The Gospel Of John

John 1Living Bible (TLB)

1 1-2 Before anything else existed, there was Christ,*(the Word) with God. He has always been alive and is himself God. 3 He created everything there is—nothing exists that he didn’t make. 4 Eternal life is in him, and this life gives light to all mankind. 5 His life is the light that shines through the darkness—and the darkness can never extinguish it.

6-7 God sent John the Baptist as a witness to the fact that Jesus Christ is the true Light. 8 John himself was not the Light; he was only a witness to identify it.

9 Later on, the one who is the true Light arrived to shine on everyone coming into the world.

10 But although he made the world, the world didn’t recognize him when he came. 11-12 Even in his own land and among his own people, the Jews, he was not accepted. Only a few would welcome and receive him. But to all who received him, he gave the right to become children of God. All they needed to do was to trust him to save them.13 All those who believe this are reborn!—not a physical rebirth resulting from human passion or plan—but from the will of God.

14 And Christ became a human being and lived here on earth among us and was full of loving forgiveness* and truth. And some of us have seen his glory*—the glory of the only Son of the heavenly Father!*

 

15 John pointed him out to the people, telling the crowds, “This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘Someone is coming who is greater by far than I am—for he existed long before I did!’” 16 We have all benefited from the rich blessings he brought to us—blessing upon blessing heaped upon us! 17 For Moses gave us only the Law with its rigid demands and merciless justice, while Jesus Christ brought us loving forgiveness as well. 18 No one has ever actually seen God, but, of course, his only Son has, for he is the companion of the Father and has told us all about him.

19 The Jewish leaders sent priests and assistant priests from Jerusalem to ask John whether he claimed to be the Messiah.

20 He denied it flatly. “I am not the Christ,” he said.

21 “Well then, who are you?” they asked. “Are you Elijah?”

“No,” he replied.

“Are you the Prophet?”

“No.”

22 “Then who are you? Tell us, so we can give an answer to those who sent us. What do you have to say for yourself?”

23 He replied, “I am a voice from the barren wilderness, shouting as Isaiah prophesied, ‘Get ready for the coming of the Lord!’”

24-25 Then those who were sent by the Pharisees asked him, “If you aren’t the Messiah or Elijah or the Prophet, what right do you have to baptize?”

26 John told them, “I merely baptize with water, but right here in the crowd is someone you have never met, 27 who will soon begin his ministry among you, and I am not even fit to be his slave.”

28 This incident took place at Bethany, a village on the other side of the Jordan River where John was baptizing.

29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! There is the Lamb of God who takes away the world’s sin! 30 He is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘Soon a man far greater than I am is coming, who existed long before me!’ 31 I didn’t know he was the one, but I am here baptizing with water in order to point him out to the nation of Israel.”

32 Then John told about seeing the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descending from heaven and resting upon Jesus.

33 “I didn’t know he was the one,” John said again, “but at the time God sent me to baptize he told me, ‘When you see the Holy Spirit descending and resting upon someone—he is the one you are looking for. He is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I saw it happen to this man, and I therefore testify that he is the Son of God.”

35 The following day as John was standing with two of his disciples, 36 Jesus walked by. John looked at him intently and then declared, “See! There is the Lamb of God!”

 

37 Then John’s two disciples turned and followed Jesus.

38 Jesus looked around and saw them following. “What do you want?” he asked them.

“Sir,” they replied, “where do you live?”

39 “Come and see,” he said. So they went with him to the place where he was staying and were with him from about four o’clock that afternoon until the evening. 40 (One of these men was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.)

41 Andrew then went to find his brother Peter and told him, “We have found the Messiah!” 42 And he brought Peter to meet Jesus.

Jesus looked intently at Peter for a moment and then said, “You are Simon, John’s son—but you shall be called Peter, the rock!”

43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and told him, “Come with me.” 44 (Philip was from Bethsaida, Andrew and Peter’s hometown.)

 

45 Philip now went off to look for Nathanael and told him, “We have found the Messiah!—the very person Moses and the prophets told about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth!”

46 “Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathanael. “Can anything good come from there?”

“Just come and see for yourself,” Philip declared.

