹⁸ This is why the Jews began trying all the more to kill Him:^(BS) Not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.

¹⁹ Then Jesus replied, “I assure you: The Son is not able to do anything on His own, but only what He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father^[w] does, the Son also does these things in the same way.^{(BT) 20} For the Father loves the Son and shows Him everything He is doing, and He will show Him greater works^(BU) than these so that you will be amazed. ²¹ And just as the Father raises^(BV) the dead and gives them life, so the Son also gives life to anyone He wants to.^{(BW) 22} The Father,^(BX) in fact, judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, ²³ so that all people will honor the Son just as they honor the Father.^(BY) Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.^(BZ)

Life and Judgment

²⁴ “I assure you: Anyone who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life^(CA) and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life.

²⁵ “I assure you: An hour is coming, and is now here,^(CB) when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.^{(CC) 26} For just as the Father has life in Himself, so also He has granted to the Son^(CD) to have life in Himself. ²⁷ And He has granted Him the right to pass judgment,^(CE) because He is the Son of Man.^{(CF) 28} Do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear His voice ²⁹ and come out—those who have done good things, to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked things, to the resurrection of judgment.

³⁰ “I can do nothing on My own. I judge only as I hear, and My judgment^(CG) is righteous,^(CH) because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.^(CI)

Four Witnesses to Jesus

³¹ “If I testify about Myself, My testimony is not valid.^{[x] 32} There is Another who testifies about Me, and I know that the testimony He gives about Me is valid.^{[y](CJ) 33} You have sent messengers to John, and he has testified to the truth.^{(CK) 34} I don’t receive man’s testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved. ³⁵ John^[z](CL) was a burning and shining lamp,^(CM) and for a time you were willing to enjoy his light.^(CN)

³⁶ “But I have a greater testimony than John’s because of the works that the Father has given Me to accomplish.^(CO) These very works I am doing testify about Me that the Father has sent^(CP) Me. ³⁷ The Father who sent Me has Himself testified^(CQ) about Me. You have not heard His voice at any time, and you haven’t seen His form.^{(CR) 38} You don’t have His word living in you, because you don’t believe the One He sent. ³⁹ You pore over^[aa] the Scriptures^(CS) because you think you have eternal life in them, yet they testify about Me.^{(CT) 40} And you are not willing^(CU) to come to Me^(CV) so that you may have life.

⁴¹ “I do not accept glory^(CW) from men, ⁴² but I know you—that you have no love for God^(CX) within you. ⁴³ I have come in My Father’s name,^(CY) yet you don’t accept Me.^(CZ) If someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. ⁴⁴ How can you believe? While accepting glory from one another, you don’t seek the glory that comes from the only^(DA) God.^{(DB) 45} Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. Your accuser is Moses,^(DC) on whom you have set your hope. ⁴⁶ For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, because he wrote about Me. ⁴⁷ But if you don’t believe his writings,^(DD) how will you believe My words?”^(DE)