Study Desk

"What miracle then," they asked, "do you perform for us to see and become believers in you? What do you *do*?

They kept asking, "Is not this man Joseph's son? Is he not Jesus, whose father and mother we know? What does he mean by now saying, `I have come down out of Heaven'?"

It stands written in the Prophets, `And they shall all of them be taught by God'. Every one who listens to the Father and learns from Him comes to me.

Your forefathers ate the manna in the Desert, and they died.

This is the bread which came down out of Heaven; it is unlike that which your forefathers ate--for they ate and yet died. He who eats this bread shall live for ever."

But here he is, speaking openly and boldly, and they say nothing to him! Can the Rulers really have ascertained that this man is the Christ?

"Do you also come from Galilee?" they asked in reply. "Search and see for yourself that no Prophet is of Galilaean origin."

and was teaching them when the Scribes and the Pharisees brought to Him a woman who had been found committing adultery. They made her stand in the centre of the court, and they put the case to Him.

They asked this in order to put Him to the test, so that they might have some charge to bring against Him. But Jesus leant forward and began to write with His finger on the ground.

When however they persisted with their question, He raised His head and said to them, "Let the sinless man among you be the first to throw a stone at her."

They listened to Him, and then, beginning with the eldest, took their departure, one by one, till all were gone. And Jesus was left behind alone--and the woman in the centre of the court.

"We are descendants of Abraham," they answered, "and have never at any time been in slavery to any one. What do those words of yours mean, `You shall become free'?"

Thereupon they took up stones with which to stone Him, but He hid Himself and went away out of the Temple.

And there was a division among them. So again they asked the once blind man, "What is your account of him? --for he opened your eyes." "He is a Prophet," he replied.

The Jews, however, did not believe the statement concerning him--that he had been blind and had obtained his sight--until they called his parents and asked them,

A second time therefore they called the man who had been blind, and said, "Give God the praise: we know that that man is a sinner."

Then they railed at him, and said, "You are that man's disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.

"You," they replied, "were wholly begotten and born in sin, and do *you* teach *us*?" And they put him out of the synagogue.

These words were heard by those of the Pharisees who were present, and they asked Him, "Are *we* also blind?"

When he has brought out his own sheep--all of them--he walks at the head of them; and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice.