John 1
1
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God;
2this one was in the beginning with God;
3all things through him did happen, and without him happened not even one thing that hath happened.
4In him was life, and the life was the light of men,
5and the light in the darkness did shine, and the darkness did not perceive it.
6There came a man — having been sent from God — whose name [is] John,
7this one came for testimony, that he might testify about the Light, that all might believe through him;
8that one was not the Light, but — that he might testify about the Light.
9He was the true Light, which doth enlighten every man, coming to the world;
10in the world he was, and the world through him was made, and the world did not know him:
11to his own things he came, and his own people did not receive him;
12but as many as did receive him to them he gave authority to become sons of God — to those believing in his name,
13who — not of blood nor of a will of flesh, nor of a will of man but — of God were begotten.
14And the Word became flesh, and did tabernacle among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of an only begotten of a father, full of grace and truth.
15John doth testify concerning him, and hath cried, saying, ‘This was he of whom I said, He who after me is coming, hath come before me, for he was before me;’
16and out of his fulness did we all receive, and grace over-against grace;
17for the law through Moses was given, the grace and the truth through Jesus Christ did come;
18God no one hath ever seen; the only begotten Son, who is on the bosom of the Father — he did declare.
19And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent out of Jerusalem priests and Levites, that they might question him, ‘Who art thou?’
20and he confessed and did not deny, and confessed — ‘I am not the Christ.’
21And they questioned him, ‘What then? Elijah art thou?’ and he saith, ‘I am not.’ — ‘The prophet art thou?’ and he answered, ‘No.’
22They said then to him, ‘Who art thou, that we may give an answer to those sending us? what dost thou say concerning thyself?’
23He said, ‘I [am] a voice of one crying in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord, as said Isaiah the prophet.’
24And those sent were of the Pharisees,
25and they questioned him and said to him, ‘Why, then, dost thou baptize, if thou art not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?’
26John answered them, saying, ‘I baptize with water, but in midst of you he hath stood whom ye have not known, this one it is who is coming after me, who hath been before me,
27of whom I am not worthy that I may loose the cord of his sandal.’
28These things came to pass in Bethabara, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing,
29on the morrow John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, ‘Lo, the Lamb of God, who is taking away the sin of the world;
30this is he concerning whom I said, After me doth come a man, who hath come before me, because he was before me:
31and I knew him not, but, that he might be manifested to Israel, because of this I came with the water baptizing.
32And John testified, saying — ‘I have seen the Spirit coming down, as a dove, out of heaven, and it remained on him;
33and I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water, He said to me, On whomsoever thou mayest see the Spirit coming down, and remaining on him, this is he who is baptizing with the Holy Spirit;
34and I have seen, and have testified, that this is the Son of God.’
35On the morrow, again, John was standing, and two of his disciples,
36and having looked on Jesus walking, he saith, ‘Lo, the Lamb of God;’
37and the two disciples heard him speaking, and they followed Jesus.
38And Jesus having turned, and having beheld them following, saith to them, ‘What seek ye?’ and they said to them, ‘Rabbi, (which is, being interpreted, Teacher,) where remainest thou?’
39He saith to them, ‘Come and see;’ they came, and saw where he doth remain, and with him they remained that day and the hour was about the tenth.
40Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard from John, and followed him;
41this one doth first find his own brother Simon, and saith to him, ‘We have found the Messiah,’ (which is, being interpreted, The Anointed,)
42and he brought him unto Jesus: and having looked upon him, Jesus saith, ‘Thou art Simon, the son of Jonas, thou shalt be called Cephas,’ (which is interpreted, A rock.)
43On the morrow, he willed to go forth to Galilee, and he findeth Philip, and saith to him, ‘Be following me.’
44And Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter;
45Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith to him, ‘Him of whom Moses wrote in the Law, and the prophets, we have found, Jesus the son of Joseph, who [is] from Nazareth;’
46and Nathanael said to him, ‘Out of Nazareth is any good thing able to be?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’
47Jesus saw Nathanael coming unto him, and he saith concerning him, ‘Lo, truly an Israelite, in whom guile is not;’
48Nathanael saith to him, ‘Whence me dost thou know?’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Before Philip's calling thee — thou being under the fig-tree — I saw thee.’
49Nathanael answered and saith to him, ‘Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the king of Israel.’
50Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Because I said to thee, I saw thee under the fig-tree, thou dost believe; greater things than these thou shalt see;’
51and he saith to him, ‘Verily, verily, I say to you, henceforth ye shall see the heaven opened, and the messengers of God going up and coming down upon the Son of Man.’
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John 1: YLT98
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maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society
John 1
1
The Life-Light
1-2The Word was first,
the Word present to God,
God present to the Word.
