November 13

John 8:21 — 10:42
 

21 Hence he said to them again: “I am going away, and YOU will look for me, and yet YOU will die in YOUR sin. Where I am going YOU cannot come.” 22 Therefore the Jews began to say: “He will not kill himself, will he? Because he says, ‘Where I am going YOU cannot come.’” 23 So he went on to say to them: “YOU are from the realms below; I am from the realms above. YOU are from this world; I am not from this world. 24 Therefore I said to YOU, YOU will die in YOUR sins. For if YOU do not believe that I am [he], YOU will die in YOUR sins.” 25 Therefore they began to say to him: “Who are you?” Jesus said to them: “Why am I even speaking to YOU at all? 26 I have many things to speak concerning YOU and to pass judgment upon. As a matter of fact, he that sent me is true, and the very things I heard from him I am speaking in the world.” 27 They did not grasp that he was talking to them about the Father. 28 Therefore Jesus said: “When once YOU have lifted up the Son of man, then YOU will know that I am [he], and that I do nothing of my own initiative; but just as the Father taught me I speak these things. 29 And he that sent me is with me; he did not abandon me to myself, because I always do the things pleasing to him.” 30 As he was speaking these things, many put faith in him.

31 And so Jesus went on to say to the Jews that had believed him: “If YOU remain in my word, YOU are really my disciples, 32 and YOU will know the truth, and the truth will set YOU free.” 33 They replied to him: “We are Abraham’s offspring and never have we been slaves to anybody. How is it you say, ‘YOU will become free’?” 34 Jesus answered them: “Most truly I say to YOU, Every doer of sin is a slave of sin. 35 Moreover, the slave does not remain in the household forever; the son remains forever. 36 Therefore if the Son sets YOU free, YOU will be actually free. 37 I know that YOU are Abraham’s offspring; but YOU are seeking to kill me, because my word makes no progress among YOU. 38 What things I have seen with my Father I speak; and YOU, therefore, do the things YOU have heard from [YOUR] father.” 39 In answer they said to him: “Our father is Abraham.” Jesus said to them: “If YOU are Abraham’s children, do the works of Abraham. 40 But now YOU are seeking to kill me, a man that has told YOU the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. 41 YOU do the works of YOUR father.” They said to him: “We were not born from fornication; we have one Father, God.”

42 Jesus said to them: “If God were YOUR Father, YOU would love me, for from God I came forth and am here. Neither have I come of my own initiative at all, but that One sent me forth. 43 Why is it YOU do not know what I am speaking? Because YOU cannot listen to my word. 44 YOU are from YOUR father the Devil, and YOU wish to do the desires of YOUR father. That one was a manslayer when he began, and he did not stand fast in the truth, because truth is not in him. When he speaks the lie, he speaks according to his own disposition, because he is a liar and the father of [the lie]. 45 Because I, on the other hand, tell the truth, YOU do not believe me. 46 Who of YOU convicts me of sin? If I speak truth, why is it YOU do not believe me? 47 He that is from God listens to the sayings of God. This is why YOU do not listen, because YOU are not from God.”

48 In answer the Jews said to him: “Do we not rightly say, You are a Samaritan and have a demon?” 49 Jesus answered: “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and YOU dishonor me. 50 But I am not seeking glory for myself; there is One that is seeking and judging. 51 Most truly I say to YOU, If anyone observes my word, he will never see death at all.” 52 The Jews said to him: “Now we do know you have a demon. Abraham died, also the prophets; but you say, ‘If anyone observes my word, he will never taste death at all.’ 53 You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died, are you? Also, the prophets died. Who do you claim to be?” 54 Jesus answered: “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father that glorifies me, he who YOU say is YOUR God; 55 and yet YOU have not known him. But I know him. And if I said I do not know him I should be like YOU, a liar. But I do know him and am observing his word. 56 Abraham YOUR father rejoiced greatly in the prospect of seeing my day, and he saw it and rejoiced.” 57 Therefore the Jews said to him: “You are not yet fifty years old, and still you have seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them: “Most truly I say to YOU, Before Abraham came into existence, I have been.” 59 Therefore they picked up stones to hurl [them] at him; but Jesus hid and went out of the temple.

9 Now as he was passing along he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, so that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered: “Neither this man sinned nor his parents, but it was in order that the works of God might be made manifest in his case. 4 We must work the works of him that sent me while it is day; the night is coming when no man can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the world’s light.” 6 After he said these things, he spit on the ground and made a clay with the saliva, and put his clay upon the [man’s] eyes 7 and said to him: “Go wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated ‘Sent forth’). And so he went off and washed, and came back seeing.

8 Therefore the neighbors and those who formerly used to see he was a beggar began to say: “This is the man that used to sit and beg, is it not?” 9 Some would say: “This is he.” Others would say: “Not at all, but he is like him.” The man would say: “I am [he].” 10 Consequently they began to say to him: “How, then, were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered: “The man called Jesus made a clay and smeared [it] on my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ I therefore went and washed and gained sight.” 12 At this they said to him: “Where is that [man]?” He said: “I do not know.”

13 They led the once-blind man himself to the Pharisees. 14 Incidentally it was Sabbath on the day that Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. 15 This time, therefore, the Pharisees also took up asking him how he gained sight. He said to them: “He put a clay upon my eyes, and I washed and have sight.” 16 Therefore some of the Pharisees began to say: “This is not a man from God, because he does not observe the Sabbath.” Others began to say: “How can a man that is a sinner perform signs of that sort?” So there was a division among them. 17 Hence they said to the blind man again: “What do you say about him, seeing that he opened your eyes?” The [man] said: “He is a prophet.”

