2 Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem
-- --
there is a pool note with five porches; in
Hebrew it is called Bethzatha. note
3 A
large crowd of sick people were
lying on the porches—the blind, the
lame, and the paralyzed. note
5 A man
was there who had been sick for
thirty-eight years.
6 Jesus saw him
lying there, and he knew that the
man had been sick for such a long
time; so he asked him, “Do you want
to get well?”
7 The sick man answered, “Sir, I
don't have anyone here to put me in
the pool when the water is stirred
up; while I am trying to get in, somebody
else gets there first.”
8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick
up your mat, and walk.”
9 Immediately
the man got well; he picked up
his mat and started walking.
9 The day this happened was a Sabbath,
10 so the Jewish authorities told
the man who had been healed, “This
is a Sabbath, and it is against our
Law for you to carry your mat.” note
11 He answered, “The man who
made me well told me to pick up my
mat and walk.”
12 They asked him, “Who is the
man who told you to do this?”
13 But the man who had been
healed did not know who Jesus was,
for there was a crowd in that place,
and Jesus had slipped away.
14 Afterward, Jesus found him in
the Temple and said, “Listen, you
are well now; so stop sinning or
something worse may happen to
you.”
15 Then the man left and told the
Jewish authorities that it was Jesus
who had healed him.
16 So they began
to persecute Jesus, because he
had done this healing on a Sabbath.
17 Jesus answered them, “My Father
is always working, and I too must
work.”
18 This saying made the Jewish authorities
all the more determined to
kill him; not only had he broken the
Sabbath law, but he had said that
God was his own Father and in this
way had made himself equal with
God. note
The Authority of the Son
19 So Jesus answered them, “I tell
you the truth: the Son can do nothing
on his own; he does only what he
sees his Father doing. What the Father
does, the Son also does.
20 For
the Father loves the Son and shows
him all that he himself is doing. He
will show him even greater things to
do than this, and you will all be
amazed.
21 Just as the Father raises
the dead and gives them life, in the
same way the Son gives life to those
he wants to.
22 Nor does the Father
himself judge anyone. He has given
his Son the full right to judge,
23 so
that all will honor the Son in the
same way as they honor the Father.
Whoever does not honor the Son
does not honor the Father who sent
him.
24 “I am telling you the truth: whoever
hears my words and believes in
him who sent me has eternal life. He
will not be judged, but has already
passed from death to life.
25 I am telling
you the truth: the time is coming
—the time has already come—
when the dead will hear the voice of
the Son of God, and those who hear
it will come to life.
26 Just as the Father
is himself the source of life, in
the same way he has made his Son
to be the source of life.
27 And he has
given the Son the right to judge, because
he is the Son of Man.
28 Do not
be surprised at this; the time is coming
when all the dead will hear his
voice
29 and come out of their graves:
those who have done good will rise
and live, and those who have done
evil will rise and be condemned. note
Witnesses to Jesus
30 “I can do nothing on my own authority;
I judge only as God tells me,
-- --
so my judgment is right, because I
am not trying to do what I want, but
only what he who sent me wants.
31 “If I testify on my own behalf,
what I say is not to be accepted as
real proof.
32 But there is someone
else who testifies on my behalf, and I
know that what he says about me is
true.
33 John is the one to whom you
sent your messengers, and he spoke
on behalf of the truth. note
34 It is not that
I must have a man's witness; I say
this only in order that you may be
saved.
35 John was like a lamp, burning
and shining, and you were willing
for a while to enjoy his light. note
36 But I have a witness on my behalf
which is even greater than the witness
that John gave: what I do, that
is, the deeds my Father gave me to
do, these speak on my behalf and
show that the Father has sent me.
37 And the Father, who sent me, also
testifies on my behalf. You have never
heard his voice or seen his face, note
38 and you do not keep his message
in your hearts, for you do not believe
in the one whom he sent.
39 You
study the Scriptures, because you
think that in them you will find eternal
life. And these very Scriptures
speak about me! note
40 Yet you are not
willing to come to me in order to
have life.
41 “I am not looking for human
praise.
42 But I know what kind of
people you are, and I know that you
have no love for God in your hearts.
43 I have come with my Father's authority,
but you have not received
me; when, however, someone comes
with his own authority, you will receive
him.
44 You like to receive
praise from one another, but you do
not try to win praise from the one
who alone is God; how, then, can
you believe me?
45 Do not think,
however, that I am the one who will
accuse you to my Father. Moses, in
whom you have put your hope, is the
very one who will accuse you.
46 If
you had really believed Moses, you
would have believed me, because he
wrote about me.
47 But since you do
not believe what he wrote, how can
you believe what I say?”
Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].