THE GOOD NEWS ACCORDING TO
JOHN

ἸΩΆΝΝΗΣ         יוֹחָנָן

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
This One was in the beginning with God.

All things came into being through Him,
and without Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.
In Him was life, and that life was the light of humanity.
And the Light shines in the darkness,
but the darkness did not overcome it.

There came a man named John, who was sent from God.
He came as a witness,
so he might testify about the Light,
so all might believe through him.
He was not the Light,
but he testified about the Light.

The Light that was true, who enlightens every man,
was coming into the world.
He was in the world, and the world came into being through Him,
but the world did not know Him.
To His own He came,
but His own did not receive Him.
However, to those who did receive Him,
to those who believe in His name,
He gave them authority to become children of God,
who were born not out of bloods, nor of will of flesh, nor of man’s will,
but of God.

The Word became flesh and set His tabernacle among us,
and we saw His glory,
glory as of the unique One from the Father,
full of grace and truth.

John testified about Him, crying out, “This was He of whom I was saying: ‘The One who comes after me has precedence over me, because He was before me.’”

Because from His fullness, we all have received, then, grace for grace.
For the law was given through Moses;
grace and truth came through Jesus the Anointed.

No one has ever seen God.
God the unique Son,
who is at the lap of the Father,
He has made known…

This is the testimony of John, when the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him, “Who are you?”:

He 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.”

Therefore they said to him, “Who are you, that we might give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?”

He was saying, “I am a voice crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord’, as the prophet Isaiah said.”

(Those had been sent from the Pharisees.)

Then they asked him, “Why then do you baptize, if you’re not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

John answered, “I baptize with water, but in the midst of you stands One whom you don’t know, the One coming after me, of whom I’m not worthy of untying the straps of His sandal.”

These things took place in Bethany, across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

On the next day, he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, the One who takes the sin of the world! He is the One about whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who has precedence, because He existed before me.’ And I did not recognize Him; but I came baptizing with water because of this: that He might be revealed to Israel.”

Then John testified, “I’ve seen the Spirit, descending as a dove out of heaven, and it remained upon Him. And I didn’t recognize Him; but the One having sent me to baptize with water, He said to me, ‘On the one you see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, this is the One who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

Again, on the next day, John was standing there, with two of his disciples. And having looked at Jesus walking, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”

John’s two disciples heard him speaking and followed Jesus. Jesus turned around and saw them following him. He said, “What are you looking for?”

They said, “Rabbi” (which translated means ‘Teacher’), “where are You staying?”

Jesus said, “Come and you’ll see.”

So they went. They saw where He lived and stayed with Him that day. Andrew, brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah!” (which translates to “Anointed One”).

He led him to Jesus. Having looked at Simon, Jesus said to him, “You are Simon, son of John. You’ll be named Cephas” (which means “Peter” - a rock).

On the next day, He desired to go into Galilee. Finding Phillip, Jesus said to him, “Follow Me.”

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