John 1-2 (Contemporary English Version)

John 1

The Word of Life

 ¹In the beginning was the one

   who is called the Word.

   The Word was with God

   and was truly God.

    ²From the very beginning

   the Word was with God.

    ³And with this Word,

   God created all things.

   Nothing was made

   without the Word.

   Everything that was created

    ⁴received its life from him,

   and his life gave light

   to everyone.

    ⁵The light keeps shining

   in the dark,

   and darkness has never

   put it out. ^{[a] 6}God sent a man named John,

    ⁷who came to tell

   about the light

   and to lead all people

   to have faith.

    ⁸John wasn't that light.

   He came only to tell

   about the light.

    ⁹The true light that shines

   on everyone

   was coming into the world.

    ¹⁰The Word was in the world,

   but no one knew him,

   though God had made the world

   with his Word.

    ¹¹He came into his own world,

   but his own nation

   did not welcome him.

    ¹²Yet some people accepted him

   and put their faith in him.

   So he gave them the right

   to be the children of God.

    ¹³They were not God's children

   by nature

   or because

   of any human desires.

   God himself was the one

   who made them his children.

    ¹⁴The Word became

   a human being

   and lived here with us.

   We saw his true glory,

   the glory of the only Son

   of the Father.

   From him all the kindness

   and all the truth of God

   have come down to us.

    ¹⁵John spoke about him and shouted, "This is the one I told you would come! He is greater than I am, because he was alive before I was born."

    ¹⁶Because of all that the Son is, we have been given one blessing after another. ^{[b] 17}The Law was given by Moses, but Jesus Christ brought us undeserved kindness and truth. ¹⁸No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is truly God and is closest to the Father, has shown us what God is like.

John the Baptist Tells about Jesus

(Matthew 3.1-12; Mark 1.1-8; Luke 3.15-17)

 ^19-20The Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and temple helpers to ask John who he was. He told them plainly, "I am not the Messiah." ²¹Then when they asked him if he were Elijah, he said, "No, I am not!" And when they asked if he were the Prophet, ^[c] he also said "No!" ²²Finally, they said, "Who are you then? We have to give an answer to the ones who sent us. Tell us who you are!"

    ²³John answered in the words of the prophet Isaiah, "I am only someone shouting in the desert, `Get the road ready for the Lord!' "

    ²⁴Some Pharisees had also been sent to John. ²⁵They asked him, "Why are you baptizing people, if you are not the Messiah or Elijah or the Prophet?"

    ²⁶John told them, "I use water to baptize people. But here with you is someone you don't know. ²⁷Even though I came first, I am not good enough to untie his sandals." ²⁸John said this as he was baptizing east of the Jordan River in Bethany. ^[d]

The Lamb of God

 ²⁹The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said:

   Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! ³⁰He is the one I told you about when I said, "Someone else will come. He is greater than I am, because he was alive before I was born." ³¹I didn't know who he was. But I came to baptize you with water, so that everyone in Israel would see him.

    ³²I was there and saw the Spirit come down on him like a dove from heaven. And the Spirit stayed on him. ³³Before this I didn't know who he was. But the one who sent me to baptize with water had told me, "You will see the Spirit come down and stay on someone. Then you will know that he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit." ³⁴I saw this happen, and I tell you that he is the Son of God.

   

The First Disciples of Jesus

 ³⁵The next day, John was there again, and two of his followers were with him. ³⁶When he saw Jesus walking by, he said, "Here is the Lamb of God!" ³⁷John's two followers heard him, and they went with Jesus.

    ³⁸When Jesus turned and saw them, he asked, "What do you want?"

   They answered, "Rabbi, where do you live?" The Hebrew word "Rabbi" means "Teacher."

    ³⁹Jesus replied, "Come and see!" It was already about four o'clock in the afternoon when they went with him and saw where he lived. So they stayed on for the rest of the day.

