1LATER ON JESUS WENT UP to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2Now at the Sheep-Pool in Jerusalem there is a place with five colonnades. Its name in the language of the Jews is Bethesda. 3In these colonnades there lay a crowd of sick people, blind, lame, and paralysed. 4 5Among them was a man who had been crippled for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and was aware that he had been ill a long time, he asked him, 'Do you want to recover?' 7'Sir,' he replied, 'I have no one to put me in the pool when the water is disturbed, but while I am moving, someone else is in the pool before me.' 8Jesus answered, 'Rise to your feet, take up your bed and walk.' 9The man recovered instantly, took up his stretcher, and began to walk.
10That day was a Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, 'It is the Sabbath. You are not allowed to carry your bed on the Sabbath.' 11He answered, 'The man who cured me said, "Take up your bed and walk." ' 12They asked him, 'Who is the man who told you to take up your bed and walk?' 13But the cripple who had been cured did not know; for the place was crowded and Jesus had slipped away. 14A little later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, 'Now that you are well again, leave your sinful ways, or you may suffer something worse.' 15The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had cured him.
16It was works of this kind done on the Sabbath that stirred the Jews to persecute Jesus. 17He defended himself by saying, 'My Father has never yet ceased his is work, and I am working too.' 18This made the Jews still more determined to kill him, because he was not only breaking the Sabbath, but, by calling God his own Father, he claimed equality with God.
19To this charge Jesus replied, 'In truth, in very truth I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he does only what he sees the Father doing: what the Father does, the Son does. 20For the Father loves the Son and shows him all his works, and will show greater yet, to fill you with wonder. 21As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son gives life to men, as he determines. 22And again, the Father does not judge anyone, but has given full jurisdiction to the Son; 23it is his will that all should pay the same honour to the Son as to the Father. To deny honour to the Son is to deny it to the Father who sent him.
24'In very truth, anyone who gives heed to what I say and puts his trust in him who sent me has hold of eternal life, and does not come up for judgement, but has already passed from death to life. 25In truth, in very truth I tell you, a time is coming, indeed it is already here, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and all who hear shall come to life. 26For as the Father has life-giving power in himself, so has the Son, by the Father's gift.
27'As Son of Man, he has also been given the right to pass judgement. 28Do not wonder at this, because the time is coming when all who are in the grave shall hear his voice and come out: 29those who have done right will rise to life; those who have done wrong will rise to hear their doom.
31'If I testify on my own behalf, that testimony does not hold good. 32There is another who bears witness for me, and I know that his testimony holds. 33Your messengers have been to John; you have his testimony to the truth. 34Not that I rely on human testimony, but I remind you of it for your own salvation. 35John was a lamp, burning brightly, and for a time you were ready to exult in his light. 36But I rely on a testimony higher than John's. There is enough to testify that the Father has sent me, in the works my Father gave me to do and to finish—the very works I have in hand. 37This testimony to me was given by the Father who sent me, although you never heard his voice, or saw his form. 38But his word has found no home in you, for you do not believe the one whom he sent. 39You study the scriptures diligently, supposing that in having them you have eternal life; yet, although their testimony points to me, 40you refuse to come to me for that life.
41'I do not look to men for honour, 42But with you it is different, as I know well, for you have no love for God in you. 43I have come accredited by my Father, and you have no welcome for me; if another comes self-accredited you will welcome him. 44How can you have faith so long as you receive honour from one another, and care nothing for the honour that comes from him who alone is God? 45Do not imagine that I shall be your accuser at the Father's tribunal. Your accuser is Moses, the very Moses on whom you have set your hope. 46If you believed Moses you would believe what I tell you, for it was about me that he wrote. 47But if you do not believe what he wrote, how are you to believe what I say?'
| << | Jn:5 | >> |
|---|