John 8
8
A Woman Caught in Adultery
1Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2Early the next morning he returned to the temple courtyard. All the people went to him, so he sat down and began to teach them.
3The experts in Moses’ Teachings and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught committing adultery. They made her stand in front of everyone 4and asked Jesus, “Teacher, we caught this woman in the act of adultery. 5In his teachings, Moses ordered us to stone women like this to death. What do you say?” 6They asked this to test him. They wanted to find a reason to bring charges against him.
Jesus bent down and used his finger to write on the ground. 7When they persisted in asking him questions, he straightened up and said, “The person who is sinless should be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8Then he bent down again and continued writing on the ground.
9One by one, beginning with the older men, the experts in Moses’ Teachings and Pharisees left. Jesus was left alone with the woman. 10Then Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Where did they go? Has anyone condemned you?”
11The woman answered, “No one, sir.”
Jesus said, “I don’t condemn you either. Go! From now on don’t sin.”
Jesus Speaks with the Pharisees about His Father
12Jesus spoke to the Pharisees again. He said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will have a life filled with light and will never live in the dark.”
13The Pharisees said to him, “You testify on your own behalf, so your testimony isn’t true.”
14Jesus replied to them, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is true because I know where I came from and where I’m going. However, you don’t know where I came from or where I’m going. 15You judge the way humans do. I don’t judge anyone. 16Even if I do judge, my judgment is valid because I don’t make it on my own. I make my judgment with the Father who sent me. 17Your own teachings say that the testimony of two people is true. 18I testify on my own behalf, and so does the Father who sent me.”
19The Pharisees asked him, “Where is your father?”
Jesus replied, “You don’t know me or my Father. If you knew me, you would also know my Father.”
20Jesus spoke these words while he was teaching in the treasury area of the temple courtyard. No one arrested him, because his time had not yet come.
21Jesus spoke to the Pharisees again. He said, “I’m going away, and you’ll look for me. But you will die because of your sin. You can’t go where I’m going.”
22Then the Jews asked, “Is he going to kill himself? Is that what he means when he says, ‘You can’t go where I’m going’?”
23Jesus said to them, “You’re from below. I’m from above. You’re from this world. I’m not from this world. 24For this reason I told you that you’ll die because of your sins. If you don’t believe that I am the one, you’ll die because of your sins.”
25The Jews asked him, “Who did you say you are?”
Jesus told them, “I am who I said I was from the beginning. 26I have a lot I could say about you and a lot I could condemn you for. But the one who sent me is true. So I tell the world exactly what he has told me.” 27(The Jews didn’t know that he was talking to them about the Father.)
28So Jesus told them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you’ll know that I am the one and that I can’t do anything on my own. Instead, I speak as the Father taught me. 29Besides, the one who sent me is with me. He hasn’t left me by myself. I always do what pleases him.”
30As Jesus was saying this, many people believed in him. 31So Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him, “If you live by what I say, you are truly my disciples. 32You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
33They replied to Jesus, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and we’ve never been anyone’s slaves. So how can you say that we will be set free?”
34Jesus answered them, “I can guarantee this truth: Whoever lives a sinful life is a slave to sin. 35A slave doesn’t live in the home forever, but a son does. 36So if the Son sets you free, you will be absolutely free. 37I know that you’re Abraham’s descendants. However, you want to kill me because you don’t like what I’m saying. 38What I’m saying is what I have seen in my Father’s presence. But you do what you’ve heard from your father.”
39The Jews replied to Jesus, “Abraham is our father.”
Jesus told them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do what Abraham did. 40I am a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. But now you want to kill me. Abraham wouldn’t have done that. 41You’re doing what your father does.”
The Jews said to Jesus, “We’re not illegitimate children. God is our only Father.”