18 However, the Jews did not believe concerning him that he had been blind and had gained sight, until they called the parents of the man that gained sight. 19 And they asked them: “Is this YOUR son who YOU say was born blind? How, then, is it he sees at present?” 20 Then in answer his parents said: “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. 21 But how it is he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes we do not know. ASK him. He is of age. He must speak for himself.” 22 His parents said these things because they were in fear of the Jews, for the Jews had already come to an agreement that, if anyone confessed him as Christ, he should get expelled from the synagogue. 23 This is why his parents said: “He is of age. QUESTION him.”

24 Therefore a second time they called the man that had been blind and said to him: “Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner.” 25 In turn he answered: “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that, whereas I was blind, I see at present.” 26 Therefore they said to him: “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27 He answered them: “I told YOU already, and yet YOU did not listen. Why do YOU want to hear it again? YOU do not want to become his disciples also, do YOU?” 28 At this they reviled him and said: “You are a disciple of that [man], but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses; but as for this [man], we do not know where he is from.” 30 In answer the man said to them: “This certainly is a marvel, that YOU do not know where he is from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is God-fearing and does his will, he listens to this one. 32 From of old it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of one born blind. 33 If this [man] were not from God, he could do nothing at all.” 34 In answer they said to him: “You were altogether born in sins, and yet are you teaching us?” And they threw him out!

35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and, on finding him, he said: “Are you putting faith in the Son of man?” 36 The [man] answered: “And who is he, sir, that I may put faith in him?” 37 Jesus said to him: “You have seen him and, besides, he that is speaking with you is that one.” 38 Then he said: “I do put faith [in him], Lord.” And he did obeisance to him. 39 And Jesus said: “For [this] judgment I came into this world: that those not seeing might see and those seeing might become blind.” 40 Those of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things, and they said to him: “We are not blind also, are we?” 41 Jesus said to them: “If YOU were blind, YOU would have no sin. But now YOU say, ‘We see.’ YOUR sin remains.”

10 “Most truly I say to YOU, He that does not enter into the sheepfold through the door but climbs up some other place, that one is a thief and a plunderer. 2 But he that enters through the door is shepherd of the sheep. 3 The doorkeeper opens to this one, and the sheep listen to his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has got all his own out, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will by no means follow but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 Jesus spoke this comparison to them; but they did not know what the things meant that he was speaking to them.

7 Therefore Jesus said again: “Most truly I say to YOU, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All those that have come in place of me are thieves and plunderers; but the sheep have not listened to them. 9 I am the door; whoever enters through me will be saved, and he will go in and out and find pasturage. 10 The thief does not come unless it is to steal and slay and destroy. I have come that they might have life and might have it in abundance. 11 I am the fine shepherd; the fine shepherd surrenders his soul in behalf of the sheep. 12 The hired man, who is no shepherd and to whom the sheep do not belong as his own, beholds the wolf coming and abandons the sheep and flees—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them— 13 because he is a hired man and does not care for the sheep. 14 I am the fine shepherd, and I know my sheep and my sheep know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I surrender my soul in behalf of the sheep.

16 “And I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; those also I must bring, and they will listen to my voice, and they will become one flock, one shepherd. 17 This is why the Father loves me, because I surrender my soul, in order that I may receive it again. 18 No man has taken it away from me, but I surrender it of my own initiative. I have authority to surrender it, and I have authority to receive it again. The commandment on this I received from my Father.”

19 Again a division resulted among the Jews because of these words. 20 Many of them were saying: “He has a demon and is mad. Why do YOU listen to him?” 21 Others would say: “These are not the sayings of a demonized man. A demon cannot open blind people’s eyes, can it?”

22 At that time the festival of dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was wintertime, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple in the colonnade of Solomon. 24 Therefore the Jews encircled him and began to say to him: “How long are you to keep our souls in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us outspokenly.” 25 Jesus answered them: “I told YOU, and yet YOU do not believe. The works that I am doing in the name of my Father, these bear witness about me. 26 But YOU do not believe, because YOU are none of my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 And I give them everlasting life, and they will by no means ever be destroyed, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 What my Father has given me is something greater than all other things, and no one can snatch them out of the hand of the Father. 30 I and the Father are one.”

31 Once more the Jews lifted up stones to stone him. 32 Jesus replied to them: “I displayed to YOU many fine works from the Father. For which of those works are YOU stoning me?” 33 The Jews answered him: “We are stoning you, not for a fine work, but for blasphemy, even because you, although being a man, make yourself a god.” 34 Jesus answered them: “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said: “YOU are gods”’? 35 If he called ‘gods’ those against whom the word of God came, and yet the Scripture cannot be nullified, 36 do YOU say to me whom the Father sanctified and dispatched into the world, ‘You blaspheme,’ because I said, I am God’s Son? 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, do not believe me. 38 But if I am doing them, even though YOU do not believe me, believe the works, in order that YOU may come to know and may continue knowing that the Father is in union with me and I am in union with the Father.” 39 Therefore they tried again to seize him; but he got out of their reach.

40 So he went off again across the Jordan to the place where John was baptizing at first, and he stayed there. 41 And many people came to him, and they began saying: “John, indeed, did not perform a single sign, but as many things as John said about this man were all true.” 42 And many put faith in him there.