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- Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter,
- and Jesus was in the temple area walking in Solomon's Colonnade.
- The Jews gathered around him, saying, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly."
- Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father's name speak for me,
- 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.
- I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.
- My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.
- I and the Father are one."
- Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him,
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- but Jesus said to them, "I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?"
- "We are not stoning you for any of these," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God."
- Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said you are gods'?
- If he called them 'gods,' to whom the word of God came--and the Scripture cannot be broken--
- 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 what my Father does.
- But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father."
- Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.
- Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days. Here he stayed
- and many people came to him. They said, "Though John never performed a miraculous sign, all that John said about this man was true."
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- And in that place many believed in Jesus.
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