Speaking with the Pharisees, Jesus again and again tries to explain to them who He is and why He came into the world. But it was not easy for them to understand Him, because they wanted not testimony but proofs, formal proofs of the kind required from witnesses in an ordinary earthly court over ordinary everyday matters. Jesus speaks to them about the life that He can give to everyone who is ready to believe Him (v. 12), and in response He hears: where are Your witnesses? And if there are no witnesses, how can we believe You (v. 13)? In answering those who question Him, Jesus tries to speak with them in their own language. He says: there are two witnesses, I and the Father (vv. 16-17).

But such language does not change the essence of the matter: in order to believe Jesus, one needs not legal proofs but simply the ability to see the situation with spiritual sight. One need only understand who Jesus is, where He came from and where He is going, but this cannot be done by relying only on formal legal procedures, even if they are based on the norms of the Torah (v. 14). You, Jesus says to the Pharisees, evaluate (“judge”) everyone only by external, formal criteria (“according to the flesh”); I, He says of Himself, evaluate no one (v. 15). In this way Jesus lets His interlocutors understand that it is pointless to measure His ministry and testimony by earthly measures and formal criteria, for the Kingdom does not fit within any human framework. And Jesus Himself too, according to His own words, judges no one: as can be seen, He did not come into the world for that. His goal was to free people from the sin from which otherwise they would never be freed, and the question of accepting or not accepting Jesus therefore becomes a question of life and death both for those who accept and for those who reject (vv. 21-24).

And although, as can be seen, the listeners still did not fully understand the Savior (vv. 25-27), among them there were many whom Jesus’ words convinced and who believed Him (v. 30). Apparently a division took place among those present between those who were ready to disregard the opinion of the majority and of religious authorities for the sake of the Kingdom, and those who preferred not to risk it. A division between those who seek the Kingdom and those who are ready to live as before, remaining with their religion.

"Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water." Bishop Cassian, in his foundational work on the Gospel of John ("By Water and Blood and Spirit") says that this is not the only possible translation. If the punctuation were different (and there are grounds for this), the phrase would mean that the water will flow from Jesus' belly. Each version has its supporters and opponents, but the bishop himself leans toward the second.

But what should we do - people not trained in philology? We can look at this from the standpoint that the history of the Word of God carries within itself not only the original truth about what was spoken by the Lord, but also a particular kind of truth, even if scientifically inaccurate, because the Spirit descends on everyone.

If this is so, perhaps it is worth looking at both translations at the same time. Of course, the second translation draws to itself the story of the Samaritan woman, and in that it is unquestionably true: only the Lord gives living water. And yet a person can become a conduit of this living water, and in this sense becomes a "secondary source" himself, to use the terminology of the theory of diffraction of light. And precisely in the fact that a person can become a source of the Spirit lies the meaning of today's feast - the Day of the Holy Trinity. This is astonishing and inexplicable, but it is so. Therefore the former translation is still important to us, even if it is not entirely correct from a scientific point of view; or rather, it would be more accurate to say that both translations are precious to us.

Jesus and the Pharisees who listen to Him have different ideas of what testimony is. The issue is not that they want human testimony while He speaks of God's testimony. The problem, rather, is that the people listening to Jesus, who are quite sincere religious people, want external testimony where testimony is possible only as something internal. The Pharisees are religious people who observe the Torah, and they demand from Jesus proofs of His messiahship, or at least of the truth of His testimony, in the same way they might demand testimony of the same kind in court on some accusation.

The logic is simple: present us reliable witnesses that You are telling the truth and really have the right to do what You do and say what You say. Testimony is required, certification, but strictly formal and external. And in this case it is impossible: Jesus brought into the world something that cannot be proved by external testimony alone, and this is exactly what those demanding proof from Him cannot understand - or simply do not want to understand.

This is not surprising: after all, we are speaking about religious people. They need proofs of the corresponding kind - proofs that fit within religious frames. But there proofs can only be external. For any religion is an external thing, a kind of tool originally developed for establishing relations with higher powers - and for verifying those relations. But precisely with God there can be no purely external relations, and no verification is possible here. One might just as well try to prove friendship or love: one can bear witness to both, but prove them...

If he wishes, a skeptic or cynic will always object that this is not friendship or love at all, but simply self-interest or attraction to a partner, and nothing can be proved on the external level, only from within, where certainty about the spiritual authenticity of the relationship lives. So it is with God: proof can be found only within, in one's own heart, and in no other way. But this is no longer religion; it is a relationship with God, one that fits into no religious frames and cannot be proved in any way inside those frames.