42Jesus told them, “If God were your Father, you would love me. After all, I’m here, and I came from God. I didn’t come on my own. Instead, God sent me. 43Why don’t you understand the language I use? Is it because you can’t understand the words I use? 44You come from your father, the devil, and you desire to do what your father wants you to do. The devil was a murderer from the beginning. He has never been truthful. He doesn’t know what the truth is. Whenever he tells a lie, he’s doing what comes naturally to him. He’s a liar and the father of lies. 45So you don’t believe me because I tell the truth. 46Can any of you convict me of committing a sin? If I’m telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? 47The person who belongs to God understands what God says. You don’t understand because you don’t belong to God.”
48The Jews replied to Jesus, “Aren’t we right when we say that you’re a Samaritan and that you’re possessed by a demon?”
49Jesus answered, “I’m not possessed. I honor my Father, but you dishonor me. 50I don’t want my own glory. But there is someone who wants it, and he is the judge. 51I can guarantee this truth: Whoever obeys what I say will never see death.”
52The Jews told Jesus, “Now we know that you’re possessed by a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets, but you say, ‘Whoever does what I say will never taste death.’ 53Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets have also died. Who do you think you are?”
54Jesus said, “If I bring glory to myself, my glory is nothing. My Father is the one who gives me glory, and you say that he is your God. 55Yet, you haven’t known him. However, I know him. If I would say that I didn’t know him, I would be a liar like all of you. But I do know him, and I do what he says. 56Your father Abraham was pleased to see that my day was coming. He saw it and was happy.”
57The Jews said to Jesus, “You’re not even fifty years old. How could you have seen Abraham?”
58Jesus told them, “I can guarantee this truth: Before Abraham was ever born, I am.”
59Then some of the Jews picked up stones to throw at Jesus. However, Jesus was concealed, and he left the temple courtyard.
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John 8: GW
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GOD'S WORD® Translation ©1995, 2003, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020 by God's Word to the Nations Mission Society. All rights reserved.
John 8
8
1And at dawn he came again to the temple,
2and all the people were coming unto him, and having sat down, he was teaching them;
3and the scribes and the Pharisees bring unto him a woman having been taken in adultery, and having set her in the midst,
4they say to him, ‘Teacher, this woman was taken in the very crime — committing adultery,
5and in the law, Moses did command us that such be stoned; thou, therefore, what dost thou say?’
6and this they said, trying him, that they might have to accuse him. And Jesus, having stooped down, with the finger he was writing on the ground,
7and when they continued asking him, having bent himself back, he said unto them, ‘The sinless of you — let him first cast the stone at her;’
8and again having stooped down, he was writing on the ground,
9and they having heard, and by the conscience being convicted, were going forth one by one, having begun from the elders — unto the last; and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
10And Jesus having bent himself back, and having seen no one but the woman, said to her, ‘Woman, where are those — thine accusers? did no one pass sentence upon thee?’
11and she said, ‘No one, Sir;’ and Jesus said to her, ‘Neither do I pass sentence on thee; be going on, and no more sin.’
12Again, therefore, Jesus spake to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world; he who is following me shall not walk in the darkness, but he shall have the light of the life.’
13The Pharisees, therefore, said to him, ‘Thou of thyself dost testify, thy testimony is not true;’
14Jesus answered and said to them, ‘And if I testify of myself — my testimony is true, because I have known whence I came, and whither I go, and ye — ye have not known whence I come, or whither I go.
15‘Ye according to the flesh do judge; I do not judge any one,
16and even if I do judge my judgment is true, because I am not alone, but I and the Father who sent me;
17and also in your law it hath been written, that the testimony of two men are true;
18I am [one] who is testifying of myself, and the Father who sent me doth testify of me.’
19They said, therefore, to him, ‘Where is thy father?’ Jesus answered, ‘Ye have neither known me nor my Father: if me ye had known, my Father also ye had known.’
20These sayings spake Jesus in the treasury, teaching in the temple, and no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come;
21therefore said Jesus again to them, ‘I go away, and ye will seek me, and in your sin ye shall die; whither I go away, ye are not able to come.’
