Chapter 8

1Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

2Early the next morning, Jesus returned to the Temple. All the people came to him, so he sat down and began teaching them.

3The experts in the Law of Moses and the Pharisees brought him a woman who had been caught committing adultery. They made her stand in front of everyone.

4Trying to trap Jesus, they said, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery.

5In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone women like this to death. So what do you say?”

6They asked this to test him, so they would have grounds to accuse him. But Jesus bent down and wrote on the ground with his finger, taking no notice of them.

7They kept questioning him. At last he straightened up and said, “Whichever one of you has never sinned should be the first to throw a stone at her.”

8Then he bent down again and continued writing on the ground.

9When they heard this, their consciences exposed their guilt. They left one at a time, beginning with the oldest. Jesus was left alone with the woman still standing there.

10Jesus straightened up. Seeing no one but the woman, he asked her, “Where are those people who accused you? Has no one condemned you?”

11“No one, sir,” she answered. Jesus said, “I do not condemn you either. Go, and from now on stop doing what is wrong.”

12Jesus spoke to the people again: “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light that gives life.”

13The Pharisees said to him, “You are speaking as your own witness. Your claim is not valid.”

14Jesus answered, “Even if I speak as my own witness, my claim is valid because I know where I came from and where I am going. But you do not know where I come from or where I am going.

15You judge by merely human standards. I do not judge anyone.

16Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is trustworthy because I am not alone. The Father who sent me is with me.

17Your own Law says that evidence given by two people is valid.

18I speak as a witness about myself, and the Father who sent me also speaks as a witness about me.”

19They asked him, “Where is your father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father too.”

20Jesus said these things while teaching near the Temple treasury. Yet no one arrested him because his appointed time had not yet come.

21Jesus told them again, “I am going away. You will look for me, but you will die still guilty of your sin. You cannot come where I am going.”

22The Jewish leaders said, “He is not going to kill himself, is he? Is that why he says, ‘You cannot come where I am going’?”

23Jesus told them, “You are from below; I am from above. You belong to this world; I do not belong to this world.

24That is why I told you that you will die still guilty of your sins. Unless you believe that I am the one, you will die still guilty of your sins.”

25They asked him, “Who are you?” Jesus replied, “Why do I even speak to you at all?

26I have much to say about you and much to judge. But the one who sent me is truthful, and what I heard from him is what I tell the world.”

27They did not understand that he was speaking to them about the Father.

28So Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man—that is, me—then you will know that I am the one. You will also know that I do nothing on my own, but speak just as the Father taught me.

29The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone because I always do what pleases him.”

30As Jesus said these things, many people came to believe in him.

31Jesus then said to the Jewish people who had believed him, “If you continue to live by my teaching, you are truly my students.

32You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

33They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves to anyone. How can you say that we will become free?”

34Jesus answered them, “I tell you the truth with complete certainty: everyone who keeps doing wrong is a slave to wrongdoing.

35A slave has no permanent place in a household, but a son belongs there forever.

36So if the Son sets you free, you will truly be free.

37I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are trying to kill me because my message finds no room in you.

38I speak about what I have seen in the presence of the Father, and you, in turn, do what you heard from your father.”

39They answered, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus told them, “If you really are Abraham’s children, you would be doing what Abraham did.

40Instead, you are now trying to kill me—a man who has told you the truth I heard from God. Abraham did nothing like that.

41You are doing what your own father does.” They replied, “We were not born from sexual immorality! We have one Father: God.”

42Jesus told them, “If God were your Father, you would love me because I came from God and am here. I did not come on my own; he sent me.

43Why don’t you understand the way I speak? Because you cannot bear to listen to my message.

44You come from your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and has never stood on the side of truth because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature because he is a liar and the father of lies.

45But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.

46Which of you can prove that I am guilty of sin? If I tell the truth, why don’t you believe me?

47Anyone who comes from God listens to God’s words. You do not listen because you do not come from God.”

48The Jewish opponents answered him, “Aren’t we right to say that you are a Samaritan—one of a people opposed to us—and that a demon controls you?”

49Jesus answered, “No demon controls me. I honor my Father, but you dishonor me.

50I am not seeking honor for myself. There is someone who seeks it for me, and he is the judge.

51I tell you the truth with complete certainty: anyone who obeys my teaching will never see death.”

52The Jewish opponents told him, “Now we know that a demon controls you! Abraham died, and so did God’s prophets. Yet you say, ‘Anyone who obeys my teaching will never taste death.’

53Surely you are not greater than our ancestor Abraham, who died? The prophets died too. Who do you make yourself out to be?”

54Jesus answered, “If I honor myself, that honor means nothing. My Father is the one who honors me—the one you say is our God.

55You have not known him, but I know him. If I said that I did not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I obey his word.

56Your ancestor Abraham was overjoyed at the thought of seeing the day of my coming. He saw it and was glad.”

57The Jewish opponents said to him, “You are not even fifty years old, and you have seen Abraham?”

58Jesus told them, “I tell you the truth with complete certainty: before Abraham came into existence, I am.”

59At this, they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus hid himself and left the Temple.