(Now he said this about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive, for the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.)

Don’t the scriptures say that the Christ is a descendant of David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?”

They replied, “You aren’t from Galilee too, are you? Investigate carefully and you will see that no prophet comes from Galilee!”

But if I judge, my evaluation is accurate, because I am not alone when I judge, but I and the Father who sent me do so together.

(Jesus spoke these words near the offering box while he was teaching in the temple courts. No one seized him because his time had not yet come.)

So the Jewish leaders began to say, “Perhaps he is going to kill himself, because he says, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’”

And the one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do those things that please him.”

“We are descendants of Abraham,” they replied, “and have never been anyone’s slaves! How can you say, ‘You will become free’?”

Jesus answered them, “I tell you the solemn truth, everyone who practices sin is a slave of sin.

The one who belongs to God listens and responds to God’s words. You don’t listen and respond, because you don’t belong to God.”

The Judeans replied, “Aren’t we correct in saying that you are a Samaritan and are possessed by a demon?”

Then the neighbors and the people who had seen him previously as a beggar began saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?”

Now the Jewish religious leaders refused to believe that he had really been blind and had gained his sight until at last they summoned the parents of the man who had become able to see.

They asked the parents, “Is this your son, whom you say was born blind? Then how does he now see?”

He replied, “I do not know whether he is a sinner. I do know one thing – that although I was blind, now I can see.”

We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but if anyone is devout and does his will, God listens to him.

Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, so he found the man and said to him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

Jesus replied, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin, but now because you claim that you can see, your guilt remains.”

When he has brought all his own sheep out, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they recognize his voice.

The Jewish leaders replied, “We are not going to stone you for a good deed but for blasphemy, because you, a man, are claiming to be God.”