47 As they approached, Jesus said, “Here comes an honest man—a true son of Israel.”

48 “How do you know what I am like?” Nathanael demanded.

And Jesus replied, “I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you.”

49 Nathanael replied, “Sir, you are the Son of God—the King of Israel!”

50 Jesus asked him, “Do you believe all this just because I told you I had seen you under the fig tree? You will see greater proofs than this. 51 You will even see heaven open and the angels of God coming back and forth to me, the Messiah.”

 

John 2Living Bible (TLB)
2 Two days later Jesus’ mother was a guest at a wedding in the village of Cana in Galilee, 2 and Jesus and his disciples were invited too. 3 The wine supply ran out during the festivities, and Jesus’ mother came to him with the problem.

4 “I can’t help you now,” he said. “It isn’t yet my time for miracles.”

5 But his mother told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you to.”

6 Six stone waterpots were standing there; they were used for Jewish ceremonial purposes and held perhaps twenty to thirty gallons each. 7-8 Then Jesus told the servants to fill them to the brim with water. When this was done he said, “Dip some out and take it to the master of ceremonies.”

9 When the master of ceremonies tasted the water that was now wine, not knowing where it had come from (though, of course, the servants did), he called the bridegroom over.

10 “This is wonderful stuff!” he said. “You’re different from most. Usually a host uses the best wine first, and afterwards, when everyone is full and doesn’t care, then he brings out the less expensive brands. But you have kept the best for the last!”

11 This miracle at Cana in Galilee was Jesus’ first public demonstration of his heaven-sent power. And his disciples believed that he really was the Messiah.


12 After the wedding he left for Capernaum for a few days with his mother, brothers, and disciples.

 

13 Then it was time for the annual Jewish Passover celebration, and Jesus went to Jerusalem.

14 In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices, and moneychangers behind their counters. 15 Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out, and drove out the sheep and oxen, scattering the moneychangers’ coins over the floor and turning over their tables! 16 Then, going over to the men selling doves, he told them, “Get these things out of here. Don’t turn my Father’s House into a market!”

17 Then his disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures: “Concern for God’s House will be my undoing.”

18 “What right have you to order them out?” the Jewish leadersdemanded. “If you have this authority from God, show us a miracle to prove it.”

19 “All right,” Jesus replied, “this is the miracle I will do for you: Destroy this sanctuary and in three days I will raise it up!”

20 “What!” they exclaimed. “It took forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can do it in three days?” 21 But by “this sanctuary” he meant his body. 22 After he came back to life again, the disciples remembered his saying this and realized that what he had quoted from the Scriptures really did refer to him, and had all come true!

23 Because of the miracles he did in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration, many people were convinced that he was indeed the Messiah. 24-25 But Jesus didn’t trust them, for he knew mankind to the core. No one needed to tell him how changeable human nature is!

 

John, the Disciple of Jesus Christ, was an eyewitness to the all that Jesus did and said to prove He was the Son of God, the Messiah who brought Salvation to the World. John walked with Jesus throughout His ministry and was there at the foot of the Cross along with Jesus' mother Mary as Christ gave His life to redeem all of us from sin. John's Gospel provides clear evidence that Jesus is the Son of God and that by believing in Him we may have salvation and eternal life. As you read through the Chapters of the Gospel of John may the Holy Spirit fill your heart with knowledge of this Truth.

 

John 3Living Bible (TLB)
3 1-2 After dark one night a Jewish religious leader named Nicodemus, a member of the sect of the Pharisees, came for an interview with Jesus. “Sir,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miracles are proof enough of this.”

3 Jesus replied, “With all the earnestness I possess I tell you this: Unless you are born again, you can never get into the Kingdom of God.”

4 “Born again!” exclaimed Nicodemus. “What do you mean? How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”

5 Jesus replied, “What I am telling you so earnestly is this: Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.6 Men can only reproduce human life, but the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven; 7 so don’t be surprised at my statement that you must be born again! 8 Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it will go next, so it is with the Spirit. We do not know on whom he will next bestow this life from heaven.”

9 “What do you mean?” Nicodemus asked.

