Book of Common Prayer

11 So I ask, has God left his people? No, he has not! I myself am a Jew. I was born in Abraham's family. I belong to the tribe of Benjamin.

² God has not left his people whom he knew from the first. Do you not know what the holy writings say about the prophet Elijah? He talked to God against the people of Israel.

³ He said, `Lord, they have killed your prophets. They have pulled down your holy places. I am the only one that is left, and they are trying to kill me.'

⁴ But what did God answer him? He said, `I have seven thousand men who have not kneeled down to the idol god Baal.'

⁵ So now some are left because God was kind to them, and chose them.

⁶ But if it was a gift because he was kind to them, then it was no longer because of the things they did. Or else a gift would no longer be a gift.

⁷ So what does that mean? The Jews did not get what they tried to get. Only the people God chose got it. The hearts of the rest of the people became hard.

⁸ The holy writings say, `God made them dull with sleep. He gave them eyes that could not see, and ears that could not hear. They have been like that until today.'

⁹ And David said long ago, `May the table where they eat be like a net and like a trap. May it make them fall down. May it punish them.

¹⁰ Make their eyes become blind so that they cannot see. Make their backs bent all the time.'

¹¹ So I ask, `Have their feet been caught so that they have really fallen down?' No. But because they began to fall, the people who are not Jews were told how to be saved. That would make the Jews jealous.

¹² The people who are not Jews have been richly blessed because the Jews failed. So it will be even better for them when the Jews no longer fail God.

¹⁹ The Jews did not all say the same thing because of what Jesus said.

²⁰ Many of them said, `A bad spirit is in him. He is crazy. Why do you listen to him?'

²¹ But others said, `A person who has a bad spirit in him does not say the things this man says. Can a bad spirit make blind people see?'

²² At that time there was a feast in Jerusalem at the temple. It was the cold time of the year.

²³ Jesus was walking in that part of the temple called Solomon's resting place.

²⁴ The Jews came around Jesus and said, `How long will you keep us wondering about this matter? If you are really the Christ, then tell us plainly.'

²⁵ Then Jesus said, `I have already told you and you did not believe it. My Father has given me the power to do big works. These works tell you who I am.

²⁶ And yet you do not believe because you are not my sheep. I told you this before.

²⁷ My sheep listen to me. I know them. They come to me.

²⁸ I give them life that lasts for ever. They will never die. No one will take them out of my hand.

²⁹ My Father gave the sheep to me. He is greater than anyone else. No one is able to take them out of my Father's hand.

³⁰ My Father and I are one.'

³¹ Then the leaders of the Jews picked up stones again to kill him.

³² So Jesus said to them, `I have done many good things that come from my Father. For which one of those are you going to kill me?'

³³ Then the Jewish leaders answered him, `We do not kill you for doing any good thing. But you do not respect God. You are only a man, and yet you say you are God.'

³⁴ Jesus answered them, `In your own books it is written that God said, "You are gods."

³⁶ Nothing can change the words in the holy writings. It is written that God spoke to men and that he called them gods. So he called some men gods. Then why do you say I do not respect God when I say that I am the Son of God? I am the one God chose and sent into the world.

³⁷ If I am not doing my Father's work, then do not believe me.

³⁸ But if I am doing my Father's work, believe the work that I do, even though you do not believe me. Then you will know and you will believe that my Father is in me and I am in him.'

³⁹ Because of what he said, they tried to catch Jesus again. But he got away from them.

⁴⁰ He went away again to the other side of the Jordan River. He went to the place where John [the Baptizer] was when he first baptized people. Jesus stayed there for a while.

⁴¹ Many people came to him there. They said, `John himself did not do any big work. But everything that John said about this man is true.'

⁴² Many people believed on Jesus there.