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The Healing at the Pool
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, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda
and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 [4]
Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the
blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5 One who was there had been
an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him
lying there and learned that he had been in this condition
for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me
into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying
to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and
walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and
walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10
and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been
healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry
your mat.”
11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to
me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”
12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you
to pick it up and walk?”
13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for
Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him,
“See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse
may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish
leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.
The Authority of the Son
16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the
Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 17 In
his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his
work to this very day, and I too am working.” 18 For this
reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he
breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own
Father, making himself equal with God.
19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you,
the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he
sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the
Son also does. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him
all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works
than these, so that you will be amazed. 21 For just as the
Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son
gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. 22 Moreover,
the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to
the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son just as they honor
the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor
the Father, who sent him.
24 “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and
believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be
judged but has crossed over from death to life. 25 Very
truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the
dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who
hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so
he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And
he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of
Man.
28 “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when
all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come
out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and
those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.
30 By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and
my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him
who sent me.
Testimonies About Jesus
31 “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not
true. 32 There is another who testifies in my favor, and I
know that his testimony about me is true.
33 “You have sent to John and he has testified to the
truth. 34 Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention
it that you may be saved. 35 John was a lamp that burned and
gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light.
36 “I have testimony weightier than that of John. For
the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very
works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me.
37 And the Father who sent me has himself testified
concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his
form, 38 nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not
believe the one he sent. 39 You study the Scriptures
diligently because you think that in them you possess
eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify
about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
41 “I do not accept glory from human beings, 42 but I
know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in
your hearts. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do
not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name,
you will accept him. 44 How can you believe since you accept
glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes
from the only God?
45 “But do not think I will accuse you before the
Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set.
46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote
about me. 47 But since you do not believe what he wrote, how
are you going to believe what I say?”
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Cults 
Why Did God Permit Sin?
