John 8:1-27

Easy-to-Read Version

8 Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. ² Early in the morning he went back to the Temple area. The people all came to him, and he sat and taught them.

³ The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought a woman they had caught in bed with a man who was not her husband. They forced her to stand in front of the people. ⁴ They said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. ⁵ The Law of Moses commands us to stone to death any such woman. What do you say we should do?”

⁶ They were saying this to trick Jesus. They wanted to catch him saying something wrong so that they could have a charge against him. But Jesus stooped down and started writing on the ground with his finger. ⁷ The Jewish leaders continued to ask him their question. So he stood up and said, “Anyone here who has never sinned should throw the first stone at her.” ⁸ Then Jesus stooped down again and wrote on the ground.

⁹ When they heard this, they began to leave one by one. The older men left first, and then the others. Jesus was left alone with the woman standing there in front of him. ¹⁰ He looked up again and said to her, “Where did they all go? Did no one judge you guilty?”

¹¹ She answered, “No one, sir.”

Then Jesus said, “I don’t judge you either. You can go now, but don’t sin again.”^[a]

Jesus Is the Light of the World

¹² Later, Jesus talked to the people again. He said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never live in darkness. They will have the light that gives life.”

¹³ But the Pharisees said to Jesus, “When you talk about yourself, you are the only one to say that these things are true. So we cannot accept what you say.”

¹⁴ Jesus answered, “Yes, I am saying these things about myself. But people can believe what I say, because I know where I came from. And I know where I am going. But you don’t know where I came from or where I am going. ¹⁵ You judge me the way people judge other people. I don’t judge anyone. ¹⁶ But if I judge, my judging is true, because when I judge I am not alone. The Father who sent me is with me. ¹⁷ Your own law says that when two witnesses say the same thing, you must accept what they say. ¹⁸ I am one of the witnesses who speaks about myself. And the Father who sent me is my other witness.”

¹⁹ The people asked, “Where is your father?”

Jesus answered, “You don’t know me or my Father. But if you knew me, you would know my Father too.” ²⁰ Jesus said these things while he was teaching in the Temple area, near the room where the Temple offerings were kept. But no one arrested him, because the right time for him had not yet come.

Some Jews Don’t Understand Jesus

²¹ Again, Jesus said to the people, “I will leave you. You will look for me, but you will die in your sin. You cannot come where I am going.”

²² So the Jewish leaders asked themselves, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he said, ‘You cannot come where I am going’?”

²³ But Jesus said to them, “You people are from here below, but I am from above. You belong to this world, but I don’t belong to this world. ²⁴ I told you that you would die in your sins. Yes, if you don’t believe that I Am,^[b] you will die in your sins.”

²⁵ They asked, “Then who are you?”

Jesus answered, “I am what I have told you from the beginning. ²⁶ I have much more I could say to judge you. But I tell people only what I have heard from the one who sent me, and he speaks the truth.”

²⁷ They did not understand who he was talking about. He was telling them about the Father.