Christ the Word of God and the Light of men
1
📚In the beginning✭ was the Word, and the Word was with✭ God, and the Word was God. 2 This same One was in the beginning with God. 3 📚✭All things were made through him, and without him not one thing was made that was made.4 📚✭In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 📚✭And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not comprehended it.
6 📚✭There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 📚✭He came as a witness to testify about the Light, that all men through him might believe. 8 📚He was not that Light, but was sent to testify about that Light.
9 📚✭That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. 10 📚He was in the world✭, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. 11 📚He came to his own✭, and his own did not receive him.
12 📚✭But as many as received him, to those who believed✭ in his name, to them he gave the right✭ to become the sons of God, 13 📚who were born✭, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 📚And the Word✭ became flesh✭, and lived✭ among us, and we saw his glory, the glory✭ as of the only begotten✭ of the Father, full of grace✭ and truth✭.
15 📚✭John testified about him, and cried out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is superior to me, for he was before me.’ ”
16 📚✭And from his fulness we all have received, and grace upon grace. 17 📚✭For the Law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
18 📚✭No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father✭, has revealed him.
The testimony of John the Baptist
19 📚✭And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites✭ from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”
20 📚✭And he declared, and did not refuse to say, but declared, “I am not the Christ”.
21 📚✭And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not”. “Are you that prophet✭?” And he answered, “No”.
22 📚Then they said to him, “Who are you? So that we can give an answer to those who sent us, what do you say about yourself?”
23 📚✭He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Make straight the way for the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said”.
24 📚✭And they who were sent were of the Pharisees. 25 📚✭And they asked him, saying, “Why do you baptize then, if you are not the Christ, or Elijah, or that prophet?”
26 📚✭John answered them, saying, “I baptize with water, but one is standing among you whom you do not know. 27 📚He it is, who coming after me, is superior to me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to loosen”.
28 📚These things were done in Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. 29 📚✭The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “See the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. 30 📚✭This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who is superior to me; for he was before me.’ 31 📚✭And I did not know him, but I have come baptizing with water so that he might be revealed to Israel”.
32 📚✭And John testified, saying, “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and remain on him. 33 📚✭And I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘The one on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit✭.’ 34 📚✭And I saw, and testify that this is the Son of God”.
Christ’s first disciples
35 📚✭Again the next day after this John was standing with two of his disciples, 36 📚and looking at Jesus as he walked by, he said, “See the Lamb of God!”
37 📚And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.
38 📚✭Then Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” They said to him, “Rabbi✭ (which means, being translated, Teacher), where do you live?”
39 📚✭He said to them, “Come and see”. They went and saw where he lived, and stayed with him that day, for it was about four in the afternoon.
40 📚One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Jesus, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 📚✭He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means, being translated, the Christ).
42 📚And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus saw him, he said, “You are Simon the son of Jonah. You will be called Cephas”✭ (which by translation means, A stone).
43 📚✭The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and found Philip and said to him, “Follow me”.
44 📚✭Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the town of Andrew and Peter. 45 📚✭Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found the one about whom Moses in the Law, and the Prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph”.
46 📚✭And Nathanael said to him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see✭”.
47 📚✭Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and said about him, “See an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!”
48 📚✭Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you”.
49 📚Nathanael answered and said to him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel✭”.
50 📚✭Jesus answered and said to him, “Do you believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these”.
51 📚✭And he said to him, “Truly, truly I say to you, hereafter you will see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man”.