10-11 Jesus replied, “You, a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things? I am telling you what I know and have seen—and yet you won’t believe me. 12 But if you don’t even believe me when I tell you about such things as these that happen here among men, how can you possibly believe if I tell you what is going on in heaven? 13 For only I, the Messiah, have come to earth and will return to heaven again. 14 And as Moses in the wilderness lifted up the bronze image of a serpent on a pole, even so I must be lifted up upon a pole, 15 so that anyone who believes in me will have eternal life. 16 For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son so that anyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.

18 “There is no eternal doom awaiting those who trust him to save them. But those who don’t trust him have already been tried and condemned for not believing in the only Son of God. 19 Their sentence is based on this fact: that the Light from heaven came into the world, but they loved the darkness more than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20 They hated the heavenly Light because they wanted to sin in the darkness. They stayed away from that Light for fear their sins would be exposed and they would be punished. 21 But those doing right come gladly to the Light to let everyone see that they are doing what God wants them to.”

22 Afterwards Jesus and his disciples left Jerusalem and stayed for a while in Judea and baptized there.

 

23-24 At this time John the Baptist was not yet in prison. He was baptizing at Aenon, near Salim, because there was plenty of water there. 25 One day someone began an argument with John’s disciples, telling them that Jesus’ baptism was best.26 So they came to John and said, “Master, the man you met on the other side of the Jordan River—the one you said was the Messiah—he is baptizing too, and everybody is going over there instead of coming here to us.”

27 John replied, “God in heaven appoints each man’s work. 28 My work is to prepare the way for that man so that everyone will go to him. You yourselves know how plainly I told you that I am not the Messiah. I am here to prepare the way for him—that is all. 29 The crowds will naturally go to the main attraction—the bride will go where the bridegroom is! A bridegroom’s friends rejoice with him. I am the Bridegroom’s friend, and I am filled with joy at his success. 30 He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.

31 “He has come from heaven and is greater than anyone else. I am of the earth, and my understanding is limited to the things of earth. 32 He tells what he has seen and heard, but how few believe what he tells them! 33-34 Those who believe him discover that God is a fountain of truth. For this one—sent by God—speaks God’s words, for God’s Spirit is upon him without measure or limit. 35 The Father loves this man because he is his Son, and God has given him everything there is. 36 And all who trust him—God’s Son—to save them have eternal life; those who don’t believe and obey him shall never see heaven, but the wrath of God remains upon them.

”

 

John 4Living Bible (TLB)
4 1-2 When the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard about the greater crowds coming to him than to John to be baptized and to become his disciples—(though Jesus himself didn’t baptize them, but his disciples did)— 3 he left Judea and returned to the province of Galilee.

4 He had to go through Samaria on the way, 5-6 and around noon as he approached the village of Sychar, he came to Jacob’s Well, located on the parcel of ground Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jesus was tired from the long walk in the hot sun and sat wearily beside the well.

7 Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus asked her for a drink. 8 He was alone at the time as his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food. 9 The woman was surprised that a Jew would ask a “despised Samaritan” for anything—usually they wouldn’t even speak to them!—and she remarked about this to Jesus.

10 He replied, “If you only knew what a wonderful gift God has for you, and who I am, you would ask me for some living water!”

11 “But you don’t have a rope or a bucket,” she said, “and this is a very deep well! Where would you get this living water? 12 And besides, are you greater than our ancestor Jacob? How can you offer better water than this which he and his sons and cattle enjoyed?”

13 Jesus replied that people soon became thirsty again after drinking this water. 14 “But the water I give them,” he said, “becomes a perpetual spring within them, watering them forever with eternal life.”

15 “Please, sir,” the woman said, “give me some of that water! Then I’ll never be thirsty again and won’t have to make this long trip out here every day.”

16 “Go and get your husband,” Jesus told her.

17-18 “But I’m not married,” the woman replied.

“All too true!” Jesus said. “For you have had five husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now.”

19 “Sir,” the woman said, “you must be a prophet. 20 But say, tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?”

21-24 Jesus replied, “The time is coming, ma’am, when we will no longer be concerned about whether to worship the Father here or in Jerusalem. For it’s not where we worship that counts, but how we worship—is our worship spiritual and real? Do we have the Holy Spirit’s help? For God is Spirit, and we must have his help to worship as we should. The Father wants this kind of worship from us. But you Samaritans know so little about him, worshiping blindly, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes to the world through the Jews.”

