Chapter 1

Produced by Martin Ward

Weymouth New Testament in Modern Speech, John

Third Edition 1913

R. F. Weymouth

Book 43 John

001:001 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

001:002 He was in the beginning with God.

001:003 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing that exists came into being.

001:004 In Him was Life, and that Life was the Light of men.

001:005 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overpowered it.

001:006 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

001:007 He came as a witness, in order that he might give testimony concerning the Light--so that all might believe through him.

001:008 He was not the Light, but he existed that he might give testimony concerning the Light.

001:009 The true Light was that which illumines every man by its coming into the world.

001:010 He was in the world, and the world came into existence through Him, and the world did not recognize Him.

001:011 He came to the things that were His own, and His own people gave Him no welcome.

001:012 But all who have received Him, to them--that is, to those who trust in His name--He has given the privilege of becoming children of God;

001:013 who were begotten as such not by human descent, nor through an impulse of their own nature, nor through the will of a human father, but from God.

001:014 And the Word came in the flesh, and lived for a time in our midst, so that we saw His glory--the glory as of the Father's only Son, sent from His presence. He was full of grace and truth.

001:015 John gave testimony concerning Him and cried aloud, saying, "This is He of whom I said, `He who is coming after me has been put before me,' for He was before me."

001:016 For He it is from whose fulness we have all received, and grace upon grace.

001:017 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

001:018 No human eye has ever seen God: the only Son, who is in the Father's bosom--He has made Him known.

001:019 This also is John's testimony, when the Jews sent to him a deputation of Priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him who he was.

001:020 He avowed--he did not conceal the truth, but avowed, "I am not the Christ."

001:021 "What then?" they inquired; "are you Elijah?" "I am not," he said. "Are you the Prophet?" "No," he answered.

001:022 So they pressed the question. "Who are you?" they said--"that we may take an answer to those who sent us. What account do you give of yourself?"

001:023 "I am the voice," he replied, "of one crying aloud, `Make straight the Lord's way in the Desert,' fulfilling the words of the Prophet Isaiah."

001:024 They were Pharisees who had been sent.

001:025 Again they questioned him. "Why then do you baptize," they said, "if you are neither the Christ nor Elijah nor the Prophet?"

001:026 "I baptize in water only," John answered, "but in your midst stands One whom you do not know--

001:027 He who is to come after me, and whose sandal-strap I am not worthy to unfasten."

001:028 This conversation took place at Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

001:029 The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him and exclaimed, "Look, that is the Lamb of God who is to take away the sin of the world!

001:030 This is He about whom I said, `After me is to come One who has been put before me, because He was before me.'

001:031 I did not yet know Him; but that He may be openly shown to Israel is the reason why I have come baptizing in water."

001:032 John also gave testimony by stating: "I have seen the Spirit coming down like a dove out of Heaven; and it remained upon Him.

001:033 I did not yet know Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, "`The One on whom you see the Spirit coming down, and remaining, He it is who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.'

001:034 "This I have seen, and I have become a witness that He is the Son of God."

001:035 Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples,

001:036 when he saw Jesus passing by, and said, "Look! that is the Lamb of God!"

001:037 The two disciples heard his exclamation, and they followed Jesus.

001:038 Then Jesus turned round, and seeing them following He asked them, "What is your wish?" "Rabbi," they replied--`Rabbi' means `Teacher'--"where are you staying?"

001:039 "Come and you shall see," He said. So they went and saw where He was staying, and they remained and spent that day with Him. It was then about ten o'clock in the morning.

001:040 Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard John's exclamation and followed Jesus.

001:041 He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, "We have found the Messiah!"--that is to say, the Anointed One.

001:042 He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon, son of John: you shall be called Cephas"-- that is to say, Peter (or `Rock').

001:043 The next day, having decided to leave Bethany and go into Galilee, Jesus found Philip, and invited him to follow Him.

001:044 (Now Philip came from Bethsaida, the same town as Andrew and Peter.)

001:045 Then Philip found Nathanael, and said to him, "We have found him about whom Moses in the Law wrote, as well as the Prophets--Jesus, the son of Joseph, a man of Nazareth."

001:046 "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" replied Nathanael. "Come and see," said Philip.

001:047 Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, and said of him, "Look! here is a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceitfulness!"

