John 7-8 (Contemporary English Version)

John 7

Jesus' Brothers Don't Have Faith in Him

 ¹Jesus decided to leave Judea and to start going through Galilee because the Jewish leaders of the people wanted to kill him. ²It was almost time for the Festival of Shelters, ³and Jesus' brothers said to him, "Why don't you go to Judea? Then your disciples can see what you are doing. ⁴No one does anything in secret, if they want others to know about them. So let the world know what you are doing!" ⁵Even Jesus' own brothers had not yet become his followers.

    ⁶Jesus answered, "My time hasn't yet come, ^[a] but your time is always here. ⁷The people of this world cannot hate you. They hate me, because I tell them that they do evil things. ⁸Go on to the festival. My time hasn't yet come, and I am not going." ⁹Jesus said this and stayed on in Galilee.

Jesus at the Festival of Shelters

 ¹⁰After Jesus' brothers had gone to the festival, he went secretly, without telling anyone.

    ¹¹During the festival the Jewish leaders looked for Jesus and asked, "Where is he?" ¹²The crowds even got into an argument about him. Some were saying, "Jesus is a good man," while others were saying, "He is lying to everyone." ¹³But the people were afraid of their leaders, and none of them talked in public about him.

    ¹⁴When the festival was about half over, Jesus went into the temple and started teaching. ¹⁵The leaders were surprised and said, "How does this man know so much? He has never been taught!"

    ¹⁶Jesus replied:

   I am not teaching something that I thought up. What I teach comes from the one who sent me. ¹⁷If you really want to obey God, you will know if what I teach comes from God or from me. ¹⁸If I wanted to bring honor to myself, I would speak for myself. But I want to honor the one who sent me. That is why I tell the truth and not a lie. ¹⁹Didn't Moses give you the Law? Yet none of you obey it! So why do you want to kill me?

    ²⁰The crowd replied, "You're crazy! What makes you think someone wants to kill you?"

    ²¹Jesus answered:

   I worked one miracle, ^[b] and it amazed you. ²²Moses commanded you to circumcise your sons. But it wasn't really Moses who gave you this command. It was your ancestors, and even on the Sabbath you circumcise your sons ²³in order to obey the Law of Moses. Why are you angry with me for making someone completely well on the Sabbath? ²⁴Don't judge by appearances. Judge by what is right. ²⁵Some of the people from Jerusalem were saying, "Isn't this the man they want to kill? ²⁶Yet here he is, speaking for everyone to hear. And no one is arguing with him. Do you suppose the authorities know that he is the Messiah? ²⁷But how could that be? No one knows where the Messiah will come from, but we know where this man comes from."

    ²⁸As Jesus was teaching in the temple, he shouted, "Do you really think you know me and where I came from? I didn't come on my own! The one who sent me is truthful, and you don't know him. ²⁹But I know the one who sent me, because I came from him."

    ³⁰Some of the people wanted to arrest Jesus right then. But no one even laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come. ^{[c] 31}A lot of people in the crowd put their faith in him and said, "When the Messiah comes, he surely won't perform more miracles ^[d] than this man has done!"

Officers Sent To Arrest Jesus

 ³²When the Pharisees heard the crowd arguing about Jesus, they got together with the chief priests and sent some temple police to arrest him. ³³But Jesus told them, "I will be with you a little while longer, and then I will return to the one who sent me. ³⁴You will look for me, but you won't find me. You cannot go where I am going."

    ³⁵The Jewish leaders asked each other, "Where can he go to keep us from finding him? Is he going to some foreign country where our people live? Is he going there to teach the Greeks? ^{[e] 36}What did he mean by saying that we will look for him, but won't find him? Why can't we go where he is going?"

