Jesus Goes to the Festival of Tabernacles

7 After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want^[a] to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders^(A) there were looking for a way to kill him.^{(B) 2} But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles^(C) was near, ³ Jesus’ brothers^(D) said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. ⁴ No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” ⁵ For even his own brothers did not believe in him.^(E)

⁶ Therefore Jesus told them, “My time^(F) is not yet here; for you any time will do. ⁷ The world cannot hate you, but it hates me^(G) because I testify that its works are evil.^{(H) 8} You go to the festival. I am not^[b] going up to this festival, because my time^(I) has not yet fully come.” ⁹ After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee.

¹⁰ However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. ¹¹ Now at the festival the Jewish leaders were watching for Jesus^(J) and asking, “Where is he?”

¹² Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, “He is a good man.”

Others replied, “No, he deceives the people.”^{(K) 13} But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the leaders.^(L)

¹⁶ Three times a year all your men must appear^(A) before the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread,^(B) the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles.^(C) No one should appear before the Lord empty-handed:^(D)

² Do not conform^(A) to the pattern of this world,^(B) but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.^(C) Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is^(D)—his good, pleasing^(E) and perfect will.

Instructions for Christian Living

¹⁷ So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer^(A) live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.^(B)

¹⁵ Be very careful, then, how you live^(A)—not as unwise but as wise, ¹⁶ making the most of every opportunity,^(B) because the days are evil.^{(C) 17} Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.^(D)

Jesus Teaches at the Festival

¹⁴ Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach.^{(A) 15} The Jews^(B) there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning^(C) without having been taught?”^(D)

¹⁶ Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me.^{(E) 17} Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out^(F) whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. ¹⁸ Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory,^(G) but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. ¹⁹ Has not Moses given you the law?^(H) Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”^(I)

²⁰ “You are demon-possessed,”^(J) the crowd answered. “Who is trying to kill you?”

²¹ Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle,^(K) and you are all amazed. ²² Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision^(L) (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs),^(M) you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath. ²³ Now if a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing a man’s whole body on the Sabbath? ²⁴ Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.”^(N)

Division Over Who Jesus Is

²⁵ At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill?^{(O) 26} Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities^(P) really concluded that he is the Messiah?^{(Q) 27} But we know where this man is from;^(R) when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.”

²⁸ Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts,^(S) cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from.^(T) I am not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true.^(U) You do not know him, ²⁹ but I know him^(V) because I am from him and he sent me.”^(W)

³⁰ At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him,^(X) because his hour had not yet come.^{(Y) 31} Still, many in the crowd believed in him.^(Z) They said, “When the Messiah comes, will he perform more signs^(AA) than this man?”

³² The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.

³³ Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time,^(AB) and then I am going to the one who sent me.^{(AC) 34} You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”^(AD)

³⁵ The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered^(AE) among the Greeks,^(AF) and teach the Greeks? ³⁶ What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”^(AG)

³⁷ On the last and greatest day of the festival,^(AH) Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.^{(AI) 38} Whoever believes^(AJ) in me, as Scripture has said,^(AK) rivers of living water^(AL) will flow from within them.”^{[a](AM) 39} By this he meant the Spirit,^(AN) whom those who believed in him were later to receive.^(AO) Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.^(AP)

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^(A) a pool, which in Aramaic^(B) is called Bethesda^[a] 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] [b] 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.”^{(C) 9} At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,^(D)

The Ten Commandments^(A)

20 And God spoke^(B) all these words:^(C)

The Word Became Flesh

1 In the beginning was the Word,^(A) and the Word was with God,^(B) and the Word was God.^{(C) 2} He was with God in the beginning.^{(D) 3} Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.^{(E) 4} In him was life,^(F) and that life was the light^(G) of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness,^(H) and the darkness has not overcome^[a] it.^(I)