The Book of John (2020 Edition) E-Book

Brian Simmons

• Herausgeber: BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: The Passion Translation
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 238

Beschreibung

The book of John reveals Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the One who is the divine self-expression and fullness of God's glory. John was a prophet, a seer, a lover, an evangelist, an author, an apostle, and a son of thunder.   While the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke provide the history of Christ, John's Gospel unveils the mystery of Christ. We experience Jesus as the Lamb of God, the Good Shepherd, the Kind Forgiver, the Tender Healer, the Compassionate Intercessor, and the Great I Am. Full of miracles, living truths, and wondrous works, the Gospel of John brings a heavenly perspective filled with inspiring revelations in every verse.   To read John's Gospel is to encounter Jesus. Our lives will never be the same once we enter the great magnificence of his presence and sit enthroned with him.   "All you thirsty ones, come to me! Come to me and drink! Believe in me so that rivers of living water will burst out from within you, flowing from your innermost being, just like the Scripture says!" John 7:37–38  

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John: Eternal Love

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright Information

A Note to Readers

John

Your Personal Invitation to Follow Jesus

About the Translator

A NOTE TO READERS

It would be impossible to calculate how many lives have been changed forever by the power of the Bible, the living Word of God! My own life was transformed because I believed the message contained in Scripture about Jesus, the Savior.

To hold the Bible dear to your heart is the sacred obsession of every true follower of Jesus. Yet to go even further and truly understand the Bible is how we gain light and truth to live by. Did you catch the word understand? People everywhere say the same thing: “I want to understand God’s Word, not just read it.”

Thankfully, as English speakers, we have a plethora of Bible translations, commentaries, study guides, devotionals, churches, and Bible teachers to assist us. Our hearts crave to know God—to not just know about him, but to know him as intimately as we possibly can in this life. This is what makes Bible translations so valuable, because each one will hopefully lead us into new discoveries of God’s character. I believe God is committed to giving us truth in a package we can understand and apply, so I thank God for every translation of God’s Word that we have.

God’s Word does not change, but over time languages definitely do, thus the need for updated and revised translations of the Bible. Translations give us the words God spoke through his servants, but words can be poor containers for revelation because they leak! Meaning is influenced by culture, background, and many other details. Just imagine how differently the Hebrew authors of the Old Testament saw the world three thousand years ago from the way we see it today!

Even within one language and culture, meanings of words change from one generation to the next. For example, many contemporary Bible readers would be quite surprised to find unicorns are mentioned nine times in the King James Version (KJV). Here’s one instance in Isaiah 34:7: “And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.” This isn’t a result of poor translation, but rather an example of how our culture, language, and understanding of the world has shifted over the past few centuries. So, it is important that we have a modern English text of the Bible that releases revelation and truth into our hearts. The Passion Translation (TPT) is committed to bringing forth the potency of God’s Word in relevant, contemporary vocabulary that doesn’t distract from its meaning or distort it in any way. So many people have told us that they are falling in love with the Bible again as they read TPT.

We often hear the statement, “I just want a word-for-word translation that doesn’t mess it up or insert a bias.” That’s a noble desire. But a word-for-word translation would be nearly unreadable. It is simply impossible to translate one Hebrew word for one English word. Hebrew is built from triliteral consonant roots. Biblical Hebrew had no vowels or punctuation. And Koine Greek, although wonderfully articulate, cannot always be conveyed in English by a word-for-word translation. For example, a literal word-for-word translation of the Greek in Matthew 1:18 would be something like this: “Of the but Jesus Christ the birth thus was. Being betrothed the mother of him, Mary, to Joseph, before or to come together them she was found in belly having from Spirit Holy.”

Even the KJV, which many believe to be a very literal translation, renders this verse: “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.”

This comparison makes the KJV look like a paraphrase next to a strictly literal translation! To some degree, every Bible translator is forced to move words around in a sentence to convey with meaning the thought of the verse. There is no such thing as a truly literal translation of the Bible, for there is not an equivalent language that perfectly conveys the meaning of the biblical text. Is it really possible to have a highly accurate and highly readable English Bible? We certainly hope so! It is so important that God’s Word is living in our hearts, ringing in our ears, and burning in our souls. Transferring God’s revelation from Hebrew and Greek into English is an art, not merely a linguistic science. Thus, we need all the accurate translations we can find. If a verse or passage in one translation seems confusing, it is good to do a side-by-side comparison with another version.