Streams of Life-Giving Water

 ³⁷On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and shouted, "If you are thirsty, come to me and drink! ³⁸Have faith in me, and you will have life-giving water flowing from deep inside you, just as the Scriptures say." ³⁹Jesus was talking about the Holy Spirit, who would be given to everyone that had faith in him. The Spirit had not yet been given to anyone, since Jesus had not yet been given his full glory. ^[f]

The People Take Sides

 ⁴⁰When the crowd heard Jesus say this, some of them said, "He must be the Prophet!" ^{[g] 41}Others said, "He is the Messiah!" Others even said, "Can the Messiah come from Galilee? ⁴²The Scriptures say that the Messiah will come from the family of King David. Doesn't this mean that he will be born in David's hometown of Bethlehem?" ⁴³The people started taking sides against each other because of Jesus. ⁴⁴Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him.

The Leaders Refuse To Have Faith in Jesus

 ⁴⁵When the temple police returned to the chief priests and Pharisees, they were asked, "Why didn't you bring Jesus here?"

    ⁴⁶They answered, "No one has ever spoken like that man!"

    ⁴⁷The Pharisees said to them, "Have you also been fooled? ⁴⁸Not one of the chief priests or the Pharisees has faith in him. ⁴⁹And these people who don't know the Law are under God's curse anyway."

    ⁵⁰Nicodemus was there at the time. He was a member of the council, and was the same one who had earlier come to see Jesus. ^[h] He said, ⁵¹"Our Law doesn't let us condemn people before we hear what they have to say. We cannot judge them before we know what they have done." ⁵²Then they said, "Nicodemus, you must be from Galilee! Read the Scriptures, and you will find that no prophet is to come from Galilee."

   

A Woman Caught in Sin

 ⁵³Everyone else went home,

   

John 8

 ¹but Jesus walked out to the Mount of Olives. ²Then early the next morning he went to the temple. The people came to him, and he sat down ^[i] and started teaching them. ³The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law of Moses brought in a woman who had been caught in bed with a man who wasn't her husband. They made her stand in the middle of the crowd. ⁴Then they said, "Teacher, this woman was caught sleeping with a man who isn't her husband. ⁵The Law of Moses teaches that a woman like this should be stoned to death! What do you say?"

    ⁶They asked Jesus this question, because they wanted to test him and bring some charge against him. But Jesus simply bent over and started writing on the ground with his finger.

    ⁷They kept on asking Jesus about the woman. Finally, he stood up and said, "If any of you have never sinned, then go ahead and throw the first stone at her!" ⁸Once again he bent over and began writing on the ground. ⁹The people left one by one, beginning with the oldest. Finally, Jesus and the woman were there alone.

    ¹⁰Jesus stood up and asked her, "Where is everyone? Isn't there anyone left to accuse you?"

    ¹¹"No sir," the woman answered.

   Then Jesus told her, "I am not going to accuse you either. You may go now, but don't sin anymore." ^[j]

Jesus Is the Light for the World

 ¹²Once again Jesus spoke to the people. This time he said, "I am the light for the world! Follow me, and you won't be walking in the dark. You will have the light that gives life."

    ¹³The Pharisees objected, "You are the only one speaking for yourself, and what you say isn't true!"

    ¹⁴Jesus replied:

   Even if I do speak for myself, what I say is true! I know where I came from and where I am going. But you don't know where I am from or where I am going. ¹⁵You judge in the same way that everyone else does, but I don't judge anyone. ¹⁶If I did judge, I would judge fairly, because I would not be doing it alone. The Father who sent me is here with me. ¹⁷Your Law requires two witnesses to prove that something is true. ¹⁸I am one of my witnesses, and the Father who sent me is the other one.

    ¹⁹"Where is your Father?" they asked.

   "You don't know me or my Father!" Jesus answered. "If you knew me, you would know my Father."

    ²⁰Jesus said this while he was still teaching in the place where the temple treasures were stored. But no one arrested him, because his time had not yet come. ^[k]

You Cannot Go Where I Am Going

 ²¹Jesus also told them, "I am going away, and you will look for me. But you cannot go where I am going, and you will die with your sins unforgiven."

