The Gospels

by Sarah Ruden

  48 The Ioudaioi answered and spoke to him: “Aren’t we right in saying that you’re a Samaritēs and have a demon in you?” 49 Iēsous answered, “I don’t have a demon in me; on the contrary, I honor my father: but you dishonor me. 50 I’m not seeking my own glory. There’s someone who does seek it, and who does judge. 51 Amēn amēn I tell you, if someone safeguards what I say, he will, for all of time, never look on death.” 52 [So] the Ioudaioi said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon in you. Abraam died, and so did the prophets, but you tell us, ‘If someone safeguards what I say, for all of time he will never taste death. 53 You’re not greater than our father Abraam, who died, are you? And the prophets also died. Who are you making yourself out to be?” 54 Iēsous responded, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. But it’s my father who glorifies me, and you claim that he’s our god, 55 but you haven’t recognized him, whereas I do know him; and if I were to say that I don’t know him, I would be like you all, a liar; but I do know him, and I safeguard what he’s spoken. 56 Your father Abraam was elated that he would see my day; and he saw it, to his joy.” 57 Then the Ioudaioi said to him, “You’re not fifty years old yet, and you’ve seen Abraam?” 58 Iēsous said to them, “Amēn amēn I tell you, before Abraam came into being, I have been.” 59 They then picked up stones to throw at him, but Iēsous hid and left the temple precinct.

  Chapter 9

  1 Then as he went along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. 2 And his students questioned him, saying, “Rabbí, who did wrong, this man or his parents, so that he was born blind?” 3 Iēsous answered, “Neither this man nor his parents did anything wrong: the purpose was that the work of god should show brightly and clearly in his case. 4 We need to be working at the work of the one who sent me while it’s still daytime. The night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I’m in the world, I’m the light of the world.”*110 6 Having said this, he spat on the ground and made some mud with the spit, then wiped the mud onto the man’s eyes,*111 7 and said to him, “Get moving and wash in the pool of Silōam (which translates as “the one who has been sent”).*112 He then went away and washed, and came back seeing.

  8 Now the neighbors and those who had observed him before, because he was a beggar, said, “Isn’t this the one who sat begging?” 9 Others said, “It’s not him,” and still others said, “No, but he looks like him.” He, however, said, “It is me.” 10 Then they said to him, “[So] how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man called Iēsous made some mud and wiped it on my eyes and said to me, ‘Get moving, go to the Silōam and wash.’ So I went and washed, and then I was able to see again.” 12 And they said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I don’t know.”

  13 They took this man, who’d been blind before, to the Farisaioi. 14 Now the day on which Iēsous had made mud and opened the man’s eyes was the sabbaton. 15 So the Farisaioi as well subjected him to an interrogation, a second one, as to how his sight was healed. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and now I can see.” 16 So some of the Farisaioi said, “This man isn’t from god, because he doesn’t observe the sabbaton.” [But] others said, “How can anyone who’s in the wrong perform such signs?” Hence there was a split among them. 17 So they spoke to the blind man again: “What do you say about him, since it’s your eyes he opened?” And he said, “He’s a prophet.”

  18 The Ioudaioi didn’t believe that he had been blind and that his sight had been restored, until they called in the parents of the man whose sight had been restored. 19 And they questioned them, saying, “This is your son, who you say was born blind? So how does it come about that he can see now?” 20 His parents then answered by saying, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. 21 But how it comes about that now he can see, we don’t know; and as to who opened his eyes, we don’t know that either. Ask him; he’s an adult, he’ll speak for himself.” 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Ioudaioi, as the Ioudaioi had already decided among themselves that anyone who agreed Iēsous was the anointed one would be expelled from his synagogue. 23 This is why his parents said, “He’s an adult, ask him.”

  24 So for a second time they called in the man who’d been blind, and they said to him: “Give glory to god. We know this man is a wrongdoer.” 25 Then he answered, “Whether he’s a wrongdoer, I don’t know. I know one thing: I was blind, but now I can see.” 26 So they said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27 He answered them, “I already told you, and you didn’t listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You don’t want to become his students too, do you?” 28 And they spoke to him abusively, saying, “You’re a student of his yourself! We’re students of Mōüsēs. 29 We know that god spoke to Mōüsēs.*113 We don’t even know where this man is from.” 30 The man answered and spoke to them: “Now here’s something amazing: you don’t even know where he’s from—but he opened my eyes! 31 We know that god doesn’t listen to wrongdoers, but if someone is a worshipper of god and does what god wants, god does listen to him. 32 Since the beginning of time, it was never heard of that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. 33 If this man weren’t from god, he couldn’t have done anything.” 34 They answered by telling him: “You were born in the middle of so much wrongdoing that there’s nothing else to you,*114 and you’re trying to teach us?” And they threw him out.