It is difficult to say which translation is the “best.” “Best” is often in the eyes of the reader and is determined by how important differing factors are to different people. However, the “best” translation, in my thinking, is the one that makes the Word of God clear and accurate, no matter how many words it takes to express it.

That’s the aim of The Passion Translation: to bring God’s eternal truth into a highly readable heart-level expression that causes truth and love to jump out of the text and lodge inside our hearts. A desire to remain accurate to the text and a desire to communicate God’s heart of passion for his people are the two driving forces behind TPT. So for those new to Bible reading, we hope TPT will excite and illuminate. For scholars and Bible students, we hope TPT will bring the joys of new discoveries from the text and prompt deeper consideration of what God has spoken to his people. We all have so much more to learn and discover about God in his holy Word!

You will notice at times we’ve italicized certain words or phrases. These portions are not in the original Hebrew, Greek, or Aramaic manuscripts but are implied from the context. We’ve made these implications explicit for the sake of narrative clarity and to better convey the meaning of God’s Word. This is a common practice by mainstream translations.

We’ve also chosen to translate certain names in their original Hebrew or Greek forms to better convey their cultural meaning and significance. For instance, some translations of the Bible have substituted James for Jacob and Jude for Judah. Both Greek and Aramaic manuscripts leave these Hebrew names in their original forms. Therefore, this translation uses those cultural names.

The purpose of The Passion Translation is to reintroduce the passion and fire of the Bible to the English reader. It doesn’t merely convey the literal meaning of words. It expresses God’s passion for people and his world by translating the original, life-changing message of God’s Word for modern readers.

We pray this version of God’s Word will kindle in you a burning desire to know the heart of God, while impacting the church for years to come.

Please visit ThePassionTranslation.com for more information.

Brian Simmons and the translation team

JOHN

(return to table of contents)

Introduction • One • Two • Three • Four • Five • Six • Seven • Eight • Nine • Ten • Eleven • Twelve • Thirteen • Fourteen • Fifteen • Sixteen • Seventeen • Eighteen • Nineteen • Twenty • Twenty-One

JOHN

Introduction

AT A GLANCE

Author: The apostle John

Audience: Diaspora Jews and believers.

Date: AD 80–85, though possibly 50–55.

Type of Literature: Ancient historical biography

Major Themes: The person and work of Jesus, salvation, the Holy Spirit, and the end of the age

Outline:

Prologue —1:1–18

The Testimony of John the Baptist — 1:19–51

The New Order in Jesus — 2:1–4:42

Jesus as the Mediator of Life and Judgment — 4:43–5:47

Jesus as the Bread of Life — 6:1–71

Jesus as the Water and Light of Life — 7:1–8:59

Jesus as the Light and Shepherd to Humanity — 9:1–10:42

Jesus as the Resurrection and the Life — 11:1–54

Jesus as the Triumphant King — 11:55–12:50

Jesus’ Ministry to His Disciples before Death — 13:1–17:26

Jesus’ Death and Resurrection — 18:1–20:31

Epilogue — 21:1–25

ABOUT JOHN

How God longs for us to know him! We discover him as we read and study his living Word. But the “Word” is not just dead letters; it’s the Living Expression of God, Jesus Christ. The Word came with skin on as the perfect Man—the One who is the divine self-expression and fullness of God’s glory; he is God in the flesh!

The New Testament, at its beginning, presents four biographies to portray the four primary aspects of this all-glorious Christ. The Gospel of Matthew testifies that he is the King, the Christ of God according to the prophecies of the Old Testament, the One who brings the kingdom of the heavens to earth. The Gospel of Mark presents him as the Love-Slave of God, the perfect servant who labors faithfully for God. Mark’s account is the most simple, for a servant doesn’t need a detailed record. The Gospel of Luke presents a full picture of Christ as the true Man and the compassionate Savior of everyone who comes to him. And the Gospel of John unveils him as the Son of God, the very God himself, to be life to God’s people.

We find miracles everywhere in the Gospel of John! Water became wine. Blind eyes were blessed with sight. Even the dead rose to walk again when Jesus lived among men. Every miracle was a sign to make us wonder about who this man truly is. The Gospel of John brings us a heavenly perspective filled with wonderful revelations in every verse. Nothing in the Bible compares to the writings of John. He was a prophet, a seer, a lover, an evangelist, an author, an apostle, and a son of thunder.

The other three gospels give us the history of Christ, but John writes to unveil the mystery of Christ. Jesus is seen as the sacrificial Lamb of God, the Good Shepherd, the Kind Forgiver, the Tender Healer, the Compassionate Intercessor, and the great I AM. Who can resist this man when he tugs on your heart to come to him? To read John’s Gospel is to encounter Jesus. Make this your goal as you read.

There are three things that are important to remember about John, the author of this Gospel: First, John passionately followed Jesus Christ. He saw the miracles of Jesus firsthand and heard the anointed words he taught. He followed Jesus wholeheartedly, and became one of Christ’s apostolic servants.

Secondly, John described himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 21:7, 20). This does not mean that Jesus loved John more than the others; but rather, John saw himself as one that Jesus loved. You could also say about yourself, “I am the disciple whom Jesus loves!” Every single believer can echo John’s description of himself, for these words must become the true definition of our identity.

Love unlocks mysteries. As we love Jesus, our hearts are unlocked to see more of his beauty and glory. When we stop defining ourselves by our failures, but rather as the one whom Jesus loves, then our hearts begin to open to the breathtaking discovery of the wonder of Jesus Christ. Jesus does not see us in the darkness of our pasts but in the light of our destinies!

And thirdly, it’s important to keep in mind that John did not include everything that Jesus did and taught. In fact, if you put all the data of all four Gospels together and condensed it, we would have information covering merely a few months of Jesus’ life and ministry! We are only given snapshots, portions of what Jesus taught, and accounts of a few of the miracles he performed. From his birth to the age of twelve, we know virtually nothing about his life; and from the age of twelve until he began his public ministry at thirty, we again have almost no information given to us about him in any of the Gospels. John summarizes his incomplete account in the last verse of his Gospel:

Jesus did countless things that I haven’t included here. And if every one of his works were written down and described one by one, I suppose that the world itself wouldn’t have enough room to contain the books that would have to be written! —John 21:25

John gives us the fourth Gospel, which corresponds to the fourth living creature mentioned in the book of Revelation—the flying eagle. This eagle brings before our hearts Christ as the One who came from heaven and reveals heaven’s reality to those who love him. In Dan. 3:25, it was the fourth man walking in the fire who was in the form of the Son of God. This fourth man revealed in the fourth Gospel is the One who on the fourth day put the sun into the sky (Gen. 1:14–16).

According to Tertullian, one of the church fathers, John was plunged in burning oil in front of a massive crowd that had filled the Roman Coliseum in order to silence his ministry. But God was not yet finished with his aged apostle. Tertullian reported that John came out of the burning caldron alive and unharmed! This miracle resulted in the mass conversion to Christ of nearly all who witnessed it. John was later banished to the island of Patmos where he wrote the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

The translators dedicate The Passion Translation of John to every faithful evangelist and preacher of the gospel. You are a gift to the world and through your ministry, you have helped to bring millions of souls into the kingdom of God. We are forever grateful to God for your lives and your message.

You can trust every word you read from John, for he speaks the truth. His Gospel will take you into a higher glory where Jesus now sits exalted at the right hand of God. As John’s Gospel unveils Jesus before your eyes, enter into the great magnificence of his presence and sit enthroned with him. Your life will never be the same after absorbing the glory presented to you in the book of John.

PURPOSE

The Gospel of John is all about the beautiful Christ. John tells us why he wrote this amazing book:

Jesus went on to do many more miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not even included in this book. But all that is recorded here is so that you will fully believe that Jesus is the Anointed One, the Son of God, and that through your faith in him you will experience eternal life by the power of his name! — John 20:30–31

John wrote with a twofold purpose: he’s writing to nonbelievers, mostly Jews but also gentiles, to believe that Jesus is the One through whom they will find and experience eternal life; he’s also writing to believers that they would more fully believe the same, to experience the fullness of that life by Jesus’ powerful name.