    ²²The Jewish leaders asked, "Does he intend to kill himself? Is that what he means by saying we cannot go where he is going?"

    ²³Jesus answered, "You are from below, but I am from above. You belong to this world, but I don't. ²⁴That is why I said you will die with your sins unforgiven. If you don't have faith in me for who I am, ^[l] you will die, and your sins will not be forgiven." ²⁵"Who are you?" they asked Jesus.

   Jesus answered, "I am exactly who I told you at the beginning. ²⁶There is a lot more I could say to condemn you. But the one who sent me is truthful, and I tell the people of this world only what I have heard from him."

    ²⁷No one understood that Jesus was talking to them about the Father.

    ²⁸Jesus went on to say, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, ^[m] you will know who I am. You will also know that I don't do anything on my own. I say only what my Father taught me. ²⁹The one who sent me is with me. I always do what pleases him, and he will never leave me." ³⁰After Jesus said this, many of the people put their faith in him.

   

The Truth Will Set You Free

 ³¹Jesus told the people who had faith in him, "If you keep on obeying what I have said, you truly are my disciples. ³²You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

    ³³They answered, "We are Abraham's children! We have never been anyone's slaves. How can you say we will be set free?"

    ³⁴Jesus replied:

   I tell you for certain that anyone who sins is a slave of sin! ³⁵And slaves don't stay in the family forever, though the Son will always remain in the family. ³⁶If the Son gives you freedom, you are free! ³⁷I know that you are from Abraham's family. Yet you want to kill me, because my message isn't really in your hearts. ³⁸I am telling you what my Father has shown me, just as you are doing what your father has taught you.

   

Your Father Is the Devil

 ³⁹The people said to Jesus, "Abraham is our father!"

   Jesus replied, "If you were Abraham's children, you would do what Abraham did. ⁴⁰Instead, you want to kill me for telling you the truth that God gave me. Abraham never did anything like that. ⁴¹But you are doing exactly what your father does."

   "Don't accuse us of having someone else as our father!" they said. "We just have one father, and he is God."

    ⁴²Jesus answered:

   If God were your Father, you would love me, because I came from God and only from him. He sent me. I did not come on my own. ⁴³Why can't you understand what I am talking about? Can't you stand to hear what I am saying? ⁴⁴Your father is the devil, and you do exactly what he wants. He has always been a murderer and a liar. There is nothing truthful about him. He speaks on his own, and everything he says is a lie. Not only is he a liar himself, but he is also the father of all lies.

    ⁴⁵Everything I have told you is true, and you still refuse to have faith in me. ⁴⁶Can any of you accuse me of sin? If you cannot, why won't you have faith in me? After all, I am telling you the truth. ⁴⁷Anyone who belongs to God will listen to his message. But you refuse to listen, because you don't belong to God.

   

Jesus and Abraham

 ⁴⁸The people told Jesus, "We were right to say that you are a Samaritan ^[n] and that you have a demon in you!" ⁴⁹Jesus answered, "I don't have a demon in me. I honor my Father, and you refuse to honor me. ⁵⁰I don't want honor for myself. But there is one who wants me to be honored, and he is also the one who judges. ⁵¹I tell you for certain that if you obey my words, you will never die."

    ⁵²Then the people said, "Now we are sure that you have a demon. Abraham is dead, and so are the prophets. How can you say that no one who obeys your words will ever die? ⁵³Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?"

    ⁵⁴Jesus replied, "If I honored myself, it would mean nothing. My Father is the one who honors me. You claim that he is your God, ⁵⁵even though you don't really know him. If I said I didn't know him, I would be a liar, just like all of you. But I know him, and I do what he says. ⁵⁶Your father Abraham was really glad to see me."

    ⁵⁷"You are not even fifty years old!" they said. "How could you have seen Abraham?"

    ⁵⁸Jesus answered, "I tell you for certain that even before Abraham was, I was, and I am." ^{[o] 59}The people picked up stones to kill Jesus, but he hid and left the temple.