Hebrew Christians were challenged to heed the Word of Jesus rather than Mosaic traditions. (see below) 4. 6:22-71 The next day the crowd that was standing on the other side of the sea saw that the other boat had gone and only one was left. They knew that Jesus did not go in the boat but that his disciples had gone away on their own. (Then) other boats from Tiberias arrived near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So, when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there they (also) embarked in the boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. On finding him to be on the other side of the sea they said to him "Rabbi how is it that you have come here?" Jesus answered them and said "Truly, truly I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate of the loaves and were satisfied (with them). Do not work for food that perishes but (rather) for the food that remains into eternal life. This is what the Son of man will give you. For on this one has God the Father set his seal (of approval)." They therefore said to him "What may we do so that we do the works of God?" Jesus answered and said to them "This is the work of that, that you believe in who has sent that one." They therefore said to him " What sign will you work so that we may see and believe you? What will you work? Our fathers ate manna in the desert just as it was written "He gave them bread from heaven to eat." Jesus therefore said to them "Truly truly I tell you it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven. It was my Father (who did so and) who (also) gives true bread out of heaven. The bread of God is the one who comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world." They therefore said to him "Lord give us this bread all the time." Jesus said to them "I am the bread of life. Anyone who comes to me will not hunger. The one who believes in me will never be thirsty. But I I have told you both that you have seen me (who I am) and yet you do not believe. All that the Father gives to me will come (about) and the one who comes to me will by no means be cast outside. I have come down from heaven not to do my will but the will of the one who has sent me. And, this is the will of the one who has sent me, that I should not lose any of what he has given me, but rather I should raise it up in the last day. For, it is the will of my Father that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life and I will raise him up in the last day. The Jews murmured about him (Jesus) because he said "I am the bread who has come down out of heaven." They said "Is this man not Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it that he now says "I have come down out of heaven." Jesus answered them and said "Do not murmur with one another." Nobody can come to me unless my Father who sent me should draw (attract) him. And, I will raise him up in the last day. It has been written in the prophets "They shall all be taught about God. Everyone who hears from the Father and learns will come to me." It is not that anyone has seen the Father except for the one who has come from God. He has seen the Father. Truly truly I say to you that the one who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate manna in the desert and died. This is the bread from out of heaven which has come down so that anyone who eats of it may not die. I am the living bread who has come down, from out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live for ever. Indeed the bread which I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." The Jews therefore argued with one another about this saying "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" Jesus therefore said to them "Truly truly I say to you, unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood you do not have life within yourself. The one who eats of my flesh and drinks of my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up in the last day. For my flesh is truly food and my blood is truly drink. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. As the living Father has sent me so I live because of the Father. Also the one who eats me will live, even that one, because of me. This is the bread from heaven which has come down, not like the fathers who ate (c/f in the desert) and died. (Rather) the one who eats this bread will live unto the age. "These things he said while teaching in a synagogue in Capernaum. Many of the disciples on hearing this said "This is a hard (type of) WORD. How can one hear (and accept) it?" But Jesus, on knowing within himself that his disciples were murmuring about this said to them "Does this offend you? What then if you saw the Son of man ascending back up to where he was before? It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh is of no avail. The WORDs that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe." Jesus in fact knew from the beginning who those people were who did not believe and who the one was who was betraying him. He said "I have told you that nobody can come to me unless it has been given to him (that is, the attraction to do so) from the Father." From his saying this, many of his disciples went away and no longer walked with him. Jesus therefore said to the twelve. "Do you not wish to go as well?" Simon Peter answered him "Lord to whom will we go? You have the WORDs of eternal life. We have believed and have known that you are the holy one of God." Jesus answered them "Did I not choose twelve of you. Yet one of you is a devil." Now he spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot for it was this one, who was one of the twelve, who was about to betray him 15. 11:38-52 Jesus therefore again groaned within himself. He came to the tomb. Now this was a cave and there was a stone lying on it. Jesus said "Lift up the stone." Martha, the sister of the one who had died said "Lord by now he would smell for it is the fourth day." Jesus says to her "I told you that if you believe you will see the glory of God. Have I not told you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?" They therefore lifted the stone. "Jesus lifted his eyes up to and said "Father I thank you that you have heard me. I know that you always hear me. But because of the crowd I have said this that they may believe that you have sent me." And so after saying these things he cried out with a great voice "Lazarus, come out." And, the one who had died and had been bound hands and feet with bandages and who had his face bound round with a napkin came out. Jesus said "Loosen him and let him go." After this many of the Jews who had come to Mary and who had seen what he did believed in him (Jesus); But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. The chief priests and the Pharisees therefore assembled a council and said "What are we doing (about this), because this man is working so many signs? If we leave him to go on with this everyone will believe in him. (Then) the Romans will come and take from us both our place and the nation." But a certain one amongst them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year said to them. "You do not know anything. Nor do you understand that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people rather than that the whole nation should perish." But (in saying this) he did not realise that he was actually making a prophecy as high priest for that year. He prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, and indeed not only for the nation but for all the scattered children of God so that he (Jesus) might gather them into one. 6. 7:14-53 Now as it was in the middle of the feast Jesus went up to the temple and taught (openly). The Jews marvelled at him saying "How does this man know (so much) since he has not been trained (by the chief scribes etc)? Jesus therefore answered them and said "My teaching is not mine but it comes from the one who has sent me. If anyone wants to do his will (the One who sent him) he will know about my teaching and whether it is from God that I speak or from myself. The one who speaks from himself is seeking his own glory. But the person who seeks the glory of the one who has sent him, this man is true and there is no unrighteousness within him. Did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you carries out the law. Why do you seek to kill me?" The crowd answered "You have a demon. Who wants to kill you?" Jesus answered and said to them "I did one work (the miracle of the curing the man at the pool of Bethsaida?) and you all make a fuss about it. It was because of this (your narrowness?) Moses has given you circumcision, not that it was of Moses but rather of the fathers. On a Sabbath you circumcise a man. If a man receives circumcision on a Sabbath and the law of Moses is not broken, why are you angry with me because I made a man whole and healthy (on the Sabbath). Do not judge according to "face" but judge according to what is right." Now some of the people who lived in Jerusalem said "Is not this the man that they are seeking to kill? Yet here he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him. Perhaps indeed the rulers have known that this is the Christ? But we know where this man comes from When the Christ comes, no one will know about where he comes from." Therefore Jesus cried out in the temple as he taught saying "You both know me and you know where I come from. (But) I have not come from myself. The one I have come from is truth itself and him you do not know. I know him because I exist from him and he has sent me." They therefore sought to arrest him yet nobody laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. Amongst the crowd there were many who believed in him and said "When the Christ comes, could he work any more signs that what this man has done?" The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things about him. The chief priests and the Pharisees sent attendants to arrest him. Jesus therefore said "For a little time I am with you and then I am going to the one who has sent me." You will seek me and will not find me for where I am you cannot come." The Jews therefore said to themselves. "Where is this man about to go to that we will not find him? Is he about to go to the dispersion of the Greeks (around the Roman Empire) and so teach the Greeks? What does this WORD mean that he said "You will seek me and will not find me and where I am you cannot come?" Now on the last and major day of the feast Jesus stood up and cried out saying "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. As for the one who believes in me it will be as the Scripture says "Rivers of living water will flow out of him." Now he said this in relation to the Spirit which those who believed in him were about to received. As yet the Spirit had not come because Jesus was not yet glorified. Some of the crowd, on hearing these WORDs said "This man is truly the prophet. Others said "This man is the Christ." But others said "But the Christ does not come out of Galilee. Doesn't the Scripture say that (he comes) from the seed of David and from the village of Bethlehem which was the village of David?" And so there was a division within the crowd because of him (Jesus). Some of them wanted to arrest him but no one laid a hand on him. When the attendants returned to the chief priests and Pharisees they said to them "Why did you not bring him back with you?" The attendants answered "Never has a man spoken like this man speaks." The Pharisees therefore answered them "Have you not also been deceived as well? Is it not so, that none of the rulers or Pharisees believe in him? But this crowd, because it does not know the law is cursed. Then Nicodemus who had actually come to him (Jesus) and who was also one of the Pharisees, said to them "Doesn't our law require that a man is not judged unless he is heard first and what he does is examined." They answered and said to him "Are you also linked with Galilee? Search (the scriptures) and see that no prophet is raised out of Galilee. Then, they all went home. 17. 12:1-11 (Because people come to the Passover early to purify themselves), Jesus came to Bethany (near Jerusalem) six days before the Passover. This was where Lazarus lived. He was the one whom Jesus had raised from the dead. They made a supper for him there and Martha served. Lazarus was one of those who were reclining with him (Jesus). Therefore Mary, taking a pound of pure and costly spikenard ointment anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the odour of the ointment. Now Judas the Iscariot, one of his disciples and who was the one who was about to betray him said "Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?" But he said this, not because the poor mattered to him but because he was a thief. He carried the bag that was common to the group. Jesus said "Leave her alone. It is right that she keeps it (the ointment) for the day of burial. The poor you always have. But me you do not always have. There was a great crowd of Jews who knew that he was there and they came, not only because of Jesus but because they wanted to see Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead. The chief priests took counsel about whether or not they might kill Lazarus as well. It was because of him that many of the Jews went (to Bethany) and believed in Jesus. 8. 8:20-59 He spoke these WORDs (re his relationship to the Father) in the treasury while teaching in the temple and nobody arrested him because his hour had not yet come. He therefore repeated to them "I go and you will look for me. You will die in your sin. Where I go you cannot come." The Jews therefore said "Will he kill himself because he says "Where I go you cannot come." He said to them. "You are of the things below. I am of the things above. You are of this world. I am not of this world. I therefore said to you that you will die in your sins. For, if you do not believe who I am you will die in your sins." They therefore said to him "Who are you?" Jesus said to them "Why do I talk to you at all? I have much to say about you and much to judge. But the one who has sent me is true. I heard from himself these things that I speak about in the world." They did not know that he spoke of the Father to them. Jesus therefore said "When you lift up the Son of man then you will know that I am. From myself I do nothing. But I speak thee things as taught to me by the Father. The one who sent me is with me. He did not leave me alone because I always do what is pleasing to him." As he said these things many believed in him. Jesus therefore said to the Jews who believed in him. "If you continue in my WORD you are truly my disciples. You will know the truth and the truth will set you free." They (those who believe and yet are critics?) answered him "We are the seed of Abraham and no one has ever enslaved us. How is that you say that you will become free?" Jesus answered them "Truly truly I tell you that everyone committing sin is a slave of sin. But the slave does not remain in the house until the end time. It is the son who remains until the end time. If therefore you are freed by the Son then you will indeed be free. I know that you are the descendants of Abraham. But you seek to kill me because my WORD finds no room in you. What I have seen with the Father I speak about. And as for you, you do what you have heard from your father. They answered and said to him "Our father is Abraham." Jesus says to them "If you are children of Abraham you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me. A man who has the truth has spoken to you. This (is truth) which I heard from God. Abraham did not hear this. You do the works of your father." They said to him "We were not born of fornication. We have one father that is God." Jesus said to them. "If God was your father you would have loved me, for I have come forth from God. I have not come from myself but from the one who sent me. Why do you not understand my speech. It is because you cannot hear my WORD. You are of your father who is the devil and you want to carry out the desires of your father. That one was a murderer from the beginning and he did not stand in the truth because the truth was not in him. When he speaks the lie it is out of his own things that he speaks because he is a liar and the father of the lie. But as for me, because I say the truth, you do not believe me. Who of you reproves me about sin? If I say the truth why do you not believe me? The one who is of God hears the WORDs of God. As for you, you did not hear because you are not of God. " The Jews answered and said to him. "Do we not say well when you say you are a Samaritan and have a demon.?" Jesus answered "I do not have a demon. But I honor my Father and you dishonor me. I do not seek my glory. But there is one who seeks and who judges. Truly, truly I tell you. If anyone keeps my WORD he will not see death until the end of time." The Jews said to him." Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died and also the prophets. Yet you say "If anyone keeps my WORD, he will by no means taste death until the end of time." You cannot be greater than our father Abraham who died and the prophets (who) died. Whom do you make yourself out to be?" Jesus answered, "If I glorify myself my glory is nothing. It is my Father who is glorifying me, (the one) whom you say is God of you. Yet you have not known him. But I know him. If I say that I do not know him I shall be like yourselves, that is, a liar. But I know him and I keep his WORD. Abraham your father was glad that he should see my day. He saw (it) and rejoiced." The Jews therefore said to him "You are not yet fifty years old and have you seen Abraham?" Jesus said to them "Truly, truly I tell you, before Abraham came to be, I am." They therefore took stones that they might cast on him. 19. 12:20-36 Now there were some Greeks who were going up (to Jerusalem) in order to worship at the feast. These therefore approached Philip. This is the one who was from Bethsaida of Galilee. They asked him saying "Sir we want to see Jesus." Philip comes and tells Andrew then Andrew and Phillip come and tell Jesus. (who was teaching in the Temple) Jesus answers them saying "The hour has come that the Son of man is to be glorified. Truly, truly I say to you unless the grain of wheat falling in to the ground dies, it remains on its own. But if it dies it bears much fruit. The one who loves his life loses it. The one who hates his life in this world keeps it into eternal life. 26-36 "If anyone serves me then let him follow (me). Where I am, there also my servant will be. If anyone serves me the Father will honor him. Now my soul has been troubled and what may I say? Father save me from this hour. But it is because of this hour that I came. Father glorify your name. A voice therefore came out of heaven "I have glorified it and I will glorify it again." The crowd standing by and hearing this said it had thundered. Others said "An angel has spoken to him." Jesus answered and said "It is not because of me that this voice has happened but because of you. Now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world is to be cast out outside. And (as for me) if I am lifted up out of the earth, all men will be drawn to myself." He said this in order to signify by what kind of death he was about to die. The crowd therefore answered him "We heard from the law that the Christ will remain until the end time. How is it that you say it is appropriate for the Son of man to be lifted up? Who is this Son of man?" Jesus therefore said to them "Yet for a little time longer the light remains amongst you. Walk while you have the light lest darkness overtakes you. And then the one who is walking in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light believe in the light so that you can become sons of light." 9. 8:59-9:41 but Jesus was hidden and went forth out of the temple 9:1 Passing along he (Jesus) saw a man who had been blind from birth. The disciples of Jesus asked him “Rabbi who was it that sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered "Neither this man, nor his parents sinned. (He was born blind) so that the works of God may be shown in him. It is fitting for us to do the work of the one who sent me while it is still day. The night is coming when no one can work. When I am in the world, I am the light of the world." Having said these things he spat on the ground and made clay out of the spittle. Then he put the clay on the eyes (of the blind man) and said to him." Go and wash in the pool of Siloam - which in translation means 'having been sent'. He (the blind man) therefore went and washed and returned able to see. The neighbours and those who saw him knew that formerly he was a beggar. So they said "Was this not the man who was sitting and begging?" Some said "This is himself." Others said "No but he is like him." (The one cured said "It is me." They therefore said to him "How is it that your eyes were opened?" He answered "The man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and told me "Go to Siloam and wash". So going I washed and then I could see." They said to him "Where is he?" He says "I do not know." They led the previously blind man to the Pharisees. Now it happened that the day on which Jesus made clay and opened his eyes was a Sabbath. Again therefore the Pharisees asked him how it was that he saw. He said to them "He (Jesus) put clay on my eyes and I washed and (now) I see." Some of the Pharisees therefore said "This man (Jesus) cannot be from God because he does not keep the Sabbath." But others said "How can a sinful man work such signs?" So there was a division amongst them. They therefore said to the blind man again "What do you say about him since he made you see?" He said "He is a prophet." But the Jews did not believe that the man had been blind and saw again until they called his parents and asked them saying "Is this your son whom you say was born blind? How is it then that he now sees?" His parents therefore answered and said "We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. But how it is that he now sees we do not know. Nor do we know who opened his eyes. He is of age. Ask him and he will tell you for himself." (The blind man's) parents said these things because they were afraid of the Jews. The Jews had already agreed that if anyone should acknowledge him (Jesus) to be the Christ they would be put out of the synagogue. The parents therefore said "He is of age. Ask him." They (the Jews) therefore called the man who had been blind, a second time and said to him. "Give glory to God. We know that this man (Jesus) is sinful." That one therefore answered. "Whether or not he is sinful I do not know. But one thing I do know is that I was blind and now I see." They therefore said to him "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?" He answered them "I have told you already and you did not hear. Why do you want to hear again? Do you also want to become his disciples?" (With this) they reviled him and said "You are a disciple of that man. But we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses. But as for this man we do not know where he is from." The man answered and said to them "Is this not a marvelous thing then, that you do not know where he is from and he opened my eyes? We know that God does not hear sinful men. But if someone is god fearing and does (God's) will then he (God) hears such a man. From the beginning of time it was never heard that someone opened the eyes of a man who had been born blind. If this ma was not from God he could not have been able to do anything." They (the Jews) answered and said to him "You were born wholly in sins and are you teaching us?" And so they cast him outside (the temple). Jesus heard that they had cast him outside and finding him said "Do you believe in the Son of man?" The man answered and siad "Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?" Jesus said to him "You have seen him and he is the one who is (now) speaking with you." He said "I believe sir" and he worshipped him. Jesus said "I came into the world for judgment in that those who do not see may see and the ones who see may become blind. Now some of the Pharisees who were with him (Jesus) heard some of these things. They said to him "Are we blind as well?" Jesus said to them. "If you were blind you would not have had sin. But now that you say "We see" then your sin remains." 