John 1:3

1:3 All things were created ¹  by him, and apart from him not one thing was created ²  that has been created. ³ 

John 2:25

2:25 He did not need anyone to testify about man, ⁴  for he knew what was in man. ⁵ 

John 3:27

3:27 John replied, ⁶  “No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven.

John 6:52

6:52 Then the Jews who were hostile to Jesus ