Sunday, November 3, 2024

The Gospel of John 3-5, Revised, from "The Practice of the Way"

And a person was from the Pharisees—Nikodemos is his name, a chieftain of the Jewish people—this guy came to Him by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher having come from the God, because no one can do these signs from the God which you are doing should the God not be with him.” Yeshua responded and said to him, “Amen amen I am telling you if someone hasn’t been reborn from above, he can’t see the kingdom of the God.” Nikodemos says to Him, “How is it possible for a human being to be reborn being old and infirm? He can’t go into the belly of his mother a second time, is it?” Yeshua answered, “Amen amen I tell you, if someone isn’t born from water and pneuma, he can’t come into the kingdom of the God. What has been born from the meat and bones is meat and bones, and what has been born from the pneuma is pneuma. Don’t be surprised that I said to you, ‘There is a need for you to be reborn from above.’ The pneuma blows where it wills and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from, or where it’s going. So is every person having been born from the pneuma.” Nikodemos responded and said to Him, “How is it possible for these things to happen?” Yeshua answered and said to him, “You are the teacher of Yisra'el and you don’t recognize these things? Amen amen I tell you that We talk what We know and We testify what We have seen, and you people don’t accept Our testimony. If I told you people about the things upon the earth and you don’t believe it, how would you people believe it if I should tell you about the things occurring in the heavenly realm? And no one has gone up into the heavenly realm if not the person coming down from the heavenly realm, the Son of Adam who started off in the heavenly realm. And just like Moshe raised the snake in the desert high, so there is a need for the Son of Adam to be raised high, so that every single person who puts their trust into Him would hold the life of the Eternal One. Because the God cared about and had compassion on the universe in this way, as He also gave His One of a Kind Son, so that every single person who puts their trust into Him would not be destroyed but would hold the life of the Eternal One. Because the God didn’t send out His Son into the universe so that He would judge the universe, but so that the universe would be rescued through Him. The person putting his trust into Him isn’t judged, yet the person not putting his trust into Him has already decided for himself, because he hasn’t put his trust into the name of the One of a Kind Son of the God. And this is the decision, that the light had come into the universe and the human beings loved the darkness more than the light because the things they achieved were deranged. Because every person bringing about foul things hates the light and doesn’t come towards the light, so that the things they achieve won’t be brought into the light; yet the person engaging with the truth comes towards the light, so that the things he achieves would shine forth that they are having been achieved by means of God.”

With these things Yeshua and His disciples came into the country of Iudaea and passed the time there with them and He baptized them. And Yohanan was also baptizing in an Ayin [wellspring] close to Salim, because there was a lot of water there, and they were beside them and were baptizing, because Yohanan hadn’t yet been thrown into prison. An investigative debate then happened out of the disciples of Yohanan with those of the Iudaeans about cleansing. And they came to Yohanan and said to him, “Rabbi, the guy who was with you on the other side of the Yordan, about whom you had testified; look, this guy is baptizing and everyone is coming to Him.” Yohanan answered and said, “A human being can’t accept anything at all if it hasn’t been given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear witness to me that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but that, ‘I have been sent out ahead of that one.’ The one possessing the bride is the groom, and the friend of the groom, having stood and hearing him, rejoices with joy because of the sound of the groom. This joy of mine then has been filled to the top. There is a need for that One to grow, and for me to shrink.

The Man coming from above is above everything. The man who is from the earth is from the earth and talks from the earth. The Man who comes from heaven is above everything. What He has seen and heard, this is what He bears witness to, and no one accepts His witness. The person who does accept His witness He stamps with a seal because the God is honest. Because the person whom the God sent out talks the words of the God, because He doesn’t just measure out the Pneuma to Him [like He does with the prophets]. The Father loves the Son and has given everything into His hand. The person who puts his trust into the Son holds the life of the Eternal One, yet the person unconvinced by the Son doesn’t see that life, but the overwhelming passion of the God stays put against him.”

As then Yeshua knew that the Pharisees heard that “Yeshua makes and baptizes more disciples than Yohanan”--although Yeshua Himself wasn’t baptizing but His disciples—He had dropped Iudaea and came out again into the Galil. Yet there was a need for Him to come through Samaria. He then comes into a city of Samaria called Sukhar neighboring the piece of land which Ya’akov gave to Yosef his son; and a wellspring of Ya’akov was there. Yeshua then having been worn out from the journey sat in this way upon the well; it was like the sixth hour.