20. 12:36-43 Jesus spoke these tings and (then) going away was hidden from them. Yet even though he had worked so many signs they did not believe in him. This was so the WORD of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled. He said "Lord who believed in our report? and to whom was the arm of the Lord revealed?" Therefore they were unable to believe because as the prophet Isaiah also said "He has blinded their eyes and has hardened their heart, that they might not be able to see with their eyes nor understand with their heart and so turn so that I might cure them." Isaiah said these things because he saw (God's) glory and spoke about him. Nevertheless even out of the rulers there were many who believed in him (Jesus). But because of the Pharisees they did not (openly) confess this in case they should be put out of the synagogue. For, they loved the glory of men more than the glory of God. 10. 10:1-21 "Truly, truly I tell you the one who does not enter the sheep fold through the door but goes there by another way, that one is a thief and a robber. But the one who goes through the door is the shepherd of the sheep. The door keeper opens up to this one and the sheep hear his voice. He calls each of his sheep by name and he leads them out. When he has collected all those who belong to him he sets out in front of the sheep and they follow him because they know his voice. But as for a stranger, they will not follow him but rather run away from him because they do not know the voice of strangers." Jesus told them this as an allegory but those men did not know what he was saying to them. Jesus therefore said again "Truly, truly I tell you that I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters, it is through me. He will be saved and will go in (to the sheep fold) and will (then) go out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they (the sheep) may have life and may have it in abundance. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hireling (on the other hand), is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. He sees the wolf coming and leaving the sheep he flees. (Then) the wolf seizes the sheep and scatters them. Because such a man is a hireling what happens to the sheep does not matter to him. I am the good shepherd. I know mine and mine know me. This is just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this fold and it behoves me to bring them (into this fold) also. They will hear my voice and there will be one flock and one shepherd. Therefore the Father loves me because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again. No one took it (my life) from me. I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. I received the commandment (to do this) from my Father." Again there was a division amongst the Jews because of these WORDs. Many of them said "He has a demon and is raving. Why do you listen to him?" Others said "These are not the WORDs of someone who is possessed by a demon. A demon cannot open the eyes of blind men." 21. 12:44-50 But Jesus cried out and said "The one who believes in me believes not in me but in the one who has sent me, and the one who sees me sees the one who has sent me. I have come as a light into the world and everyone who believes in me will not remain in darkness. And as for anyone who hears my WORDs and does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but so that I might save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my WORDs has one judging him (that is) the WORD which I spoke. That will judge him in the last day. This is because I did not speak of myself. The Father who has sent me. He has commanded me about what I may say and what I may speak. I know that his commandment is eternal life. What things therefore I say, are according to what the Father has told me to say." 11. 10:22-39 There was then the (Feast of) the Dedication in Jerusalem. It was winter. Jesus walked in the temple, in the porch of Solomon. He was surrounded by the Jews and they said to him "Until when will you hold us in suspense? If you are the Christ tell us plainly." Jesus answered them "I told you and you do not believe. The works that I do in the name of my Father bear witness concerning me (and who I am). But you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give life eternal to them and they will by no means perish until the end time. Nobody will seize them out of my hand. My Father is greater than everything that is, and he has given (them) to me . No one can seize them out of the hand of the Father. As for myself and the Father, we are one." The Jews again lifted up stones that they might stone him. Jesus answered them "I showed you many good works of the Father. For which of these works do you stone me?" The Jews answered him. "We do not stone you because of a good work but because of blasphemy and because you who are a man, are making yourself out to be God." Jesus answered them "Has it not been written in your law "I said you are Gods"? He (Moses?) called the people gods when they were with the WORD of God and Scripture cannot be broken. The Father made a certain one (Jesus) holy and sent him into the world and yet you tell me 'You are blaspheming' because I said I am the Son of God. If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me. But if I do (these) even if you do not believe me, believe in the works that you may know and continue to know that the Father is in me and I am in the Father." They therefore sought again to arrest him and He went away from their grasp.