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Then came Hanukkah in Yerushalayim. It was winter,
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and Yeshua was walking around inside the Temple area, in Shlomo's Colonnade.
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So the Judeans surrounded him and said to him, "How much longer are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us publicly!"
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Yeshua answered them, "I have already told you, and you don't trust me. The works I do in my Father's name testify on my behalf,
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but the reason you don't trust is that you are not included among my sheep.
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My sheep listen to my voice, I recognize them, they follow me,
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and I give them eternal life. They will absolutely never be destroyed, and no one will snatch them from my hands.
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My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all; and no one can snatch them from the Father's hands.
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I and the Father are one."
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Once again the Judeans picked up rocks in order to stone him.
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Yeshua answered them, "You have seen me do many good deeds that reflect the Father's power; for which one of these deeds are you stoning me?"
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The Judeans replied, "We are not stoning you for any good deed, but for blasphemy -- because you, who are only a man, are making yourself out to be God [Hebrew: Elohim]."
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Yeshua answered them, "Isn't it written in your Torah, `I have said, "You people are Elohim' "?h
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If he called `elohim' the people to whom the word of Elohim was addressed (and the Tanakh cannot be broken),
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then are you telling the one whom the Father set apart as holy and sent into the world, `You are committing blasphemy,' just because I said, `I am a son of Elohim'?
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"If I am not doing deeds that reflect my Father's power, don't trust me.
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But if I am, then, even if you don't trust me, trust the deeds; so that you may understand once and for all that the Father is united with me, and I am united with the Father."
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One more time they tried to arrest him, but he slipped out of their hands.
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He went off again beyond the Yarden, where Yochanan had been immersing at first, and stayed there.
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Many people came to him and said, "Yochanan performed no miracles, but everything Yochanan said about this man was true."
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And many people there put their trust in him.