The word believe is found nearly one hundred times in John. It is the Gospel of believing! We believe that Jesus Christ is the Living Expression of God and the Light of the World. He is the Savior, the King, the true Anointed One, the Living Bread, and the Loving Shepherd. This is why we continue to teach and preach from this magnificent, authoritative book: that people might have faith and grow in their faith. The Gospel of John reveals these living truths to us.

AUTHOR AND AUDIENCE

Many believe that John penned this Gospel about AD 80–85. However, the Dead Sea Scrolls hint at an earlier date as early as AD 50–55, since some of the verses found in the Dead Sea Scrolls are nearly identical to verses found in John’s Gospel. The earlier date, though contested by some, seems to be more likely. Why would John wait to write and share the good news of Jesus? It seems likely that John wrote his Gospel prior to AD 66 when the Roman war with Jews began, for he mentions the Temple as still standing and the pool, which “has” (not “had”) five porticos. The Roman army destroyed all of these during the Roman war of AD 67–70.

Jesus called John to follow him while John was mending a net, which seems to point to the focus of his ministry. John’s message “mends” the hearts of men and brings healing to the body of Christ through the revelation he brings us.

There is an interesting possibility that both Jacob (James) and John (sons of Zebedee) were actually cousins of Jesus. By comparing Matt. 27:56 to Mark 15:40–41, we learn that Zebedee’s wife was Salome. And Salome was believed to be the younger sister of Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus, which would make her sons, Jacob and John, cousins of Jesus.

MAJOR THEMES

The Person of Jesus as God. Of all the major themes in John’s gospel, the question of “Who is Jesus?” lies at its heart, especially when it comes to distinguishing it from the other three Gospels. For John, Jesus is the Son of God. He does only the things that God the Father tells and shows him to say and do (5:19). Jesus is God’s unique Messenger, who claims to be God and yet submits to God. Through Jesus’ obedience and dependence upon the Father, he becomes the center for disclosing the very words and deeds of God himself. Thus, the Gospel of John is as much about God as it is about Jesus!

The Work of Jesus in Salvation. John makes it clear that God the Father is the one who alone initiates human salvation. The one who bears the Father’s salvation is the Son. Jesus is the Lamb of God, come to take away the sins of the world—which means we need him to save us from those sins. He is the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. He is also the Bread of Life, the Light of the World, the Way, the Truth, and the Life—all names that point to the salvation found in Jesus.

Faith features prominently in John’s gospel, calling people to make a decision and confirm it by walking in the truth. More importantly, John teaches that such a decision merely reveals what God himself is doing in those who will eventually become his children—saving them through Jesus!

The Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God fills the pages of John in the way he fills the other gospels: the Spirit is given to Jesus at baptism; Jesus will baptize his people in this Spirit; Jesus is uniquely endowed with the Spirit; as the only one who has and gives the Spirit, Jesus shows us the characteristics of him. Above all, in this Gospel John connects the gift of the Holy Spirit to the people of God with the death and exaltation of the Son. We have come to know the precious doctrine of the Trinity in and through much of John!

The People of God. One of the major themes of John’s gospel actually draws on the Old Testament: the formation of a people, a community that will embody and carry forth Jesus’ mission. The community of God’s people we call the disciples begins with a sort of commissioning, where Jesus breathes upon them, marking them as his new creation people. The act of breathing upon them recalls the original creation of the first human when God blew his breath into Adam. And like Moses’ farewell address in Deuteronomy, Jesus addresses his followers (see chs. 13–17) to fulfill his redemptive purposes.

Believing in Jesus. The fact of the glorious life of Jesus Christ must lead us to faith in him. The word faith is found about forty times in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but not once in John. Instead John uses “believe,” a verb. He prefers to describe an action, not a state of mind or thinking. It is the Greek word pisteuo—believe! The claims of Christ on our lives require that we believe in who he is and what he has done. John speaks of this “believing” ninety-two times. For John, pisteuo means embracing Jesus and laying our lives on the words and deeds given to us by the Jewish Messiah. It means doing what he says.

