The Gospel - South Asia Lutheran Mission

By John the Evangelist.
Translated by Edward Arthur Naumann.
Copyright Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, 2021. Licenced under CC BY 4.0.

Foreword

This story is two thousand years old, but it is a true story. John was one of Jesus’ disciples. He was a fisherman. When Jesus came to John and called him to be a disciple, he left his fishing boat and net, and followed Jesus. John witnessed Jesus’ life, his teaching, his miracles, his death, and his resurrection. Then he wrote this book, so that you also may know the truth, and believe in Jesus. It is called “Gospel” which means “good news”, because God promises everlasting life to those who believe in Jesus.

John wrote this book in Greek, but Greek was not his first language. He wrote in a very simple way, easy enough for children to understand. And John intended for this book to be read out loud for people to hear it and understand the meaning. Therefore this translation is also in simple language, easy enough to understand when you hear it. I prepared this English translation as part of the process of preparing a new Sinhala translation that would similarly be easy to understand and faithful to the original Gospel.

Some parts of this book are not easy to understand, even though the language is simple. The first reason for this is that John’s first audience was Christian. They were familiar with Christian teaching and the sacraments of the early Church. Novice readers, therefore, may have many questions. In the very first page, for example, it may need explanation that “the Word” is a person of the Trinity, and that is why John refers to the Word as “he” in the second sentence.

The second reason why it is sometimes hard to understand is because John is expressing the highest spiritual truths. The Holy Spirit inspired John’s writing, to express deep spiritual meaning, in the form of simple language. Even Bible scholars still have questions. There is always more to learn from the Gospel. Truly the Gospel of John is a river in which a lamb can walk, and an elephant can swim. By making the meaning sometimes obscure and hidden, God invites us to ask questions and learn more.

If you have questions while you are reading, do not worry. Keep reading! Through this book God will reveal what you can understand today. The next time you read it, God will reveal to you something new.

I have tried to give a translation that reflects the original style and content of John’s original Gospel. Therefore I translated this directly from the Greek.

John does not use many formal words, so I also have tried to avoid more formal words. Sometimes, however, unfamiliar words must appear. For example, words like ‘Synagogue’, ‘Sanhedrin’ and ‘Praetorium’ may be unfamiliar, but such words are few, and can easily be learned.

I have not tried to hide John’s sometimes crude or untidy manners of expression, because these are features of his original Gospel. For example, John sometimes uses Hebrew words like ‘Rabbi’ and ‘Amen’. He often uses unnecessary conjunctions (he writes ‘and’, ‘but’ and ‘therefore’ a lot). He suddenly changes the tense in the middle of his narration, for example, switching from ‘he said’ to ‘he says’. He mostly prefers to give simple sentences instead of using subordinate clauses. Sometimes he does not even give a full sentence.

These characteristics of John’s Gospel make it a little strange to read at times. On the surface, the language is not very impressive or attractive. The beauty and power of this book, however, lie hidden beneath the simplicity. For these simple words are the purest truth. These simple words have the power to enlighten those who believe. And everyone who believes these simple words will have eternal life.

E.A.N.

Acknowledgements

I must thank my wife Monica for her endless support and patience with me over the last six months, as I worked on this project, while she worked tirelessly at home, during times of unprecedented crisis and difficulty for the country. Though pregnancy, childbirth, lockdowns and online schooling for the children, she was my constant companion, and her efforts enabled me to work in peace, without fear for our home.

Thank you to the many individuals and congregations of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, who with willing and generous hearts supported this project in prayers and finances. Without them also, this work would not have been possible.

Finally to all the individuals who encouraged me to continue, thank you for strengthening me when I was weak, lifting me up when I was low, and for keeping me mindful of the grace of God in our Lord Jesus Christ.

E.A.N.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was in the presence of God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning, in the presence of God. All things were made through him, and not a single thing that has been made was made without him. In him there was life, and his life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not receive it.

There was a man who was sent from God, and his name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the light, so that everyone may believe through him. He was not the light, but to testify about the light.

The true light, that lightens every man, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not recognize him. He came for what was his, but his own people did not welcome him. But whoever received him, he gave them the power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who are born not out of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we marveled at his glory, glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

John bears witness about him, who preached about him saying, “This was the man I talked about, saying: ‘The one who is coming after me was in front of me,’ because he was first, before me.”

And out of his fullness, we all received grace upon grace. Because the Law was given through Moses, grace and truth came to be through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the only-begotten Son, who is at the Father’s side. He has revealed him.

And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites to him from Jerusalem, to ask him, “Who are you?”.

And he confessed, and did not deny; he confessed, saying, “I am not the Christ”.

And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elias?” And he says, “I am not”.

“Are you the prophet?” and he replied, “No.”

Therefore they said to him, “Who are you? So that we can give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

He said, “I am the voice of the one proclaiming in the desert, Make straight the path of the Lord!” just as the prophet Isaiah said.

And there were those who were sent by the Pharisees. And they asked him, saying, “Why, therefore, do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, nor Elias, nor the prophet?”

John answered them, saying, “I baptize in water. Among you there stands someone you do not know, who comes after me, and I am not worthy even to untie the straps of his shoe.”

These things took place in Bethany, by the River Jordan, where John was baptizing.

On the next day he sees Jesus coming towards him, and says, “Look! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one about whom I said, ‘After me is coming a man who was in front of me, because he was first, before me.’ And I did not know him, but so that he might be made known to Israel, for this I came baptizing in water.”

And John testified, saying, “I have seen the Spirit coming down like a dove out of Heaven, and he rested upon him. And I did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize in water, he told me, ‘The one on whom you see the Spirit coming down and resting upon him, he is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen, and I have witnessed, that this is the Son of God.”

On the next day again, John is standing with two of his disciples, and when he sees Jesus walking, he says, “Look! The lamb of God!”

And his two disciples heard him speaking, and they followed Jesus.

But Jesus turns around and sees them following him, and says, “What are you looking for?” But they said to him, “Rabbi,” which interpreted means ‘teacher’, “Where are you staying?”

He tells them, “Come, and see.”

Therefore they went and saw where he was staying, and remained with him that day. It was about the tenth hour.

Andrew the brother of Simon Peter was one of the two who heard this from John and followed him. He finds his own brother Simon first and tells him, “We have found the Messiah”, which is interpreted ‘anointed’ or ‘Christ’. He brought him to Jesus.

When he saw him, Jesus said, “You are Simon, the son of John. You shall be called Cephas”, which means ‘rock’.

On the next day he wanted to go to Galilee, and he finds Philipp, and Jesus says to him, “Follow me.”

Philipp was also from Bethsaida, from the city of Andrew and Peter. Philipp finds Nathaniel and says to him, “We have found the one that Moses wrote about in the law, and the prophets, Jesus the son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”

And Nathaniel said to him, “Can there be anything good from Nazareth?”

Philipp says to him, “Come and see!”

Jesus saw Nathaniel coming towards him, and says about him, “Look, truly an Israelite who has no deceit in him!”

Nathaniel says to him, “Where do you know me from?”

Jesus replied and said to him, “Before Philipp called to you, while you were still under the fig tree, I saw you.”

Nathaniel replied to him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the king of Israel!”

Jesus replied and said to him, “Do you believe, because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these!” And he says to him, “Amen, Amen, I tell you, you will see heaven opened up, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man.”

And on the third day there was a wedding in Cana, Galilee, and Jesus’ mother was there. And Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding. And when the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother tells him, “They have no wine.”

And Jesus says to her, “Woman, what is it to me and you? My hour has not yet come.”

His mother tells the servants, “Whatever he tells you, do it.”

Well there happened to be six stoneware water jugs, for the cleansing rite of the Jews, each one able to hold two or three measures.

Jesus says to them, “Fill up the water jugs with water.”

And they filled them to the brim. And he says to them, “Now draw some, and take it to the banquet master.”

Then they brought it. But when the banquet master tasted the water that had become wine—and he did not know where it came from, but the servants knew, who had drawn the water—the banquet master calls to the groom and says to him, “Every man puts out the good wine first, and when people have had plenty to drink, then the worse. You have kept the good wine until now!”

Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him. After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.

And the Passover of the Jews was coming, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And in the Temple he found people selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers who were seated there, and when he had made a whip out of cords, he drove them all out of the Temple, the sheep and the oxen as well, and poured out the money changers’ coins and overturned their tables. And to those who were selling doves he said, “Take these things away from here! And do not turn my Father’s house into a marketplace!”

His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house consumes me.”

The Jews, therefore, answered and said to him, “What sign are you showing us, that you are doing these things?”

Jesus replied and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it.”

The Jews, therefore, said, “This Temple was built over forty six years, and will you raise it in three days?”

But he was speaking about the temple of his body. Therefore when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus spoke. But while he was in Jerusalem during Passover during the festival, many people believed in his name, marveling at his signs that he was doing. But Jesus did not entrust himself to them, because he knew them all, and because he did not need anyone to testify about man, for he knew what was in man.

