8:2 At dawn he went to the temple again, and all the people were coming to him. He sat down and began to teach them.
8:3 Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, making her stand in the center.
8:4 “Teacher,” they said to him, “this woman was caught in the act of committing adultery.
8:5 In the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?”
8:6 They asked this to trap him, in order that they might have evidence to accuse him. Jesus stooped down and started writing on the ground with his finger.
8:7 When they persisted in questioning him, he stood up and said to them, “The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her.”
8:8 Then he stooped down again and continued writing on the ground.
8:9 When they heard this, they left one by one, starting with the older men. Only he was left, with the woman in the center.
8:10 When Jesus stood up, he said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
8:11 “No one, Lord,” she answered. “Neither do I condemn you,” said Jesus. “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.” ]
8:12 Jesus spoke to them again: “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”
8:13 So the Pharisees said to him, “You are testifying about yourself. Your testimony is not valid.”
8:14 “Even if I testify about myself,” Jesus replied, “my testimony is true, because I know where I came from and where I’m going. But you don’t know where I come from or where I’m going.
8:15 You judge by human standards. I judge no one.
8:16 And if I do judge, my judgment is true, because it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.
8:17 Even in your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true.
8:18 I am the one who testifies about myself, and the Father who sent me testifies about me.”
8:19 Then they asked him, “Where is your Father?” “You know neither me nor my Father,” Jesus answered. “If you knew me, you would also know my Father.”
8:20 He spoke these words by the treasury, while teaching in the temple. But no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come.
8:21 Then he said to them again, “I’m going away; you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I’m going, you cannot come.”
8:22 So the Jews said again, “He won’t kill himself, will he, since he says, ‘Where I’m going, you cannot come’ ?”
8:23 “You are from below,” he told them, “I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.
8:24 Therefore I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.”
8:25 “Who are you?” they questioned. “Exactly what I’ve been telling you from the very beginning,” Jesus told them.
8:26 “I have many things to say and to judge about you, but the one who sent me is true, and what I have heard from him—these things I tell the world.”
8:27 They did not know he was speaking to them about the Father.
8:28 So Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own. But just as the Father taught me, I say these things.
8:29 The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what pleases him.”
8:30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him.
8:31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples.
8:32 You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
8:33 “We are descendants of Abraham,” they answered him, “and we have never been enslaved to anyone. How can you say, ‘You will become free’ ?”
8:34 Jesus responded, “Truly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.
8:35 A slave does not remain in the household forever, but a son does remain forever.
8:36 So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free.
8:37 I know you are descendants of Abraham, but you are trying to kill me because my word has no place among you.
8:38 I speak what I have seen in the presence of the Father; so then, you do what you have heard from your father.”
8:39 “Our father is Abraham,” they replied. “If you were Abraham’s children,” Jesus told them, “you would do what Abraham did.
8:40 But now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do this.
8:41 You’re doing what your father does.” “We weren’t born of sexual immorality,” they said. “We have one Father—God.”
8:42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, because I came from God and I am here. For I didn’t come on my own, but he sent me.
8:43 Why don’t you understand what I say? Because you cannot listen to my word.
8:44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.
8:45 Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.
8:46 Who among you can convict me of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me?
8:47 The one who is from God listens to God’s words. This is why you don’t listen, because you are not from God.”
8:48 The Jews responded to him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you’re a Samaritan and have a demon?”
8:49 “I do not have a demon,” Jesus answered. “On the contrary, I honor my Father and you dishonor me.
8:50 I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks it and judges.
8:51 Truly I tell you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”
8:52 Then the Jews said, “Now we know you have a demon. Abraham died and so did the prophets. You say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’
8:53 Are you greater than our father Abraham who died? And the prophets died. Who do you claim to be?”
8:54 “If I glorify myself,” Jesus answered, “my glory is nothing. My Father—about whom you say, ‘He is our God’—he is the one who glorifies me.
8:55 You do not know him, but I know him. If I were to say I don’t know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I keep his word.
8:56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.”
8:57 The Jews replied, “You aren’t fifty years old yet, and you’ve seen Abraham?”
8:58 Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.”
8:59 So they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus was hidden and went out of the temple.
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