Further Conflict Over Jesus’ Claims
22 Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter,
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and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade.
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The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
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Jesus answered,
“I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me,
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but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.
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My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
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I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.
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My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all ; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.
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I and the Father are one.”
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Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him,
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but Jesus said to them,
“I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”
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“We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”
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Jesus answered them,
“Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods” ’ ?
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If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside—
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what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’?
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Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father.
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But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”
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Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.
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Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days. There he stayed,
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and many people came to him. They said, “Though John never performed a sign, all that John said about this man was true.”
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And in that place many believed in Jesus.