22The Jews, therefore, said, ‘Will he kill himself, because he saith, Whither I go away, ye are not able to come?’
23and he said to them, ‘Ye are from beneath, I am from above; ye are of this world, I am not of this world;
24I said, therefore, to you, that ye shall die in your sins, for if ye may not believe that I am [he], ye shall die in your sins.’
25They said, therefore, to him, ‘Thou — who art thou?’ and Jesus said to them, ‘Even what I did speak of to you at the beginning;
26many things I have to speak concerning you and to judge, but He who sent me is true, and I — what things I heard from Him — these I say to the world.’
27They knew not that of the Father he spake to them;
28Jesus, therefore, said to them, ‘When ye may lift up the Son of Man then ye will know that I am [he]; and of myself I do nothing, but according as my Father did teach me, these things I speak;
29and He who sent me is with me; the Father did not leave me alone, because I, the things pleasing to Him, do always.’
30As he is speaking these things, many believed in him;
31Jesus, therefore, said unto the Jews who believed in him, ‘If ye may remain in my word, truly my disciples ye are,
32and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’
33They answered him, ‘Seed of Abraham we are; and to no one have we been servants at any time; how dost thou say — Ye shall become free?’
34Jesus answered them, ‘Verily, verily, I say to you — Every one who is committing sin, is a servant of the sin,
35and the servant doth not remain in the house — to the age, the son doth remain — to the age;
36if then the son may make you free, in reality ye shall be free.
37‘I have known that ye are seed of Abraham, but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you;
38I — that which I have seen with my Father do speak, and ye, therefore, that which ye have seen with your father — ye do.’
39They answered and said to him, ‘Our father is Abraham;’ Jesus saith to them, ‘If children of Abraham ye were, the works of Abraham ye were doing;
40and now, ye seek to kill me — a man who hath spoken to you the truth I heard from God; this Abraham did not;
41ye do the works of your father.’ They said, therefore, to him, ‘We of whoredom have not been born; one Father we have — God;’
42Jesus then said to them, ‘If God were your father, ye were loving me, for I came forth from God, and am come; for neither have I come of myself, but He sent me;
43wherefore do ye not know my speech? because ye are not able to hear my word.
44‘Ye are of a father — the devil, and the desires of your father ye will to do; he was a manslayer from the beginning, and in the truth he hath not stood, because there is no truth in him; when one may speak the falsehood, of his own he speaketh, because he is a liar — also his father.
45‘And because I say the truth, ye do not believe me.
46Who of you doth convict me of sin? and if I speak truth, wherefore do ye not believe me?
47he who is of God, the sayings of God he doth hear; because of this ye do not hear, because of God ye are not.’
48The Jews, therefore, answered and said to him, ‘Do we not say well, that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a demon?’
49Jesus answered, ‘I have not a demon, but I honour my Father, and ye dishonour me;
50and I do not seek my own glory; there is who is seeking and is judging;
51verily, verily, I say to you, If any one may keep my word, death he may not see — to the age.’
52The Jews, therefore, said to him, ‘Now we have known that thou hast a demon; Abraham did die, and the prophets, and thou dost say, If any one may keep my word, he shall not taste of death — to the age!
53Art thou greater than our father Abraham, who died? and the prophets died; whom dost thou make thyself?’
54Jesus answered, ‘If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing; it is my Father who is glorifying me, of whom ye say that He is your God;
55and ye have not known Him, and I have known Him, and if I say that I have not known Him, I shall be like you — speaking falsely; but I have known Him, and His word I keep;
56Abraham, your father, was glad that he might see my day; and he saw, and did rejoice.’
57The Jews, therefore, said unto him, ‘Thou art not yet fifty years old, and Abraham hast thou seen?’
58Jesus said to them, ‘Verily, verily, I say to you, Before Abraham's coming — I am;’
59they took up, therefore, stones that they may cast at him, but Jesus hid himself, and went forth out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.
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