There was a man from the Pharisees, called Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. He came to him at night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you have come as a teacher from God. For no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.”

Jesus replied and said to him, “Amen, Amen, I tell you, unless someone is born from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus says to him, “How can a man be born, when he’s old? He can’t get into his mother’s womb a second time, and be born, can he?”

Jesus replied and said to him, “Amen, Amen, I tell you, unless someone is born from water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. What is begotten by flesh is flesh, and what is begotten by the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I told you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The Spirit blows where he wants, and you hear his voice, but you do not know where he comes from, or where he is going. It is like this with everyone who is begotten by the Spirit.”

Nicodemus replied and said to him, “How can this be done?”

Jesus replied and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and you do not know these things? Amen, Amen, I tell you, we talk about what we know, and we testify about what we have seen, and you did not accept our testimony. If I told you about earthly things, and you do not believe, how will you believe if I speak about heavenly things? And no one has gone up to heaven, except for the one who came down from heaven, the son of man. And just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, in this way the son of man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For in this way God loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world may be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not judged, but whoever does not believe is already judged, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment: that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness more than the light, because their works were wicked. For everyone who does bad things hates the light, and does not come towards the light, so that his works will not be examined. But the one who does the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be revealed, that they are performed in God.”

After these things Jesus and his disciples came to the land of Judea, and there he spent time with them and was baptizing. But John was also baptizing in Ainon, near Salim, because the water there was abundant, and people were coming and being baptized. For John had not yet been thrown into prison.

Therefore a question arose, among the disciples of John with the Jews, about cleansing. And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, the man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan, the one you testified about, look—he is baptizing, and everyone is going over to him.”

John replied and said, “A man cannot receive anything unless it is given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear witness for me, that I said I am not the Christ, but I was sent before him. The one who holds the bride is the groom. But the friend of the groom, who stands by and listens to him, rejoices with joy because of the voice of the groom. Therefore this joy of mine has become full. He must become greater; but I must become less. He who comes down from above is above all. He who is from the earth is from the earth and speaks from the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. What he has seen and heard, he bears witness to it, and no one receives his testimony. The one who received his testimony confirmed with a seal that God is true. For the one that God sent speaks the words of God, because he does not give the Spirit out of a measure. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever does not obey the Son will not see life; rather, the anger of God remains upon him.”

Since, therefore, Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John—and yet Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were—he left Judea and went out again to Galilee.

But he had to go through Samaria. He comes, therefore, to a city of Samaria called Suchar, near to the place that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. And Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, therefore, as he was tired from the journey, started sitting down by the well. It was about the eighth hour.

A woman from Samaria comes along, to draw water. Jesus says to her, “Give me a drink.”

For his disciples had gone away into the town, to buy food. Therefore the Samaritan woman says to him, “How can you, who are a Jew, be asking me for a drink, when I’m a Samaritan woman? For Jews don’t associate with Samaritans!”

Jesus replied and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink”, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

The woman says to him, “Lord, you have no bucket, and the spring is a long way down. So where are you getting the living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this spring, and drank from it, he and his sons and his cattle?”

Jesus replied and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water that I give him will not thirst, forevermore. Instead, the water that I give will become in him a well of water gushing forth into eternal life.”

She says to him, “Lord, give me this water, so that I don’t get thirsty and keep coming here to draw more.”

He tells her, “Go and call your husband and come back here.”

The woman replied and said to him, “I have no husband.”

Jesus says to her, “You spoke well when you said: ‘I have no husband’. For you’ve had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. You have said the truth.”

The woman says to him, “Lord, I can see that you are a prophet! Our fathers worshipped on this mountain; and you say that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

Jesus says to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming, when you will not be worshipping the Father on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, because salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father also seeks such people who worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

The woman says to him, “I know that Messiah is coming, who is called Christ. When he comes, he will tell us everything.”

Jesus says to her, “I am he, the one who is talking to you.”

And at this, his disciples came, and they were amazed that he was talking with a woman. But no one said, “What do you want”, or “Why are you talking with her?”

Therefore the woman left her water jar, and went away to the town, and tells the people, “Come and see the man who told me everything I did! Isn’t this the Christ?”

They came out from the town and started coming to him.

Meanwhile the disciples urged him, saying, “Rabbi, eat!”

But he said to them, “I have bread to eat, which you don’t know.”

The disciples therefore were saying to each other, “No one has brought him anything to eat, have they?”

Jesus says to them, “My bread is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to complete his work. You say, don’t you, ‘There are four more months until the harvest comes’? Look, I’m telling you, lift up your eyes, and you will see that the fields are ripe for the harvest. Already the reaper is receiving his wages and gathering the fruit into eternal life, so that the sower may rejoice together with the reaper. For in this the word is true, which says, ‘There is one who sows, and another who reaps.’ I have sent you to reap what you have not toiled over. And you have entered into their work.”

And many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him, because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me everything I did.”

Therefore when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed there for two days. And far more believed because of his word. And they told the woman, “No longer do we believe because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard, and we know that this truly is the saviour of the world!”

After the two days, he went from there into Galilee. For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honour in his home town. When therefore he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans received him, who had seen all the things he did in Jerusalem during the festival, since they also went to the festival. Again, therefore, he came to Cana in Galilee, where he made the water wine.

And a certain ruler came, whose son was unwell in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he came to him and asked him to come down and heal his son; because he was about to die.

Therefore Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”

The ruler says to him, “Lord, come down, before my little child dies!”

Jesus says to him, “Go. May your son live!”

The man believed the word that Jesus said to him, and went. While he was still going down, his servants met him, saying that his boy was alive. He therefore asked them at what hour he got better. So they told him, “Yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him.”

So the father knew it was at that hour that Jesus had told him, “May your son live”, and he believed, and his entire household.

And this again was the second sign Jesus did after coming from Judea into Galilee.

After these things it was the festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem, by the sheep-gate, a pool that in Hebrew is called Bethesda, which has five porticos. Lying under them was a multitude of the sick, blind, lame, and paralytic. For an angel of the Lord, at the appointed time, used to come down to the pool, and move the water; therefore the first to get in after the movement of the water would be cleansed of whatever disease he had.

Now there was a certain man there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. Jesus saw him lying down, and, knowing that he had been sick for a long time already, says to him, “Do you want to become well?”

The invalid replied to him, “Lord, I’ve got no one to throw me into the pool, when the water is moved. But by the time I arrive, someone else gets in before me.”

Jesus says to him, “Get up, take your mat, and walk!”

And immediately the man was made healthy, and he picked up his mat, and walked around. But that day was a Sabbath. The Jews therefore were telling the healed man, “It’s the Sabbath! You’re not allowed to carry your mat!”

But he replied to them, “The man who made me well—he told me: Take your mat and walk.”

They asked him, “Who is the man who told you, Take and walk?”

But the healed man did not know who it was; for Jesus swam away, and there was a crowd in that place.

After these things Jesus finds him in the temple, and says to him, “Look, you’ve been made well! Do not sin, so that nothing worse happens to you.”

The man went away and reported to the Jews that Jesus was the man who had made him well. And because of this, the Jews started to follow Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.

But Jesus replied to them, “My Father has been working until now, and I am working.”

Because of this, therefore, the Jews sought to kill him all the more, because not only was he undoing the Sabbath, but he was also calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God.

Therefore Jesus replied, and said to them, “Amen, Amen, I tell you, the Son cannot do anything by himself, except what he sees the Father is doing. For whatever he does, the Son similarly does these things. For the Father loves the son, and shows him everything that he is doing, and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. For just as the Father raises the dead and makes alive, so also the Son gives life to whoever he wants. For the Father does not judge anyone, but he has given the judgment to the Son, so that everyone may honour the Son, just as they honour the Father. Whoever doesn’t honour the Son doesn’t honour the Father who sent him. Amen, Amen, I tell you, that whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life, and he doesn’t come into judgment, but has crossed over from death into life. Amen, Amen, I tell you, that the hour is coming and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear shall live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he let the Son have life in himself. And he gave him power to make judgment, because he is the Son of man. Don’t be amazed at this, because the hour is coming when all who are in their tombs will hear his voice, and they will come out—those who have done good, into a resurrection of life, but those who have done bad things, into a resurrection of judgment. I am not able to do anything of my own accord. I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I don’t seek my own will, but the will of the one who sent me. If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another, who testifies about me, and I know that the testimony is true, which he testifies about me. You have sent people to John, and he has testified to the truth. But I do not get my testimony from a man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was the lamp that was burning and shining, and you wanted to rejoice for a while in his light. But I have a testimony that is greater than John. For the works that the Father gave to me accomplish, those works that I do testify about me that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has also testified about me. You have never heard his voice, nor seen his form, and you don’t have his word abiding within you, because you don’t believe in the man he sent. Search the scriptures, because you think that you have eternal life in them; they are also testifying about me, and you don’t want to come to me so that you may have life. I receive no glory from men, but I know you, that you don’t have the love of God within you. I have come in the name of my Father, and you don’t receive me. If someone else comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you accept glory from others, and you don’t seek the glory that comes from God alone? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father. There is someone who accuses you—Moses, in whom you’ve put your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me. But if you don’t believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”

After these things Jesus departed, to the other side of the sea of Galilee, the Tiberian Sea. But a large crowd was following him, because they had been watching the signs that he was doing on those who were sick. But Jesus went up into the mountain, and there he sat with his disciples.

Now the Passover was coming soon, the festival of the Jews. Therefore Jesus lifted up his eyes and when he saw that a large crowd was coming to him, he says to Philipp, “Where should we buy bread, so that these people can eat?”

But this he said, testing him, because he knew what he was about to do.

Philipp replied to him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for them to get a little piece each.”

One of his disciples, Andrew the brother of Simon Peter, tells him, “There is a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two side dishes. But what are these to so many people?”

Jesus said, “Make the people recline.”

Now there was a lot of grass in that place. Therefore the men reclined, about five thousand in number. Jesus therefore took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed it to those who were reclining, and likewise the fish, as much as they wanted. But when they were completely full, he says to his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, so that nothing gets spoilt.”

Therefore they gathered it together, and loaded up twelve baskets full of fragments from the five barley loaves, that were left over by those who had eaten. The people, therefore, when they say the sign he had done, were saying, “This is truly the prophet that is coming into the world!”

Jesus, therefore, knowing that they were about to come and seize him, to make him king, went up the mountain again, by himself. But when it got late, his disciples went down to the sea. And once they had got into a boat, they started heading across the sea, to Capernaum. And it had already got dark, and Jesus had not come to them.

And the sea was being stirred up, because a great wind was blowing. Therefore when they had traveled for about twenty five or thirty stades, they see Jesus walking on top of the sea, and coming near the boat, and they were afraid.

But he tells them, “I am. Don’t be afraid.”

Therefore they were willing to receive him into the boat, and immediately the boat became on the land they were going to.

On the next day, the crowd that had stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was only one boat there, and that Jesus did not get into the boat with his disciples, but his disciples left by themselves. But boats came from Tiberius, near the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks. Therefore when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum, looking for Jesus. And when they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

Jesus replied to them and said, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: you’re looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate bread, and you were filled. Work not for the bread that gets spoilt, but for the bread that lasts forever, which the Son of Man will give you. For the Father, God, has confirmed him by his seal.”

Therefore they said to him, “What should we do to perform the works of God?”

Jesus replied and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.”

Therefore they said to him, “Therefore what sign do you do, so that we can see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness, just as it is written: He gave bread from heaven, for them to eat.”

Therefore Jesus said to them, “Amen, Amen, I tell you, Moses has not given you bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and who has given life to the world.”

Therefore they said to him, “Lord, give us this bread all the time!”

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will not be hungry, and whoever believes in me won’t ever thirst. But I told you that you have even seen me, and you don’t believe. All that the Father is giving to me will come to me, and I won’t throw out anyone who comes to me, because I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of the one who sent me. Well this is the will of the one who sent me: that I should not lose anything that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

The Jews therefore grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread the came down from heaven”. and they said, “Isn’t this Jesus, Joseph’s son, whose father and mother we know? Now how is he saying ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

Jesus replied and said to them, “Don’t grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me, unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets: ‘And they all shall be instructed by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and understood it comes to me—not that anyone has seen the Father, except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Amen, Amen, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the desert, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that whoever eats it may not die. I am the living bread that has come down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world.”

The Jews therefore began arguing with one another, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

Therefore Jesus said to them, “Amen, Amen, I tell you, if you don’t eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you have no life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I remain in him. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live through the Father, whoever eats me will also live through me. This is the bread that came down from heaven—not like what the fathers ate and died—whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

He said these things in the synagogue, while teaching in Capernaum.

Therefore many of the his disciples who heard him said, “This teaching is hard to swallow. Who can listen to it?”

But Jesus knew in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, and said to them, “Does this make you stumble? Then what if you see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? The Spirit is the one who gives life; the flesh doesn’t help at all. The words that I’ve said to you are spirit and truth. But there are some of you who don’t believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that did not believe, and who it was that would betray him.

And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless he is permitted by the Father.”

From this time, therefore, many of his disciples returned to the places they had left, and did not walk around with him any more.

Therefore Jesus said to the Twelve, “Don’t you also want to leave?”

Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, who will we go to? You have words of eternal life, and we have believed and we have learned that you are the holy one of God.”

Jesus replied to them, “Didn’t I choose you, the Twelve? And one of you is a devil.”

But he was speaking about Judas the son of Simon Iscariot. For he was going to betray him, though he was one of the Twelve.

And after these things Jesus was walking around in Galilee, because he did not want to walk around in Judea, because the Jews were looking for him, to kill him.

Now the festival of the Jews was coming up, the feast of Tabernacles. Therefore his brothers said to him, “Move on from here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the works that you do. For no one does something in secret and wants himself to be well known. If you do these things, show yourself to the world!” For his brothers did not believe in him.

Therefore Jesus tells them, “My time has not yet come. But your time is always ready. The world can’t hate you, but it hates me, because I testify about it, that its works are wicked. Go up to the festival yourselves. I’m not going up to this festival yet, because my time is still not complete.”

And when he had said these things, he himself remained in Galilee. But when his brothers had gone up to the festival, then he also went up, not openly, but secretly.

The Jews therefore were searching for him at the festival and saying, “Where is that man?”

And there was a lot of murmuring about him among the crowd. Some were saying “He’s a good man”, while others said, “No—he’s just deceiving the crowd”.

No one, however, talked about him openly, because they were afraid of the Jews. But when it was already the middle of the festival, Jesus went up to the Temple and began to teach.

Therefore the Jews were amazed, saying, “How does this man know letters, when he was never educated?”

Jesus therefore replied to them and said, “My teaching is not my own, but comes from the one who sent me. If anyone is willing to do his will, he will know about this teaching, whether it is from God, or whether I’m speaking on my own. Whoever speaks on his own seeks his own glory. But the one who seeks the glory of the one who sent him—he is true and there’s no injustice within him. Didn’t Moses give you the Law? And none of you does the Law. Why are you seeking to kill me?”

The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who’s seeking to kill you?”

Jesus replied and said to them, “I did one thing, and all of you are amazed. This is why Moses has given you circumcision—not that it comes from Moses, but from the fathers—and you circumcise someone on the Sabbath. If a man can receive circumcision on the Sabbath and that doesn’t break the Law of Moses, why are you getting angry with me because I made a whole man healthy on the Sabbath? Don’t judge by appearance, but judge with just judgment!”

Therefore some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, “Isn’t this the man they are seeking to kill? And look, he is speaking openly and they aren’t saying anything to him. The rulers don’t really think that this is the Christ, do they? But we know him, where he came from; but the Christ—when he comes—no one knows where he’ll come from.”

Therefore Jesus shouted loudly in the Temple as he was teaching, and said, “Know about me and where I come from! I have not come all by myself; but the one who sent me is true—you don’t know him. I know him, because from him I am, and he sent me.”

Therefore they started seeking to seize him, yet no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. But many in the crowd believed in him, and said, “When the Christ comes, he’s not going to do more signs than what this man’s done, will he?”

The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent their servants to get him.

Therefore Jesus said, “For a little while longer I am with you, and I am going to the one who sent me. You will look for me, and you will not find me, and where I am, you cannot go.”

The Jews therefore said to one another, “Where is he going to go, that we won’t find him? He’s not going to go to the diaspora of the Greeks and teach the Greeks, is he? What does this saying mean: You will seek me and you won’t find me, and where I am you cannot go?”

On the last day, the great day of the festival, Jesus stood up and shouted out, saying, “Anyone who is thirsty come to me, and drink! Whoever believes in me, just as the Scripture said, rivers of living water will flow from his body!”

But he said this about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were going to receive. For the Spirit was not yet upon them, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Therefore those in the crowd who heard these words were saying, “This is truly the prophet!”

Some were saying, “This is the Christ!” And others said, “No—the Christ doesn’t come from Galilee, does he? Doesn’t Scripture say that the Christ comes from the seed of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?”

And so there was a difference of opinion about him among the crowd. And some of them wanted to seize him, but no one laid hands on him.

Therefore the servants came to the high priests and Pharisees, and they said to them, “Why didn’t you bring him?”

The servants replied, “No man has ever spoken like this!”

The Pharisees therefore answered them, “Have you also been led astray? Not one of the leaders believed in him, nor any of the Pharisees, have they? But this crowd, which is ignorant of the Law, are cursed!”

Nicodemus, who had come to him earlier, and who was one of them, says to them, “Does our law judge the man before it hears from him and knows what he is doing?”

