John 4-6

New Century Version

Jesus and a Samaritan Woman

4 The Pharisees heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more followers than John, ² although Jesus himself did not baptize people, but his followers did. ³ Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard about him, so he left Judea and went back to Galilee. ⁴ But on the way he had to go through the country of Samaria.

⁵ In Samaria Jesus came to the town called Sychar, which is near the field Jacob gave to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob’s well was there. Jesus was tired from his long trip, so he sat down beside the well. It was about twelve o’clock noon. ⁷ When a Samaritan woman came to the well to get some water, Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.” ⁸ (This happened while Jesus’ followers were in town buying some food.)

⁹ The woman said, “I am surprised that you ask me for a drink, since you are a Jewish man and I am a Samaritan woman.” (Jewish people are not friends with Samaritans.^[a])

¹⁰ Jesus said, “If you only knew the free gift of God and who it is that is asking you for water, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

¹¹ The woman said, “Sir, where will you get this living water? The well is very deep, and you have nothing to get water with. ¹² Are you greater than Jacob, our father, who gave us this well and drank from it himself along with his sons and flocks?”

¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give will never be thirsty. The water I give will become a spring of water gushing up inside that person, giving eternal life.”

¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so I will never be thirsty again and will not have to come back here to get more water.”

¹⁶ Jesus told her, “Go get your husband and come back here.”

¹⁷ The woman answered, “I have no husband.”

Jesus said to her, “You are right to say you have no husband. ¹⁸ Really you have had five husbands, and the man you live with now is not your husband. You told the truth.”

¹⁹ The woman said, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that Jerusalem is the place where people must worship.”

²¹ Jesus said, “Believe me, woman. The time is coming when neither in Jerusalem nor on this mountain will you actually worship the Father. ²² You Samaritans worship something you don’t understand. We understand what we worship, because salvation comes from the Jews. ²³ The time is coming when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, and that time is here already. You see, the Father too is actively seeking such people to worship him. ²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

²⁵ The woman said, “I know that the Messiah is coming.” (Messiah is the One called Christ.) “When the Messiah comes, he will explain everything to us.”

²⁶ Then Jesus said, “I am he—I, the one talking to you.”

²⁷ Just then his followers came back from town and were surprised to see him talking with a woman. But none of them asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

²⁸ Then the woman left her water jar and went back to town. She said to the people, ²⁹ “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did. Do you think he might be the Christ?” ³⁰ So the people left the town and went to see Jesus.

³¹ Meanwhile, his followers were begging him, “Teacher, eat something.”

³² But Jesus answered, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

³³ So the followers asked themselves, “Did somebody already bring him food?”

³⁴ Jesus said, “My food is to do what the One who sent me wants me to do and to finish his work. ³⁵ You have a saying, ‘Four more months till harvest.’ But I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields ready for harvest now. ³⁶ Already, the one who harvests is being paid and is gathering crops for eternal life. So the one who plants and the one who harvests celebrate at the same time. ³⁷ Here the saying is true, ‘One person plants, and another harvests.’ ³⁸ I sent you to harvest a crop that you did not work on. Others did the work, and you get to finish up their work.”^[b]

³⁹ Many of the Samaritans in that town believed in Jesus because of what the woman said: “He told me everything I ever did.” ⁴⁰ When the Samaritans came to Jesus, they begged him to stay with them, so he stayed there two more days. ⁴¹ And many more believed because of the things he said.

⁴² They said to the woman, “First we believed in Jesus because of what you said, but now we believe because we heard him ourselves. We know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

Jesus Heals an Officer’s Son

⁴³ Two days later, Jesus left and went to Galilee. ⁴⁴ (Jesus had said before that a prophet is not respected in his own country.) ⁴⁵ When Jesus arrived in Galilee, the people there welcomed him. They had seen all the things he did at the Passover Feast in Jerusalem, because they had been there, too.

⁴⁶ Jesus went again to visit Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. One of the king’s important officers lived in the city of Capernaum, and his son was sick. ⁴⁷ When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to Jesus and begged him to come to Capernaum and heal his son, because his son was almost dead. ⁴⁸ Jesus said to him, “You people must see signs and miracles before you will believe in me.”

⁴⁹ The officer said, “Sir, come before my child dies.”

⁵⁰ Jesus answered, “Go. Your son will live.”

The man believed what Jesus told him and went home. ⁵¹ On the way the man’s servants came and met him and told him, “Your son is alive.”

⁵² The man asked, “What time did my son begin to get well?”

They answered, “Yesterday at one o’clock the fever left him.”

⁵³ The father knew that one o’clock was the exact time that Jesus had said, “Your son will live.” So the man and all the people who lived in his house believed in Jesus.

⁵⁴ That was the second miracle Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.

Jesus Heals a Man at a Pool

5 Later Jesus went to Jerusalem for a special feast. ² In Jerusalem there is a pool with five covered porches, which is called Bethesda^[c] in the Hebrew language.^[d] This pool is near the Sheep Gate. ³ Many sick people were lying on the porches beside the pool. Some were blind, some were crippled, and some were paralyzed [, and they waited for the water to move. ⁴ Sometimes an angel of the Lord came down to the pool and stirred up the water. After the angel did this, the first person to go into the pool was healed from any sickness he had].^{[e] 5} A man was lying there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw the man and knew that he had been sick for such a long time, Jesus asked him, “Do you want to be well?”

