John 1

₁The Word was there in the beginning before God made the world. The Word was with God and the Word was God. ₂He was with God in the beginning. ₃God and the Word made everything there is. God did not make anything alone. ₄In the Word there was life, and this life was a light for the people of the world. ₅The light shines in the darkness and the dark can not put out the light.

₆God sent a man. His name was John.

₇He came to tell the people about the light, so that everyone who heard it could believe. ₈John was not this light, but God sent him to tell people that the light was coming.

₉The Word was the true light. He had to bring light to everyone and He was coming to the world. ₁₀The Word was in the world. God and the Word made the world, but the people of the world did not know the Word.

₁₁The Word came to his own people, but they did not accept Him. ₁₂Some people accepted Him and they believed in Him and He said they could be children of God. ₁₃They were born again and became God's children. All children have parents, but the children of God became his children because God became their Father.

₁₄The Word became a Man. He came to be with us and to live with us. We saw that He was the King from heaven, the one and only Son of the Father. He came to show us that God is good and that the Word really is God.

₁₅John the Baptist told the people about the Word. He shouted and said: ‘This is the Man that I told you about when I said: “Someone will come after me, but He is more important than I am because He lived long before I was born.” ’

₁₆The Word showed us that God wants to be very, very good to us. ₁₇God gave his laws to Moses and Moses gave them to us, but we received the grace of God from Jesus Christ. His grace is forever. It never stops. ₁₈No person on earth has ever seen God. But Jesus Christ came to tell us and explain to us what God is like. No one else is like Jesus. He is God and He is always near the Father.

₁₉The Jews sent a few priests and Levites from Jerusalem to John. They asked him: ‘Who are you?’

John told them who he was. ₂₀He wanted them to know. He told the truth and said to them: ‘I am not the Christ.’

₂₁Then they asked John: ‘Who are you? Are you Elijah?’

And John said: ‘No, I am not Elijah.’

They asked: ‘Are you the Prophet?’

He answered and said: ‘No.’

₂₂Then they asked him: ‘Who are you? Tell us. We must go and tell the people who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’

₂₃John said:

This is what the prophet Isaiah said. ₂₄The Jews also sent some Pharisees to John. ₂₅The Pharisees said to John: ‘You say you are not the Christ or Elijah or the Prophet. Why then do you baptise people?’ ₂₆John answered them and said: ‘I baptise people with water. But there is Someone among you that you do not know. ₂₇He is the One who will come after me. He is very important. I am not good enough to take off his sandals.’

₂₈This happened in the town of Bethany on the other side of the Jordan River. John baptised the people there.

₂₉The next day John saw Jesus coming to him and John said loudly: ‘Look, here is the Lamb of God. God gave Him to us to take away the sin of the world. ₃₀This is the Man that I told you about when I said there is Someone who will come after me and who is more important than I am because He lived long before I was born. ₃₁I did not know who He was but I came to baptise the Israelites with water so that they will know who He is.’

₃₂John also said: ‘I saw the Holy_Spirit come down on Him like a dove from heaven and the Spirit stayed on Him. ₃₃Before this, I did not know who He was, but God sent me to baptise with water and God told me: “When you see the Spirit come down and stay on a Person, then you must know that He is the One. He will baptise people with the Holy_Spirit.”

₃₄I have seen it and I tell you: This Man is the Son of God.’

₃₅The next day John and 2 of his disciples were there again. ₃₆John saw Jesus walking past and John said: ‘Look, there is the Lamb of God.’

₃₇The 2 disciples of John heard what he said and then they started to follow Jesus. ₃₈Jesus looked back and He saw them following Him. He asked them: ‘What do you want?’ They answered: ‘Rabbi, where do You stay?’ (A Rabbi is someone who teaches people how to serve God).

₃₉Jesus said to them: ‘Come and you will see.’

They went with Him and they saw the place where He stayed. It was about the 10th hour (4 o'clock in the afternoon) and they stayed with Jesus all day. ₄₀Andrew was one of the 2 disciples who heard what John said and started to follow Jesus. He was the brother of Simon-Peter. ₄₁The first thing that Andrew did was to look for his brother Simon and he said to Simon: ‘We have found the Messiah, the Christ.’

₄₂Then Andrew took his brother Simon to Jesus. When Jesus saw Simon, He said: ‘Your name is Simon, son of John. But now your name will be Cephas.’ (Peter is the Greek name for Cephas).

₄₃The next day Jesus decided to go to the province of Galilee. He saw Philip and said to him: ‘Follow Me.’ ₄₄Philip lived in the town of Bethsaida, in the same town where Andrew and Peter lived. ₄₅Philip saw Nathanael and said to him: ‘We have found the Man that Moses and the prophets wrote about. His name is Jesus. He is the son of Joseph and He comes from the town of Nazareth.’

₄₆Nathanael said: ‘Nazareth? Can there be something good that comes from Nazareth?’ Philip said to him: ‘Come and see.’

₄₇When Jesus saw Nathanael coming, He said: ‘This man is a true Israelite. He has nothing false in him.’ ₄₈Nathanael asked Jesus: ‘How do you know that? Do you know me?’ Jesus said to him: ‘I saw you when you were under the fig tree, before Philip called you.’

₄₉Nathanael said to Jesus: ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You are the King_of_Israel.’

₅₀Jesus said to him: ‘You believe in Me because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree, but you will see much more wonderful things than that.’

₅₁Jesus also said: ‘I tell you this and it is sure: You will see heaven open and the angels of God going up to Him and coming down on Me, the Son of man.’