They replied and said to him, “You’re not from Galilee too, are you? Search for yourself and see that a prophet doesn’t arise from Galilee.”

And each of them went to his own home.

Then Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. But early, he went to the Temple again, and all the people were coming to him, and he sat down and was teaching them.

But the scribes and the Pharisees bring a woman, caught in adultery, and after they put her in the middle, they say to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act, committing adultery. But in the law of Moses, we are commanded to stone such women. Therefore what do you say?”

But they were saying this to test him, so that they would have something to accuse him of. But Jesus was bowed down, and was writing on the ground with his finger.

But when they kept on asking him, he lifted his head and said to them, “Let the sinless one among you throw a stone at her first.”

And he bowed his head again and was writing on the earth. But those who heard him left, one by one, starting from the elders, and he was left alone, with the woman who was in the middle. But Jesus looked up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Isn’t there anyone condemning you?”

But the woman said, “No, Lord.”

And Jesus said, “I don’t condemn you either. Go. And from now on, don’t sin any more.”

Again therefore Jesus spoke to them saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Therefore the Pharisees said to him, “You’re testifying about yourself! Your testimony isn’t true.”

Jesus replied and told them, “Even if I testify about myself, my testimony is true, because I know where I came from, and where I’m going. But you don’t know where I come from or where I’m going. You judge according to the flesh; I do not judge anyone. And if I do judge, my judgment is true, because I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent me. But even in your law it is written that the testimony of two men is true. I am the one who testifies about myself, and the Father who sent me testifies about me.”

Therefore they said to him, “Where is your father?”

Jesus replied, “You don’t know me, nor my father. If you knew me, you would also know my Father.”

He spoke these words in the treasury, while teaching in the Temple. And no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come.

Therefore again he said to them, “I am going, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot go.”

Therefore the Jews were saying, “He’s not going to kill himself, is he? Because he’s saying, ‘You can’t go where I’m going’?”

And he was telling them, “You are from the low places; I am from the high places. You are from this world; I am not from this world. Therefore I told you you’d die in your sins, because if you don’t believe who I am, you will die in your sins.”

Therefore they were saying to him, “Who are you?”

Jesus said to them, “From the beginning, I’ve been telling you. I have many things to say and judge about you. But the one who sent me is true, and the things I have heard from him, I speak about these things to the world.”

They did not know that he was talking to them about the Father.

Jesus therefore said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know who I am, and that I don’t act by myself, but I say these things as the Father taught me; and that the one who sent me is with me; he hasn’t sent me to be alone, but that I always do what makes him happy.”

As he was saying these things, many people believed in him. Jesus therefore was saying to the Jews who believed him, “If you remain in my word, truly you are my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

They replied to him, “We are Abraham’s seed, and we’ve never been slaves to anyone. How can you say: You will be free?”

Jesus replied to them, “Amen, Amen, I tell you, that everyone who does sin is a slave of the sin. But the slave doesn’t stay in the house forever. The Son remains forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you will really be free. I know that you are Abraham’s seed. But you are seeking to kill me, because my word is not making its way within you. I am speaking about what I have seen before my Father. You also therefore, are doing what you have heard from your father.”

They answered and said to him, “Our father is Abraham.”

Jesus tells them, “If you were children of Abraham, you’d be doing the works of Abraham. But now you’re seeking to kill me, a man who’s told you the truth, as I heard it from the Father. Abraham didn’t do this. You are doing the works of your father.”

Therefore they said to him, “We were not conceived outside of marriage! We have one father, God.”

Jesus said to them, “If God were your father, you would love me, because I came and I have come from God. For I haven’t come all by myself, but he has sent me. Why don’t you understand what I’m saying? Because you cannot hear my word. You are from your father, the Devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a man-killer from the beginning, and he didn’t stand in the truth, because there is no truth within him. When he says what is false, he speaks from what is his, because he is a liar, and the father of it. But I, because I speak the truth, you do not believe me. Who of you rebukes me because of sin? If I speak truth, why don’t you believe me? The one who is from God hears the words of God. This is why you don’t hear, because you are not from God.”

The Jews replied and said to him, “Don’t we rightly say that you are a Samaritan, and you have a demon?”

Jesus replied, “I don’t have a demon, but I honour my Father, and you dishonour me. But I’m not seeking my own glory. There is one who seeks and who judges. Amen, Amen, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he won’t see death—for ever.”

Therefore the Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, and the prophets. And you say, If anyone keeps my word, he will not taste death forever. Surely you aren’t greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died. Who are you making yourself to be?”

Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my father who glorifies me—who you say is our God. And you haven’t known him, but I know him. And if I said I didn’t know him, I’d be a liar, like you. But I know him, and I keep his word. Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and rejoiced.”

The Jews therefore said to him, “You aren’t even fifty years old, and you’ve seen Abraham?”

Jesus said to them, “Amen, Amen, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.”

Therefore they picked up stones, to throw at him, but Jesus was hidden, and left the Temple.

And as he was passing by, he saw a man who was blind from birth.

And his disciples asked him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man, or his parents, so that he was born blind?”

Jesus replied, “Neither this man, nor his parents sinned—but so that the works of God might be revealed in him. We must accomplish the works of the one who sent me, while it is still day. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

When he had said these things, he spat on the ground, and made mud with the spit, and he smeared the mud over the man’s eyes, and said to him, “Go wash yourself, in the pool of Siloam”, which means ‘sent’.

He left, therefore, and washed himself, and left able to see.

The neighbours, therefore, and those who previously saw that he was a beggar, were saying, “Isn’t this the man who sits and begs?”

Some people were saying, “Yes, it is!” while others were saying, “No—but he looks like him.”

He was saying, “It’s me!”

Therefore they were saying to him, “So how were your eyes opened?”

He replied, “The man called Jesus made mud, and smeared it on my eyes, and told me: Go to Siloam and wash! Then after I’d left and washed, I could see.”

And they said to him, “Where is that man?”

He says, “I don’t know.”

They bring him to the Pharisees—the man who once was blind.

Now it was the Sabbath day, on which Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Again, therefore, the Pharisees asked him how he came to see. But he said to them, “He put mud onto my eyes, and I washed, and I see!”

Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, “This man is not from God, because he does not keep the Sabbath.”

But others were saying, “How could a sinful man do such great signs?” And there was a division among them.

Therefore they speak to the blind man again, “What do you say about him, because he opened your eyes?”

And he said, “He is a prophet!”

The Jews therefore did not believe him, that he was blind and received sight, until they summoned the parents of the man who received sight, and asked them, saying, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then is he recently able to see?”

His parents therefore replied and said, “We know that this man is our son, and that he was born blind. But how he’s now seeing—we don’t know, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know! Ask him. He is old enough, he can answer for himself.”

His parents said these things, because they were afraid of the Jews, because the Jews had already agreed that whoever confesses Christ should be put out of the Synagogue. This is why his parents said, “He is old enough, ask him.”

Therefore they summoned the man a second time, who was blind, and said to him, “Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner.”

Therefore he replied, “I don’t know if he’s a sinner. I know one thing, that I was blind, but now I can see.”

Therefore they said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”

He replied to them, “I already told you, and you didn’t hear it. Why do you want to hear it again? You don’t also want to become his disciples, do you?”

And they rebuked him and said, “You’re a disciple of that man, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but this man we don’t know where he is from.”

The man replied and said to them, “Well that’s an amazing thing—that you don’t know where he’s from, and he opened my eyes! We know that God doesn’t hear sinners, but if someone is pious and does his will, he hears him. Since forever, no one’s heard that anyone opened the eyes of someone who was born blind. If this man weren’t from God, he wouldn’t be able to do anything.”

They replied and said to him, “In sins you were born whole, and you are teaching us?!” And they threw him outside.

Jesus heard that they threw him out, and when he had found him, he said to him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

He replied and said, “And who is he, Lord, so that I may believe in him?”

Jesus said to him, “Well, you have seen him, and he’s the one talking with you.”

But he said, “I believe, Lord!” And he worshipped him.

And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who can’t see may see, and those who can see may become blind.”

Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things, and said to him, “Surely we’re not blind too?”

Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you’d have no sin. But now you are saying, ‘We can see.’ Your sin remains.”

“Amen, Amen, I tell you, the one who doesn’t enter the sheepfold through the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The porter opens it up for him, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out. When he drives out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice. And they won’t follow anyone else, but they’ll run away from him, because they don’t know the voice of others.”

Jesus spoke this figure to them, but they did not understand what he was telling them.

Therefore Jesus said again, “Amen, Amen, I tell you, that I am the gate of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers. But the sheep did not hear them. I am the gate. If anyone enters through me, he’ll be saved, and he’ll go in and go out, and he’ll find pasture. The thief only comes to steal and slay and destroy. I came for them to have life, and have it in abundance. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd puts down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who’s also not a shepherd, and doesn’t own the sheep, sees the coming wolf, and leaves the sheep alone and flees—and the wolf seizes them and scatters them—because he’s a hired hand, and doesn’t care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know my own, and my own know me. Just as the Father knows me and I know the Father, and I put down my life for the sheep. I also have other sheep, who are not from this fold; I must gather them too, and they will hear my voice, and they will be made into one flock, and one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I’m putting down my life, so that I can take it up again. No one’s taking it away from me, but I’m putting it down by myself. I have the power to put it down, and I have the power to take it back again. I got this command from my father.”