⁷ The sick man answered, “Sir, there is no one to help me get into the pool when the water starts moving. While I am coming to the water, someone else always gets in before me.”

⁸ Then Jesus said, “Stand up. Pick up your mat and walk.” ⁹ And immediately the man was well; he picked up his mat and began to walk.

The day this happened was a Sabbath day. ¹⁰ So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “Today is the Sabbath. It is against our law for you to carry your mat on the Sabbath day.”

¹¹ But he answered, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

¹² Then they asked him, “Who is the man who told you to pick up your mat and walk?”

¹³ But the man who had been healed did not know who it was, because there were many people in that place, and Jesus had left.

¹⁴ Later, Jesus found the man at the Temple and said to him, “See, you are well now. Stop sinning so that something worse does not happen to you.”

¹⁵ Then the man left and told his people that Jesus was the one who had made him well.

¹⁶ Because Jesus was doing this on the Sabbath day, some evil people began to persecute him. ¹⁷ But Jesus said to them, “My Father never stops working, and so I keep working, too.”

¹⁸ This made them try still harder to kill him. They said, “First Jesus was breaking the law about the Sabbath day. Now he says that God is his own Father, making himself equal with God!”

Jesus Has God’s Authority

¹⁹ But Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing alone. The Son does only what he sees the Father doing, because the Son does whatever the Father does. ²⁰ The Father loves the Son and shows the Son all the things he himself does. But the Father will show the Son even greater things than this so that you can all be amazed. ²¹ Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to those he wants to. ²² In fact, the Father judges no one, but he has given the Son power to do all the judging ²³ so that all people will honor the Son as much as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

²⁴ “I tell you the truth, whoever hears what I say and believes in the One who sent me has eternal life. That person will not be judged guilty but has already left death and entered life. ²⁵ I tell you the truth, the time is coming and is already here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will have life. ²⁶ Life comes from the Father himself, and he has allowed the Son to have life in himself as well. ²⁷ And the Father has given the Son the approval to judge, because he is the Son of Man. ²⁸ Don’t be surprised at this: A time is coming when all who are dead and in their graves will hear his voice. ²⁹ Then they will come out of their graves. Those who did good will rise and have life forever, but those who did evil will rise to be judged guilty.

Jesus Is God’s Son

³⁰ “I can do nothing alone. I judge only the way I am told, so my judgment is fair. I don’t try to please myself, but I try to please the One who sent me.

³¹ “If only I tell people about myself, what I say is not true. ³² But there is another who tells about me, and I know that the things he says about me are true.

³³ “You have sent people to John, and he has told you the truth. ³⁴ It is not that I need what humans say; I tell you this so you can be saved. ³⁵ John was like a burning and shining lamp, and you were happy to enjoy his light for a while.

³⁶ “But I have a proof about myself that is greater than that of John. The things I do, which are the things my Father gave me to do, prove that the Father sent me. ³⁷ And the Father himself who sent me has given proof about me. You have never heard his voice or seen what he looks like. ³⁸ His teaching does not live in you, because you don’t believe in the One the Father sent. ³⁹ You carefully study the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. They do in fact tell about me, ⁴⁰ but you refuse to come to me to have that life.

⁴¹ “I don’t need praise from people. ⁴² But I know you—I know that you don’t have God’s love in you. ⁴³ I have come from my Father and speak for him, but you don’t accept me. But when another person comes, speaking only for himself, you will accept him. ⁴⁴ You try to get praise from each other, but you do not try to get the praise that comes from the only God. So how can you believe? ⁴⁵ Don’t think that I will stand before the Father and say you are wrong. The one who says you are wrong is Moses, the one you hoped would save you. ⁴⁶ If you really believed Moses, you would believe me, because Moses wrote about me. ⁴⁷ But if you don’t believe what Moses wrote, how can you believe what I say?”

More than Five Thousand Fed

6 After this, Jesus went across Lake Galilee (or, Lake Tiberias). ² Many people followed him because they saw the miracles he did to heal the sick. ³ Jesus went up on a hill and sat down there with his followers. ⁴ It was almost the time for the Jewish Passover Feast.

⁵ When Jesus looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where can we buy enough bread for all these people to eat?” ⁶ (Jesus asked Philip this question to test him, because Jesus already knew what he planned to do.)

⁷ Philip answered, “Someone would have to work almost a year to buy enough bread for each person to have only a little piece.”

⁸ Another one of his followers, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said, ⁹ “Here is a boy with five loaves of barley bread and two little fish, but that is not enough for so many people.”

¹⁰ Jesus said, “Tell the people to sit down.” There was plenty of grass there, and about five thousand men sat down there. ¹¹ Then Jesus took the loaves of bread, thanked God for them, and gave them to the people who were sitting there. He did the same with the fish, giving as much as the people wanted.

