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

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37 On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and shouted,

“All who are thirsty should come to me!
38     All who believe in me should drink!
    As the scriptures said concerning me,[a]
        Rivers of living water will flow out from within him.”

39 Jesus said this concerning the Spirit. Those who believed in him would soon receive the Spirit, but they hadn’t experienced the Spirit yet since Jesus hadn’t yet been glorified.

40 When some in the crowd heard these words, they said, “This man is truly the prophet.” 41 Others said, “He’s the Christ.” But others said, “The Christ can’t come from Galilee, can he? 42 Didn’t the scripture say that the Christ comes from David’s family and from Bethlehem, David’s village?” 43 So the crowd was divided over Jesus. 44 Some wanted to arrest him, but no one grabbed him.

45 The guards returned to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked, “Why didn’t you bring him?”

46 The guards answered, “No one has ever spoken the way he does.”

47 The Pharisees replied, “Have you too been deceived? 48 Have any of the leaders believed in him? Has any Pharisee? 49 No, only this crowd, which doesn’t know the Law. And they are under God’s curse!”

50 Nicodemus, who was one of them and had come to Jesus earlier, said, 51 “Our Law doesn’t judge someone without first hearing him and learning what he is doing, does it?”

52 They answered him, “You are not from Galilee too, are you? Look it up and you will see that the prophet doesn’t come from Galilee.”

Pharisees test Jesus

53 They each went to their own homes, And Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he returned to the temple. All the people gathered around him, and he sat down and taught them. The legal experts and Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery. Placing her in the center of the group, they said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of committing adultery. In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone women like this. What do you say?” They said this to test him, because they wanted a reason to bring an accusation against him. Jesus bent down and wrote on the ground with his finger.

They continued to question him, so he stood up and replied, “Whoever hasn’t sinned should throw the first stone.” Bending down again, he wrote on the ground. Those who heard him went away, one by one, beginning with the elders. Finally, only Jesus and the woman were left in the middle of the crowd.

10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Is there no one to condemn you?”

11 She said, “No one, sir.”[b]

Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on, don’t sin anymore.”[c]

Footnotes

  1. John 7:38 Or Whoever is thirsty should come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, just as the scriptures said, rivers of living water will flow out from within them.
  2. John 8:11 Or Lord
  3. John 8:11 Critical editions of the Gk New Testament do not contain 7:53–8:11.

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