The New Birth

3 Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named ^(A)Nicodemus, a ^(B)ruler of the Jews; ² this man came to ^[a]Jesus at night and said to Him, “^(C)Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these ^[b](D)signs that You do unless ^(E)God is with him.” ³ Jesus responded and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone ^(F)is born ^[c]again he cannot see ^(G)the kingdom of God.”

⁴ Nicodemus *said to Him, “How can a person be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born, can he?” ⁵ Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born of ^(H)water and the Spirit, he cannot enter ^(I)the kingdom of God. ^6 (J)That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born ^[d]again.’ ^8 (K)The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit.”

⁹ Nicodemus responded and said to Him, “How can these things be?” ¹⁰ Jesus answered and said to him, “You are ^(L)the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? ¹¹ Truly, truly, I say to you, ^(M)we speak of what we know and ^(N)testify of what we have seen, and ^(O)you people do not accept our testimony. ¹² If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? ^13 (P)No one has ascended into heaven, except ^(Q)He who descended from heaven: ^(R)the Son of Man. ¹⁴ And just as ^(S)Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must ^(T)the Son of Man ^(U)be lifted up, ¹⁵ so that everyone who ^[e]believes will ^(V)have eternal life in Him.

¹⁶ “For God so ^(W)loved the world, that He ^(X)gave His ^(Y)only Son, so that everyone who ^(Z)believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God ^(AA)did not send the Son into the world ^(AB)to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. ^18 (AC)The one who believes in Him is not judged; the one who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of ^(AD)the only Son of God. ¹⁹ And this is the judgment, that ^(AE)the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for ^(AF)their deeds were evil. ^20 (AG)For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, so that his deeds will not be exposed. ²¹ But the one who ^(AH)practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds will be revealed ^[f]as having been performed in God.”

John the Baptist’s Last Testimony

²² After these things Jesus and His ^(AI)disciples came into the land of Judea; and there He was spending time with them and ^(AJ)baptizing. ²³ Now John also was baptizing in Aenon, near Salim, because there was an abundance of water there; and people were coming and being baptized— ²⁴ for ^(AK)John had not yet been thrown into prison.

²⁵ Then a matter of dispute developed on the part of John’s disciples with a Jew about ^[g](AL)purification. ²⁶ And they came to John and said to him, “^(AM)Rabbi, He who was with you ^(AN)beyond the Jordan, to whom you ^(AO)have testified—behold, He is baptizing and all the people are coming to Him.” ²⁷ John replied, “^(AP)A person can receive not even one thing unless it ^(AQ)has been given to him from heaven. ²⁸ You yourselves ^[h]are my witnesses that I said, ‘^(AR)I am not the ^[i]Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him.’ ²⁹ He who has the bride is ^(AS)the groom; but the friend of the groom, who stands and listens to him, rejoices greatly because of the groom’s voice. So this ^(AT)joy of mine has been made full. ³⁰ He must ^[j]increase, but I must ^[k]decrease.

³¹ “^(AU)He who comes from above is above all; ^(AV)the one who is only from the earth is of the earth and speaks of the earth. ^(AW)He who comes from heaven is above all. ³² What He has seen and heard, of this He ^(AX)testifies; and ^(AY)no one accepts His testimony. ³³ The one who has accepted His testimony ^(AZ)has certified that God is true. ³⁴ For He whom God ^(BA)sent speaks the words of God; ^(BB)for He does not give the Spirit ^[l]sparingly. ^35 (BC)The Father loves the Son and ^(BD)has entrusted all things to His hand. ³⁶ The one who ^(BE)believes in the Son has eternal life; but the one who ^(BF)does not ^[m]obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

Jesus Goes to Galilee

4 So then, when ^(BG)the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that ^[n]He was making and ^(BH)baptizing more disciples than John ² (although ^(BI)Jesus Himself was not baptizing; rather, His ^(BJ)disciples were), ³ He left ^(BK)Judea and went away ^(BL)again to Galilee. ⁴ And He had to pass through ^(BM)Samaria. ⁵ So He *came to a city of ^(BN)Samaria called Sychar, near ^(BO)the parcel of land that ^(BP)Jacob gave to his son Joseph; ⁶ and Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, tired from His journey, was just sitting by the well. It was about ^[o]the sixth hour.