25 The woman said, “Well, at least I know that the Messiah will come—the one they call Christ—and when he does, he will explain everything to us.”

26 Then Jesus told her, “I am the Messiah!”

27 Just then his disciples arrived. They were surprised to find him talking to a woman, but none of them asked him why, or what they had been discussing.

28-29 Then the woman left her waterpot beside the well and went back to the village and told everyone, “Come and meet a man who told me everything I ever did! Can this be the Messiah?” 30 So the people came streaming from the village to see him.

31 Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Jesus to eat. 32 “No,” he said, “I have some food you don’t know about.”

33 “Who brought it to him?” the disciples asked each other.

34 Then Jesus explained: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God who sent me, and from finishing his work. 35 Do you think the work of harvesting will not begin until the summer ends four months from now? Look around you! Vast fields of human souls are ripening all around us, and are ready now for reaping. 36 The reapers will be paid good wages and will be gathering eternal souls into the granaries of heaven! What joys await the sower and the reaper, both together! 37 For it is true that one sows and someone else reaps. 38 I sent you to reap where you didn’t sow; others did the work, and you received the harvest.”

39 Many from the Samaritan village believed he was the Messiah because of the woman’s report: “He told me everything I ever did!” 40-41 When they came out to see him at the well, they begged him to stay at their village; and he did, for two days, long enough for many of them to believe in him after hearing him. 42 Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe because we have heard him ourselves, not just because of what you told us. He is indeed the Savior of the world.”

 

43-44 At the end of the two days’ stay he went on into Galilee. Jesus used to say, “A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own country!” 45 But the Galileans welcomed him with open arms, for they had been in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration and had seen some of his miracles.

46-47 In the course of his journey through Galilee he arrived at the town of Cana, where he had turned the water into wine. While he was there, a man in the city of Capernaum, a government official, whose son was very sick, heard that Jesus had come from Judea and was traveling in Galilee. This man went over to Cana, found Jesus, and begged him to come to Capernaum with him and heal his son, who was now at death’s door.

48 Jesus asked, “Won’t any of you believe in me unless I do more and more miracles?”

49 The official pled, “Sir, please come now before my child dies.”

50 Then Jesus told him, “Go back home. Your son is healed!” And the man believed Jesus and started home. 51 While he was on his way, some of his servants met him with the news that all was well—his son had recovered. 52 He asked them when the lad had begun to feel better, and they replied, “Yesterday afternoon at about one o’clock his fever suddenly disappeared!” 53 Then the father realized it was the same moment that Jesus had told him, “Your son is healed.” And the officer and his entire household believed that Jesus was the Messiah.

 

John 5Living Bible (TLB)
5 Afterwards Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish religious holidays. 2 Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was Bethesda Pool, with five covered platforms or porches surrounding it. 3 Crowds of sick folks—lame, blind, or with paralyzed limbs—lay on the platforms (waiting for a certain movement of the water, 4 for an angel of the Lord came from time to time and disturbed the water, and the first person to step down into it afterwards was healed).

5 One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him and knew how long he had been ill, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?”

7 “I can’t,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to help me into the pool at the movement of the water. While I am trying to get there, someone else always gets in ahead of me.”

8 Jesus told him, “Stand up, roll up your sleeping mat and go on home!”

9 Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up the mat and began walking!

But it was on the Sabbath when this miracle was done. 10 So the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! It’s illegal to carry that sleeping mat!”

11 “The man who healed me told me to,” was his reply.

12 “Who said such a thing as that?” they demanded.

13 The man didn’t know, and Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. 14 But afterwards Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; don’t sin as you did before, or something even worse may happen to you.”

 

15 Then the man went to find the Jewish leaders and told them it was Jesus who had healed him.

16 So they began harassing Jesus as a Sabbath breaker.



17 But Jesus replied, “My Father constantly does good, and I’m following his example.”

18 Then the Jewish leaders were all the more eager to kill him because in addition to disobeying their Sabbath laws, he had spoken of God as his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.