001:048 "How do you know me?" Nathanael asked. "Before Philip called you," said Jesus, "when you were under the fig-tree I saw you."

001:049 "Rabbi," cried Nathanael, "you are the Son of God, you are Israel's King!"

001:050 "Because I said to you, `I saw you under the fig-tree,'" replied Jesus, "do you believe? You shall see greater things than that."

001:051 "I tell you all in most solemn truth," He added, "that you shall see Heaven opened wide, and God's angels going up, and coming down to the Son of Man."

002:001 Two days later there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there,

002:002 and Jesus also was invited and His disciples.

002:003 Now the wine ran short; whereupon the mother of Jesus said to Him, "They have no wine."

002:004 "Leave the matter in my hands," He replied; "the time for me to act has not yet come."

002:005 His mother said to the attendants, "Whatever he tells you to do, do it."

002:006 Now there were six stone jars standing there (in accordance with the Jewish regulations for purification), each large enough to hold twenty gallons or more.

002:007 Jesus said to the attendants, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them to the brim.

002:008 Then He said, "Now, take some out, and carry it to the President of the feast."

002:009 So they carried some to him. And no sooner had the President tasted the water now turned into wine, than--not knowing where it came from, though the attendants who had drawn the water knew-- he called to the bridegroom

002:010 and said to him, "It is usual to put on the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then that which is inferior. But you have kept the good wine till now."

002:011 This, the first of His miracles, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee, and thus displayed His glorious power; and His disciples believed in Him.

002:012 Afterwards He went down to Capernaum--He, and His mother, and His brothers, and His disciples; and they made a short stay there.

002:013 But the Jewish Passover was approaching, and for this Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

002:014 And He found in the Temple the dealers in cattle and sheep and in pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there.

002:015 So He plaited a whip of rushes, and drove all--both sheep and bullocks--out of the Temple. The small coin of the brokers He upset on the ground and overturned their tables.

002:016 And to the pigeon-dealers He said, "Take these things away. Do not turn my Father's house into a market."

002:017 This recalled to His disciples the words of Scripture, "My zeal for Thy House will consume me."

002:018 So the Jews asked Him, "What proof of your authority do you exhibit to us, seeing that you do these things?"

002:019 "Demolish this Sanctuary," said Jesus, "and in three days I will rebuild it."

002:020 "It has taken forty-six years," replied the Jews, "to build this Sanctuary, and will you rebuild it in three days?"

002:021 But He was speaking of the Sanctuary of His body.

002:022 When however He had risen from among the dead, His disciples recollected that He had said this; and they believed the Scripture and the teaching which Jesus had given them.

002:023 Now when He was in Jerusalem, at the Festival of the Passover, many became believers in Him through watching the miracles He performed.

002:024 But for His part, Jesus did not trust Himself to them, because He knew them all,

002:025 and did not need any one's testimony concerning a man, for He of Himself knew what was in the man.

003:001 Now there was one of the Pharisees whose name was Nicodemus-- a ruler among the Jews.

003:002 He came to Jesus by night and said, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher from God; for no one can do these miracles which you are doing, unless God is with him.

003:003 "In most solemn truth I tell you," answered Jesus, "that unless a man is born anew he cannot see the Kingdom of God."

003:004 "How is it possible," Nicodemus asked, "for a man to be born when he is old? Can he a second time enter his mother's womb and be born?"

003:005 "In most solemn truth I tell you," replied Jesus, "that unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.

003:006 Whatever has been born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever has been born of the Spirit is spirit.

003:007 Do not be astonished at my telling you, `You must all be born anew.'

003:008 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So is it with every one who has been born of the Spirit."

003:009 "How is all this possible?" asked Nicodemus.

003:010 "Are you," replied Jesus, "`the Teacher of Israel,' and yet do you not understand these things?

003:011 In most solemn truth I tell you that we speak what we know, and give testimony of that of which we were eye-witnesses, and yet you all reject our testimony.

003:012 If I have told you earthly things and none of you believe me, how will you believe me if I tell you of things in Heaven?

003:013 There is no one who has gone up to Heaven, but there is One who has come down from Heaven, namely the Son of Man whose home is in Heaven.

003:014 And just as Moses lifted high the serpent in the Desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

003:015 in order that every one who trusts in Him may have the Life of the Ages."