The Woman of Samaria

⁷ A woman of Samaria *came to draw water. Jesus *said to her, “Give Me a drink.” ⁸ For His ^(BQ)disciples had gone away to ^(BR)the city to buy food. ⁹ So the ^(BS)Samaritan woman *said to Him, “How is it that You, though You are a Jew, are asking me for a drink, though I am a Samaritan woman?” (For ^(BT)Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) ¹⁰ Jesus replied to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you ^(BU)living water.” ¹¹ She *said to Him, “^[p]Sir, You have no bucket and the well is deep; where then do You get this ^(BV)living water? ¹² You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who ^(BW)gave us the well and drank of it himself, and his sons and his cattle?” ¹³ Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again; ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him ^(BX)shall never be thirsty; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to ^(BY)eternal life.”

¹⁵ The woman *said to Him, “^[q]Sir, ^(BZ)give me this water so that I will not be thirsty, nor come all the way here to draw water.” ¹⁶ He *said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” ¹⁷ The woman answered and said to Him, “I have no husband.” Jesus *said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; ¹⁸ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this which you have said is true.” ¹⁹ The woman *said to Him, “^[r]Sir, I perceive that You are ^(CA)a prophet. ^20 (CB)Our fathers worshiped on ^(CC)this mountain, and yet you Jews say that ^(CD)in Jerusalem is the place where one must worship.” ²¹ Jesus *said to her, “Believe Me, woman, that ^[s](CE)a time is coming when you will worship the Father ^(CF)neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ^22 (CG)You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, because ^(CH)salvation is from the Jews. ²³ But ^[t](CI)a time is coming, and ^[u]even now has arrived, when the true worshipers will worship the Father ^(CJ)in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be ^[v]His worshipers. ²⁴ God is ^[w]spirit, and those who worship Him must worship ^(CK)in spirit and truth.” ²⁵ The woman *said to Him, “I know that ^(CL)Messiah is coming (^(CM)He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” ²⁶ Jesus *said to her, “^(CN)I am He, the One speaking to you.”

²⁷ And at this point His ^(CO)disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What are You seeking?” or, “Why are You speaking with her?” ²⁸ So the woman left her waterpot and went into the city, and *said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a Man ^(CP)who told me all the things that I have done; ^(CQ)this is not the ^[x]Christ, is He?” ³⁰ They left the city and were coming to Him.

³¹ Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, “^(CR)Rabbi, eat something.” ³² But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” ³³ So the ^(CS)disciples were saying to one another, “No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?” ³⁴ Jesus *said to them, “My food is to ^(CT)do the will of Him who sent Me, and to ^(CU)accomplish His work. ³⁵ Do you not say, ‘There are still four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I tell you, raise your eyes and observe the fields, that they are white ^(CV)for harvest. ³⁶ Already the one who reaps is receiving ^(CW)wages and is gathering ^(CX)fruit for ^(CY)eternal life, so that the one who sows and the one who reaps may rejoice together. ³⁷ For in this case the saying is true: ‘^(CZ)One sows and another reaps.’ ³⁸ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have ^[y]come into their labor.”

The Samaritans

³⁹ Now from ^(DA)that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “^(DB)He told me all the things that I have done.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to ^[z]Jesus, they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. ⁴¹ Many more believed because of His word; ⁴² and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One truly is ^(DC)the Savior of the world.”

⁴³ And after ^(DD)the two days, He departed from there for Galilee. ⁴⁴ For Jesus Himself testified that ^(DE)a prophet has no honor in his own country. ⁴⁵ So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, only because ^(DF)they had seen all the things that He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they themselves also went to the feast.