Eternal Life Now and Later. As with the other gospels, John oriented his around the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus—the purpose of which is that humanity might have life—eternal life in the age to come, while experiencing a taste of it right now. Everlasting, unending life in this ultimate age is a gift God gives freely to people who believe in the redemption of Christ; the alternative is judgment. But this reality isn’t merely for later, it’s also for now; eternal life is both already and not yet. John emphasizes the present enjoyment of this eternal life and its blessings. But he also makes it plain Jesus will return to gather to himself his own to the dwelling he’s prepared for them (14:2–3).

JOHN

Eternal Love

The Living Expression

1In the beginninga the Living Expressionb was already there.

And the Living Expression was with God, yet fully God.c

2They were together—face-to-face,d in the very beginning.e

3And through his creative inspiration

this Living Expression made all things,f

for nothing has existence apart from him!

4A fountain of life was in him,g

for his life is light for all humanity.h

5And this Light never fails to shine through darkness—

Light that darkness could not overcome!i

6Suddenly a man appeared who was sent from God,

a messenger named John.j

7For he came as a witness, to point the way to the Light of Life,

and to help everyone believe.

8John was not that Light but he came to show who is.

For he was merely a messenger to speak the truth about the Light.

9For the perfect Light of Truthk was coming into the world

and shine upon everyone.l

10He entered into the world he created,

yet the world was unaware.m

11He came to the people he createdn—

to those who should have received him,

but they did not recognize him.

12But those who embraced him and took hold of his nameo

he gave authority to become

the children of God!

13He was not born by the joining of human parentsp

or from natural means,q or by a man’s desire,

but he was born of God.r

14And so the Living Expression

became a mans and lived among us!t

We gazed upon his glory,u

the glory of the One and Onlyv

who came from the Father overflowing

with tender mercyw and truth!

15John announced the truth about him

when he taught the people,

“He’s the One!

He’s the One I’ve been telling you would come after me,

even though he ranks far above me,

because he existed before I was even born.”x

16And from the overflow of his fullness

we receivedy grace heaped upon more grace!z

17Moses gave us the Law, but Jesus, the Anointed One,

unveils truth wrapped in tender mercy.aa

18No one ever before gazed upon the full splendor of God

except his uniquely beloved Son,

who is cherished by the Fatherab

and held close to his heart.

Now that he has come to us, he has unfoldedac

the full explanation of who God truly is!

The Ministry of John the Baptizer

19Now this was John’s testimony when some of the Jewish leadersad sent an entourage of priests and temple servantsae from Jerusalem to interrogate him. “Who are you?” they asked him.

20John answered them directly, saying, “I am not the Messiah!”

21“Then who are you?” they asked. “Are you Elijah?”

“No,” John replied.

So they pressed him further, “Are you the prophet Moses said was coming, the one we’re expecting?”af

“No,” he replied.

22“Then who are you?” they demanded. “We need an answer for those who sent us. Tell us something about yourself—anything!”

23John answered them, “I am an urgent, thunderous voice crying out in the desert—clear the way and prepare your hearts for the coming of the Lord Yahweh!”ag

24Then some members of the religious sect known as the Phariseesah questioned John, 25“Why do you baptize the people if you are neither the Messiah, Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

26–27John answered them, “I baptize the people in this river, but the One who will take my place is to be more honored than I,ai but even when he stands among you, you will not recognize or embrace him! I am not worthy enough to stoop down in front of him and untie his sandals!” 28All these events took place at Bethany,aj where John was baptizing at the place of the crossing of the Jordan River.ak

The Lamb of God

29The very next day, John saw Jesus coming to him to be baptized, and John cried out, “Look! There he is—God’s Lamb!al He takes awayam the sin of the entire world!an30I told you that a Mighty Oneao would come who is far greater than I am, because he existed long before I was born! 31My baptism was for the preparation of his appearing to Israel, even though I didn’t recognize him.”

32Then, as he baptized Jesus, he proclaimed these words: “I see the Spirit of God appear like a dove descending from the heavenly realm and landing upon him—and it remained on him!ap33Before this I didn’t know who he was. But the one who sent me to baptize with water had told me, ‘You will see the Spirit come down and stay on someone. He will be the One I have sent to baptize with the Holy Spirit.’aq34Now I have seen this happen and I can tell you for sure that this man is the Son of God.”ar

Jesus’ First Followers

35–36