THE GOOD NEWS TOLD BY JOHN

I

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and apart from him not one thing came into being that has come into being. In him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men. And the Light shone in the darkness, but the darkness did not understand it.

There came a man, sent from God. His name was John. He came for testimony, to testify about the Light, that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. The true Light, which enlightens every man, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world had come into being through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own things, but his own men did not receive him. All who received him - to them he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood nor of the will of flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

The Word became flesh and tented among us, and we looked upon his glory, glory as of an only son from a father, full of grace and truth.

John bore witness to him and cried, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has become before me, for he was before me.' ""For of his fullness we all have received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; God the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has interpreted him.

This is the testimony of John when the Jews of Jerusalem sent to him priests and Levites to ask him, "Who are you?" He confessed and did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ." They asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He

said, "I am not." "Are you the prophet?" He answered, "No." They said then, "Who are you? Let us have an answer to give to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?" He said, "I am "the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord,' as Isaiah the prophet said." The men had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, "Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ nor Elijah nor the prophet?" John answered them, "I baptize with water. In the midst of you stands one whom you do not know-the One who is coming after me-for whom I am not worthy to loosen the strap of his sandal." This happened in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who has become before me, for he was before me.' I did not know him, but I knew that he was to be shown to Israel. For that reason I came baptizing with water." John bore witness, "I saw the Spirit descending like a dove from heaven and it remained on him. I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water- he said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining, that is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' And I saw it and have borne witness that this is the Son of God."

Again on the next day John was standing with two of his disciples, and, looking at Jesus as he walked, he said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" The two disciples heard him say this and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and looked at them as they followed, and said to them, "What do you wish?" They said to him, "Rabbi (which means, when translated, Teacher), where are you staying?" He said to them, "Come and see." So they came and saw where he was staying, and stayed with him that day. It was then about four in the afternoon.

Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two that heard about Jesus from John and followed him. He found first his own brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah (which means, when translated, the Christ)!" He

led him to Jesus. Looking at him, Jesus said, "You are Simon, the son of John. You shall be called Cephas" (which is in Greek, Peter, that is, Rock).

On the next day Jesus decided to go away to Galilee, and he found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him of whom Moses wrote in the Law and of whom the prophets wrote - Jesus the son of Joseph, from Nazareth." Nathanael said to him, "From Nazareth can there be anything good?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and said, "See, here is a true Israelite in whom there is no deceit." Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." Nathanael answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel!" Jesus answered him, "Because I said to you, 'I saw you underneath the fig tree,' do you believe? You will see greater things than this." He added, "Truly, truly, I tell you you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."

II

On the third day a wedding took place in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited, with his disciples, to the wedding. When the wine ran short, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no wine." Jesus said to her, "What have you to do with my work, woman? My hour has not yet come." His mother said to the servants, "Whatever he tells you, do it." There were standing there six stone water jars in accordance with the Jewish custom of purification, holding about twenty or thirty gallons apiece. Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." They filled them to the brim. Then he said to them, "Dip out now and carry it to the Master of the feast." They carried it, and when the Master of the feast tasted the water that had become wine, not knowing where it came from though the servants who had dipped out the water knew he called to the bridegroom and said to

him, "Every man sets on first the fine wine, and when they have drunk freely he sets on the poorer. You have kept the fine wine till now." This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana in Galilee and displayed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

After this Jesus went down to Capernaum, he and his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and there they stayed a few days.

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Finding in the Temple courts the sellers of cattle and sheep and doves and the money-changers sitting there, he made a whip of cords and drove them all from the courts all the sheep and the cattle, and he poured out the small coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. He said to those who were selling doves, "Take these things out. Do not make my Father's house a house of trade." His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for thy house will devour me." The Jews said to him, "What sign do you show us, since you act in this way?" Jesus answered them, "Demolish this Temple and in three days I will raise it again." The Jews said, "It took forty-six years to build this Temple, and will you raise it in three days?" But he was speaking of the temple of his body. So when he arose from the dead his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

When he was in Jerusalem at the Feast of the Passover, many believed in his name, seeing his signs that he did, but Jesus did not trust himself to them because he knew all men and had no need for any one to inform him about man, for he knew what was in man.

III

THERE was a man of the Pharisees, Nicodemus by name, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus one night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that you are doing unless God is with him." Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I tell you,

unless a man is born from above he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter into his mother's womb a second time and be born?" Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I tell you, unless a man is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not wonder that I said, 'You must be born from above.' The wind blows where it will, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes. So is every one who is born of the Spirit." Nicodemus answered him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered him, "You are the teacher of Israel, and do you not know these things? Truly, truly, I tell you, we are speaking of what we know, and we are witnessing to what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven - the Son of Man. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that every one who believes in him may have life eternal."

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Sor that every one who believes in him may not perish, but have life eternal. For God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not condemned. He who does not believe has been already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. This is the condemnation, that Light has come into the world and men have loved darkness rather than Light, because their deeds were wicked. Every one who is doing base things hates the Light and does not come to the Light, that his deeds may not be reproved. But he who is doing the truth comes to the Light, that it may be plainly shown that his deeds have been done in union with God.

After this Jesus and his disciples came into the land of Judæa and there he spent some time with them and baptized. John also was baptizing in Ænon near Salim, because there