    ⁴⁰One of the two men who had heard John and had gone with Jesus was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. ⁴¹The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother and tell him, "We have found the Messiah!" The Hebrew word "Messiah" means the same as the Greek word "Christ."

    ⁴²Andrew brought his brother to Jesus. And when Jesus saw him, he said, "Simon son of John, you will be called Cephas." This name can be translated as "Peter." ^[e]

Jesus Chooses Philip and Nathanael

 ^43-44The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. There he met Philip, who was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. Jesus said to Philip, "Come with me."

    ⁴⁵Philip then found Nathanael and said, "We have found the one that Moses and the Prophets ^[f] wrote about. He is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth." ⁴⁶Nathanael asked, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?"

   Philip answered, "Come and see."

    ⁴⁷When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said, "Here is a true descendant of our ancestor Israel. And he isn't deceitful." ^{[g] 48}"How do you know me?" Nathanael asked.

   Jesus answered, "Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree."

    ⁴⁹Nathanael said, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God and the King of Israel!"

    ⁵⁰Jesus answered, "Did you believe me just because I said that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see something even greater. ⁵¹I tell you for certain that you will see heaven open and God's angels going up and coming down on the Son of Man." ^[h]

John 2

Jesus at a Wedding in Cana

 ¹Three days later Mary, the mother of Jesus, was at a wedding feast in the village of Cana in Galilee. ²Jesus and his disciples had also been invited and were there.

    ³When the wine was all gone, Mary said to Jesus, "They don't have any more wine."

    ⁴Jesus replied, "Mother, my time hasn't yet come: ^[i] You must not tell me what to do." ⁵Mary then said to the servants, "Do whatever Jesus tells you to do."

    ⁶At the feast there were six stone water jars that were used by the people for washing themselves in the way that their religion said they must. Each jar held about twenty or thirty gallons. ⁷Jesus told the servants to fill them to the top with water. Then after the jars had been filled, ⁸he said, "Now take some water and give it to the man in charge of the feast."

   The servants did as Jesus told them, ⁹and the man in charge drank some of the water that had now turned into wine. He did not know where the wine had come from, but the servants did. He called the bridegroom over ¹⁰and said, "The best wine is always served first. Then after the guests have had plenty, the other wine is served. But you have kept the best until last!"

    ¹¹This was Jesus' first miracle, ^[j] and he did it in the village of Cana in Galilee. There Jesus showed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him. ¹²After this, he went with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples to the town of Capernaum, where they stayed for a few days.

Jesus in the Temple

(Matthew 21.12,13; Mark 11.15-17; Luke 19.45,46)

 ¹³Not long before the Jewish festival of Passover, Jesus went to Jerusalem. ¹⁴There he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves in the temple. He also saw moneychangers sitting at their tables. ¹⁵So he took some rope and made a whip. Then he chased everyone out of the temple, together with their sheep and cattle. He turned over the tables of the moneychangers and scattered their coins.

    ¹⁶Jesus said to the people who had been selling doves, "Get those doves out of here! Don't make my Father's house a marketplace."

    ¹⁷The disciples then remembered that the Scriptures say, "My love for your house burns in me like a fire."

    ¹⁸The Jewish leaders asked Jesus, "What miracle ^[k] will you work to show us why you have done this?" ¹⁹"Destroy this temple," Jesus answered, "and in three days I will build it again!"

    ²⁰The leaders replied, "It took forty-six years to build this temple. What makes you think you can rebuild it in three days?"

    ²¹But Jesus was talking about his body as a temple. ²²And when he was raised from death, his disciples remembered what he had told them. Then they believed the Scriptures and the words of Jesus.

   

Jesus Knows What People Are Like

 ²³In Jerusalem during Passover many people put their faith in Jesus, because they saw him work miracles. ^{[l] 24}But Jesus knew what was in their hearts, and he would not let them have power over him. ²⁵No one had to tell him what people were like. He already knew.