Beginning
Bringing Light to the Blind
9 As Yeshua was passing by, He saw a man who had been blind since birth. 2 His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?”
3 Yeshua answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned. This happened so that the works of God might be brought to light in him. 4 We must do the work of the One who sent Me, so long as it is day! Night is coming when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
6 Having said these things, He spat on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud on the blind man’s eyes. 7 He told him, “Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam” (which is translated Sent). So he went away, washed, and came back seeing.
8 Therefore his neighbors and those who had seen him as a beggar kept saying, “Isn’t this the one who used to sit and beg?”
9 “This is the one!” some said.
“No, but it looks like him,” said others.
But the man himself kept saying, “I am!”
10 So they asked him, “Then how were your eyes opened?”
11 He answered, “The Man who is called Yeshua made mud, rubbed it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went away and washed, and then I received my sight!”
12 “Where is He?” they asked him.
“I don’t know,” he said.
13 They bring to the Pharisees the man who once was blind. 14 Now the day was Shabbat when Yeshua made the mud and opened the man’s eyes. 15 So again the Pharisees were asking him how he received his sight. He responded, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see!”
16 So some of the Pharisees began saying, “This man isn’t from God, because He doesn’t keep Shabbat!” But others were saying, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So there was a split among them.
17 Again they say to the blind man, “What do you say about Him, since He opened your eyes?”
And he said, “He’s a prophet.”
18 So the Judean leaders didn’t believe that he had been blind and received his sight until they called his parents. 19 They questioned them, “Is this your son, whom you say was born blind? Then how does he see now?”
20 Then his parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. 21 We don’t know how he now sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him—he’s old enough. He will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Judean leaders. For the Judean leaders had already agreed that anyone who professed Yeshua to be Messiah would be thrown out of the synagogue. 23 That’s why his parents said, “He’s old enough—ask him.”
24 So a second time they called the man who had been blind and said, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner!”
25 The man replied, “I don’t know whether He’s a sinner. One thing I do know is that I was blind, but now I see!”
26 So they asked him, “What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?”
27 “I told you already and you didn’t listen!” the man responded. “What, do you want to hear it again? You don’t want to become His disciples too, do you?”
28 They railed at him and said, “You’re a disciple of that One, but we’re disciples of Moses! 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses; but as for this fellow, we don’t know where He is from.”
30 The man replied to them, “That’s amazing! You don’t know where He is from, yet He opened my eyes! 31 We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners; but if anyone fears Him and does His will, He hears this one. 32 Since the beginning of the world, no one has ever heard that anyone has opened the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, He couldn’t do anything.”
34 They replied to him, “You were born completely in sin, and you’re teaching us?” And they threw him out.
Is Seeing Believing?
35 Yeshua heard that they had thrown him out. Finding him, He said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”[a]
36 The man answered, “Who is He, Sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in Him!”
37 Yeshua said, “You have seen Him—He is the One speaking with you.”
38 He said, “Lord, I believe!” And he worshiped Him.
39 Yeshua said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who don’t see may see, and the ones who do see may become blind.”
40 Some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard Him say this and asked, “We’re not blind too, are we?”
41 Yeshua said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin. But now you say, ‘We see.’ So your sin remains.”
The Faithful Hear the Shepherd’s Voice
10 “Amen, amen I tell you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters through the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice. The shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
4 “When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them; and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will never follow a stranger, but will run away from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 Yeshua told them this parable, but they did not understand what He was telling them.
7 So Yeshua said again, “Amen, amen I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All those who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate![b] If anyone comes in through Me, he will be saved. He will come and go and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal, slaughter, and destroy. I have come that they might have life, and have it abundantly!
11 “I am the Good Shepherd.[c] The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. 12 The hired worker is not the shepherd, and the sheep are not his own. He sees the wolf coming and abandons the sheep and flees. Then the wolf snatches and scatters the sheep. 13 The man is only a hired hand and does not care about the sheep.
14 “I am the Good Shepherd. I know My own and My own know Me, 15 just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father. And I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not from this fold; those also I must lead, and they will listen to My voice. So there shall be one flock, one Shepherd.
17 “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life, so that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own. I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.”
19 Again a division arose among the Judeans because of these words. 20 Many of them were saying, “He has a demon. He’s insane! Why listen to Him?” 21 Others said, “These are not the sayings of someone who is plagued by a demon. A demon cannot open the eyes of the blind, can it?”
Some Despise the Light and Harden
22 Then came Hanukkah;[d] it was winter in Jerusalem. 23 Yeshua was walking in the Temple around Solomon’s Colonnade. 24 Then the Judean leaders surrounded Him, saying, “How long will You hold us in suspense? If You are the Messiah, tell us outright!”
25 Yeshua answered them, “I told you, but you don’t believe! The works I do in My Father’s name testify concerning Me. 26 But you don’t believe, because you are not My sheep. 27 My sheep hear My voice. I know them, and they follow Me. 28 I give them eternal life! They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all. And no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
31 Again the Judean leaders picked up stones to stone Him. 32 Yeshua answered them, “I’ve shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone Me?”
33 The Judean leaders answered, “We aren’t stoning you for a good work, but for blasphemy. Though You are a man, You make Yourself God!”
34 Yeshua answered them, “Isn’t it written in your Writings,[e] ‘I have said you are gods’? 35 If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the Word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), 36 do you say of Him, the One the Father set apart and sent into the world, ‘You speak blasphemy,’ because I said, ‘I am Ben-Elohim’?
37 “If I don’t do the works of My Father, don’t believe Me! 38 But if I do, even if you don’t trust Me, trust the deeds. Then you may come to know and continue to understand that the Father is in Me, and I am in the Father.” 39 Therefore they tried to capture Him again, but He escaped from their hand.
40 Again He went back across the Jordan to the place where John first started immersing, and He stayed there. 41 Many people came to Him and were saying, “John performed no sign, but all John said about this man was true.” 42 And many trusted in Him there.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.