¹² When they had all had enough to eat, Jesus said to his followers, “Gather the leftover pieces of fish and bread so that nothing is wasted.” ¹³ So they gathered up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with the pieces left from the five barley loaves.

¹⁴ When the people saw this miracle that Jesus did, they said, “He must truly be the Prophet^[f] who is coming into the world.”

¹⁵ Jesus knew that the people planned to come and take him by force and make him their king, so he left and went into the hills alone.

Jesus Walks on the Water

¹⁶ That evening Jesus’ followers went down to Lake Galilee. ¹⁷ It was dark now, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The followers got into a boat and started across the lake to Capernaum. ¹⁸ By now a strong wind was blowing, and the waves on the lake were getting bigger. ¹⁹ When they had rowed the boat about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the water, coming toward the boat. The followers were afraid, ²⁰ but Jesus said to them, “It is I. Do not be afraid.” ²¹ Then they were glad to take him into the boat. At once the boat came to land at the place where they wanted to go.

The People Seek Jesus

²² The next day the people who had stayed on the other side of the lake knew that Jesus had not gone in the boat with his followers but that they had left without him. And they knew that only one boat had been there. ²³ But then some boats came from Tiberias and landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. ²⁴ When the people saw that Jesus and his followers were not there now, they got into boats and went to Capernaum to find Jesus.

Jesus, the Bread of Life

²⁵ When the people found Jesus on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Teacher, when did you come here?”

²⁶ Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, you aren’t looking for me because you saw me do miracles. You are looking for me because you ate the bread and were satisfied. ²⁷ Don’t work for the food that spoils. Work for the food that stays good always and gives eternal life. The Son of Man will give you this food, because on him God the Father has put his power.”

²⁸ The people asked Jesus, “What are the things God wants us to do?”

²⁹ Jesus answered, “The work God wants you to do is this: Believe the One he sent.”

³⁰ So the people asked, “What miracle will you do? If we see a miracle, we will believe you. What will you do? ³¹ Our ancestors ate the manna in the desert. This is written in the Scriptures: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”^[g]

³² Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven; it is my Father who is giving you the true bread from heaven. ³³ God’s bread is the One who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

³⁴ The people said, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

³⁵ Then Jesus said, “I am the bread that gives life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. ³⁶ But as I told you before, you have seen me and still don’t believe. ³⁷ The Father gives me the people who are mine. Every one of them will come to me, and I will always accept them. ³⁸ I came down from heaven to do what God wants me to do, not what I want to do. ³⁹ Here is what the One who sent me wants me to do: I must not lose even one whom God gave me, but I must raise them all on the last day. ⁴⁰ Those who see the Son and believe in him have eternal life, and I will raise them on the last day. This is what my Father wants.”

⁴¹ Some people began to complain about Jesus because he said, “I am the bread that comes down from heaven.” ⁴² They said, “This is Jesus, the son of Joseph. We know his father and mother. How can he say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”

⁴³ But Jesus answered, “Stop complaining to each other. ⁴⁴ The Father is the One who sent me. No one can come to me unless the Father draws him to me, and I will raise that person up on the last day. ⁴⁵ It is written in the prophets, ‘They will all be taught by God.’^[h] Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. ⁴⁶ No one has seen the Father except the One who is from God; only he has seen the Father. ⁴⁷ I tell you the truth, whoever believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸ I am the bread that gives life. ⁴⁹ Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but still they died. ⁵⁰ Here is the bread that comes down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will never die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give up so that the world may have life.”

⁵² Then the evil people began to argue among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

⁵³ Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, you must eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood. Otherwise, you won’t have real life in you. ⁵⁴ Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day. ⁵⁵ My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. ⁵⁶ Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood live in me, and I live in them. ⁵⁷ The living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father. So whoever eats me will live because of me. ⁵⁸ I am not like the bread your ancestors ate. They ate that bread and still died. I am the bread that came down from heaven, and whoever eats this bread will live forever.” ⁵⁹ Jesus said all these things while he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

The Words of Eternal Life

⁶⁰ When the followers of Jesus heard this, many of them said, “This teaching is hard. Who can accept it?”

⁶¹ Knowing that his followers were complaining about this, Jesus said, “Does this teaching bother you? ⁶² Then will it also bother you to see the Son of Man going back to the place where he came from? ⁶³ It is the Spirit that gives life. The flesh doesn’t give life. The words I told you are spirit, and they give life. ⁶⁴ But some of you don’t believe.” (Jesus knew from the beginning who did not believe and who would turn against him.) ⁶⁵ Jesus said, “That is the reason I said, ‘If the Father does not bring a person to me, that one cannot come.’”

⁶⁶ After Jesus said this, many of his followers left him and stopped following him.

⁶⁷ Jesus asked the twelve followers, “Do you want to leave, too?”

⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, who would we go to? You have the words that give eternal life. ⁶⁹ We believe and know that you are the Holy One from God.”

⁷⁰ Then Jesus answered, “I chose all twelve of you, but one of you is a devil.”

⁷¹ Jesus was talking about Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Judas was one of the twelve, but later he was going to turn against Jesus.