  35 Iēsous heard that they’d thrown him out, and he found him and said, “Do you trust in the son of mankind?” 36 He answered by saying, “But who is it, sir, so that I can trust in him?”*115 37 Iēsous said to him, “But you have seen him, and he’s the one speaking with you.” 38 He said, “I do trust, lord,” and prostrated himself in worship.*116

  39 Then Iēsous said, “I came into this world for the case to be decided, so that those who don’t see will be able to see, and those who do see will become blind.” 40 The Farisaioi who were with him heard this and said to him, “We’re not blind, are we?” 41 Iēsous said to them, “If you were blind, you wouldn’t be in the wrong. But as it is, because you say, ‘We can see,’ you’re stuck in your wrongdoing.”

  Chapter 10

  1 “Amēn amēn I tell you all, whoever doesn’t come through the gate into the yard where the sheep are kept, but instead climbs in some other way, he’s a thief and a bandit. 2 No, the one coming in through the gate is the sheep’s shepherd. 3 The gatekeeper opens up to him, and the sheep listen to his voice, and he calls his own sheep by their names and leads them out. 4 When he’s brought out all that are his own, he makes his way ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice. 5 They’ll never follow a stranger; they’ll run from him instead, because they don’t recognize strangers’ voices.” 6 Iēsous gave them this analogy, but they didn’t understand what he was saying to them.*117

  7 Then Iēsous spoke again: “Amēn amēn, I tell you that I am the gate to the sheep. 8 All the people who have come [before me] are thieves and bandits; but the sheep didn’t listen to them. 9 I am the gate. If anyone goes in through me, he’ll be kept safe, and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief doesn’t come except to thieve and slaughter sheep and destroy.*118 I came so that they could have life, and have it in profusion.

  11 “I am the real shepherd. The real shepherd lays down his life for the sake of the sheep. 12 If it’s just a hired man and not the shepherd, and the sheep aren’t his own, he sees the wolf coming and abandons the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them—13 because he’s just a hired man, and he doesn’t care about the sheep.

  14 “I am the real shepherd, and I know my own, and my own know me. 15 As the father knows me, I also know the father, and I lay down my life for the sake of the sheep.*119 16 But I have other sheep that don’t belong to this yard; I need to lead those too, and they’ll listen to my voice, and they’ll all become one flock, with one shepherd.*120

  17 “Because of this the father loves me: I la
y down my life, so that I can have it back again. 18 No one takes it from me, but rather I lay it down of my own accord. I have the power to lay it down, and the power to have it back again; I received this command from my father.”

  19 There was a split among the Ioudaioi again because of these things he said. 20 Many among them said: “He has a demon in him, and he’s out of his mind. Why are you listening to him?” 21 But others said, “These aren’t the statements of someone possessed by a demon. A demon can’t open the eyes of the blind, right?”

  22 At that time the festival of the rededication*121 was going on in Hierosoluma; it was winter, 23 and Iēsous was walking around in the temple precinct in the portico of Solomōn.*122 24 So the Ioudaioi surrounded him and said to him, “How long are you going to keep us in this terrible suspense? If you’re the anointed one, tell us openly.” 25 Iēsous answered them, “I told you and you still don’t believe. The work I carry out in the name of my father—this testifies for me. 26 But you don’t believe, because you’re not any of my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 And I give them life that lasts for all time, and for all time they’ll never be destroyed, and nobody’s going to tear them from my hand. 29 What the father has given me is greater than everything else, and no one can tear it from the father’s hand. 30 I and the father are one being.”*123

  31 Again the Ioudaioi picked up stones in preparation for stoning him. 32 Iēsous responded to them: “I’ve shown you many good works that came from the father. Which work are you stoning me for?” 33 The Ioudaioi answered him: “We’re not stoning you for any good work, but because of blasphemy, and because, even though you’re just a human being, you make yourself out to be a god.”*124 34 Iēsous answered them, “Hasn’t it been written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods”?’*125 35 If he called those people gods, and they’re the people to whom god’s utterance came—and what’s written can’t lose its force—36 can you say of the one the father made holy and sent into the world, ‘You’re blaspheming!’ because I said, ‘I am god’s son’? 37 If I don’t carry out the work of my father, then don’t trust me. 38 But if I do carry it out, and you still don’t trust me, trust in that work, so that you know and understand that the father is in me and I am in the father.” 39 [Then] they tried again to seize him, but he went out and escaped their hands.

  40 Then he went away, back to the other side of the Iordanēs, to the place where Iōannēs had been baptizing people at the start,*126 and he remained there. 41 And many people came to him and said, “Iōannēs didn’t perform a single sign, but everything that Iōannēs said about this man was true.” 42 And many people came to trust in him there.