Healing an Official’s Son

⁴⁶ Therefore He came again to ^(DG)Cana of Galilee, ^(DH)where He had made the water into wine. And there was a royal official whose son was sick at ^(DI)Capernaum. ⁴⁷ When he heard that Jesus had come ^(DJ)from Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and began asking Him to come down and heal his son; for he was at the point of death. ⁴⁸ Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see ^[aa](DK)signs and ^(DL)wonders, you simply will not believe.” ⁴⁹ The royal official *said to Him, “^[ab]Sir, come down before my child dies.” ⁵⁰ Jesus *said to him, “^(DM)Go; your son ^[ac]is alive.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went home. ⁵¹ And as he was now going down, his slaves met him, saying that his ^[ad]son was ^[ae]alive. ⁵² So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. Then they said to him, “Yesterday at the ^[af]seventh hour the fever left him.” ⁵³ So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son is alive”; and he himself believed, and ^(DN)his entire household. ⁵⁴ This is again a ^(DO)second ^[ag]sign that Jesus performed when He had ^(DP)come from Judea into Galilee.

The Perfect High Priest

5 For every high priest ^(A)taken from among men is appointed on behalf of people in ^(B)things pertaining to God, in order to ^(C)offer both gifts and sacrifices ^(D)for sins; ^2 [a](E)he can deal gently with the ^(F)ignorant and ^(G)misguided, since he himself also is ^[b](H)clothed in weakness; ³ and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices ^(I)for sins for himself, ^(J)as well as for the people. ⁴ And ^(K)no one takes the honor for himself, but receives it when he is called by God, just ^(L)as Aaron also was.

⁵ So too Christ ^(M)did not glorify Himself in becoming a ^(N)high priest, but it was He who ^(O)said to Him,

⁶ just as He also says in another passage,

⁷ In the days of ^[c]His humanity, ^[d](S)He offered up both prayers and pleas with ^(T)loud crying and tears to the One ^(U)able to save Him ^[e]from death, and He ^[f]was heard because of His ^(V)devout behavior. ⁸ Although He was ^(W)a Son, He learned ^(X)obedience from the things which He suffered. ⁹ And having been ^(Y)perfected, He became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey Him, ¹⁰ being designated by God as ^(Z)High Priest according to ^(AA)the order of Melchizedek.

¹¹ Concerning ^[g]him we have much to say, and it is difficult to explain, since you have become ^[h]poor listeners. ¹² For though ^[i]by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you ^(AB)the ^[j](AC)elementary principles of the ^(AD)actual words of God, and you have come to need ^(AE)milk and not solid food. ¹³ For everyone who partakes only of milk is unacquainted with the word of righteousness, for he is an ^(AF)infant. ¹⁴ But solid food is for ^(AG)the mature, who because of practice have their senses ^(AH)trained to ^(AI)distinguish between good and evil.

The Danger of Falling Away

6 Therefore ^(AJ)leaving ^(AK)the ^[k]elementary teaching about the ^[l]Christ, let us press on to ^[m](AL)maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from ^(AM)dead works and of faith toward God, ² of ^(AN)instruction about ^[n]washings and ^(AO)laying on of hands, and about the ^(AP)resurrection of the dead and ^(AQ)eternal judgment. ³ And this we will do, ^(AR)if God permits. ⁴ For it is ^(AS)impossible, in the case of those who have once been ^(AT)enlightened and have tasted of ^(AU)the heavenly gift and have been made ^(AV)partakers of the Holy Spirit, ⁵ and ^(AW)have tasted the good ^(AX)word of God and the powers of ^(AY)the age to come, ⁶ and then have ^[o]fallen away, to ^(AZ)restore them again to repentance, ^[p](BA)since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. ⁷ For ground that drinks the rain which often ^[q]falls on it and produces vegetation useful to those ^(BB)for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; ⁸ but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and ^[r](BC)close to being cursed, and ^[s]it ends up being burned.

Better Things for You

⁹ But, ^(BD)beloved, we are convinced of better things regarding you, and things that ^[t]accompany salvation, even though we are speaking in this way. ¹⁰ For ^(BE)God is not unjust so as to forget ^(BF)your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, by having ^(BG)served and by still serving the ^[u]saints. ¹¹ And we desire that each one of you demonstrate the same diligence ^[v]so as to realize the ^(BH)full assurance of ^(BI)hope until the end, ¹² so that you will not be sluggish, but ^(BJ)imitators of those who through ^(BK)faith and endurance ^(BL)inherit the promises.

¹³ For ^(BM)when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear an oath by no one greater, He ^(BN)swore by Himself, ¹⁴ saying, “^(BO)indeed I will greatly bless you and I will greatly multiply you.” ¹⁵ And so, ^(BP)having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. ^16 (BQ)For people swear an oath by ^[w]one greater than themselves, and with them ^(BR)an oath serving as confirmation is an end of every dispute. ^17 [x]In the same way God, desiring even more to demonstrate to ^(BS)the heirs of the promise ^[y](BT)the fact that His purpose is unchangeable, ^[z]confirmed it with an oath, ¹⁸ so that by two unchangeable things in which ^(BU)it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to hold firmly to ^(BV)the hope set before us. ^19 [aa]This ^(BW)hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and reliable and one which ^(BX)enters ^[ab]within the veil, ^20 (BY)where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a ^(BZ)high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

Melchizedek’s Priesthood like Christ’s

7 For this ^(CA)Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the ^(CB)Most High God, who met Abraham as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, ² to whom also Abraham apportioned a tenth of all the spoils, was first of all, by the translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, which is king of peace. ³ Without father, without mother, ^(CC)without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like ^(CD)the Son of God, he remains a priest perpetually.

⁴ Now observe how great this man was to whom Abraham, the ^(CE)patriarch, ^(CF)gave a tenth of the choicest spoils. ⁵ And those indeed of ^(CG)the sons of Levi who receive the priest’s office have a commandment ^[ac]in the Law to collect ^[ad]a tenth from the people, that is, from their countrymen, although they ^[ae]are descended from Abraham. ⁶ But the one ^(CH)whose genealogy is not traced from them ^(CI)collected ^[af]a tenth from Abraham and ^[ag](CJ)blessed the one who ^(CK)had the promises. ⁷ But without any dispute the lesser person is blessed by the greater. ⁸ In this case mortal men receive tithes, but in that case one receives them, ^(CL)of whom it is witnessed that he lives on. ⁹ And, so to speak, through Abraham even Levi, who received tithes, has paid tithes, ¹⁰ for he was still in the loins of his ^[ah]forefather when Melchizedek met him.

^11 (CM)So if perfection was through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it ^(CN)the people received the Law), what further need was there for another priest to arise ^(CO)according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be designated according to the order of Aaron? ¹² For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also. ¹³ For ^(CP)the one about whom ^(CQ)these things are said belongs to another tribe, from which no one has officiated at the altar. ¹⁴ For it is evident that our Lord ^[ai]was ^(CR)descended from Judah, a tribe with reference to which Moses said nothing concerning priests. ¹⁵ And this is clearer still, if another priest arises according to the likeness of Melchizedek, ¹⁶ who has become a priest not on the basis of a law of ^[aj](CS)physical requirement, but according to the power of ^(CT)an indestructible life. ¹⁷ For it is attested of Him,

¹⁸ For, on the one hand, there is the nullification of a former commandment ^(CV)because of its weakness and uselessness ¹⁹ (for ^(CW)the Law made nothing perfect); on the other hand, there is the introduction of a better ^(CX)hope, through which we ^(CY)come near to God. ²⁰ And to the extent that it was not without an oath ²¹ (for they indeed became priests without an oath, but He with an oath through the One who said to Him,

²² by the same extent Jesus also has become the ^[ak](DC)guarantee of ^(DD)a better covenant.

^23 [al]The former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing; ^24 [am]Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues ^(DE)forever, holds His priesthood permanently. ²⁵ Therefore He is also able to ^(DF)save ^[an]forever those who ^(DG)come to God through Him, since He always lives to ^(DH)make intercession for them.

²⁶ For it was fitting for us to have such a ^(DI)high priest, ^(DJ)holy, ^(DK)innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and ^(DL)exalted above the heavens; ²⁷ who has no daily need, like those high priests, to ^(DM)offer up sacrifices, ^(DN)first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because He did this ^(DO)once for all time when He ^(DP)offered up Himself. ²⁸ For the Law appoints men as high priests ^(DQ)who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the Law, appoints ^(DR)a Son, who has been ^(DS)made perfect forever.