¹³The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴He found in the temple those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, and the changers of money sitting. ¹⁵He made a whip of cords, and threw all out of the temple, both the sheep and the oxen; and he poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew their tables. ¹⁶To those who sold the doves, he said, “Take these things out of here! Don’t make my Father’s house a marketplace!” ¹⁷His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will eat me up.”[1]

[1]2:17 Psalm 69:9

¹⁸The Jews therefore answered him, “What sign do you show us, seeing that you do these things?”

¹⁹Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

²⁰The Jews therefore said, “Forty-six years was this temple in ^d building, and will you raise it up in three days?” ²¹But he spoke of the temple of his body. ²²When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he said this, and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.

²³Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in his name, observing his signs which he did. ²⁴But Jesus didn’t trust himself to them, because he knew everyone, ²⁵and because he didn’t need for anyone to testify concerning man; for he himself knew what was in man.

¹Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. ²The same came to him by night, and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.”

³Jesus answered him, “Most certainly, I tell you, unless one is born anew,[1] he can’t see the Kingdom of God.”

⁴Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?”

⁵Jesus answered, “Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he can’t enter into the Kingdom of God! ⁶That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷Don’t marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born anew.’ ⁸The wind[2] blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but don’t know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

⁹Nicodemus answered him, “How can these things be?”

¹⁰Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and don’t understand these things? ¹¹Most certainly I tell you, we speak that which we know, and testify of that which we have seen, and you don’t receive our witness. ¹²If I told you earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? ¹³No one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven. ¹⁴As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. ¹⁶For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him. ¹⁸He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn’t believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. ¹⁹This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil. ²⁰For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed. ²¹But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God.”

[1]3:3 The word translated “anew” here and in John 3:7 (anothen) also means “again” and “from above”.

[2]3:8 The same Greek word (pneuma) means wind, breath, and spirit.

²²After these things, Jesus came with his disciples into the land of Judea. He stayed there with them, and baptized. ²³John also was baptizing in Enon near Salim, because there was much water there. They came, and were baptized. ²⁴For John was not yet thrown into prison.

²⁵There arose therefore a questioning on the part of John’s disciples with some Jews about purification. ²⁶They came to John, and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, the same baptizes, and everyone is coming to him.”

²⁷John answered, “A man can receive nothing, unless it has been given him from heaven. ²⁸You yourselves testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before him.’ ²⁹He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. This, my joy, therefore is made full. ³⁰He must increase, but I must decrease. ³¹He who comes from above is above all. He who is from the Earth belongs to the Earth, and speaks of the Earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. ³²What he has seen and heard, of that he testifies; and no one receives his witness. ³³He who has received his witness has set his seal to this, that God is true. ³⁴For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for God gives the Spirit without measure. ³⁵The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand. ³⁶One who believes in the Son has eternal life, but one who disobeys[1] the Son won’t see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

[1]3:36 The same word can be translated “disobeys” or “disbelieves” in this context.

¹Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John ²(although Jesus himself didn’t baptize, but his disciples), ³he left Judea, and departed into Galilee.

⁴He needed to pass through Samaria. ⁵So he came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph. ⁶Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being tired from his journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour[1] ^k . ⁷A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” ⁸For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

⁹The Samaritan woman therefore said to him, “How is it that you, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

¹⁰Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

¹¹The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From where then have you that living water? ¹²Are you greater than our father, Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself, as did his children, and his livestock?”

¹³Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, ¹⁴but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

¹⁵The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I don’t get thirsty, neither come all the way here to draw.”

¹⁶Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”

¹⁷The woman answered, “I have no husband.”

Jesus said to her, “You said well, ‘I have no husband,’ ¹⁸for you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly.”

¹⁹The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. ²⁰Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”

²¹Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour comes, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, will you worship the Father. ²²You worship that which you don’t know. We worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews. ²³But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshippers. ²⁴God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

²⁵The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah comes,” (he who is called Christ). “When he has come, he will declare to us all things.”

²⁶Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who speaks to you.”

