Study Desk

"I know Him Myself because I am from Him [I came from His very presence] and it was He [personally] who sent Me."

So they were eager to arrest Him; but no one laid a hand on Him, because His time had not yet come.

"What does this statement of His mean, 'You will look for Me, and will not [be able to] find Me; and where I am, you cannot come'?"

"He who believes in Me [who adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Me], as the Scripture has said, 'From his innermost being will flow continually rivers of living water.'"

And everyone went to his own house.

They said this to test Him, hoping that they would have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and began writing on the ground with His finger.

They listened [to His reply], and they began to go out one by one, starting with the oldest ones, until He was left alone, with the woman [standing there before Him] in the center of the court.

Jesus said these things in the treasury, as He taught in the temple [courtyard]; and no one seized Him, because His time had not yet come.

"I tell the things that I have seen at My Father's side [in His very presence]; so you also do the things that you heard from your father."

They answered, "Abraham is our father." Jesus said to them, "If you are [truly] Abraham's children, then do the works of Abraham and follow his example.

Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father [but He is not], you would love and recognize Me, for I came from God [out of His very presence] and have arrived here. For I have not even come on My own initiative [as self-appointed], but He [is the One who] sent Me.

Yet you do not know Him, but I know Him fully. If I said I did not know Him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know Him and keep His word.

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

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

When He had said this, He spat on the ground and made mud with His saliva, and He spread the mud [like an ointment] on the man's eyes.

So the Pharisees asked him again how he received his sight. And he said to them, "He smeared mud on my eyes, and I washed, and now I see."

However, the Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the man's parents.

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

but as to how he now sees, we do not know; or who has opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him [and stop asking us]; he is of age, he will speak for himself and give his own account of it."

His parents said this because they were afraid of [the leaders of] the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone acknowledged Jesus to be the Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue (excommunicated).