John 5

The healing at the pool of Bethesda

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals.a ²Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. ³Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.

⁴One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁵When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”b ⁶“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”c ⁷Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”d ⁸At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,e ⁹and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.” ¹⁰But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ” ¹¹So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

¹²The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. ¹³Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” ¹⁴The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.f

¹⁵So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him.

The authority of the Son

¹⁶In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” ¹⁷For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.g ¹⁸Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.h

¹⁹For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.i ²⁰For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. ²¹Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son,j ²²that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.k

²³“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.l ²⁴Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.m ²⁵For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.n

²⁶And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.o ²⁷“Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice ²⁸and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.p

²⁹By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.q ³⁰“If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true.r

The witnesses to Jesus

³¹There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is true. ³²“You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. ³³Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved.

³⁴John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light. ³⁵“I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me. ³⁶And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form,s ³⁷nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent.

³⁸You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me,

The Scriptures testify of Jesus

³⁹yet you refuse to come to me to have life.t ⁴⁰“I do not accept glory from human beings,u ⁴¹but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts.

⁴²I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. ⁴³How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?v ⁴⁴“But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set.w

⁴⁵If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. ⁴⁶But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”x