A division again took place among the Jews, because of these words.

Many of them were saying, “He has a demon” and, “he’s mad—why are you listening to him?”

Others were saying, “These aren’t the words of someone who is demon possessed. A demon can’t open the eyes of the blind, can it?”

Then it was the feast of the consecration in Jerusalem; it was winter. And Jesus was walking around in the Temple, in Solomon’s Portico.

Therefore the Jews encircled him and were saying to him, “How long are you going to waste away our lives? If you are the Christ, tell us openly!”

Jesus replied to them, “I told you, and you don’t believe! The works that I do in my Father’s name testify about me. But you don’t believe, because you aren’t my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life, and they will not perish, forever, and no one will steal them from my hand. My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all, and no one can steal from the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

The Jews picked up stones again to stone him to death.

Jesus replied to them, “I showed you many good works from the Father. Which one are you stoning me for?”

The Jews replied to him, “We’re not stoning you for a good work, but for blasphemy, and because you—though you’re only a man—make yourself God.”

Jesus replied to them, “Isn’t it written in your Law: ‘I said, you are gods’? If he called them gods, to whom the Word of God appeared, and Scripture can’t be undone, are you saying, ‘You’re blaspheming’, to the one the Father set apart and sent into the world, because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? If I’m not doing the works of my Father, don’t believe me. But if I do them, even if you don’t believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and learn that the Father is within me, and I am within the Father.”

Therefore they sought again to seize him, and he escaped from their hand. And again he went away, to the other side of the Jordan, to the place where John was baptizing in the first place, and he stayed there.

And many came to him, and were saying, “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.”

And many believed in him there.

So there was a sick man, Lazarus of Bethania, from the village of Mary and Martha her sister.

Now Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with myrrh and wiped his feet with her hair, and her brother Lazarus was sick.

Therefore the sisters sent word to him, saying, “Lord, look, someone you love is sick.

But Jesus, when he had heard this, said, “It’s not a sickness leading to death, but for the sake of the glory of God, so that the Son of Man might be glorified through it.”

Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.

Therefore when he heard that he was sick, then he remained in the place where he was for two days.

Then after this, he says to the disciples, “Let’s go to Judea again.”

The disciples say to him, “Rabbi, now the Jews have been trying to stone you, and you’re going back there?”

Jesus replied, “Aren’t there twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks around during the day time, he doesn’t stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks around at night, he stumbles, because there’s no light within him.”

He said these things, and afterwards he tells them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I’m going to wake him up.”

Therefore the disciples said to him, “Lord, if he’s fallen asleep, he’ll be fine.”

But Jesus had spoken about his death; but they thought that he was talking about the regular kind of sleep. Therefore Jesus then said to them openly, “Lazarus died,” and, “I rejoice for your sake—so that you may believe—that we weren’t there. But let’s go to him.”

Therefore Thomas, whom the other disciples called Didymus, said, “Let’s go too, so that we may die with him!”

Therefore Jesus went and found him, and he had already been in the tomb four days.

Now Bethania was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stades away.

But many of the Jews had come out to Martha and Maria, to console them about their brother. Therefore Martha, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet him. But Maria was sitting in the house.

Therefore Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you were here, my brother wouldn’t have died. But even now, I know that God will give you whatever you ask God.”

Jesus says to her, “Your brother will rise up.”

Martha says to him, “I know that he’ll rise up in the Resurrection, on the last day.”

Jesus said to her, “I am the Resurrection, and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even if he dies; and everyone who lives and believes in me will not die, forever. Do you believe this?”

She says to him, “Yes, Lord. I fully believe that you’re the Christ, the Son of God, who’s coming into the world.”

And when she had said these things, she left and called her sister Mary, having told her privately, “The teacher is here, and he’s calling for you.”

But when she heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but he was still in the place where Martha greeted him. Therefore when the Jews who were with her in the house and were comforting her saw that Mary had got up quickly and left, they followed her, thinking that she was going to the tomb to cry there.

Therefore Mary, when she came to where Jesus was, when she saw him, she fell down before his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you were here, my brother would not have died!”

Jesus, therefore, when he saw her crying, and the Jews who came with her also crying, was moved in spirit, and stirred himself, and said, “Where have you laid him?”

They say to him, “Lord, come and see.”

Jesus cried.

Therefore the Jews were saying, “Look, how he loved him!”

But some of them said, “Wasn’t this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, able to do something to prevent him from dying?”

Jesus therefore, again moved within himself, comes towards the tomb. Now there was a cave, and a stone was laid on top of it.

Jesus said, “Remove the stone!”

Martha the sister of the dead man says to him, “Lord, there’s already a smell, because it’s the fourth day.”

Jesus says to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believe, you’ll see the glory of God?”

Therefore they took away the stone. But Jesus raised his eyes upwards and said, “Father, I thank you that you heard me. And I knew that you always hear me; but I said this because of the crowd that’s standing around, that they may believe that you’ve sent me.”

And when he had said these things, he shouted out in a great voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

The man who had died came out, bound with bands around his feet and his hands, and his face was bound by a cloth.

Jesus says to them, “Untie him, and let him go.”

Many of the Jews, therefore, who had come to Mary and seen what he did, believed in him. But some of them went away to the Pharisees, and told them what Jesus had done.

Therefore the chief priests and Pharisees gathered together the Sanhedrin, and were saying, “What do we do? Because this man does many signs! If we leave him alone like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away our place and the nation.”

But one of them, Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing! Don’t you think it’s better for us, that one man die for the people, and not the whole nation perish?”

But he did not say this by himself, but since he was the high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the sake of the nation, and not only for the nation, but also to gather the scattered children of God into one. From that day, therefore, they planned to kill him. Jesus therefore no longer walked around openly in Judea, but went out from there into the region near the desert, to a town called Ephraim, and he spent time there with his disciples.

The Pascha of the Jews was coming up soon, and many people went up to Jerusalem from the region, ahead of the Pascha, to purify themselves. Therefore they looked for Jesus, and people standing in the Temple were saying to one another, “What do you think? That he won’t come to the Festival?”

But the chief priests and Pharisees had given an order that if anyone knew where he was, they were to inform them, so that they could get him.

Jesus therefore went, six days before the Pascha, to Bethania, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus raised from the dead.

Therefore they made dinner for him there, and Martha was serving, while Lazarus was one of those who reclined with him.

Therefore Mary got a pound of myrrh, of precious, pure nard, and anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the smell of the myrrh.

But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, who was going to betray him, says, “Why wasn’t this myrrh sold for three hundred denarii, and given to the poor?”

But he said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as the one who had the money box, he used to steal what was deposited.

Therefore Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she can keep it for the day of my burial. For you always have the poor with you. But you don’t always have me.”

Therefore a great crowd of Jews learned that he was there, and they came, not only because of Jesus, but also to see Lazarus, whom he raised from the dead. But the chief priests plotted to kill Lazarus also, because many of the Jews were coming to Jesus and believing through him.

On the next day, the great crowd that had come to the festival, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, got branches from palm trees and went out to meet him, and shouted out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”, and, “The King of Israel!”

But Jesus found a little donkey, sat on top of it, just as it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion! Look, your King comes, sitting on the colt of a donkey.”

His disciples did not realize these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about him, and they did these things for him.

The crowd, therefore, were giving their testimony, who were with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead. For this reason the crowd also greeted him, because they heard that he had done this sign.

The Pharisees, therefore, said to one another, “Do you see that you’re not accomplishing anything? Look! The world has got behind him!”

Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. Therefore they approached Philipp from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, “Lord, we want to see Jesus.”

Philipp goes and tells Andrew; Andrew goes with Philipp and they tell Jesus.

But Jesus replies, telling them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Amen, Amen, I tell you, if the seed of grain doesn’t fall into the ground and die, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life will lose it, and whoever hates his life in this world will safeguard it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, let him follow me. And wherever I am, my servant will also be there. If anyone serves me, the Father will honour him. Now my life is troubled. And what, should I say, ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No—but: ‘For this reason I came, for this hour.’ Father, glorify your name!”

Therefore a voice came from heaven, “I glorified it before, and I will glorify it again.”

The crowd, therefore, that was standing there and heard it, were saying it was thunder. Others were saying, “An angel spoke to him.”

Jesus replied and said, “This voice came down not for my sake, but for yours. Now is a time of judgment for this world. Now the ruler of this world will be thrown out. And I, if I’m lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.”

But he was saying this, showing by what death he was going to die.