The Word was God,
in readiness for God from day one.
3-5Everything was created through him;
nothing—not one thing!—
came into being without him.
What came into existence was Life,
and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
the darkness couldn’t put it out.
6-8There once was a man, his name John, sent by God to point out the way to the Life-Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light.
9-13The Life-Light was the real thing:
Every person entering Life
he brings into Light.
He was in the world,
the world was there through him,
and yet the world didn’t even notice.
He came to his own people,
but they didn’t want him.
But whoever did want him,
who believed he was who he claimed
and would do what he said,
He made to be their true selves,
their child-of-God selves.
These are the God-begotten,
not blood-begotten,
not flesh-begotten,
not sex-begotten.
14The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish.
15John pointed him out and called, “This is the One! The One I told you was coming after me but in fact was ahead of me. He has always been ahead of me, has always had the first word.”
16-18We all live off his generous abundance,
gift after gift after gift.
We got the basics from Moses,
and then this exuberant giving and receiving,
This endless knowing and understanding—
all this came through Jesus, the Messiah.
No one has ever seen God,
not so much as a glimpse.
This one-of-a-kind God-Expression,
who exists at the very heart of the Father,
has made him plain as day.
Thunder in the Desert
19-20When Jews from Jerusalem sent a group of priests and officials to ask John who he was, he was completely honest. He didn’t evade the question. He told the plain truth: “I am not the Messiah.”
21They pressed him, “Who, then? Elijah?”
“I am not.”
“The Prophet?”
“No.”
22Exasperated, they said, “Who, then? We need an answer for those who sent us. Tell us something—anything!—about yourself.”
23“I’m thunder in the desert: ‘Make the road straight for God!’ I’m doing what the prophet Isaiah preached.”
24-25Those sent to question him were from the Pharisee party. Now they had a question of their own: “If you’re neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet, why do you baptize?”
26-27John answered, “I only baptize using water. A person you don’t recognize has taken his stand in your midst. He comes after me, but he is not in second place to me. I’m not even worthy to hold his coat for him.”
28These conversations took place in Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing at the time.
The God-Revealer
29-31The very next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and yelled out, “Here he is, God’s Passover Lamb! He forgives the sins of the world! This is the man I’ve been talking about, ‘the One who comes after me but is really ahead of me.’ I knew nothing about who he was—only this: that my task has been to get Israel ready to recognize him as the God-Revealer. That is why I came here baptizing with water, giving you a good bath and scrubbing sins from your life so you can get a fresh start with God.”
32-34John clinched his witness with this: “I watched the Spirit, like a dove flying down out of the sky, making himself at home in him. I repeat, I know nothing about him except this: The One who authorized me to baptize with water told me, ‘The One on whom you see the Spirit come down and stay, this One will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ That’s exactly what I saw happen, and I’m telling you, there’s no question about it: This is the Son of God.”
Come, See for Yourself
35-36The next day John was back at his post with two disciples, who were watching. He looked up, saw Jesus walking nearby, and said, “Here he is, God’s Passover Lamb.”
37-38The two disciples heard him and went after Jesus. Jesus looked over his shoulder and said to them, “What are you after?”
They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”
39He replied, “Come along and see for yourself.”
They came, saw where he was living, and ended up staying with him for the day. It was late afternoon when this happened.
40-42Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard John’s witness and followed Jesus. The first thing he did after finding where Jesus lived was find his own brother, Simon, telling him, “We’ve found the Messiah” (that is, “Christ”). He immediately led him to Jesus.
Jesus took one look up and said, “You’re John’s son, Simon? From now on your name is Cephas” (or Peter, which means “Rock”).
43-44The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. When he got there, he ran across Philip and said, “Come, follow me.” (Philip’s hometown was Bethsaida, the same as Andrew and Peter.)
45-46Philip went and found Nathanael and told him, “We’ve found the One Moses wrote of in the Law, the One preached by the prophets. It’s Jesus, Joseph’s son, the one from Nazareth!” Nathanael said, “Nazareth? You’ve got to be kidding.”
But Philip said, “Come, see for yourself.”
47When Jesus saw him coming he said, “There’s a real Israelite, not a false bone in his body.”
48Nathanael said, “Where did you get that idea? You don’t know me.”
Jesus answered, “One day, long before Philip called you here, I saw you under the fig tree.”
49Nathanael exclaimed, “Rabbi! You are the Son of God, the King of Israel!”
50-51Jesus said, “You’ve become a believer simply because I say I saw you one day sitting under the fig tree? You haven’t seen anything yet! Before this is over you’re going to see heaven open and God’s angels descending to the Son of Man and ascending again.”
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.