A woman from Samaria comes to draw water. Yeshua says to her, “Give Me something to drink;” because His disciples had gone into the city so that they might purchase food. The Samaritan woman then says to Him, “How do You, being a Iudaean, beg something to drink from me, being a Samaritan woman? Because Iudaeans don’t avail themselves of Samaritans.” Yeshua answered and said to her, “If you knew the free gift of the God by insight, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me something to drink,’ you would have begged Him and he would have given to you living water.” The woman says to Him, “Sir, you don’t have a well-bucket and the well shaft is deep; from where then do you possess this ‘living water?’ You aren’t better than our father Ya’akov, who gave us the well shaft and was drinking from it himself, and his sons and his cattle?” Yeshua responded and said to her, “Every single person drinking from this water will be thirsty again; yet whoever would drink from the water which I will give him will not thirst at all into the eon, but the water which I will give to him will become a wellspring of water leaping up into the life of the Eternal One within him.” The woman says to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I wouldn’t be thirsty, nor pass through and arrive here to draw it.”

He says to her, “Go call to your man and come here.” The woman replied and said to him, “I don’t have a man.” Yeshua says to her, “It was well put that you said, ‘I don’t have a man;’ Because you’ve had five men and now whom you hold isn’t your man; this you had spoken true.” The woman says to Him, “Owner, I can see that You’re a prophet. Our fathers prostrated themselves to the God on this mountain; and you people say that the place where it is necessary to prostrate oneself to the God is in Hierosoluma.” Yeshua says to her, “Trust Me, woman, that an hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Hierosoluma will you people prostrate yourselves to the Father. You people prostrate yourselves to what you don’t instinctively know; we prostrate ourselves to what we do instinctively know, because the deliverance originate from the Iudaeans. But a time is coming and is now, when those genuinely doing homage will prostrate themselves to the Father with the Pneuma and the truth; because the Father is looking for such as these who prostrate themselves to Him. The God is Pneuma, and it is necessary for those prostrating themselves to Him to prostrate themselves with the Pneuma and the truth.” The woman says to Him, “I know that Meshikha is coming who is called ‘the Christ;’ when that One should come, He will announce everything to us.” Yeshua says to her, “I am the One talking to you.”

And upon this His disciples came and were shocked that he was talking with a woman; on the other hand though no one said, “What are you looking for?” or “What are you talking with her for?” The woman then drops her water jar and went into the city and says to the people, “Come with me! See a human being who told me everything I’ve ever done! This guy isn’t the Christ, is He?” They came out from the city and started in His direction.

In the middle of this, the disciples begged Him saying, “Rabbi, eat something!” Yet he said to them, “I have food to eat which you people don’t instinctively know.” The disciples were saying to one another, “No one brought Him something to eat, did they?” Yeshua says to them, “The food which is Mine is that I would do the will of the One having sent Me and would finish His work. Haven’t you been saying that, ‘It is still four months until harvest’? Look, I tell you! Open your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest! The guy doing the harvesting is already getting paid and gathering the produce as far as the life of the Eternal One, so that the guy doing the planting and the guy doing the harvesting both rejoice. Because with this the message is true that ‘It’s a different guy who does the planting from the guy who does the harvesting.’ I sent you out to harvest what you people hadn’t worn yourselves out over; others had worn themselves out over it, and you had entered into the work that wore them out.”

Yet out of that town many of the Samaritans put their trust into Him through the message of the woman testifying that, “He told me everything which I did.” As then the Samaritans came to Him, they asked Him to stay near them; and he stayed there two days. And by a lot, more people put their trust into Him because of His message. To the woman too they were saying that, “We no longer trust this because of your talking, because we ourselves had heard and we know that this Man is genuinely the deliverer of the universe.”

Yet with the two days He came out from there into the Galil; because Yeshua Himself testified that a prophet doesn’t have any worth within his own homeland. When then He came into the Galil, the Galileans welcomed Him having seen everything as much as He did within Hierosoluma at the holiday festival, because they also came for the holiday festival.

 

He then came into the Kana of the Galil, where He made the water wine. And some royal was there whose son was sick in K’fer-Nahum. This person, having heard that Yeshua came there from Iudaea into the Galil came out to Him and requested that He would go down [from Kana into K’fer-Nahum] and would cure his son, because he was about to die. Yeshua said to him, “If you people don’t see omens and portents, you won’t put your trust into Me at all, will you?” The royal says to Him, “Owner, go down there before my boy is to die.” Yeshua says to him, “Go, your son is alive.” The human being put his trust in the message which Yeshua said to him and went. And with his already going down his slaves met him saying that his boy is alive. He inquired then the hour from them in which he got better; they then said to him that, “yesterday, the seventh hour, the fever let him go.” The father then knew that this was the same time of day when Yeshua said to him, “Your son is alive,” and he and his whole house put his trust into Him. And again, this thing was the second omen Yeshua did having come from Iudaea into the Galil.