Therefore the crowd replied to him, “We heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever”, and “What do you mean that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”

Jesus therefore said to them, “For a little while longer the light is among you. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness doesn’t get hold of you.” And, “Whoever walks in the darkness doesn’t know where he’s going. Since you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become sons of light.”

Jesus said these things, and left, and he was hidden from them. But even though he had done such great signs right in front of them, they did not believe in him, so that the word of the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled, which he spoke, saying:

“Lord, who believed our report? And to whom was the Lord’s arm revealed?”

For this reason they were not able to believe, because again Isaiah said,

“He has blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart, so that they do not see with their eyes; yet let them feel with their heart, and turn, and I will heal them.”

Isaiah said these things, because he saw his glory, and he spoke about him.

Nevertheless, however, even many of the leaders believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they did not admit it, so that they would not be thrown out of the synagogues. For they loved the glory of men more than the glory of God.

But Jesus shouted out and said, “Whoever believes in me doesn’t believe in me, but in the one who sent me. And whoever sees me sees the one who sent me. I came into the world as a light, so that everyone who believes in me wouldn’t stay in darkness. And if anyone hears my words, and doesn’t keep them, I won’t judge him; for I didn’t come to judge the world, but to save the world. Whoever rejects me and doesn’t accept my words has someone who judges him; the word that I spoke judges him on the last day! Because I didn’t talk all by myself, but the Father who sent me has commanded me what to say and what to talk about. And I know that his command is eternal life. Therefore whatever I’m talking about, I’m talking in just the same way as the Father has spoken to me.”

Before the festival of the Pascha, Jesus knew that his hour had come, to go across from this world to the Father, and since he loved his own, who were in the world, he loved them until the end.

And during dinner, after the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot to betray Jesus, and knowing that the Father had given him everything into his hands, and that he came from God and was going back to God, he got up from the dinner, and put aside his clothes. And he took a towel, and put it around himself.

Then he pours water into a wash-basin, and began to wash the feet of the disciples, and to dry them with the towel that was around him. He comes, therefore, to Simon Peter.

He says to him, “Lord! Are you washing my feet?”

Jesus replied and said to him, “Right now you don’t know what I’m doing; but you will understand after these things.”

Peter says to him, “You certainly won’t wash my feet—ever!”

Jesus replied to him, “If I don’t wash your feet, you have no portion with me.”

Simon Peter says to him, “Not just my feet, but my hands and head too.”

Jesus says to him, “Someone who has just bathed doesn’t need to be washed, except for the feet, but he is completely clean. You also are clean, but not all of you.”

For he knew the one who was betraying him, and because of that he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

Therefore when he washed their feet, and put on his clothes, and reclined again, he said to them, “Do you understand what I’ve done for you? You call me, ‘the teacher’ and ‘the Lord’ and you’re right, because I am. Therefore if I—the Lord and the teacher—washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. For I’ve given you an example, so that you also will do as I did. Amen, Amen, I say to you, a slave isn’t greater than his master, and neither is an apostle greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. I’m not talking about all of you. I know the men I chose. But so that the scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats my bread lifted his heel against me.’ Up to now I’ve been telling you before it happens, so that, when it happens, you may believe that I am. Amen, Amen, I tell you, whoever receives someone I send receives me, but whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”

When he had said these things, Jesus was troubled in spirit, and he testified and said, “Amen, Amen, I tell you, that one of you will betray me.”

The disciples looked at each other, unsure which of them he was talking about. One of the disciples was reclining at Jesus’ side, the one Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore nods to him, to find out who it was that he was talking about. He therefore reclined like this, at Jesus’ chest, and says to him, “Lord, who is it?”

Jesus replies, “It’s the man for whom I’ll dip a piece of bread and give it to him.”

Therefore he dips the piece of bread and gives it to Judas of Simon Iscariot. And after the piece of bread, then Satan entered into him.

Therefore Jesus says to him, “Do what you’re doing quickly.”

But none of them who were reclining knew why he said this to him. For some thought, since Judas had the money box, that Jesus was telling him to buy what we needed for the festival, or give something to the poor. When he had received the piece of bread, therefore, he left right away.

Now it was night.

Therefore when he left, Jesus says, “Now the Son of Man was glorified, and God was glorified within him. If God was glorified within him, and God will glorify him within him, he will also glorify him immediately. Children, for a little while longer I am with you. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews—that where I’m going you can’t come—I’m telling you now. I give you a new command, that you love one another. That just as I loved you, you also love one another. This way everyone will know that you’re my disciples, if you have love for each other.”

Simon Peter says to him, “Lord, where are you going?”

Jesus replied, “Where I’m going, you can’t follow me; but you will follow, later.”

Peter says to him, “Lord, why can’t I follow now? I’ll lay down my life for you!”

Jesus replies, “Will you lay down your life for me? Amen, Amen, I tell you, the rooster won’t crow until you deny me three times.”

And he said to his disciples, “Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God, and believe in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If not, would I have told you that I’m going to prepare a place for you? And if I’m going, and if I’ll be preparing a place for you, I’m coming back again, and I will take you to myself, so that where I am, you are too. And you know the way to where I’m going.”

Thomas says to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?”

Jesus says to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me. If you knew me, you also knew my Father; and from now on, you know him, and you’ve seen him.”

Philipp says to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that’s enough for us.”

Jesus says to him, “I’ve been with you so much time, and haven’t you got to know me, Philipp? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. What do you mean by saying, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I’m in the Father, and the Father is in me? I’m not speaking the words that I’m speaking to you all by myself. But the Father who remains within me is doing his works. Believe me—that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me. But if not, believe because of those works. Amen, Amen, I tell you, whoever believe in me will also do the works that I do, and he’ll do greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, I will do this, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me for anything in my name, I will do it. If you love me, keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, to stay with you forever, the Spirit of the Truth, which the world cannot receive, because it doesn’t see him or know him. You know him, because he remains among you, and is within you. I won’t leave you orphans; I am coming to you. Still for a little while, the world still doesn’t see me; but you see me, that I am alive, and you will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commandments, and keeps them—he is someone who loves me. But whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and reveal myself to him.”

Judas (not the son of Iscariot) says to him, “Lord, what has happened, that you are going to reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?”

Jesus replied and said to him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him; and we will come to him and set up our dwelling place with him. Whoever doesn’t love me doesn’t keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine, but the Father’s, who sent me. I have said these things to your while I am with you. But the Comforter—the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name—he will teach you all things, and remind you of everything that I told you. I send you peace; I give you my peace, not like the world gives, I give to you. Don’t let your heart be troubled or afraid. You heard what I told you, ‘I’m going and I’m coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice, because I’m going to the Father, because the Father is greater than me. And now I’ve told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you will believe. I won’t talk with you about many more things, because the ruler of this world is coming. And he has nothing in me; but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I’m doing this, just as the Father commanded me. Get up. Let’s go from here.”

“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the farmer. Every branch that is in me, which doesn’t bear fruit—he removes it; and every one that bears fruit, he cleans it, so that it bears more fruit. You are already clean, because of the word that I’ve spoken to you. Remain in me, and I am in you. Just as the branch can’t bear fruit by itself, unless it stays in the grapevine, so you can’t, unless you remain in me. I’m the grapevine; you’re the branches. Whoever remains in me—and I am in him—he bears a lot of fruit, because apart from me you can’t do anything. If someone doesn’t remain in me, he is cast out like the branch and dried out, and they gather them up and throw them into the fire and they burn. If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, whatever you want you will ask, and it will be done for you. In this my Father will be glorified, in that you bear a lot of fruit, and you are my disciples. Just as the Father loved me, I also loved you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I have kept the commandments of my Father, and I remain in his love. I have spoken about these things with you, so that my joy may be within you, and your joy may be full. This is my commandment, that you love one another, just as I loved you. No one has greater love than this, to put down his life for his family. You are my family, if you do the things I command you. I don’t call you slaves any more, because the slave doesn’t know what his master is doing; but I’ve called you family, because everything that I heard from the Father I revealed to you. You didn’t choose me, but I chose you, and I established you, for you to go and bear fruit, and for your fruit to remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. These words I command you: love one another. If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before you. If you were from the world, the world would love its own. But because you aren’t from the world, but I chose you from the world, for this reason the world hates you. Do you remember the word that I told you, ‘The slave is not greater than his master’? If they persecuted me, they’ll persecute you too. If they scrutinized my word, they’ll scrutinize yours too. But they’ll do all this to you because of my name, because they don’t know the one who sent me. If I hadn’t come and spoken to them, they would have no sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me also hates my Father. If I hadn’t done the works among them that no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they’ve seen and they’ve hated both me and my Father. But so that the word would be fulfilled that is written in their Law, ‘They hated me for no reason’. When the Comforter comes, whom I will sent to you from the Father, the Spirit of the Truth, who comes from the Father’s side, he will testify about me. And you will also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.”