19 Jesus replied, “The Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing, and in the same way. 20 For the Father loves the Son, and tells him everything he is doing; and the Son will do far more awesome miracles than this man’s healing. 21 He will even raise from the dead anyone he wants to, just as the Father does. 22 And the Father leaves all judgment of sin to his Son, 23 so that everyone will honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. But if you refuse to honor God’s Son, whom he sent to you, then you are certainly not honoring the Father.

24 “I say emphatically that anyone who listens to my message and believes in God who sent me has eternal life, and will never be damned for his sins, but has already passed out of death into life.


25 “And I solemnly declare that the time is coming, in fact, it is here, when the dead shall hear my voice—the voice of the Son of God—and those who listen shall live. 26 The Father has life in himself, and has granted his Son to have life in himself, 27 and to judge the sins of all mankind because he is the Son of Man. 28 Don’t be so surprised! Indeed the time is coming when all the dead in their graves shall hear the voice of God’s Son, 29 and shall rise again—those who have done good, to eternal life; and those who have continued in evil, to judgment.

30 “But I pass no judgment without consulting the Father. I judge as I am told. And my judgment is absolutely fair and just, for it is according to the will of God who sent me and is not merely my own.

31 “When I make claims about myself they aren’t believed, 32-33 but someone else, yes, John the Baptist, is making these claims for me too. You have gone out to listen to his preaching, and I can assure you that all he says about me is true! 34 But the truest witness I have is not from a man, though I have reminded you about John’s witness so that you will believe in me and be saved. 35 John shone brightly for a while, and you benefited and rejoiced, 36 but I have a greater witness than John. I refer to the miracles I do; these have been assigned me by the Father, and they prove that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father himself has also testified about me, though not appearing to you personally, or speaking to you directly. 38 But you are not listening to him, for you refuse to believe me—the one sent to you with God’s message.

39 “You search the Scriptures, for you believe they give you eternal life. And the Scriptures point to me! 40 Yet you won’t come to me so that I can give you this life eternal!

41-42 “Your approval or disapproval means nothing to me, for as I know so well, you don’t have God’s love within you. 43 I know, because I have come to you representing my Father and you refuse to welcome me, though you readily enough receive those who aren’t sent from him, but represent only themselves! 44 No wonder you can’t believe! For you gladly honor each other, but you don’t care about the honor that comes from the only God!

45 “Yet it is not I who will accuse you of this to the Father—Moses will! Moses, on whose laws you set your hopes of heaven. 46 For you have refused to believe Moses. He wrote about me, but you refuse to believe him, so you refuse to believe in me. 47 And since you don’t believe what he wrote, no wonder you don’t believe me either.”

 

John 6Living Bible (TLB)
6 After this, Jesus crossed over the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Sea of Tiberias. 2-5 And a huge crowd, many of them pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem for the annual Passover celebration, were following him wherever he went, to watch him heal the sick. So when Jesus went up into the hills and sat down with his disciples around him, he soon saw a great multitude of people climbing the hill, looking for him.

Turning to Philip he asked, “Philip, where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” 6 (He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do.)

7 Philip replied, “It would take a fortune to begin to do it!”

8-9 Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up. “There’s a youngster here with five barley loaves and a couple of fish! But what good is that with all this mob?”

10 “Tell everyone to sit down,” Jesus ordered. And all of them—the approximate count of the men only was five thousand—sat down on the grassy slopes. 11 Then Jesus took the loaves and gave thanks to God and passed them out to the people. Afterwards he did the same with the fish. And everyone ate until full!


12 “Now gather the scraps,” Jesus told his disciples, “so that nothing is wasted.” 13 And twelve baskets were filled with the leftovers!

14 When the people realized what a great miracle had happened, they exclaimed, “Surely, he is the Prophet we have been expecting!”

15 Jesus saw that they were ready to take him by force and make him their king, so he went higher into the mountains alone.

16 That evening his disciples went down to the shore to wait for him. 17 But as darkness fell and Jesus still hadn’t come back, they got into the boat and headed out across the lake toward Capernaum. 18-19 But soon a gale swept down upon them as they rowed, and the sea grew very rough. They were three or four miles out when suddenly they saw Jesus walking toward the boat! They were terrified, 20 but he called out to them and told them not to be afraid. 21 Then they were willing to let him in, and immediately the boat was where they were going!

