The Gospel According to John Chapter 3 “Jesus Goes to Jerusalem” RISV

The RISV Version, with updates as new information is learned

Chapter 3 "Jesus Goes to Jerusalem"

1 After this, he, his mother and brothers, and his disciples went down to Capernaum. And they remained there not many days.

 

2 And the Passover of the Judaeans was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And he found those selling oxen, sheep, and doves and money-handlers sitting within the temple.

 

3 And having made a whip of small cords, he drove out from the temple all the sheep and oxen, he poured out the coins of the money-handlers, he toppled the tables, and he said to those selling doves, "Take these from here. Do not make my father's house a trade house"

 

4 His disciples remembered that it is written,

    "Zeal for your house will consume me"

 

5 So the Judaeans responded and said to him, "What sign are you showing us because you do these things?"

 

6 Jesus answered them and said, "Break this temple, and I will raise it within three days."

 

7 So the Judaeans said, "Forty six years ago ended the construction of this temple, and you will raise it within three days?"

 

8 He, however, was speaking about the temple of his body. So when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

 

9 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, many believed in his name, observing his signs that he was doing. But Jesus did not entrust himself to them for he knows all people and because he had no need that anyone might testify about the people; for he knew what was in human nature.

 

10 Now there was a man from the Pharisees, by the name of Nicodemus, a ruler of the Judaeans. He came to him by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you have come as a teacher from God, for no one is able to do these signs that you do, unless God is with him."

 

11 Jesus responded and said to him, "Truly, truly I say to you, if someone is not born from above, he is not able to see the kingdom of God."

 

12 Nicodemus says to him, "How is an old man able to be born? Is he able to enter into his mother's womb a second time and be born?"

 

13 Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, they are not able to enter into the kingdom of God. That which has been born from the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born from the Spirit is spirit.

 

14 Do not marvel that I said to you 'You must be born from above'. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear his voice but you do not know where it comes from and to where it goes; thus is everyone born of the Spirit.

 

15 Nicodemus responded, and said to him, "How can these things be?"

 

16 Jesus answered, and said to him, "You are the teacher of Israel and you don't know these things?

 

17 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak that which we know and testify to what we have seen. And you did not receive our testimony. If I have told you of earthly things and you did not believe, how will you believe if I tell you of heavenly things?

 

18 And no one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of the Man who is in heaven. Just as Moses in the wilderness lifted up the serpent, so too the Son of the Man must be lifted up, so that all believing into Him may have eternal life."

19

For this is how God loved the world

That he gave the one unique Son

So that all believing into Him

Should not perish but may have eternal life

 

For God did not send his Son into the world

That he might judge the world

But that the world might be saved through Him

 

The one believing into Him is not judged

But the one not believing has already been judged

Because he has not believed in the name

of the one unique Son of God

 

Now this is the judgment

 

That the Light has come into the world

And mankind loved the darkness

Rather than the Light

For their deeds were evil

 

For everyone practicing evil hates the Light

And does not come to the Light

So that their works may not be exposed

 

However, the one practicing truth

Comes to the Light

That His works may be known

That have been done in God 

My Thoughts

Side note: Jesus' brothers. 

The use of Psalm 69 here is interesting. If we take a look at the entire Psalm, as quoting a Psalm draws the listener to consider the whole thing, then we see some striking parallels between what David was experiencing and what Jesus was feeling. "What I did not steal must I now restore?" can relate to the way the system of exchange was used to "steal" money from the people, something God did not ask them to do(69:1-4). These wrongs are not hidden from him, he observes them first(69:5). They have made the temple unrecognizable by making it look like a market (69:6-8). "For Zeal... The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me." by these actions, the people that grumble about the system or view it in a negative way will turn that negativity toward Jesus (69:9). The rest is David responding to his pain with fasting and asking to be saved from the 'flood' that sweeps over him, then it turns to asking for action that might sound similar to the destruction of the temple itself, and it ends with praises to God saying that the offspring of his servants will inherit Zion and the land.

When Jesus cleanses the temple here, something he will do again later in his ministry, he is asked what it means. I think the question is hard to translate "Τί σημεῖον δεικνύεις ἡμῖν ὅτι ταῦτα ποιεῖς" (What sign 'show you' 'to us' 'that' these things 'you do'?). Rather than asking for a sign of the things he does, something that could be demanded with "Show us a sign" or "Give us a sign", they ask for an explanation of his actions/the sign he shows them. Even the word for "show you" (δεικνύεις) is a present active, to me suggesting that, combined with "because" (ὅτι) they are talking about something he is doing not something they want him to do.

Jesus' answer to their question, though he doesn't exactly say that what he is doing is a sign, is that if the temple "his body" is broken/unbound/torn down, then in three days he will bring it back or rebuild it. The difference between Λύσατε and ἀπόλλυμι, the first one being the word John uses in John 2:19, is that between death and a severe punishment. This will be important later when Jesus is arrested where it will be about 3 days before he resurrects.

Although. I can see why they might be asking for a sign for the future that they might await. "Tell us something that will prove to us that you are from God, something that you can predict, so that we know what you do is by the will of God." So that when they see the sign he gives for this thing, they will know that God sent him. I left the line a little ambiguous because I can't seem to find a good enough defense for this odd wording.

As it follows, while Jesus was in Jerusalem, he was doing signs and people believed in his name because of them. This gives more credence to the idea that the author is using the celestial images as significant signs from Jesus about what he would do. The first sign is pouring out the water that becomes a sweet nectar and even though he was doing more signs, they were not the same as the 7 that Jesus would fulfill from the Mazzaroth.

While in Jerusalem, Jesus preforms signs observed by the people that believe in his name but he doesn't "entrust" himself to them. This is probably referring to giving away who he really is. He keeps this back because he knows human nature, a phrase identified by the common use of "tō anthrōpō".

After this but while still in Jerusalem, Jesus meets with Nicodemus. While their conversation has been interpreted as Jesus giving the instructions for a future baptism or theosis, it seem to be more about Jesus identifying himself. He's saying that he was born from Mary even though he was already the Ancient One before this and Nicodemus doesn't understand how an old man can be born.

When Jesus tells Nicodemus that one must be born of 'water and the Spirit' he is shifting the conversation on to how Nicodemus must understand what it takes to be part of the kingdom that Jesus brings. When the Israelites were brought out of Egypt, they were brought through water and guided by the Spirit to be a new people born out of Egypt. Nicodemus would be aware of this and connect with what Jesus was saying "earthly things" more than his statements about himself "spiritual things". In order for one to see the kingdom, they have to be born as a new nation guided by the Spirit.

It's long but I left the familiar verses of John 3, that is 16-21, all as one poetic verse. It's no longer part of the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. These are the words of the author and a summary of the conversations from the Baptist to Jesus up to this point

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