  Chapter 11

  1 A certain man was ailing, Lazaros from Bēthania, the same village Maria and Martha her sister lived in. 2 Now, Mariam was the one who spread perfume over the master and wiped dry his feet with her hair,*127 and it was her brother Lazaros who was ailing. 3 So the sisters sent a message to Iēsous, saying, “Master, look, your dear friend is ailing.” 4 When he heard this, Iēsous said, “This ailment won’t lead to death; on the contrary, it’s for the glory of god, so that god’s son can be glorified through it.” 5 But Iēsous did love Martha and her sister and Lazaros. 6 So when he heard that the man was ailing, he stayed in the place where he was for two days, 7 and only after that did he say to the students, “Let’s get back to Ioudaia.” 8 His students said to him, “Rabbí, now the Ioudaioi are looking to stone you, and you’re heading back there again?” 9 Iēsous answered, “Aren’t there twelve hours in the day? If someone walks around during the day, he doesn’t collide with anything, because he sees the light of this world. 10 But if someone walks during the night, he does collide with things, because the light isn’t inside him.”*128

  11 He said these things, and next he told them, “Lazaros our dear friend has fallen asleep. But I’m on my way there so that I can rouse him from sleep.” 12 So the students said to him, “Master, if he’s fallen asleep, he’ll be cured.” 13 But Iēsous had spoken about his death, whereas the others thought he spoke about ordinary sleep. 14 But then Iēsous spoke to them openly: “Lazaros has died. 15 And I’m happy for your sake: this will lead you to believe, because I wasn’t there when it happened. But let’s get to him.” 16 Then Thōmas who was called the Twin said to his fellow students, “Let’s get there ourselves as well, so that we can die with him.”*129

  17 So when Iēsous arrived, he found that Lazaros had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bēthania was near Hierosoluma, about fifteen stades away.*130 19 And many of the Ioudaioi had come to Martha and Mariam to console them about their brother. 20 So when Martha heard that Iēsous was coming, she went out to meet him. Meanwhile, Mariam was sitting in the house. 21 So Martha said to Iēsous, “Master, if you’d been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. 22 [But] even now I know that whatever you ask god for, god will give you.” 23 Iēsous told her, “Your brother will rise to his feet.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he’ll rise to his feet in the rising, on the last day.” 25 Iēsous said to her, “I myself am the rising, and life.*131 Whoever trusts in me, even if he dies, will live. 26 And whoever lives and trusts in me will, for all of time, never die.*132 Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, master. I’ve come to believe that you’re the anointed one, the son of god who is coming into the world.”*133

  28 Then, having said this, she went away and called Mariam her sister, saying to her discreetly, “The teacher’s here, and he’s calling for you.” 29 And when Mariam heard, she got up quickly and came to him. 30 Iēsous hadn’t yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31 But the Ioudaioi who were with Mariam in the house, consoling her, saw that she got up quickly, so they went out and followed after her, thinking that she was headed to the tomb to cry there.

  32 Then when Mariam arrived where Iēsous was and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying to him, “Master, if you’d been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.” 33 Then Iēsous, when he saw her crying, and the Ioudaioi who were accompanying her crying too, howled within, with his very life-breath, and was greatly distressed. 34 Then he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Master, come and see.” 35 Iēsous shed tears.*134 36 Then the Ioudaioi said, “See how loving a friend he was to him.” 37 But some of them said, “He opened the blind man’s eyes: couldn’t he keep this man from dying?”

  38 So Iēsous, again howling deep within, came to the tomb. It was a cave,*135 and a stone was lying against it. 39 Iēsous said, “Lift away the stone.” Martha, a sister of the dead man, said to him, “Master, by now he smells: he’s been dead four days.” 40 Iēsous said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed, you’d see god’s glory?” 41 So they lifted the stone away, and Iēsous lifted his eyes upward and said, “Father, I give thanks to you because you heard me. 42 I knew that you hear me at all times, but because of the crowd standing around, I said it, so that they believe it was you who sent me.” 43 And having said these things, he yelled with a loud voice, “Lazaros, come out of there!” 44 And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth and his face bound up in a napkin. Iēsous said to them, “Untie him and let him go.”

  45 Then many of the Ioudaioi who had come to Mariam and seen what he did trusted in him. 46 But some of them went to the Farisaioi and told them what Iēsous had done.

  47 Then the high priests and the Farisaioi convened their high council*136 and said, “What do we do, since this man performs so many signs? 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will trust in him, and the Romans will come and do away with our country and our nation.” 49 But one among them, Kaïaphas, who was chief priest for that year, said to them, “You all don’t know anything. 50 You don’t even figure that it’s better for you if a single man dies for the people and the whole nation isn’t destroyed.” 51 He didn’t say this on his own authority;
instead, in his capacity as chief priest for that year, he prophesied that Iēsous was about to die for the nation, 52 and not only for the nation, but also to bring together as one the scattered children of god. 53 From that day onward, therefore, they plotted to kill him.*137

  54 So Iēsous no longer walked around openly among the Ioudaioi, but instead went away from there to a neighborhood close to the wilderness, to a town called Efraim,*138 and there he stayed with his students.

  55 But the pascha of the Ioudaioi was close, and many went up to Hierosoluma from the countryside for this festival in order to purify themselves.*139 56 So they looked for Iēsous and spoke to each other while standing in the temple precinct: “What do you all think? He certainly won’t come to the festival—will he?” 57 The high priests and the Farisaioi had given orders that whoever knew where he was needed to report it so that they could seize him.