[1]4:6 noon

²⁷At this, his disciples came. They marveled that he was speaking with a woman; yet no one said, “What are you looking for?” or, “Why do you speak with her?” ²⁸So the woman left her water pot, and went away into the city, and said to the people, ²⁹“Come, see a man who told me everything that I did. Can this be the Christ?”

³⁰They went out of the city, and were coming to him.

³¹In the meanwhile, the disciples urged him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”

³²But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”

³³The disciples therefore said one to another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?”

³⁴Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work. ³⁵Don’t you say, ‘There are yet four months ^l until the harvest?’ Behold, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and look at the fields, that they are white for harvest already. ³⁶He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit to eternal life; that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. ³⁷For in this the saying is true, ‘One sows, and another reaps.’ ³⁸I sent you to reap that for which you haven’t labored. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

³⁹From that city many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the woman, who testified, “He told me everything that I did.” ⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to him, they begged him to stay with them. He stayed there two days. ⁴¹Many more believed because of his word. ⁴²They said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of your speaking; for we have heard for ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”

⁴³After the two days he went out from there and went into Galilee. ⁴⁴For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. ^{m 45}So when he came into Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things that he did in Jerusalem at the feast, for they also went to the feast.

⁴⁶Jesus came therefore again to Cana of Galilee, where he made the water into wine. There was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. ⁴⁷When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to him, and begged him that he would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. ⁴⁸Jesus therefore said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will in no way believe.”

⁴⁹The nobleman said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” ⁵⁰Jesus said to him, “Go your way. Your son lives.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. ⁵¹As he was now going down, his servants met him and reported, saying “Your child lives!” ⁵²So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. They said therefore to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour,[1] ⁿ  the fever left him.” ⁵³So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives.” He believed, as did his whole house. ⁵⁴This is again the second sign that Jesus did, having come out of Judea into Galilee.

[1]4:52 1:00 P. M.

a) There was another at the close of the Lord’s ministry. See No. 217.

b) April 11-17 In 27 AD.

c) See Nos. 116, 123, 205, 245, 254.

d) The rebuilding was begun In the winter of 20-19 B.C., or 734-735 A.U.C. The forty-sixth year would be regarded as running from 27-28 A.D., or 780-781 A.U.C.

e) Probably in the rural sections near the Jordan.

f) On this side of the Jordan on account of the “beyond” in V. 26. A location near Bethshean (Scythopolis) is suggested.

g) On account of v. 26, “all men come to Him,” which implies a considerable period of time.

h) On account of the green fields and “four months” before harvest in John 4:35. See No. 43.

i) Jesus did not leave Judea because He was concerned about His own personal safety, but rather because He did not want to place Himself into competition with His forerunner whose work was still in progress.

j) On account of John 4:35. See No. 43.

k) The hour of noon. We suppose that John used the ordinary Jewish reckoning of time throughout except in 19, 14, where he quoted the time In the language of the Roman court.

l) The seed was sown in November. The harvest legally commenced on the 16th of Nisan, in the Passover season. In December the fields were already fresh and green.

m) A most perplexing passage. Which country? The reason for the departure of Jesus from Judea at this time was not the imprisonment of John (which took place later—John 3:24), nor the threatened collision of the Jewish authorities with Jesus and the resulting fear and flight of Jesus on this account, but the loyalty of Jesus to His forerunner, because He had been making more disciples than John, while in the counsel of God John was still the forerunner and had not yet finished his course, Therefore, for the time being, Jesus withdrew to Galilee because In His own country He would not likely be too highly honored On account of the prejudices connected with His humble origin and the familiarity created by the knowledge of His home surroundings. “For Jesus Himself testified,” either now, previously, or afterwards, (Luke 4:24—See No. 52—and Matt. 13:57; Mark 6:4—See No. 90—) “that a prophet hath no honor in his own country.” Nor was He mistaken. The Galileans “received Him,,” but they did not accept Him as the Messiah. His first appearance was followed by His first rejection.

n) 1 P.M. See No. 41, note 3,
 

Bible References taken from:
The World English Bible (WEB) is a Public Domain (no copyright) Modern English translation of the Holy Bible, based on the American Standard Version of the Holy Bible first published in 1901, the Biblia Hebraica Stutgartensa Old Testament, and the Greek Majority Text New Testament.