“I have said these things to you, so that you won’t be caused to stumble. They will throw you out of the synagogues; but the hour is coming when everyone who has killed you will think he is offering worship to God. And they will do these things, because they don’t know the Father, nor me. But I’ve talked to you about these things, so that when the hour comes for them, you remember them, that I told you. But I didn’t tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I’m going to the one who sent me, and none of you is asking me, ‘Where are you going?’ but because I have told you these things, your heart has become full of grief. But I’m telling you the truth, it’s for your benefit that I go away. For if I don’t leave, the Comforter won’t come to you. But if I go, I’ll send him to you. And he will come and convict the world, about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment. About sin, because they don’t believe in me; about righteousness, because I’m going to the Father, and you won’t see me any more; and about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t handle them right now. But when he comes, the Spirit of the Truth, he’ll guide you in all truth. For he won’t be speaking by himself, but he’ll say the things he hears; and he’ll announce to you what things are coming. He will glorify me, because he will receive from me, and announce to you. Everything that the Father has is mine. Because of this I said that he takes from me and announces to you. A little while, and you won’t see me, and again a little while, and you will see me.”

Therefore some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this that he’s saying to us: ‘A little while and you won’t see me, and again a little while and you will see me?’ and, ‘I’m going to the Father’?”

Therefore they were saying, “What is this, ‘little while’? We don’t know what it means.”

Jesus knew they wanted to ask him, and said to them, “Are you asking each other about this, because I said ‘a little while and you won’t see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? Amen, Amen, I tell you, that you yourselves will cry and mourn, but the world will rejoice. You’ll be grieved, but your grief will be turned into joy. When a wife is going into labour, she feels grief, because her time came. But when the child is born, she doesn’t remember the distress any more, because of the joy that a person was born into the world. You also, therefore, now you feel grief; but I’ll see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. And on that day, you won’t ask me anything. Amen, Amen, I tell you, whatever you ask the Father in my name, he’ll give you. Until now, you didn’t ask for anything in my name. Ask, and you’ll receive, so that your joy may be full. I have told you these things in parables. The hour is coming when I won’t be talking to you in parables any more, but I’ll tell you openly about the Father. On that day you’ll ask in my name, and I’m not saying to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me, and you have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father, and I’ve come into the world. Again I’m leaving the world, and going to the Father.”

His disciples say, “Look, now you are speaking clearly, and you’re not speaking about any parable. Now we know that you know everything, and you don’t need anyone to ask you. We believe in this, that you came out from God.”

Jesus replied to them, “Now do you believe? Look, the hour is coming, and it has come, for each of you to be scattered to your own, and you will leave me all alone. And I am not alone, because the Father is with me. I have spoken these things to you, so that you may have peace in me. In the world you have tribulation, but take heart; I have conquered the world.”

Jesus said these things, and when he had lifted up his eyes to heaven, he said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, so the Son may glorify you, just as you gave him power over all flesh, to give them everything you gave him: eternal life. But this is eternal life, for them to know you—the only true God—and the one you sent, Jesus Christ. I glorified you upon the earth, when I completed the work that you gave me to do. And now glorify me, Father, by your own glory, which I had with you, before the universe existed. I revealed your name to the men you gave me out of the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me; and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me comes from you, because I have given them the words that you gave me, and they received and knew truly that I came out from you, and they believed that you sent me. I ask for their sake; I don’t ask for the sake of the world, but for their sake whom you have given me, because they are yours, and everything that is mine is yours, and what is yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them. And no longer am I in the world, and they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you gave to me, so that they may be one, like us. When I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you gave me, and I watched over them, and none of them was lost, except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I am saying these things in the world, so that they may have my joy filled within them. I have given them your word, and the world hated them, because they are not from the world, just as I am not from the world. I don’t ask you to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not from the world, just as I am not from the world. Purify them in the truth. Your word is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, I also sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, so that they may also be consecrated in truth. But I ask not only for the same of these, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are within me, and I am within you; so that they too may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. And I have given them the glory that you have given to me, so that they may be one, like we are one, I in them and you in me, so that they may be perfected as one, so that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them, just as you loved me. Father, I want what you have given me: that they may also be with me where I am, so that they see my glory, which you’ve given me, because you loved me before laying the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, even the world doesn’t know you, but I know you, and these know that you sent me, and I made your name known to them, and I make it known, so that the love you loved me with might be in them, and I in them.”

When he had said these things, Jesus went out with his disciples to the other side of the valley of Kedron, where there was a garden, and Jesus and his disciples went into it. So Judas, the one who betrayed him, also knew the place, because Jesus often got together with his disciples there. Therefore Judas, having taken a band of men from the chief priests and Pharisees, comes there with torches and lamps and weapons.

Jesus, therefore, since he knew everything that would happen to him, went out and says to them, “Who are you looking for?”

They answered him, “Jesus the Nazarene.”

He says to them, “I am.”

Now Judas, the one who betrayed him, stood with them.

Therefore when he said to them, “I am”, they withdrew backwards and fell on the ground. Again therefore he asked them, “Who are you looking for?”

But they said, “Jesus the Nazarene.”

Jesus replied, “I told you that I am. Therefore if you’re looking for me, let them go”, so that the word that he spoke would be fulfilled, “I did not lose any of those whom you gave me.”

Therefore Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear. Well Malchus was the name of the servant.

Therefore Jesus said to Peter, “Put the sword into its sheath. The cup that my Father gave me—shouldn’t I drink it?”

The band of men, therefore, and the officer in charge, and the servant of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him, and brought him to Annas first. For he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. Well Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it was better for one man to die for the people.

Now Simon Peter followed Jesus, and another disciple. But that disciple was known to the high priest, and went in with Jesus, into the courtyard of the high priest. But Peter stayed by the door, outside. Therefore the other disciple who was a relative of the high priest went out and spoke to the girl keeping the door, and brought Peter inside.

Therefore the maid girl at the door says to Peter, “You’re not one of this man’s disciples too, are you?”

He says, “I’m not.”

But the slaves and servants were standing around a fire they had made, because it was cold, and were warming themselves. And Peter was also standing with them, and warming himself.

Therefore the high priest asked Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching.

Jesus replied to him, “I have spoken openly to the world. I have taught everywhere, in the synagogue, and in the Temple, where all the Jews gather together, and in secret I have said nothing. Why are you asking me? Ask those who’ve heard what I said to them. Look—these people know what I said.”

But when he had said these things, one of the servants who was standing next to him slapped Jesus and said, “Like this do you answer the high priest?”

Jesus replied to him, “If I have spoken wrongly, testify about what is wrong; but if I have spoken well, why do you hit me?”

Therefore Annas sent him away, bound, to Caiaphas the high priest.

Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. Therefore they said to him, “You’re not also one of his disciples, are you?”

He denied it and said, “I’m not!”

One of the slaves of the high priest, who was a relative of the man whose ear Peter cut off, says, “Didn’t I see you in the garden with him?”

Again, therefore, Peter denied it. And immediately a rooster crowed.

Therefore they bring Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium. And it was early. And they did not enter the Praetorium, so that the would not become polluted, but so they could eat the Pascha.

Therefore Pilatus came out to meet them, and says, “What charge do you bring against this man?”

They replied and said to him, “If he wasn’t doing something bad, we wouldn’t have handed him over to you.”

Therefore Pilatus told them, “Take him yourselves, and judge him according to your own Law.”

The Jews therefore said to him, “We aren’t permitted to put anyone to death”.

So that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spoke, when he was signifying by what death he would die.

Therefore Pilatus went back again into the Praetorium, and called for Jesus, and said to him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

Jesus replied, “Do you say this by yourself, or did others tell you about me?”

Pilatus answered, “I’m not a Jew, am I? Your people, and your high priests handed you over to me. What did you do?”

Jesus replied, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my servants would fight, so that I wouldn’t be handed over to the Jews. But now my kingdom isn’t from here.”

Therefore Pilatus said to him, “So you are a king, aren’t you?”

Jesus replied, “You say that I’m a king. I was born for this reason, and for this reason I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

Pilatus says to him, “What is truth?”

And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and says to them, “I find no fault in him. But you have a custom, that I release to you one man on the Pascha. Therefore, do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?”

Again, therefore, they shouted out, saying, “Not him, but Barabbas!”

But Barabbas was a thief.

So then Pilatus took Jesus and flogged him. And the soldiers made a crown out of thorns and put it on his head, and put a purple tunic around him, and they went up to him and were saying, “Hail, the king of the Jews!” and they kept slapping him.

And Pilatus went out again and says to them, “Look, I’m bringing him out to you, so that you know I find no fault in him.”

Therefore Jesus went outside, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple tunic.

And he says to them, “Look, the man.”

Therefore when the chief priests and their servants saw him, they shouted out, saying, “Crucify, crucify!”

Pilatus says to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him. For I don’t find any fault in him.”

The Jews answered him, “We have a Law, and according to the Law he ought to die, because he made himself out to be the Son of God.”

