1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem, near the Sheep Gate, a pool, called Bethzatha+ in Aramaic,+ which has five roofed walkways adorned with pillars. 3 In these walkways were lying a large number of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed.+

5 Now a certain man was there who had been in his disabled condition for a good thirty-eight years. 6 As for this man, Jesus, upon seeing him lying there, and knowing that he had been disabled for such a long time, asked him, “Do ˢyou want to get well?”

7 “Sir,” the ailing man replied, “I have no one to help me get into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I am trying to get there, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

8 “Get up,” said Jesus. “Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 And immediately the man became well and picked up his mat and began to walk.

Now the day on which this healing took place was a Sabbath.10 Therefore, the Jewish authorities kept telling the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath! It is forbidden for you to carry your mat.”

11 “The man who made me well,” the healed man answered, “ he said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

12 “Who is the man who told you to do this?” they asked him.

13 But the man who had been healed didn’t know who it was, because the place was very crowded, and Jesus had slipped away unnoticed.

14 Afterwards, Jesus happened upon the man in the temple courts and said to him, “See, you are well now. Stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went off and told the Jewish authorities that Jesus was the one who had made him well.

16 And this was the reason why the Jewish authorities began to persecute Jesus, because these things he was doing on the Sabbath.

17 “My Father,” Jesus said to them in response, “continues his work right up to this very moment, and so I, too, myself continue to work.” 18 This is the reason why the Jewish authorities, then, became even more determined to have him killed: Not only was he relaxing the Sabbath, but he was also saying that God was what? His own Father. By doing so, he was making himself equal with God!

19 Jesus then continued with these weighty words: “Amen, amen, I solemnly tell ᵖyou this: The Son can of himself do nothing; he can do only what he sees the Father himself doing. Indeed, whatever the Father himself does, these things the Son does, too. 20 The Father dearly loves the Son and shows him everything, you see, that he himself is doing, and will show him even greater things to do than these, so great that ᵖyou will be in awe. 21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son, too, gives life to whomever it is he decides. 22 The Father, in fact, doesn’t himself preside in judgment over anyone; that task, rather, he has assigned fully to the Son, 23 so that all will honor the Son just as they honor the Father. If someone refuses to give due honor to the Son, he is refusing to give due honor to the Father, who sent him.

24 “Amen, amen, I solemnly tell ᵖyou this: If someone heeds my words and believes the one who sent me, he will share in the life of the age to come, and from condemnation will be spared; yes, he has crossed over from death to life. 25 Amen, amen, I solemnly tell ᵖyou this: A time is coming, and is here even now, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live again. 26 Just as the Father is himself the source of life, you see, so he has made his Son to be the source of life. 27 And he has granted him authority to execute judgment, because he is this: The Son of Man. 28 Don’t be astonished at this! For a time is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out—those whose deeds were upright at the resurrection of life, and those whose deeds were evil at the resurrection of condemnation. 30 I can of myself do nothing; I judge precisely as I am told. And my judgment is just, because my heart is set not on doing my own will, but the will of the one who sent me.

31 “If I bear witness on my own behalf, my testimony isn’t reliable. 32 It is someone else who testifies on my behalf, and I know that his testimony about me is completely reliable. 33 ᵖYou have sent messengers to John, and he has borne solemn witness to the truth. 34 Although I have no need of human testimony, these things I am saying so that ᵖyou may be saved. 35 That man was a burning and shining lamp, and ᵖyou were ready for a time to sing and dance for joy in the light of his life and message.

36 “I also have something bearing witness on my behalf whose testimony is even weightier than that of John: The powerful deeds that the Father has appointed me to complete. These miracles that I am doing, you see, themselves give testimony on my behalf and show that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself given testimony on my behalf. ᵖYou have not heard his voice, ever, nor have ᵖyou seen his appearance; 38 and ᵖyou do not have his word dwelling within ᵖyou, for the one whom he sent ᵖyou refuse to believe. 39 ᵖYou carefully study the Scriptures, because ᵖyou believe that in them you possess the key to life in the coming age, and they do in fact themselves bear witness on my behalf. 40 And yet ᵖyou refuse to come to me so that you may actually receive life! 41 This means nothing to me: Honor from mere men. 42 But I know what kind of people ᵖyou are, that ᵖyou have in your hearts no love for God. 43 I have come in the name and authority of my Father, and yet ᵖyou refuse to accept me. If it is some other fellow, however, who comes in his own name and authority, that person ᵖyou will accept! 44 How in the world can ᵖyou possibly believe, when the honor you give one another means so much to you, and ᵖyou care nothing about obtaining this: The honor that comes from the only God? 45 Don’t think that it is I who will bring charges against ᵖyou in the presence of the Father. The one who will bring charges against ᵖyou is Moses, in whom ᵖyou have placed your hopes. 46 If ᵖyou believed Moses, you see, you would believe me, because it was me about whom he wrote. 47 If ᵖyou refuse to believe the writings, however, of Moses, how can ᵖyou possibly believe my words?”