John 1:27-50

²⁷He will preach to you after I am gone. He is so important that I am not worthy to serve him as a slave MET by untying his sandals.”

²⁸Those things happened at a place called Bethany, on the east side of the Jordan River, where John was baptizing people.

²⁹The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him. He said to the people, “Look! Here is the man whom God has appointed to be a sacrifice MET, like the lambs that the people of Israel sacrificed! By sacrificing himself he will make it possible for everyone in the world to be no longer guilty for having sinned.

³⁰He is the one about whom I said before, ‘Someone will come later who is more important than I am, since he existed long before me.’

³¹I myself did not previously recognize that he was the Messiah. But now I know who he is, and I have baptized people with water to enable you people of Israel to recognize who he is.”

³²John spoke clearly what God had shown him about Jesus. He said, “I saw God's Spirit as he was descending from heaven in the form of a dove. The Spirit remained on Jesus.

³³I myself did not know previously that he was the Messiah. However, God sent me to baptize people with water, people who said they wanted to turn from their sinful ways. While I was doing that, God told me, ‘The man on whom you will see my Spirit descend and remain is the one who will put the Holy Spirit within you (pl) to truly change your lives.’

³⁴I saw the Spirit descend on him, and I tell you that he is ◄the Son of God/the person who is both God and man►.”

³⁵The next day John was at the same place again ◄with two of us/with two of his disciples►.

³⁶When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look! There is the man God has appointed to be a sacrifice, like the lambs MET the people of Israel have sacrificed!”

³⁷◄When we/those two disciples► heard John say this, we/they went with Jesus.

³⁸Jesus turned around and saw us/them coming behind him. So he asked us/them, “What do you want?” We/They replied, “Teacher, tell us where you are staying, because we want to talk with you.”

³⁹He replied, “Come with me, and you will see where I am staying!” So we/they went with him and saw where he was staying. We/They stayed with him until about 4 o'clock (OR, from about 4 PM until the next day).

⁴⁰◄One of us/One of the two men► who heard what John had said and who went with Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's younger brother.

⁴¹After Andrew left Jesus, the first thing he did was to find his own older brother Simon and say to him, “We have found the Messiah!”

⁴²Then he took Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked intently at him, and then said, “You are Simon. Your father's name is John. You will be given { I will give you} the name Cephas.” Cephas is an Aramaic name that means ❛solid rock❜. It means the same in Greek as the name Peter.

⁴³The next day Jesus decided to leave the Jordan River valley. He went to Galilee district and (OR, on the way there he) found a man named Philip. Jesus said to him, “Come with me!”

⁴⁴Philip and Andrew and Peter were all from Bethsaida town.

⁴⁵Then Philip searched for Nathaniel and found him, and said to him, “We have met the Messiah, the one Moses wrote about! The prophets also prophesied that he would come. He is Jesus, from Nazareth town. His father's name is Joseph.”

⁴⁶Nathaniel replied, “Nazareth? ◄Nothing good can come from such an unimportant place!/Can anything good come from such an unimportant place?► RHQ” Philip replied, “Come and see!”

⁴⁷When Jesus saw Nathaniel approaching, he said about Nathaniel, “Here is an example of a good Israelite! He never deceives anyone!”

⁴⁸Nathaniel asked him, “How do you know what I am like?” Jesus replied, “I saw you before Philip called you, when you were by yourself under the fig tree.”

⁴⁹Then Nathaniel declared, “Teacher, you must be ◄the Son of God/the person who is both God and man►! You are the King of Israel we have been waiting for!”

⁵⁰Jesus replied to him, “You RHQ believe those things about me because I told you I saw you when you were under the fig tree. I was able to see you supernaturally even though I was far away from you. But you will see me do things that are more surprising than that!”