Text -- John 12:26-50 (NET)

12:26 If anyone wants to serve me, he must follow me, and where I am, my servant will be too. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. 12:27 “Now my soul is greatly distressed. And what should I say? ‘Father, deliver me from this hour’? No, but for this very reason I have come to this hour. 12:28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 12:29 The crowd that stood there and heard the voice said that it had thundered. Others said that an angel had spoken to him. 12:30 Jesus said, “This voice has not come for my benefit but for yours. 12:31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. 12:32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 12:33 (Now he said this to indicate clearly what kind of death he was going to die.) 12:34 Then the crowd responded, “We have heard from the law that the Christ will remain forever. How can you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?” 12:35 Jesus replied, “The light is with you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. 12:36 While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become sons of light.” When Jesus had said these things, he went away and hid himself from them.

The Outcome of Jesus’ Public Ministry Foretold

12:37 Although Jesus had performed so many miraculous signs before them, they still refused to believe in him, 12:38 so that the word of Isaiah the prophet would be fulfilled. He said, “Lord, who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” 12:39 For this reason they could not believe, because again Isaiah said, 12:40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, so that they would not see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and turn to me, and I would heal them.” 12:41 Isaiah said these things because he saw Christ’s glory, and spoke about him. 12:42 Nevertheless, even among the rulers many believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they would not confess Jesus to be the Christ, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue. 12:43 For they loved praise from men more than praise from God.

Jesus’ Final Public Words

12:44 But Jesus shouted out, “The one who believes in me does not believe in me, but in the one who sent me, 12:45 and the one who sees me sees the one who sent me. 12:46 I have come as a light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in darkness. 12:47 If anyone hears my words and does not obey them, I do not judge him. For I have not come to judge the world, but to save the world. 12:48 The one who rejects me and does not accept my words has a judge; the word I have spoken will judge him at the last day. 12:49 For I have not spoken from my own authority, but the Father himself who sent me has commanded commanded me what I should say and what I should speak. 12:50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. Thus the things I say, I say just as the Father has told me.”

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Joh 12:26

¹ tn As a third person imperative in Greek, ἀκολουθείτω (akolouqeitw) is usually translated “let him follow me.” This could be understood by the modern English reader as merely permissive, however (“he may follow me if he wishes”). In this context there is no permissive sense, but rather a command, so the translation “he must follow me” is preferred.

² tn Grk “where I am, there my servant will be too.”

NET Notes: Joh 12:27

¹ tn Or “save me.”

² tn Or “this occasion.”

sn Father, deliver me from this hour. It is now clear that Jesus’ hour has come – the hour of his return to the Father through crucifixion, death, resurrection, and ascension (see 12:23). This will be reiterated in 13:1 and 17:1. Jesus states (employing words similar to those of Ps 6:4) that his soul is troubled. What shall his response to his imminent death be? A prayer to the Father to deliver him from that hour? No, because it is on account of this very hour that Jesus has come. His sacrificial death has always remained the primary purpose of his mission into the world. Now, faced with the completion of that mission, shall he ask the Father to spare him from it? The expected answer is no.

³ tn Or “this occasion.”

NET Notes: Joh 12:28

¹ tn Or “from the sky” (see note on 1:32).

² tn “It” is not in the Greek text. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

³ tn “It” is not in the Greek text. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

NET Notes: Joh 12:29

¹ tn “The voice” is not in the Greek text. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

² tn Grk “Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” The direct discourse in the second half of v. 29 was converted to indirect discourse in the translation to maintain the parallelism with the first half of the verse, which is better in keeping with English style.

NET Notes: Joh 12:30

¹ tn Grk “Jesus answered and said.”

² tn Or “for my sake.”

NET Notes: Joh 12:31

¹ sn The ruler of this world is a reference to Satan.

² tn Or “will be thrown out.” This translation regards the future passive ἐκβληθήσεται (ekblhqhsetai) as referring to an event future to the time of speaking.

sn The phrase driven out must refer to Satan’s loss of authority over this world. This must be in principle rather than in immediate fact, since 1 John 5:19 states that the whole world (still) lies in the power of the evil one (a reference to Satan). In an absolute sense the reference is proleptic. The coming of Jesus’ hour (his crucifixion, death, resurrection, and exaltation to the Father) marks the end of Satan’s domain and brings about his defeat, even though that defeat has not been ultimately worked out in history yet and awaits the consummation of the age.

NET Notes: Joh 12:32

¹ tn Grk “all.” The word “people” is not in the Greek text but is supplied for stylistic reasons and for clarity (cf. KJV “all men”).

NET Notes: Joh 12:33

¹ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

NET Notes: Joh 12:34

¹ tn Grk “Then the crowd answered him.”

² tn Or “the Messiah” (Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “one who has been anointed”).

sn See the note on Christ in 1:20.

³ tn Probably an allusion to Ps 89:35-37. It is difficult to pinpoint the passage in the Mosaic law to which the crowd refers. The ones most often suggested are Ps 89:36-37, Ps 110:4, Isa 9:7, Ezek 37:25, and Dan 7:14. None of these passages are in the Pentateuch per se, but “law” could in common usage refer to the entire OT (compare Jesus’ use in John 10:34). Of the passages mentioned, Ps 89:36-37 is the most likely candidate. This verse speaks of David’s “seed” remaining forever. Later in the same psalm, v. 51 speaks of the “anointed” (Messiah), and the psalm was interpreted messianically in both the NT (Acts 13:22, Rev 1:5, 3:14) and in the rabbinic literature (Genesis Rabbah 97).