Therefore when Pilatus heard this reply, he became quite afraid, and went back into the Praetorium, and says to Jesus, “Where are you from?”

But Jesus gave him no reply.

Therefore Pilatus says to him, “Won’t you talk to me? Don’t you know that I have authority to set you free, and I have authority to crucify you?”

Jesus replied to him, “You wouldn’t have any authority over me, if it hadn’t been given to you from above. For this reason the one who betrayed me to you has the greater sin.”

From that moment Pilatus was looking to set him free, but the Jews were shouting, saying, “If you set him free, you are not a friend of Caesar! Everyone who makes himself king is speaking against Caesar!”

Pilatus therefore, when he had heard these words, brought Jesus out, and he sat down on the rostrum, at the place called ‘Lithostrotos’, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the preparation of the Pascha, at about the eighth hour.

And he says to the Jews, “Look! Your king!”

They shouted, therefore, “Take him away, take him away, crucify him!”

Pilatus says to them, “Should I crucify your king?”

The chief priests replied, “We have no king, except Caesar.”

So then he handed him over to them, to be crucified. Therefore they took Jesus away. And carrying his own cross, he went out, to the so-called ‘Place of the Skull’, which in Hebrew is called ‘Golgotha’. There they crucified him, and with him two others, on either side, with Jesus in the middle.

Now Pilatus also wrote an inscription, and put it above the cross. But it was written: “Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews”.

Therefore many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place was near the city, where Jesus was crucified. And it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.

Therefore the chief priests of the Jews were telling Pilatus, “Don’t write: ‘The King of the Jews’, but: ‘He said: I am King of the Jews’.”

Pilatus replied, “What I have written, I have written.”

Therefore the soldier, when they had crucified Jesus, took his clothes, and divided them in four parts, one for each soldier, plus the tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven throughout, from the top. Therefore they said to each other, “Let’s not divide it, but let’s play for who’ll get it.”

So that the scripture would be fulfilled, that says: “They divided up my clothes for themselves, and for my tunic they cast lots.”

The soldiers did these things, meanwhile Jesus’ mother stood by the cross, and his mother’s sister, Clopas’ Mary, and Mary Magdalene.

Jesus therefore, when he saw his mother standing there, and the disciple whom he loved, he says to his mother, “Woman, look—your son.” Then he says to the disciple, “Look, your mother!” And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own home.

After this, Jesus knows that everything is finished for scripture to be fulfilled, and says, “I’m thirsty.”

A container was lying there full of bad wine; therefore they put a sponge full of the wine around a hyssop branch, and put it up to his mouth.

So when he had received the wine, Jesus said, “It is finished”.

And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

The Jews, therefore, since it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, because that particular Sabbath was a great feast day, asked Pilatus for them to break their legs and remove them.

The soldiers therefore went and broke the legs of the first man, and of the other who was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, since they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one of the soldiers pierced his side with his spear. And immediately out came blood and water. And the one who saw it has testified, and his testimony is true, and he knows that he speaks the truth, so that you may believe.

For these things happened, so that scripture would be fulfilled, “Not a bone of his will be broken.”

And again another scripture says, “They will look upon the man they pierced.”

But after these things, Joseph from Arimathaia—who was a disciple of Jesus, though secretly, because of his fear of the Jews—asked Pilatus if he could take Jesus’ body. And Pilatus allowed it. Therefore he went and took his body. But Nicodemus, who had come to him by night at first, also went, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloe, about a hundred pounds. Therefore they took the body of Jesus and bound it with linens with the spices, as is the burial custom for the Jews.

Now there was a garden in the region where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb, in which no one had yet been laid. In that place, therefore, they put Jesus, because it was the preparation day of the Jews, and the tomb was close by.

On the first day of the week Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb early, while it is still dark, and she sees the stone removed from the tomb.

She runs, therefore, and comes to Simon Peter and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and she says to them, “They took the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.”

Therefore Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were coming to the tomb.

And the two of them were both running, and the other disciple ran ahead more quickly than Peter, and got to the tomb first, and peering inside, he sees the cloths lying there, but he didn’t go in. Therefore Simon Peter comes, following him, and went inside the tomb, and he sees the cloths lying there, and the towel that was over his head, not lying with the cloths, but separately, folded up in one place. So then the other disciple also went in, who had got to the tomb first, and he saw and believed.

For they did not yet know the scripture, that it was necessary for him to be raised from the dead. Therefore the disciples went back again to their people.

But Mary stood by the tomb, outside, crying. So as she was crying, she looked inside the tomb, and she sees two angels sitting in white, one at the head, and one at the feet, where Jesus’ body had been laid.

And they say to her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

She says to them, “They took my Lord, and I don’t know where they put him.”

When she had said this, she turned around, and saw Jesus standing there, and she did not know that it was Jesus.

Jesus says to her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who are you looking for?”

She thinks that he is the gardener and says to him, “Lord, if you removed him, tell me where you put him, and I will take him.”

Jesus says to her, “Mary.”

She turned and says to him in Hebrew, “Rabboni”, which means ‘teacher’.

Jesus says to her, “Don’t touch me. For I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers, and tell them: I’m going up to my Father and your Father and my God and your God.”

Mary Magdalene goes to tell the disciples that she has seen the Lord, and that he said these things to her.

Therefore when it was late in the day, on that first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were staying, because of their fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the middle and says to them, “Peace to you!”

And when he had said this, he showed his hands and his side to them. Therefore the disciples rejoiced, when they saw the Lord.

Therefore he said to them again, “Peace to you! Just as the Father sent me, I’m also sending you.”

And when he had said this, he blew upon them and says to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit! Whoever’s sins you forgive have been forgiven for them; whoever’s you retain have been retained.”

Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, who was called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. Therefore the other disciples told him “We’ve seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “If I don’t see in his hands the mark of the nails and put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I won’t believe.”

And after eight days, again his disciples were inside, and Thomas was with them. Jesus comes, while the doors were locked, and stood in the middle and said, “Peace to you!”

Then he says to Thomas, “Bring your finger here, and look at my hands, and bring your hand, and put it into my side! And do not be unbelieving, but believing.”

Thomas replied and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus says to him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are they who have not seen, and believed.”

So Jesus did many other signs in addition, in front of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these things have been written, so that you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and so that you who believe may have life in his name.

After this, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples on the Sea of Tiberius. He showed himself like this.

They were all together: Simon Peter, and Thomas the one called Didymus, and Nathaniel from Cana of Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two others out of his disciples.

Simon Peter says to them, “I’m going fishing!”

They say to him, “We’re coming with you too.”

They left and got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing. But when it was already early morning, Jesus stood on the shore. The disciples, however, did not yet know that it was Jesus.

Jesus therefore says to them, “Children! You don’t have anything to eat, do you?”

They answered him, “No.”

But he told them, “Throw the net onto the right side of the boat, and you’ll find something!”

Therefore they threw it that way, and they were not strong enough to draw it in, because of the number of the fish.

Therefore that disciple that Jesus loved says to Peter, “It’s the Lord!”

Therefore Simon Peter, when he heard that it was the Lord, put a shirt around himself—because he was practically naked—and threw himself into the sea. But the other disciples came in the boat—for they were not far from the land, but about two hundred cubits away—dragging the net of fish. So when they got out onto the land, they see there is a fire going, and a dish lying on top, and bread.

Jesus says to them, “Bring some of the fish you caught just now.”

Therefore Simon Peter went up and dragged the net onto the land, which was full of large fish—a hundred and fifty three. And even though there were so many, the net was not torn.

Jesus tells them, “Here, have some breakfast!”

None of the disciples dared to ask him, ‘who are you’, because they knew it was the Lord. Jesus goes and takes the bread and gives it to them, and the cooked fish likewise.

This was the third time already that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

So when they ate, Jesus says to Simon Peter, “Simon son of Jonah, do you love me more than these?”

He says to him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

He says to him, “Feed my lambs.”

He says to him again a second time, “Simon son of Jonah, do you love me?”

He says to him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

He says to him, “Shepherd my flocks.”

He says to him the third time, “Simon son of Jonah, do you love me?”

Peter was saddened, because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?”, and he says to him, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.”

He says to him, “Feed my flocks. Amen, Amen, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to put your clothes on yourself and walk around wherever you wanted. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will clothe you, and take you where you don’t want to go.”

But he said these things to signify by what death he would glorify God. And when he said this, he says to him, “Follow me.”

Turning around, Peter sees the disciple whom Jesus loved, following behind—the one who also reclined at dinner on his chest, and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrayed you?”

Therefore when he saw him, Peter says to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?”

Jesus says to him, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is it to you? As for you, follow me!”

Therefore this word got out to the brothers, that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die, but “If I want him to remain until I come, what is it to you?”.

This is the disciple who testifies about these things, and has written these things down, and we know that his testimony is true.

But there are also many other things that Jesus did, which—if each of them were written down—I think the entire world would not be big enough to hold all the written books.