John 5

5 ¹After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ²By the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem is a pool with five covered porches, called Bethesda in Aramaic. ^a a v2 Bethesda means 'house of mercy' — a fitting name for the place where Jesus healed. ³In these lay a multitude of the sick—blind, lame, and paralyzed. ^b b v3 The earliest manuscripts do not have a verse 4 here; later copies add: "For an angel went down at certain times into the pool and stirred the water; whoever stepped in first after the stirring was healed of whatever illness he had." ⁵One man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years.

⁶Seeing him lying there and knowing he had already been there a long time, Jesus asked, "Do you want to be healed?"

⁷The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me in the pool once the water stirs—while I'm on my way, someone else gets in first."

⁸Jesus said to him, "Get up, take up your mat, and walk."

⁹At once the man became well, picked up his mat, and walked. That day was the Sabbath.

¹⁰So the Jews told the healed man, "It's the Sabbath—you're not allowed to carry your mat."

¹¹He answered them, "The man who healed me told me, 'Take up your mat and walk.'"

¹²They asked him, "Who is the man who told you, 'Take it up and walk'?"

¹³But the healed man didn't know who it was, since Jesus had slipped away into the crowd there.

¹⁴Later Jesus found him in the temple and said, "You are healed now. Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you."

¹⁵The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

They Turn Against Him

¹⁶And so the Jews began persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.

¹⁷But Jesus answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I too am working."

¹⁸So the Jews sought even more to kill him: he not only broke the Sabbath but called our Father his own Father, making himself equal to him. ^c c v18 The Jewish leaders heard Jesus's words rightly: when he claimed our Father as his own Father, he was claiming equality with our Father. The rest of the chapter is Jesus defending and explaining that claim.

¹⁹So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I tell you: the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son does the same.

²⁰"For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he does; he will show him greater works than these, so you will be amazed. ²¹For as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so the Son too gives life to anyone he wants. ²²For the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, ²³so everyone honors the Son as they honor the Father; whoever doesn't honor the Son doesn't honor the Father who sent him.

²⁴Truly, truly, I tell you: whoever hears my word and believes the one who sent me has eternal life and won't face judgment—they have passed from death to life. ²⁵Truly, truly, I tell you, an hour comes, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of our Father, and those hearing will live. ²⁶For as the Father has life in himself, he gave the Son to also have life in himself. ²⁷And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. ²⁸Don't be astonished at this—an hour is coming when everyone in the tombs will hear his voice, ²⁹and come out—those who did good, to the resurrection of life; those who did evil, to the resurrection of judgment. ³⁰By myself I can do nothing. I judge as I hear; my judgment is fair, because I seek not my own will but the will of the One who sent me.

Witnesses to the Son

³¹"If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid. ³²There is another who testifies about me, and I know his testimony about me is true. ³³You sent messengers to John, and he has testified to the truth. ³⁴Not that I accept human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved. ³⁵John was a burning, shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice briefly in his light. ³⁶But I have testimony greater than John's: the works my Father gave me to finish—the very works I'm doing—testify that my Father sent me. ³⁷And my Father who sent me has himself testified about me. You've never heard his voice or seen his form, ³⁸and you don't have his word remaining in you, since you don't believe the one he sent.

³⁹You search the Scriptures, thinking they hold eternal life—yet they themselves testify about me, ⁴⁰yet you refuse to come to me so that you may have life. ⁴¹I do not accept glory from people, ⁴²but I know you—that you do not have the love of our Father within you. ⁴³I have come in my Father's name, and you don't receive me; if another comes in his own name, you'll receive him. ⁴⁴How can you believe, when you accept glory from one another and don't seek the glory from the only God?

⁴⁵Don't think I will accuse you before my Father. Moses, in whom you've hoped, accuses you. ⁴⁶For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me. ⁴⁷But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?"