1 Some time later, Jesus went around from place to place in Galilee country. He knew that the Jewish leaders in Judea country wanted to kill him, so he didn’t want to go south to Judea.

2 The time was coming for the Jewish people to have a week of ceremony, to remember that a long time ago their grand-fathers lived in tents in the desert. They called it the Tents Ceremony, and it was in Jerusalem city, in Judea country.* Leviticus 23:33-34

3-5 Jesus’s brothers didn’t believe that he was the special man that God sent, so they gave him a hard time. They said to him, “You want people to think you are great, right? Well, show everyone what you can do. Don’t hide what you are doing. You have to leave Galilee and come south to Jerusalem city, in Judea, so you can show your followers more of those powerful things you do.”

6 Jesus said, “It’s not yet the right time for me to go to Jerusalem. But you can go any time. 7 The people of this world don’t hate you. But they hate me. I keep on telling them that the things they do are really bad. That is the reason why they hate me. 8 You can go to the ceremony, but I’m not going now. It’s not yet the right time for me to go to Jerusalem.” 9 After Jesus said that, he stayed behind in Galilee. 10 But his brothers went south to the ceremony in Jerusalem.

Then, later on, Jesus went to that Tents Ceremony in Jerusalem too. But he didn’t tell anyone he was going, and he didn’t let anyone see him on the road.

11 At the Tents Ceremony, the Jewish leaders looked for him. They kept on asking the people there, “Where is that man?”

12-13 The people were all frightened of the Jewish leaders, so they didn’t talk loudly about Jesus. But they talked quietly to each other, and they talked about him a lot. Some people said, “He is a good man.”

But other people said, “No. He is just tricking the people.”

14 Half-way through the Tents Ceremony, Jesus went to God’s ceremony house in Jerusalem, and he started to teach the people there. 15 The Jewish leaders got a shock, and said to each other, “How does this man know so much? He has never been to any of our schools.”

16 Jesus told them, “God sent me to you, and he told me to teach these things. They are his words, not mine. 17 If anyone really wants to live God’s way, they will know that those words came from God, and that I did not make them up. 18 Think about this. If somebody wants to make themselves look important, they make up their own stories. But sometimes a boss sends a work-man to give people a message. If that work-man wants people to respect his boss and know that his boss is important, then that work-man doesn’t make up his own story or tell lies. He only tells the true message that he heard. Then the people that listen to him respect the boss that sent him.

19 Listen, Moses gave you God’s law, but you mob don’t follow God’s law. You see, you are trying to kill me.”

20 The people standing there said, “What are you talking about? Nobody is trying to kill you. We reckon you’ve got a bad spirit in you.”

21-24 Jesus said to them, “You saw me do one thing, and now you think I have a bad spirit. You shouldn’t look quickly at something and then make up your mind about it. You have to look at it properly and think about it the right way. I made a man better on our Jewish rest day, so you are angry with me. But you mob do young man operations on baby boys on our rest day. Moses told you to do it 8 days after the baby is born. (But it wasn’t really Moses that gave you that law. It was from our grand-fathers that lived a long time before Moses.) Anyway, if a boy is 8 days old on our rest day, you do that young man operation on that day, even though it is our rest day. So why are you angry with me for making a person better on our rest day?”

25 Some of the people in Jerusalem at that time said, “This is the man that our leaders were trying to kill. 26 But he is teaching out in the open, and they are not trying to stop him. They are not saying anything against him. Maybe he is the Christ, the special man that God promised to send to save us, and our leaders know that he is. 27 But no, that can’t be right. Think about it. Nobody will know where the Christ will come from, but we know the town that this man comes from, so he can’t be the Christ.”

28 Jesus was still teaching in God’s ceremony house, and he knew what those people were saying. So he said out loud, “You think you know me, and you think you know where I come from. But you don’t really know me. Listen. It was not my idea to come here. God is the one that sent me here. He really is the one that sent me. You don’t know him. 29 But I do know him. You see, God sent me here. I came from him, so I know him.”

30 Some of the people wanted to grab Jesus straight away, and take him to court, so the judge might say he has to die. But it wasn’t the right time yet for Jesus to die, so God stopped them, and they didn’t touch him.

31 There were also a lot of people that listened to Jesus and believed in him, and they said, “This man does a lot of powerful things. Nobody will ever do more powerful things than him. So he has to be the Christ, the special man that God promised to send to save us.”

32 The Pharisee mob, that were strong for the Jewish law, and the bosses of the Jewish ceremonies, they heard what the people were saying, so they told some of their work-men to go and grab Jesus. But after the work-men got there, they listened to him too. 33 Jesus kept on teaching the people. He said, “I will only be with you for a little bit longer. Then I will go back to the one that sent me here. 34 You will look for me, but you will not find me. And you can’t come to the place that I am going to.”

35 The Jewish leaders asked each other, “Where will he go so that we can’t find him? Will he go and live with our Jewish countrymen in the country called Greece? Maybe he will start to teach Greek people his story. 36 Just now he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me.’ And he said, ‘You can’t come to the place that I am going to.’ What did he mean?”

37 The last day of the Tents Ceremony was the most important day. Jesus stood up on that day and shouted, “Anyone that is thirsty can come to me and drink.* Leviticus 23:36 38 A long time ago, God told his men to write these words, and they are in God’s book. He wrote,

39 Jesus said “a river of water,” but he was really talking about the Holy Spirit. You see, the Holy Spirit was not there yet. He came after Jesus went back to heaven. That is when God gave the Holy Spirit to everyone that believed in Jesus.

40 Some of the people in the crowd heard his words and said, “This is God’s messenger. He is the one that Moses said will come and tell us God’s message.”

41 Other people said, “We think he is the Christ, the special man that God promised to send to save us. He is the one we have been waiting for.”

But other people said, “No. He can’t be. He comes from Galilee country. But the Christ will not be a Galilee man. 42 God’s book says that he will be from David’s family, and that he will be born in the town called Bethlehem, where David lived, in Judea country.”* 2 Samuel 7:12; Micah 5:2

43 Then the people there argued with each other about Jesus. Some people said, “He is the special man that God promised to send.”

But other people said, “No he isn’t. You’re wrong.” 44 Some people wanted to grab Jesus and put him in jail, but nobody did.

45 Earlier, the bosses of the Jewish ceremonies and the Pharisee mob sent some of their work-men to grab Jesus and bring him to them. But those work-men listened to Jesus, and then they came back without him. The leaders asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him to us?”

46 They said, “That man said really good words. We haven’t heard anyone talk like that before. We couldn’t grab him.”

47 The Pharisee mob said, “What? Has he tricked you too? 48 Think about it. Have any of the Jewish leaders believed in him? No. Or have any of us Pharisee mob believed in him? No. 49 Those people that believe in him, they are just a mob of stupid people. They don’t know God’s law. God will punish them.”

50 One of that Pharisee mob was Nicodemus. Before this time, he was the man that talked to Jesus one night. Nicodemus said to the others,* John 3:1-2 51 “God’s law says that we can’t say a man is guilty until we listen to him and find out more about what he’s been doing.”* Deuteronomy 1:16

52 The others got angry and said, “Why are you talking like that? You are not from Galilee country, so you don’t have to be friendly with that Galilee man. Go and have a look at God’s book. It doesn’t say anything about God getting a man from Galilee to tell his message.”

53 After that, they all went home.