003:016 For so greatly did God love the world that He gave His only Son, that every one who trusts in Him may not perish but may have the Life of Ages.

003:017 For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

003:018 He who trusts in Him does not come up for judgement. He who does not trust has already received sentence, because he has not his trust resting on the name of God's only Son.

003:019 And this is the test by which men are judged--the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness more than they loved the Light, because their deeds were wicked.

003:020 For every wrongdoer hates the light, and does not come to the light, for fear his actions should be exposed and condemned.

003:021 But he who does what is honest and right comes to the light, in order that his actions may be plainly shown to have been done in God.

003:022 After this Jesus and His disciples went into Judaea; and there He made a stay in company with them and baptized.

003:023 And John too was baptizing at Aenon, near Salim, because there were many pools of water there; and people came and received baptism.

003:024 (For John was not yet in prison.)

003:025 As the result, a discussion having arisen on the part of John's disciples with a Jew about purification,

003:026 they came to John and reported to him, "Rabbi, he who was with you on the other side of the Jordan and to whom you bore testimony is now baptizing, and great numbers of people are resorting to him."

003:027 "A man cannot obtain anything," replied John, "unless it has been granted to him from Heaven.

003:028 You yourselves can bear witness to my having said, `I am not the Christ,' but `I am His appointed forerunner.'

003:029 He who has the bride is the bridegroom; and the bridegroom's friend who stands by his side and listens to him, rejoices heartily on account of the bridegroom's happiness. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete.

003:030 He must grow greater, but I must grow less.

003:031 He who comes from above is above all. He whose origin is from the earth is not only himself from the earth, his teaching also is from the earth. He who comes from Heaven is above all.

003:032 What He has seen and heard, to that He bears witness; but His testimony no one receives.

003:033 Any man who has received His testimony has solemnly declared that God is true.

003:034 For He whom God has sent speaks God's words; for God does not give the Spirit with limitations."

003:035 The Father loves the Son and has entrusted everything to His hands.

003:036 He who believes in the Son has the Life of the Ages; he who disobeys the Son will not enter into Life, but God's anger remains upon him.

004:001 Now as soon as the Master was aware that the Pharisees had heard it said, "Jesus is gaining and baptizing more disciples than John"--

004:002 though Jesus Himself did not baptize them, but His disciples did--

004:003 He left Judaea and returned to Galilee.

004:004 His road lay through Samaria,

004:005 and so He came to Sychar, a town in Samaria near the piece of land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

004:006 Jacob's Well was there: and accordingly Jesus, tired out with His journey, sat down by the well to rest. It was about six o'clock in the evening.

004:007 Presently there came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus asked her to give Him some water;

004:008 for His disciples were gone to the town to buy provisions.

004:009 "How is it," replied the woman, "that a Jew like you asks me, who am a woman and a Samaritan, for water?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

004:010 "If you had known God's free gift," replied Jesus, "and who it is that said to you, `Give me some water,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."

004:011 "Sir," she said, "you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; so where can you get the living water from?

004:012 Are you greater than our forefather Jacob, who gave us the well, and himself drank from it, as did also his sons and his cattle?"

004:013 "Every one," replied Jesus, "who drinks any of this water will be thirsty again;

004:014 but whoever drinks any of the water that I shall give him will never, never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become a fountain within him of water springing up for the Life of the Ages."

004:015 "Sir," said the woman, "give me that water, that I may never be thirsty, nor continually come all the way here to draw from the well."

004:016 "Go and call your husband," said Jesus; "and come back."

004:017 "I have no husband," she replied. "You rightly say that you have no husband," said Jesus;

004:018 "for you have had five husbands, and the man you have at present is not your husband. You have spoken the truth in saying that."

004:019 "Sir," replied the woman, "I see that you are a Prophet.

004:020 Our forefathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem."

004:021 "Believe me," said Jesus, "the time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

004:022 You worship One of whom you know nothing. We worship One whom we know; for salvation comes from the Jews.

004:023 But a time is coming--nay, has already come--when the true worshippers will worship the Father with true spiritual worship; for indeed the Father desires such worshippers.

004:024 God is Spirit; and those who worship Him must bring Him true spiritual worship."

004:025 "I know," replied the woman, "that Messiah is coming--`the Christ,' as He is called. When He has come, He will tell us everything."

