John 3-4

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Nicodemus Visits Jesus

3 Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. ² He came to Jesus^[a] by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with that person.”^{(A) 3} Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”^{[b](B) 4} Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” ⁵ Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.^{(C) 6} What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You^[c] must be born from above.’^{[d] 8} The wind^[e] blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”^{(D) 9} Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”^{(E) 10} Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

¹¹ “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen, yet you^[f] do not receive our testimony.^{(F) 12} If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.^{[g](G) 14} And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,^{(H) 15} that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.^[h](I)

¹⁶ “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.^(J)

¹⁷ “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him.^{(K) 18} Those who believe in him are not condemned, but those who do not believe are condemned already because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.^{(L) 19} And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.^{(M) 20} For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed.^{(N) 21} But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”^[i](O)

Jesus and John the Baptist

²² After this Jesus and his disciples went into the region of Judea, and he spent some time there with them and baptized. ²³ John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim because water was abundant there, and people kept coming and were being baptized. ²⁴ (John, of course, had not yet been thrown into prison.)^(P)

²⁵ Now a discussion about purification arose between John’s disciples and a Jew.^{[j] 26} They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing, and all are going to him.”^{(Q) 27} John answered, “No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven.^{(R) 28} You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah,^[k] but I have been sent ahead of him.’^{(S) 29} He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled.^{(T) 30} He must increase, but I must decrease.”^[l]

The One Who Comes from Heaven

³¹ The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things. The one who comes from heaven is above all.^{(U) 32} He testifies to what he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts his testimony.^{(V) 33} Whoever has accepted his testimony has certified^[m] this, that God is true.^{(W) 34} He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.^{(X) 35} The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands.^{(Y) 36} Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life but must endure God’s wrath.^(Z)

Jesus and the Woman of Samaria

4 Now when Jesus^[n] learned that the Pharisees had heard, “Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John”^{(AA) 2} (although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized), ³ he left Judea and started back to Galilee. ⁴ But he had to go through Samaria. ⁵ So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.^{(AB) 6} Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

⁷ A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” ⁸ (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) ⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)^{[o](AC) 10} Jesus answered 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.”^{(AD) 11} The woman said to him, “Sir,^[p] you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? ¹² Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” ¹³ Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”^{(AE) 15} The woman said to him, “Sir,^[q] give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”^(AF)

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” ¹⁷ The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband,’ ¹⁸ for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” ¹⁹ The woman said to him, “Sir,^[r] I see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you^[s] say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.”^{(AG) 21} Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you^[t] will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.^{(AH) 22} You^[u] worship what you^[v] do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.^{(AI) 23} But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.^{(AJ) 24} God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”^{(AK) 25} The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.”^{(AL) 26} Jesus said to her, “I am he,^[w] the one who is speaking to you.”^(AM)

²⁷ Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” ²⁸ Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, ²⁹ “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah,^[x] can he?”^{(AN) 30} They left the city and were on their way to him.

³¹ Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” ³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” ³³ So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” ³⁴ Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.^{(AO) 35} Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting.^{(AP) 36} The reaper is already receiving^[y] wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.^{(AQ) 37} For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’^{(AR) 38} I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

³⁹ Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.”^{(AS) 40} So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. ⁴¹ And many more believed because of his word. ⁴² They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”^(AT)

Jesus Returns to Galilee

⁴³ When the two days were over, he went from that place to Galilee^{(AU) 44} (for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in the prophet’s own country).^{(AV) 45} When he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the festival, for they, too, had gone to the festival.^(AW)

Jesus Heals an Official’s Son

⁴⁶ Then he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum.^{(AX) 47} When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.^{(AY) 48} Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you^[z] see signs and wonders you will not believe.”^{(AZ) 49} The official said to him, “Sir,^[aa] come down before my little boy dies.” ⁵⁰ Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.”^[ab] The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. ⁵¹ As he was going down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. ⁵² So he asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, “Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him.” ⁵³ The father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.”^[ac] So he himself believed, along with his whole household.^{(BA) 54} Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.^(BB)