The Feeding of the Five Thousand

¹After this, Jesus crossed to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias).

²A large crowd followed Him because they saw the signs He was performing on the sick.

³Then Jesus went up on the mountain and sat down with His disciples.

⁴Now the Jewish Feast of the Passover was near.

⁵When Jesus looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where can we buy bread for these people to eat?”

⁶But He was asking this to test him, for He knew what He was about to do.

⁷Philip answered, “Two hundred denariiwould not buy enough bread for each of them to have a small piece.”

⁸One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him,

⁹“Here is a boy with five barley loaves and two small fish. But what difference will these make among so many?”

¹⁰“Have the people sit down,” Jesus said. Now there was plenty of grass in that place, so the men sat down, about five thousand of them.

¹¹Then Jesus took the loaves and the fish, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted.

¹²And when everyone was full, He said to His disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over, so that nothing will be wasted.”

¹³So they collected them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

¹⁴When the people saw the sign that Jesus had performed,they began to say, “Truly this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”

¹⁵Then Jesus, realizing that they were about to come and make Him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by Himself.

Jesus Walks on Water

¹⁶When evening came, His disciples went down to the sea,

¹⁷got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was already dark, and Jesus had not yet gone out to them.

¹⁸A strong wind was blowing, and the sea grew agitated.

¹⁹When they had rowed about three or four miles,they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the sea—and they were terrified.

²⁰But Jesus spoke up: “It is I; do not be afraid.”

²¹Then they were willing to take Him into the boat, and at once the boat reached the shore where they were heading.

Jesus the Bread of Life

²²The next day, the crowd that had remained on the other side of the sea realized that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not boarded it with His disciples, but they had gone away alone.

²³However, some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks.

²⁴So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor His disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum to look for Him.

²⁵When they found Him on the other side of the sea, they asked Him, “Rabbi, when did You get here?”

²⁶Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, it is not because you saw these signs that you are looking for Me, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.

²⁷Do not work for food that perishes, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on Him God the Father has placed His seal of approval.”

²⁸Then they inquired, “What must we do to perform the works of God?”

²⁹Jesus replied, “The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.”

³⁰So they asked Him, “What sign then will You perform, so that we may see it and believe You? What will You do?

³¹Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

³²Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.

³³For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

³⁴“Sir,” they said, “give us this bread at all times.”

³⁵Jesus answered, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will never thirst.

³⁶But as I stated, you have seen Me and still you do not believe.

³⁷Everyone the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never drive away.

³⁸For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but to do the will of Him who sent Me.

³⁹And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of those He has given Me, but raise them up at the last day.

⁴⁰For it is My Father’s will that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

⁴¹At this, the Jews began to grumble about Jesus because He had said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”

⁴²They were asking, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How then can He say, ‘I have come down from heaven?’”

⁴³“Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus replied.

⁴⁴“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.

⁴⁵It is written in the Prophets: ‘And they will all be taught by God.’Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from Him comes to Me—

⁴⁶not that anyone has seen the Father except the One who is from God; only He has seen the Father.

⁴⁷Truly, truly, I tell you, he who believes has eternal life.

⁴⁸I am the bread of life.

⁴⁹Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died.

⁵⁰This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that anyone may eat of it and not die.

⁵¹I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And this bread, which I will give for the life of the world, is My flesh.”

⁵²At this, the Jews began to argue among themselves, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?”

⁵³So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life in you.

⁵⁴Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

⁵⁵For My flesh is real food, and My blood is real drink.

⁵⁶Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him.

⁵⁷Just as the living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on Me will live because of Me.

⁵⁸This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your fathers, who ate the manna and died, the one who eats this bread will live forever.”

Many Disciples Turn Back

⁵⁹Jesus said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

⁶⁰On hearing it, many of His disciples said, “This is a difficult teaching. Who can accept it?”

⁶¹Aware that His disciples were grumbling about this teaching, Jesus asked them, “Does this offend you?

⁶²Then what will happen if you see the Son of Man ascend to where He was before?

⁶³The Spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.

⁶⁴However, there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray Him.)

⁶⁵Then Jesus said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to Me unless the Father has granted it to him.”

⁶⁶From that time on many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him.

Peter’s Confession of Faith

⁶⁷So Jesus asked the Twelve, “Do you want to leave too?”

⁶⁸Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.

⁶⁹We believe and know that You are the Holy One of God.”

⁷⁰Jesus answered them, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!”

⁷¹He was speaking about Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. For although Judas was one of the Twelve, he was later to betray Jesus.

Jesus Teaches at the Feast

¹After this, Jesus traveled throughout Galilee. He did not want to travel in Judea, because the Jews there were trying to kill Him.

²However, the Jewish Feast of Tabernacleswas near.

³So Jesus’ brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go to Judea, so that Your disciples there may see the works You are doing.

⁴For no one who wants to be known publicly acts in secret. Since You are doing these things, show Yourself to the world.”

⁵For even His own brothers did not believe in Him.

⁶Therefore Jesus told them, “Although your time is always at hand, My time has not yet come.

⁷The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me, because I testify that its works are evil.

⁸Go up to the feast on your own. I am notgoing up to this feast, because My time has not yet come.”

⁹Having said this, Jesus remained in Galilee.

¹⁰But after His brothers had gone up to the feast, He also went—not publicly, but in secret.

¹¹So the Jews were looking for Him at the feast and asking, “Where is He?”

¹²Many in the crowds were whispering about Him. Some said, “He is a good man.”But others replied, “No, He deceives the people.”

¹³Yet no one would speak publicly about Him for fear of the Jews.

¹⁴About halfway through the feast, Jesus went up to the temple courtsand began to teach.

¹⁵The Jews were amazed and asked, “How did this man attain such learning without having studied?”

¹⁶“My teaching is not My own,” Jesus replied. “It comes from Him who sent Me.

¹⁷If anyone desires to do His will, he will know whether My teaching is from God or whether I speak on My own.

¹⁸He who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is a man of truth; in Him there is no falsehood.

¹⁹Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps it. Why are you trying to kill Me?”

²⁰“You have a demon,” the crowd replied. “Who is trying to kill You?”

²¹Jesus answered them, “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed.

²²But because Moses gave you circumcision, you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath (not that it is from Moses, but from the patriarchs.)

²³If a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses will not be broken, why are you angry with Me for making the whole man well on the Sabbath?

²⁴Stop judging by outward appearances, and start judging justly.”

Is Jesus the Christ?

²⁵Then some of the people of Jerusalem began to say, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill?

²⁶Yet here He is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying anything to Him. Have the rulers truly recognized that this is the Christ?

²⁷But we know where this man is from. When the Christ comes, no one will know where He is from.”

²⁸Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “You know Me, and you know where I am from. I have not come of My own accord, but He who sent Me is true. You do not know Him,

²⁹but I know Him, because I am from Him and He sent Me.”

³⁰So they tried to seize Him, but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.

³¹Many in the crowd, however, believed in Him and said, “When the Christ comes, will He perform more signs than this man?”

³²When the Pharisees heard the crowd whispering these things about Jesus, they and the chief priests sent officers to arrest Him.

³³So Jesus said, “I am with you only a little while longer, and then I am going to the One who sent Me.

³⁴You will look for Me, but you will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.”

³⁵At this, the Jews said to one another, “Where does He intend to go that we will not find Him? Will He go where the Jews are dispersed among the Greeks,and teach the Greeks?

³⁶What does He mean by saying, ‘You will look for Me, but you will not find Me,’ and, ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”

Living Water

³⁷On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and called out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.

³⁸Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said: ‘Streams of living water will flow from within him.’”

³⁹He was speaking about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. For the Spirit had not yet been given,because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Division over Jesus

⁴⁰On hearing these words, some of the people said, “This is truly the Prophet.”

⁴¹Others declared, “This is the Christ.”But still others asked, “How can the Christ come from Galilee?

⁴²Doesn’t the Scripture say that the Christ will come from the line of David and from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?”

⁴³So there was division in the crowd because of Jesus.

⁴⁴Some of them wanted to seize Him, but no one laid a hand on Him.

The Unbelief of the Jewish Leaders

⁴⁵Then the officers returned to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring Him in?”

⁴⁶“Never has anyone spoken like this man!” the officers answered.

⁴⁷“Have you also been deceived?” replied the Pharisees.

⁴⁸“Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in Him?

⁴⁹But this crowd that does not know the law—they are under a curse.”

⁵⁰Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who himself was one of them, asked,

⁵¹“Does our law convict a man without first hearing from him to determine what he has done?”

⁵²“Aren’t you also from Galilee?” they replied. “Look into it, and you will see that no prophet comes out of Galilee.”

⁵³Then each went to his own home.

The Parable of the Wicked Tenants

¹Then Jesus began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a wine vat, and built a watchtower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey.

²At harvest time, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect his share of the fruit of the vineyard.

³But they seized the servant, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed.

⁴Then he sent them another servant, and they struck him over the head and treated him shamefully.

⁵He sent still another, and this one they killed.He sent many others; some they beat and others they killed.

⁶Finally, having one beloved son, he sent him to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.

⁷But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’

⁸So they seized the son, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.

⁹What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.

¹⁰Have you never read this Scripture:‘The stone the builders rejectedhas become the cornerstone.

¹¹This is from the Lord,and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

¹²At this, the leaders soughtto arrest Jesus, for they knew that He had spoken this parable against them. But fearing the crowd, they left Him and went away.

Paying Taxes to Caesar

¹³Later, they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to catch Jesus in His words.

¹⁴“Teacher,” they said, “we know that You are honest and seek favor from no one. Indeed, You are impartial and teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay them or not?”

¹⁵But Jesus saw through their hypocrisy and said, “Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a denariusto inspect.”

¹⁶So they brought it, and He asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”“Caesar’s,” they answered.

¹⁷Then Jesus told them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”And they marveled at Him.

The Sadducees and the Resurrection

¹⁸Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and questioned Him:

¹⁹“Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man is to marry his brother’s widow and raise up offspring for him.

²⁰Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died, leaving no children.

²¹Then the second one married the widow, but he also died and left no children. And the third did likewise.

²²In this way, none of the seven left any children. And last of all, the woman died.

²³In the resurrection, then,whose wife will she be? For all seven were married to her.”

²⁴Jesus said to them, “Aren’t you mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?

²⁵When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. Instead, they will be like the angels in heaven.

²⁶But concerning the dead rising, have you not read about the burning bush in the Book of Moses, how God told him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?

²⁷He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”

The Greatest Commandment

²⁸Now one of the scribes had come up and heard their debate. Noticing how well Jesus had answered them, he asked Him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”

²⁹Jesus replied, “This is the most important: ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.

³⁰Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

³¹The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’No other commandment is greater than these.”

³²“Right, Teacher,” the scribe replied. “You have stated correctly that God is One and there is no other but Him,

³³and to love Him with all your heart and with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. This is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

³⁴When Jesus saw that the man had answered wisely, He said, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”And no one dared to question Him any further.

Whose Son Is the Christ?

³⁵While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts,He asked, “How can the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David?

³⁶Speaking by the Holy Spirit, David himself declared:‘The Lord said to my Lord,“Sit at My right handuntil I put Your enemiesunder Your feet.”’

³⁷David himself calls Him ‘Lord.’ So how can He be David’s son?”And the large crowd listened to Him with delight.

Beware of the Scribes

³⁸In His teaching Jesus also said, “Watch out for the scribes. They like to walk around in long robes, to receive greetings in the marketplaces,

³⁹and to have the chief seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets.

⁴⁰They defraud widows of their houses,and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will receive greater condemnation.”

The Widow’s Offering

⁴¹As Jesus was sitting opposite the treasury, He watched the crowd putting money into it. And many rich people put in large amounts.

⁴²Then one poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amounted to a small fraction of a denarius.

⁴³Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more than all the others into the treasury.

⁴⁴For they all contributed out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.”

The LORD Is on My Side

¹Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;His loving devotion endures forever.

²Let Israelsay,“His loving devotion endures forever.”

³Let the house of Aaron say,“His loving devotion endures forever.”

⁴Let those who fear the LORD say,“His loving devotion endures forever.”

⁵In my distress I called to the LORD,and He answered and set me free.

⁶The LORD is on my side;I will not be afraid.What can man do to me?

⁷The LORD is on my side; He is my helper.Therefore I will look in triumph on those who hate me.

⁸It is better to take refuge in the LORDthan to trust in man.

⁹It is better to take refuge in the LORDthan to trust in princes.

¹⁰All the nations surrounded me,but in the name of the LORD I cut them off.

¹¹They surrounded me on every side,but in the name of the LORD I cut them off.

¹²They swarmed around me like bees,but they were extinguished like burning thorns;in the name of the LORD I cut them off.

¹³I was pushed so hard I was falling,but the LORD helped me.

¹⁴The LORD is my strength and my song,and He has become my salvation.

¹⁵Shouts of joy and salvation resound in the tents of the righteous:“The right hand of the LORD performs with valor!

¹⁶The right hand of the LORD is exalted!The right hand of the LORD performs with valor!”

¹⁷I will not die, but I will liveand proclaim what the LORD has done.

¹⁸The LORD disciplined me severely,but He has not given me over to death.

¹⁹Open to me the gates of righteousness,that I may enter and give thanks to the LORD.

²⁰This is the gate of the LORD;the righteous shall enter through it.

²¹I will give You thanks, for You have answered me,and You have become my salvation.

²²The stone the builders rejectedhas become the cornerstone.

²³This is from the LORD,and it is marvelous in our eyes.

²⁴This is the day that the LORD has made;we will rejoice and be glad in it.

²⁵O LORD, save us, we pray.We beseech You, O LORD, cause us to prosper!

²⁶Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.From the house of the LORD we bless you.

²⁷The LORD is God;He has made His light to shine upon us.Bind the festal sacrifice with cordsto the horns of the altar.

²⁸You are my God, and I will give You thanks.You are my God, and I will exalt You.

²⁹Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;His loving devotion endures forever.