004:026 "I am He," said Jesus--"I who am now talking to you."

004:027 Just then His disciples came, and were surprised to find Him talking with a woman. Yet not one of them asked Him, "What is your wish?" or "Why are you talking with her?"

004:028 The woman however, leaving her pitcher, went away to the town, and called the people.

004:029 "Come," she said, "and see a man who has told me everything I have ever done. Can this be the Christ, do you think?"

004:030 They left the town and set out to go to Him.

004:031 Meanwhile the disciples were urging Jesus. "Rabbi," they said, "eat something."

004:032 "I have food to eat," He replied, "of which you do not know."

004:033 So the disciples began questioning one another. "Can it be," they said, "that some one has brought Him something to eat?"

004:034 "My food," said Jesus, "is to be obedient to Him who sent me, and fully to accomplish His work.

004:035 Do you not say, `It wants four months yet to the harvest'? But look round, I tell you, and observe these plains-- they are already ripe for the sickle.

004:036 The reaper gets pay and gathers in a crop in preparation for the Life of the Ages, that so the sower and the reapers may rejoice together.

004:037 For it is in this that you see the real meaning of the saying, `The sower is one person, and the reaper is another.'

004:038 I sent you to reap a harvest which is not the result of your own labours. Others have laboured, and you are getting benefit from their labours."

004:039 Of the Samaritan population of that town a good many believed in Him because of the woman's statement when she declared, "He has told me all that I have ever done."

004:040 When however the Samaritans came to Him, they asked Him on all sides to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.

004:041 Then a far larger number of people believed because of His own words,

004:042 and they said to the woman, "We no longer believe in Him simply because of your statements; for we have now heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world."

004:043 After the two days He departed, and went into Galilee;

004:044 though Jesus Himself declared that a Prophet has no honour in his own country.

004:045 When however He reached Galilee, the Galilaeans welcomed Him eagerly, having been eye-witnesses of all that He had done in Jerusalem at the Festival; for they also had been to the Festival.

004:046 So He came once more to Cana in Galilee, where He had made the water into wine. Now there was a certain officer of the King's court whose son was ill at Capernaum.

004:047 Having heard that Jesus had come from Judaea to Galilee, he came to Him and begged Him to go down and cure his son; for he was at the point of death.

004:048 "Unless you and others see miracles and marvels," said Jesus, "nothing will induce you to believe."

004:049 "Sir," pleaded the officer, "come down before my child dies."

004:050 "You may return home," replied Jesus; "your son has recovered." He believed the words of Jesus, and started back home;

004:051 and he was already on his way down when his servants met him and told him that his son was alive and well.

004:052 So he inquired of them at what hour he had shown improvement. "Yesterday, about seven o'clock," they replied, "the fever left him."

004:053 Then the father recollected that that was the time at which Jesus had said to him, "Your son has recovered," and he and his whole household became believers.

004:054 This is the second miracle that Jesus performed, after coming from Judaea into Galilee.

005:001 After this there was a Festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

005:002 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, called in Hebrew `Bethesda.' It has five arcades.

005:003 In these there used to lie a great number of sick persons, and of people who were blind or lame or paralyzed.

005:004 []

005:005 And there was one man there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.

005:006 Jesus saw him lying there, and knowing that he had been a long time in that condition, He asked him, "Do you wish to have health and strength?"

005:007 "Sir," replied the sufferer, "I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is moved; but while I am coming some one else steps down before me."

005:008 "Rise," said Jesus, "take up your mat and walk."

005:009 Instantly the man was restored to perfect health, and he took up his mat and began to walk.

005:010 That day was a Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, "It is the Sabbath: you must not carry your mat."

005:011 "He who cured me," he replied, "said to me, `Take up your mat and walk.'"

005:012 "Who is it," they asked, "that said to you, `Take up your mat and walk'?"

005:013 But the man who had been cured did not know who it was; for Jesus had passed out unnoticed, there being a crowd in the place.

005:014 Afterwards Jesus found him in the Temple and said to him, "You are now restored to health. Do not sin any more, or a worse thing may befall you."

005:015 The man went and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had restored him to health;

005:016 and on this account the Jews began to persecute Jesus-- because He did these things on the Sabbath.

005:017 His reply to their accusation was, "My Father works unceasingly, and so do I."