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UST YHN Chapter 8

8 [fn] Jesus went to the Mount of Olives and stayed near there that night. 2 At dawn the next morning, Jesus returned to the temple courtyard and many people came to him. 3 Some of the teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought a woman to him. They had apprehended her while she was committing adultery. They made her stand up in the midst of this group. 4 The priests wanted to test Jesus in order to be able to accuse him of breaking the law of Moses before the highest Jewish governing council. So they said to him, “Teacher, we apprehended this woman while she was committing adultery, the very act itself! 5 Now Moses commanded us in the law that we must kill such women with stones. Nevertheless, what do you say we should do?” 6 However, Jesus bent down and wrote something on the ground with his finger. 7 While they continued to question him, he got up and told them, “Let the one among you who has never sinned throw the first stone at her and lead the rest to kill her!” 8 Then Jesus stooped down again and wrote something on the ground with his finger. 9 After he did this, those Jewish leaders who were questioning him started walking away, one by one. The older ones left first and then the younger ones. Then only Jesus was there with the woman in the midst of the people. 10 Jesus stood up and asked her, “Where are the men who were accusing you? Has no one condemned you to be punished?” 11 The woman replied, “There is no one, sir.” Then Jesus said, “I do not condemn you to be punished either. Leave, and from now on do not sin like this anymore!”]

12 Jesus spoke to the people again. He said, “I am the one who gives God’s good and true light to the people in the world. Anyone who becomes my disciple will never walk in sinful darkness again. Rather, that person will have God’s good and true light that gives eternal life.” 13 The Pharisees then told him, “You are the only witness for yourself! Since the law of Moses requires at least two witnesses, what you say cannot be true!” 14 Jesus replied, “Even if I were the only witness for myself, what I say is still true because I know where I came from and I know where I am going. Nevertheless, you do not know where I came from and you do not know where I am going. 15 You judge people according to human standards. However, I have not come to judge anyone in that manner. 16 Even when I do judge people, I will judge them according to the true standard, because I do not judge people on my own. Rather, I and my Father who sent me, will judge people together. 17 Moses even wrote in your law that when at least two witnesses say the same thing, then what they say is true. 18 I am my own witness, but my Father who sent me is also a witness for me. Therefore, what I say is true.”

19 Because Jesus said his father was a witness for him, the Pharisees asked him, “Where is your father?” Jesus replied, “You do not know me, and you do not know my Father. If you knew me, you would also know my Father, but you do not.” 20 He said these things about himself while he was teaching in the temple courtyard. He said them at the place in the temple courtyard where people brought money offerings. Nobody apprehended him, because it was not yet the right time for him to die.

21 Jesus then told the people again, “I am going away, and you will search for me, but since you sinfully reject me, you will die without God forgiving you. You will not be able to come to the place where I am going.” 22 The Jewish leaders then said among themselves, “Perhaps he plans to kill himself, and that is what he means when he says that we will not be able to come to the place where he is going.” 23 Jesus told them, “You are from this earth below, but I am from heaven above. You belong to this sinful world. I do not belong to this world. 24 Because of this I told you that you will die without God forgiving you for all the sins that you have committed. This will certainly happen unless you trust that I am God, as I say I am.”

25 Because he said that, they asked him, “Who are you?” Jesus replied, “That is what I have been telling you ever since the beginning! 26 I could say many things about you and judge you, but I won’t do those things at this time. Rather, I will tell the people in the world only what I have heard from the one who sent me. He always says the truth.”

27 (They did not understand that Jesus was telling them about his Father in heaven.) 28 So Jesus told them, “When you have lifted me up to kill me, the Son of Man, you will know that I am God, and you will know that I do not do anything on my own authority. Rather, I only say what my Father has taught me to say. 29 My Father, who sent me, is always with me. He has never abandoned me, because I always do only the things that delight him.” 30 While Jesus was saying these things, many more people believed that he was the Messiah.

31 Jesus then told the Jews who now believed that he was the Messiah, “If you obey what I teach you, then you are my genuine disciples. 32 Furthermore, you will know God’s truth, and believing that truth will free you from what has enslaved you.” 33 They answered him, “We are the descendants of Abraham. We have never been anyone’s slaves! Why do you say that we need to be free?” 34 Jesus replied, “I am telling you the truth: Anyone who sins is controlled by his sinful desires like a slave is controlled by his master. 35 Slaves do not remain as members of their master’s family forever, but may be freed or sold. However, a son is a member of the family forever. 36 So if the Son frees you from being slaves to sin, you will absolutely be able to refrain from sinning. 37 I know that you are Abraham’s physical descendants. However, you are trying to kill me because you refuse to trust what I say. 38 I am telling you about the things that my Father has shown me. Therefore, I say that you do what your father has told you to do.”

39 They replied to him, “Abraham is our ancestor.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s descendants, you would be doing the same things he did. 40 I have been telling you the true things that God told me, but you are trying to kill me. Abraham did not do something like that. 41 You are doing the same things that your real father did.” They told him, “We are not illegitimate children, like you are! We have only one Father, and that is God.” 42 Jesus told them, “If God were your Father, which he is not, you would love me because I came from him and have come to this world. This is true because I did not come on my own authority. Rather, I came because God sent me. 43 Do you know why you do not understand what I say? It is because you do not accept and obey what I have told you! 44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you desire to do what he desires. He has been murdering people since the time people first sinned. He has rejected what is true, because he never speaks those true things. Whenever he lies, he is doing what is natural for him to do, because he is a liar. He is even the origin of lying. 45 Yet you do not believe me, because I tell you what is true! 46 Since I have never sinned, none of you can prove that I have. Since I tell you what is true, there is no good reason for you to not believe what I say! 47 Those who belong to God accept and obey what he has said. Since this is true, you do not accept and obey what God has said, because you do not belong to God.”

48 The Jews opposing Jesus replied to him, “We are certainly correct when we say that you are one of the Samaritans, whom we hate, and that a demon is controlling you!” 49 Jesus replied, “A demon is not controlling me! On the contrary, I honor my Father in heaven, and you dishonor me! 50 I do not desire to persuade people to praise me. There is someone else who desires to do that and judges whether you or I am telling the truth. 51 I am telling you the truth: Anyone who obeys my teaching will surely never die!”

52 The Jews opposing Jesus said to him, “Now we are sure that a demon is controlling you! Abraham and the prophets died long ago! Yet you say that anyone who obeys your teaching will surely never die! 53 You are surely not greater than our ancestor Abraham! He died and all the prophets also died. So who do you think you are?” 54 Jesus replied, “If I persuade people to praise me, that praise would be worthless. My Father is the one who praises me. He is the one whom you say is your God. 55 Although you do not know God, I do know him. If I said that I did not know him, I would be a liar like each of you. In contrast to you, I know him, and I always obey what he says. 56 Your ancestor Abraham was overjoyed to think that he could see me come to the world. God allowed him to see me come, and he was happy.”

57 Because Jesus said this, the Jews opposing him told him, “Abraham died a long time ago, and you are not even fifty years old! How can you have seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus told them, “I am telling you the truth: I was God before Abraham was born!” 59 Because he was claiming to be God, the Jews opposing Jesus picked up rocks to throw at him to kill him. But Jesus hid in the crowd and left the temple courtyard.

See the note about John 7:53-8:11 on 7:53 above.

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