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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John 8: YLT98
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maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society
John 8
8
To Throw the Stone
1-2Jesus went across to Mount Olives, but he was soon back in the Temple again. Swarms of people came to him. He sat down and taught them.
3-6a The religion scholars and Pharisees led in a woman who had been caught in an act of adultery. They stood her in plain sight of everyone and said, “Teacher, this woman was caught red-handed in the act of adultery. Moses, in the Law, gives orders to stone such persons. What do you say?” They were trying to trap him into saying something incriminating so they could bring charges against him.
6b-8 Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger in the dirt. They kept at him, badgering him. He straightened up and said, “The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone.” Bending down again, he wrote some more in the dirt.
9-10Hearing that, they walked away, one after another, beginning with the oldest. The woman was left alone. Jesus stood up and spoke to her. “Woman, where are they? Does no one condemn you?”
11“No one, Master.”
“Neither do I,” said Jesus. “Go on your way. From now on, don’t sin.”]
Note: John 7:53–8:11 [the portion in brackets] is not found in the earliest handwritten copies.
You’re Missing God in All This
12Jesus once again addressed them: “I am the world’s Light. No one who follows me stumbles around in the darkness. I provide plenty of light to live in.”
13The Pharisees objected, “All we have is your word on this. We need more than this to go on.”
14-18Jesus replied, “You’re right that you only have my word. But you can depend on it being true. I know where I’ve come from and where I go next. You don’t know where I’m from or where I’m headed. You decide according to what you can see and touch. I don’t make judgments like that. But even if I did, my judgment would be true because I wouldn’t make it out of the narrowness of my experience but in the largeness of the One who sent me, the Father. That fulfills the conditions set down in God’s Law: that you can count on the testimony of two witnesses. And that is what you have: You have my word and you have the word of the Father who sent me.”
19They said, “Where is this so-called Father of yours?”
Jesus said, “You’re looking right at me and you don’t see me. How do you expect to see the Father? If you knew me, you would at the same time know the Father.”
20He gave this speech in the Treasury while teaching in the Temple. No one arrested him because his time wasn’t yet up.
21Then he went over the same ground again. “I’m leaving and you are going to look for me, but you’re missing God in this and are headed for a dead end. There is no way you can come with me.”
22The Jews said, “So, is he going to kill himself? Is that what he means by ‘You can’t come with me’?”
23-24Jesus said, “You’re tied down to the mundane; I’m in touch with what is beyond your horizons. You live in terms of what you see and touch. I’m living on other terms. I told you that you were missing God in all this. You’re at a dead end. If you won’t believe I am who I say I am, you’re at the dead end of sins. You’re missing God in your lives.”
25-26They said to him, “Just who are you anyway?”
Jesus said, “What I’ve said from the start. I have so many things to say that concern you, judgments to make that affect you, but if you don’t accept the trustworthiness of the One who commanded my words and acts, none of it matters. That is who you are questioning—not me but the One who sent me.”
27-29They still didn’t get it, didn’t realize that he was referring to the Father. So Jesus tried again. “When you raise up the Son of Man, then you will know who I am—that I’m not making this up, but speaking only what the Father taught me. The One who sent me stays with me. He doesn’t abandon me. He sees how much joy I take in pleasing him.”
30When he put it in these terms, many people decided to believe.
If the Son Sets You Free
31-32Then Jesus turned to the Jews who had claimed to believe in him. “If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you.”
33Surprised, they said, “But we’re descendants of Abraham. We’ve never been slaves to anyone. How can you say, ‘The truth will free you’?”
34-38Jesus said, “I tell you most solemnly that anyone who chooses a life of sin is trapped in a dead-end life and is, in fact, a slave. A slave can’t come and go at will. The Son, though, has an established position, the run of the house. So if the Son sets you free, you are free through and through. I know you are Abraham’s descendants. But I also know that you are trying to kill me because my message hasn’t yet penetrated your thick skulls. I’m talking about things I have seen while keeping company with the Father, and you just go on doing what you have heard from your father.”
39-41They were indignant. “Our father is Abraham!”
Jesus said, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would have been doing the things Abraham did. And yet here you are trying to kill me, a man who has spoken to you the truth he got straight from God! Abraham never did that sort of thing. You persist in repeating the works of your father.”
They said, “We’re not bastards. We have a legitimate father: the one and only God.”
42-47“If God were your father,” said Jesus, “you would love me, for I came from God and arrived here. I didn’t come on my own. He sent me. Why can’t you understand one word I say? Here’s why: You can’t handle it. You’re from your father, the Devil, and all you want to do is please him. He was a killer from the very start. He couldn’t stand the truth because there wasn’t a shred of truth in him. When the Liar speaks, he makes it up out of his lying nature and fills the world with lies. I arrive on the scene, tell you the plain truth, and you refuse to have a thing to do with me. Can any one of you convict me of a single misleading word, a single sinful act? But if I’m telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? Anyone on God’s side listens to God’s words. This is why you’re not listening—because you’re not on God’s side.”
I Am Who I Am
48The Jews then said, “That settles it. We were right all along when we called you a Samaritan and said you were crazy—demon-possessed!”
49-51Jesus said, “I’m not crazy. I simply honor my Father, while you dishonor me. I am not trying to get anything for myself. God intends something gloriously grand here and is making the decisions that will bring it about. I say this with absolute confidence. If you practice what I’m telling you, you’ll never have to look death in the face.”
52-53At this point the Jews said, “Now we know you’re crazy. Abraham died. The prophets died. And you show up saying, ‘If you practice what I’m telling you, you’ll never have to face death, not even a taste.’ Are you greater than Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you think you are!”
54-56Jesus said, “If I were striving to get all the attention, it wouldn’t amount to anything. But my Father, the same One you say is your Father, put me here at this time and place of splendor. You haven’t recognized him in this. But I have. If I, in false modesty, said I didn’t know what was going on, I would be as much of a liar as you are. But I do know, and I am doing what he says. Abraham—your ‘father’—with elated faith looked down the corridors of history and saw my day coming. He saw it and cheered.”
57The Jews said, “You’re not even fifty years old—and Abraham saw you?”
58“Believe me,” said Jesus, “I am who I am long before Abraham was anything.”
59That did it—pushed them over the edge. They picked up rocks to throw at him. But Jesus slipped away, getting out of the Temple.
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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.