1 In the beginning was the Word,* and the Word was with God,* God. In verse 2 the Text also has "the God". and the Word was God.* 2 He Himself existed in the beginning with God. 3 All things came to be by Him; that is, apart from Him not even one thing that has come into being came to be.* 4 In Him was life, and the Life was the Light of mankind.* walk in the darkness but will have the Light of the Life." Only as we participate in the Life that Christ offers do we have access to the Light. Without His Life we walk in the darkness. 5 Now the Light shines in the darkness,* and the darkness has not overcome it.*

6 There was a man, sent from God, whose name was John. 7 This man came as a witness to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the Light but was to testify about the Light— 9 the true Light which illumines everyone who comes into the world.* 10 He was in the world, the world that came into being by Him, yet the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own things, yet His own people did not receive Him. 12 But, as many as did receive Him,* to them He gave the right to become children of God,* one by receiving Christ. Presumably ‘receiving’ is a conscious act. Each of my two children did this when four years old. to those who believe into His name:*’ (Greek εν) Jesus or His name; always it reads ‘believe into’ (Greek εις). People believe in Santa Claus, the Easter bunny, the goodness of man, or whatever, but it makes no difference in their lives. Many millions of people say they ‘believe in Jesus’, but it makes no difference in their lives either. You have to believe into Him—commitment and identification are involved, that go along with the change in location, from being outside to being inside. As Jesus Himself said in John 6:53-56, you have to "eat" His flesh and "drink" His blood. If you eat something your body assimilates it, it becomes part of you. 13 who were begotten, not by blood, nor by the desire of the flesh, nor by the will of a man,* relationship between them. but by God.*

14 So the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we observed His glory, glory of an Only-begotten,* from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 John testified about Him and called out saying: "This is He of whom I said, ‘The One coming after me is now ahead of me, because He existed before I did.’ " 16 Now we have all received from His fullness, yes, grace upon grace. 17 Because the Law was given through Moses;* the Grace and the Truth came through Jesus Christ.* 18 No one has ever seen God. The Only-begotten Son,*"—this alternative has appealed to many evangelicals who see in it a strong affirmation of the deity of Christ. But if the God-part of the Christ was begotten in the womb of the virgin Mary, then He is not eternally preexistent; and in that event Christ could not be God the Son, one of the three persons of the Trinity. Notice the precision in Isaiah 9:6—"unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given." Jehovah the Son was given, not born. Notice further that the context is about the Incarnation, not the Son's eternal preexistence. But in any case, why follow seven manuscripts of demonstrably inferior quality against 1,700 better ones? The original and therefore true reading is certainly "the only begotten Son". who exists in the bosom of the Father, He has interpreted Him.* shows us who the Father really is. As Jesus said to Philip, "He who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9).

19 Now this is John's testimony, when the Jews* sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" 20 He confessed, he did not deny but confessed, "I am not the Christ."* 21 So they asked him, "What then, are you Elijah?" And he says, "I am not."* "Are you ‘the Prophet’?"* "No," he answered. 22 So they said to him: "Who are you?—so that we may give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?" 23 He said, "I am ‘the voice of one calling out: "Make the Lord's road straight in the wilderness," ’ just as the prophet Isaiah said."*

24 Now those who had been sent were from the Pharisees. 25 So they asked him saying, "Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor ‘the Prophet’?" 26 John answered them saying: "I baptize with water, but among you stands One whom you do not know. 27 He is the One coming after me who is now ahead of me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose." 28 These things happened in Bithabara,*, many Bible maps place ‘Bethabara’ near Jericho, on the west side of the river, but the Text states plainly that it was "across the Jordan" (=on the east side). A combination of such maps plus the true reading sets up an apparent contradiction or error in the text, which is actually in the map. across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

29 The next day John sees Jesus coming toward him and says: "Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!* 30 This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who is now ahead of me, because He existed before I did.’* 31 I did not know Him; but so that He should be revealed to Israel, that is why I came baptizing with water."

32 And John testified saying: "I observed the Spirit coming down like a dove out of heaven, and He rested upon Him.* 33 Now I did not know Him,* but He who sent me to baptize with water, He said to me,* ‘The One upon whom you see the Spirit coming down and resting—this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’* will give him will never ever thirst; rather, the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up into eternal life’ " (4:13-14). "Jesus stood up and called out saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. The one believing into me, just as the Scripture has said, out from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’ (Now He said this about the Spirit, whom those believing into Him were going to receive, in that the Holy Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.)" (7:37-39). In other words, when Jesus baptizes you, you are regenerated, you receive a new nature, you receive the Holy Spirit. 34 So I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God."* Son of God" (actually, ‘the Son of the God’), which here probably means that there is only one. John clearly identifies and presents the Messiah to the populace. He performed his office.

35 Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples. 36 And seeing Jesus walking by, he says, "Look, the Lamb of God!" 37 The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. 38 So turning and observing them following* Jesus says to them, "What do you want?" So they said to Him, "Rabbi" (which translated means ‘Teacher’), "where are You staying?" 39 He says to them, "Come and see." So they went and saw where He was staying, and stayed with Him that day—it was about the tenth hour.* 40 One of the two who heard John and followed Him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. 41 He first finds his own brother Simon and says to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated ‘Christ’). 42 And he led him to Jesus. Looking at him Jesus said, "You are Simon, the son of Jonah;* son of Jonah". Since Peter obviously had at least one brother, he was not an only son. Perhaps we should understand that Peter was the firstborn. Perhaps 0.5% of the Greek manuscripts (of objectively inferior quality) read "John" for "Jonah" (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.). you will be called Cephas" (which is translated ‘Stone’).*

43 The next day He decided to go to Galilee, so He finds Philip* and says to him, "Follow me." 44 (Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter.) 45 Philip finds Nathanael and says to him, "We have found the One of whom Moses in the Law—and also the prophets—wrote: Jesus the son of Joseph, from Natsareth."* 46 So Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Natsareth?" Philip says to him, "Come and see!"*

47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him and says about him, "There, a genuine Israelite in whom there is no deceit!" 48 Nathanael says to Him, "From where do You know me?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, while you were under the fig tree, I saw you." 49 In answer Nathanael says to Him: "Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!"* 50 Jesus answered and said to him: "You believe because I said that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater than these."* 51 And He says to him, "I tell you (pl) most assuredly, later on you will see the heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of the Man."*", but used the plural, "ye", about seeing the heaven opened. "The Son of the Man" appears to be a phrase coined by the Lord Jesus to refer to Himself; the Text does say "the son of the man", which does not make very good sense in English, at first glance, but if "the man" refers to pristine Adam and "the son" to an only pristine descendant, it makes great sense. It seems to indicate a perfect human prototype, like Adam was before the fall—the human side of the God-man.