John 3-4

Christian Standard Bible

Jesus and Nicodemus

3 There was a man from the Pharisees^(A) named Nicodemus,^(B) a ruler^(C) of the Jews. ² This man came to him at night and said, “Rabbi,^(D) we know that you are a teacher^(E) who has come from God,^(F) for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him.”^(G)

³ Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again,^[a](H) he cannot see the kingdom of God.”^(I)

⁴ “How can anyone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?”

⁵ Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born^(J) of water and the Spirit,^(K) he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶ Whatever is born of the flesh^(L) is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit^(M) is spirit. ⁷ Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born^(N) again. ⁸ The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going.^(O) So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”^(P)

⁹ “How can these things be?” asked Nicodemus.

¹⁰ “Are you a teacher^[b] of Israel and don’t know these things?” Jesus replied. ¹¹ “Truly I tell you,^(Q) we speak what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony. ¹² If I have told you about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ascended^(R) into heaven^(S) except the one who descended from heaven^(T) —the Son of Man.^[c](U)

¹⁴ “Just as Moses^(V) lifted up the snake in the wilderness,^(W) so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ so that everyone who believes in him may^[d] have eternal life.^{(X) 16} For God loved^(Y) the world in this way:^[e] He gave^[f] his one and only^(Z) Son,^(AA) so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.^{(AB) 17} For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn^(AC) the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned,^(AD) because he has not believed in the name^(AE) of the one and only Son^(AF) of God. ¹⁹ This is the judgment: The light^(AG) has come into the world,^(AH) and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ For everyone who does evil hates^(AI) the light and avoids it,^[g] so that his deeds^(AJ) may not be exposed. ²¹ But anyone who lives by^[h] the truth comes to the light, so that his works^(AK) may be shown to be accomplished by God.”

Jesus and John the Baptist

²² After this, Jesus and his disciples went to the Judean countryside, where he spent time with them and baptized.

²³ John^(AL) also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water there. People were coming and being baptized, ²⁴ since John had not yet been thrown into prison.^(AM)

²⁵ Then a dispute arose between John’s disciples^(AN) and a Jew^[i] about purification.^{(AO) 26} So they came to John and told him, “Rabbi,^(AP) the one you testified about, and who was with you across the Jordan,^(AQ) is baptizing—and everyone is going to him.”^(AR)

²⁷ John responded, “No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven. ²⁸ You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah,^(AS) but I’ve been sent ahead of him.’^{(AT) 29} He who has the bride^(AU) is the groom. But the groom’s friend, who stands by and listens for him, rejoices greatly^[j] at the groom’s voice. So this joy^(AV) of mine is complete. ³⁰ He must increase, but I must decrease.”

The One from Heaven

³¹ The one who comes from above^(AW) is above all. The one who is from the earth is earthly and speaks in earthly terms.^[k] The one who comes from heaven is above all.^{(AX) 32} He testifies^(AY) to what he has seen and heard, and yet no one accepts his testimony. ³³ The one who has accepted his testimony has affirmed that God is true.^{(AZ) 34} For the one whom God sent speaks God’s words, since he^[l] gives the Spirit^(BA) without measure. ³⁵ The Father loves the Son^(BB) and has given all things into his hands.^{(BC) 36} The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son^[m] will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him.^(BD)

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

4 When Jesus^[n] learned that the Pharisees^(BE) had heard he was making^(BF) and baptizing more disciples than John^{(BG) 2} (though Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were), ³ he left Judea^(BH) and went again to Galilee.^{(BI) 4} He had to travel through Samaria;^{(BJ) 5} so he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property^[o] that Jacob^(BK) had given his son Joseph.^{(BL) 6} Jacob’s well^(BM) was there, and Jesus, worn out from his journey, sat down at the well. It was about noon.^[p]

⁷ A woman of Samaria came to draw water.^(BN)

“Give me a drink,” Jesus said to her, ⁸ because his disciples had gone into town to buy food.

⁹ “How is it that you, a Jew,^(BO) ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan^(BP) woman?” she asked him. For Jews do not associate with^[q] Samaritans.^[r]

¹⁰ Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God,^(BQ) and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.”^(BR)

¹¹ “Sir,”^(BS) said the woman, “you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do you get this ‘living water’? ¹² You aren’t greater than our father Jacob,^(BT) are you? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.”

¹³ Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. ¹⁴ But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again.^(BU) In fact, the water I will give him will become a well^[s](BV) of water springing up in him for eternal life.”^(BW)

¹⁵ “Sir,” the woman said to him, “give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and come here to draw water.”

¹⁶ “Go call your husband,” he told her, “and come back here.”

¹⁷ “I don’t have a husband,” she answered.

“You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,’” Jesus said. ¹⁸ “For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”

¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain,^(BX) but you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”^(BY)

²¹ Jesus told her, “Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews.^{(BZ) 23} But an hour is coming, and is now here,^(CA) when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth.^[t] Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. ²⁴ God is spirit,^(CB) and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.”^(CC)

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

²⁶ Jesus told her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.”^(CF)

The Ripened Harvest

²⁷ Just then his disciples arrived, and they were amazed that he was talking with a woman. Yet no one said, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

²⁸ Then the woman left her water jar, went into town, and told the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” ^{(CG) 30} They left the town and made their way to him.^(CH)

³¹ In the meantime the disciples kept urging him, “Rabbi,^(CI) eat something.”

³² But he said, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”

³³ The disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?”

³⁴ “My food is to do the will of him^(CJ) who sent me^(CK) and to finish his work,”^(CL) Jesus told them. ³⁵ “Don’t you say, ‘There are still four more months, and then comes the harvest’? Listen to what I’m telling you: Open^[u] your eyes and look at the fields, because they are ready^[v] for harvest. ³⁶ The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life,^(CM) so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. ³⁷ For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’^{(CN) 38} I sent you to reap what you didn’t labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited from^[w] their labor.”

The Savior of the World

³⁹ Now many Samaritans^(CO) from that town believed in him because of what the woman said^[x] when she testified,^(CP) “He told me everything I ever did.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him,^(CQ) they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. ⁴¹ Many more believed because of what he said.^{[y] 42} And they told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said, since we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Savior^(CR) of the world.”^[z]

A Galilean Welcome

⁴³ After two days he left there for Galilee.^{(CS) 44} (Jesus himself had testified^(CT) that a prophet has no honor in his own country.^(CU)) ⁴⁵ When^(CV) they entered Galilee, the Galileans^(CW) welcomed him because they had seen everything he did in Jerusalem^(CX) during the festival.^(CY) For they also had gone to the festival.

The Second Sign: Healing an Official’s Son

⁴⁶ He went again to Cana^(CZ) of Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. There was a certain royal official whose son was ill at Capernaum.^{(DA) 47} When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea^(DB) into Galilee, he went to him and pleaded with him to come down and heal his son, since he was about to die.

⁴⁸ Jesus told him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders,^(DC) you will not believe.”^(DD)

⁴⁹ “Sir,”^(DE) the official said to him, “come down before my boy dies.”

⁵⁰ “Go,” Jesus told him, “your son will live.” The man believed what^[aa] Jesus said to him and departed.

⁵¹ While he was still going down, his servants met him saying that his boy was alive. ⁵² He asked them at what time he got better. “Yesterday at one in the afternoon^[ab] the fever left him,” they answered. ⁵³ The father^(DF) realized this was the very hour at which Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” So he himself believed, along with his whole household.

⁵⁴ Now this was also the second sign^(DG) Jesus performed after he came from Judea to Galilee.^(DH)