With these things was a festival holiday of the Iudaeans and Yeshua went up into Hierosoluma1. Yet there is within Hierosoluma upon the sheep gate a columned bath which is called in Hebrew, “Beit-Zata,” having five columns. A multitude of the sick, blind, crippled, and withered reclined against these eagerly waiting for the movement of the water. Because an angel of Yahweh from time to time used to bathe in the columned bath and stirred up the water; the first then who went into the water with the stirring up of the water became healthy by as much of the disease as he was afflicted once upon a time. And there was some human being who had thirty eight years with his sickness. Yeshua, having seen this person reclining against the column and knowing that he had already spent a lot of time there, says to him, “Do you wish to become healthy?” The sick person answers him, “Owner, I don’t have a person that would toss me into the columned bath when the water is stirred up; and when I am coming, another gets in before me.” Yeshua says to him, “Get up, pick up your sleeping mat and walk.” And the human being immediately became healthy and picked up his sleeping mat and was walking.

And it was Shabbat on that day. The Iudaeans then were saying to the person having been cured, “It is Shabbat, and it isn’t allowed for you to pick up your sleeping mat.” Yet the person responded to them, “The guy who made me healthy said to me, ‘Pick up your sleeping mat and walk.’ They questioned him, “Who is the human being who said to you, ‘Pick it up and walk’?” Yet the guy having been healed didn’t know who it was, because Yeshua had turned his head to the side with a crowd being in the place. With these things Yeshua finds him in the temple and said to him, “Look, you became healthy, don’t go wrong any longer so that nothing more severe would happen to you. The human being went and reported to the Iudaeans that Yeshua is the one having made him healthy. And because of this the Iudaeans were hunting Yeshua, because he was doing these things on Shabbat. And He responded to them, “My Father is working up to this point in time and so am I working.” Because of this then the Iudaeans were seeking all the more to kill Him, because not only was He undoing Shabbat, but He was saying the God was His own Father, making Himself equal with the God.

Yeshua then responded and was saying to them, “Amen amen I say to you, the Son is not capable of doing anything from Himself at all if He shouldn’t see the Father doing something; because what things that One would do, these things also the Son does in the same way. Because the Father has affection for the Son and shows Him all the things which He Himself does, and will show Him better works than these, so that you people would be shocked. Because just like the Father raises the dead and makes them alive, so also the Son makes those alive whom He wishes. Because neither does the Father judge anyone at all, but had given all judgment to the Son, so that all people would revere the Son just like they would revere the Father. The person not revering the Son doesn’t revere the Father who sent Him. Amen amen I say to you that the person hearing My logos and putting his trust in the One who sent Me is holding the life of the Eternal One and isn’t coming into judgment, but has already made the transition2 from the way of death into the way of life. Amen amen I say to you that a time is coming and is now present when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of the God and those hearing will live. Because just like the Father holds life within Himself, so also He gave to the Son to hold life within Himself. And He gave the authority to Him to make a judgment, because He is also a Son of Adam. Don’t be shocked at this thing, because a time is coming in which all those within the tombs will hear His voice and these having done good will be marched out of those tombs into the resurrection of life, yet these practicing foul things into a resurrection of decision.

“I am not capable of doing anything at all from Myself. I decide just like I hear, and the decision which is Mine is the right one, because I’m not looking for the will which is Mine but the will of the One having sent Me.

“If I testify about Myself, My testimony isn’t real; but there is the One testifying about Me, and I instinctively know that the testimony which He testifies about Me is real. You people sent out to Yohanan, and he had testified the truth; although I’m not accepting testimony from human beings, but I am saying these things so that you would be rescued. That man was the lamp which burned and shone, and you wanted to glory for a time within his light. But I have a witness better than Yohanan’s; because the works which the Father gave Me to bring them to completion, these works themselves which I am doing testify about Me that the Father sent Me out, and that Father who sent Me had testified about Me. Neither had you heard His voice at any time nor had you people seen His form. In this One you don’t trust. Examine the Scriptures, because you people think to possess the life of the Eternal One by means of them. Those Scriptures are what testify about Me, and you don’t want to come to Me so that you would hold that life.

I don’t accept opinion from human beings, but I knew you by experience, that you don’t hold the love of the God within yourselves. I had come with the Name of my Father, and you don’t accept Me. If another should come with his own name, you would accept that person. How can you people trust? You who accept reputation from one another and don’t look for the reputation which is from the only God? Don’t assume that I will bring charges against you people to the Father; the person bringing charges against you is Moshe, into whom you people hoped. Because if you were trusting Moshe, you would have trusted Me; because that person wrote about Me, and if you don’t trust in the written words of that one, how will you people trust in the spoken words which are Mine?”

1Either Shavuot or Sukkot given that the holiday isn’t named and Pesakh is behind them, and it was required to travel to Jerusalem. May 16th through 17th of 31 CE for Shavuot, and September 20th of 31 for Sukkot.

2The word used here, μεταβαινω, is in the perfect tense which indicates a completed past action, that is, an action which is already done.

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