 

22-23 The next morning, back across the lake, crowds began gathering on the shore waiting to see Jesus. For they knew that he and his disciples had come over together and that the disciples had gone off in their boat, leaving him behind. Several small boats from Tiberias were nearby, 24 so when the people saw that Jesus wasn’t there, nor his disciples, they got into the boats and went across to Capernaum to look for him.

25 When they arrived and found him, they said, “Sir, how did you get here?” 26 Jesus replied, “The truth of the matter is that you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you believe in me. 27 But you shouldn’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. No, spend your energy seeking the eternal life that I, the Messiah, can give you. For God the Father has sent me for this very purpose.”

28 They replied, “What should we do to satisfy God?”

29 Jesus told them, “This is the will of God, that you believe in the one he has sent.”

30-31 They replied, “You must show us more miracles if you want us to believe you are the Messiah. Give us free bread every day, like our fathers had while they journeyed through the wilderness! As the Scriptures say, ‘Moses gave them bread from heaven.’”

32 Jesus said, “Moses didn’t give it to them. My Father did. And now he offers you true Bread from heaven. 33 The true Bread is a Person—the one sent by God from heaven, and he gives life to the world.”

34 “Sir,” they said, “give us that bread every day of our lives!”

35 Jesus replied, “I am the Bread of Life. No one coming to me will ever be hungry again. Those believing in me will never thirst. 36 But the trouble is, as I have told you before, you haven’t believed even though you have seen me. 37 But some will come to me—those the Father has given me—and I will never, never reject them. 38 For I have come here from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to have my own way. 39 And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them to eternal life at the Last Day. 40 For it is my Father’s will that everyone who sees his Son and believes on him should have eternal life—that I should raise him at the Last Day.”




41 Then the Jews began to murmur against him because he claimed to be the Bread from heaven.

42 “What?” they exclaimed. “Why, he is merely Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know. What is this he is saying, that he came down from heaven?”

43 But Jesus replied, “Don’t murmur among yourselves about my saying that. 44 For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him to me, and at the Last Day I will cause all such to rise again from the dead. 45 As it is written in the Scriptures, ‘They shall all be taught of God.’ Those the Father speaks to, who learn the truth from him, will be attracted to me. 46 (Not that anyone actually sees the Father, for only I have seen him.)

47 “How earnestly I tell you this—anyone who believes in me already has eternal life! 48-51 Yes, I am the Bread of Life! When your fathers in the wilderness ate bread from the skies, they all died. But the Bread from heaven gives eternal life to everyone who eats it. I am that Living Bread that came down out of heaven. Anyone eating this Bread shall live forever; this Bread is my flesh given to redeem humanity.”

52 Then the Jews began arguing with each other about what he meant. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” they asked.

53 So Jesus said it again, “With all the earnestness I possess I tell you this: Unless you eat the flesh of the Messiah* and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. 54 But anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him at the Last Day.55 For my flesh is the true food, and my blood is the true drink.56 Everyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood is in me, and I in him. 57 I live by the power of the living Father who sent me, and in the same way those who partake of me shall live because of me! 58 I am the true Bread from heaven; and anyone who eats this Bread shall live forever, and not die as your fathers did—though they ate bread from heaven.” 59 (He preached this sermon in the synagogue in Capernaum.)



60 Even his disciples said, “This is very hard to understand. Who can tell what he means?”

61 Jesus knew within himself that his disciples were complaining and said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what will you think if you see me, the Messiah, return to heaven again? 63 Only the Holy Spirit gives eternal life. Those born only once, with physical birth,* will never receive this gift. But now I have told you how to get this true spiritual life. 64 But some of you don’t believe me.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who didn’t believe and knew the one who would betray him.)

65 And he remarked, “That is what I meant when I said that no one can come to me unless the Father attracts him to me.”

66 At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him.

67 Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you going too?”

68 Simon Peter replied, “Master, to whom shall we go? You alone have the words that give eternal life, 69 and we believe them and know you are the holy Son of God.”

70 Then Jesus said, “I chose the twelve of you, and one is a devil.” 71 He was speaking of Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, one of the Twelve, who would betray him.