⁴ tn Grk “And how”; the conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has been left untranslated here for improved English style.

NET Notes: Joh 12:35

¹ tn Grk “Then Jesus said to them.”

² tn Grk “Yet a little while the light is with you.”

³ sn The warning Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you operates on at least two different levels: (1) To the Jewish people in Jerusalem to whom Jesus spoke, the warning was a reminder that there was only a little time left for them to accept him as their Messiah. (2) To those later individuals to whom the Fourth Gospel was written, and to every person since, the words of Jesus are also a warning: There is a finite, limited time in which each individual has opportunity to respond to the Light of the world (i.e., Jesus); after that comes darkness. One’s response to the Light decisively determines one’s judgment for eternity.

NET Notes: Joh 12:36

¹ tn The idiom “sons of light” means essentially “people characterized by light,” that is, “people of God.”

sn The expression sons of light refers to men and women to whom the truth of God has been revealed and who are therefore living according to that truth, thus, “people of God.”

NET Notes: Joh 12:37

¹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Or “done.”

NET Notes: Joh 12:38

¹ tn Or “message.”

² tn Grk “who said.”

³ tn “The arm of the Lord” is an idiom for “God’s great power” (as exemplified through Jesus’ miraculous signs). This response of unbelief is interpreted by the author as a fulfillment of the prophetic words of Isaiah (Isa 53:1). The phrase ὁ βραχίων κυρίου (Jo braciwn kuriou) is a figurative reference to God’s activity and power which has been revealed in the sign-miracles which Jesus has performed (compare the previous verse).

⁴ sn A quotation from Isa 53:1.

NET Notes: Joh 12:39

¹ sn The author explicitly states here that Jesus’ Jewish opponents could not believe, and quotes Isa 6:10 to show that God had in fact blinded their eyes and hardened their heart. This OT passage was used elsewhere in the NT to explain Jewish unbelief: Paul’s final words in Acts (28:26-27) are a quotation of this same passage, which he uses to explain why the Jewish people have not accepted the gospel he has preached. A similar passage (Isa 29:10) is quoted in a similar context in Rom 11:8.

NET Notes: Joh 12:40

¹ tn Or “closed their mind.”

² tn Or “their mind.”

³ tn One could also translate στραφῶσιν (strafwsin) as “repent” or “change their ways,” but both of these terms would be subject to misinterpretation by the modern English reader. The idea is one of turning back to God, however. The words “to me” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.

⁴ sn A quotation from Isa 6:10.

NET Notes: Joh 12:41

¹ tn Grk “his”; the referent (Christ) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The referent supplied here is “Christ” rather than “Jesus” because it involves what Isaiah saw. It is clear that the author presents Isaiah as having seen the preincarnate glory of Christ, which was the very revelation of the Father (see John 1:18; John 14:9).

sn Because he saw Christ’s glory. The glory which Isaiah saw in Isa 6:3 was the glory of Yahweh (typically rendered as “Lord” in the OT). Here John speaks of the prophet seeing the glory of Christ since in the next clause and spoke about him, “him” can hardly refer to Yahweh, but must refer to Christ. On the basis of statements like 1:14 in the prologue, the author probably put no great distinction between the two. Since the author presents Jesus as fully God (cf. John 1:1), it presents no problem to him to take words originally spoken by Isaiah of Yahweh himself and apply them to Jesus.

NET Notes: Joh 12:42

¹ sn The term rulers here denotes members of the Sanhedrin, the highest legal, legislative, and judicial body among the Jews. Note the same word (“ruler”) is used to describe Nicodemus in 3:1.

² sn See the note on Pharisees in 1:24.

³ tn The words “Jesus to be the Christ” are not in the Greek text, but are implied (see 9:22). As is often the case in Greek, the direct object is omitted for the verb ὡμολόγουν (Jwmologoun). Some translators supply an ambiguous “it,” or derive the implied direct object from the previous clause “believed in him” so that the rulers would not confess “their faith” or “their belief.” However, when one compares John 9:22, which has many verbal parallels to this verse, it seems clear that the content of the confession would have been “Jesus is the Christ (i.e., Messiah).”

sn See the note on Christ in 1:20.

⁴ tn Or “be expelled from.”

⁵ sn Compare John 9:22. See the note on synagogue in 6:59.

NET Notes: Joh 12:43

¹ tn Grk “the glory.”

² tn Grk “the glory.”

NET Notes: Joh 12:44

¹ tn Grk “shouted out and said.”

² sn The one who sent me refers to God.

NET Notes: Joh 12:45

¹ sn Cf. John 1:18 and 14:9.

NET Notes: Joh 12:47

¹ tn Grk “And if anyone”; the conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has been left untranslated here for improved English style.

² tn Or “guard them,” “keep them.”

³ sn Cf. John 3:17.

NET Notes: Joh 12:48

¹ tn Or “does not receive.”

² tn Grk “has one who judges him.”

³ tn Or “message.”

NET Notes: Joh 12:49

¹ tn Grk “I have not spoken from myself.”

² tn Grk “has given me commandment.”

NET Notes: Joh 12:50

¹ tn Or “his commandment results in eternal life.”

² tn Grk “The things I speak, just as the Father has spoken to me, thus I speak.”