Study Desk

"You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.

and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him. And if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you; but I do know Him, and I follow His word.

And His disciples asked Him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?"

Jesus answered, "It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

When He had said this, He spit on the ground, and made mud from the saliva, and applied the mud to his eyes,

Now it was a Sabbath on the day that Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes.

Then the Pharisees also were asking him again how he received his sight. And he said to them, "He applied mud to my eyes, and I washed, and I see."

The Jews then did not believe it about him, that he had been blind and had received sight, until they called the parents of the very one who had received his sight,

His parents then answered and said, "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind;

but how he now sees, we do not know; or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him; he is of age, he will speak for himself."

His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already reached the decision that if anyone confessed Him to be Christ, he was to be excommunicated from the synagogue.

It was for this reason that his parents said, "He is of age; ask him."

He answered them, "I told you already and you did not listen; why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become His disciples too, do you?"

They spoke abusively to him and said, "You are His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.

"We know that God does not listen to sinners; but if someone is God-fearing and does His will, He listens to him.

"To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep listen to his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

"When he puts all his own sheep outside, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.

"I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

And it was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.

Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about actual sleep.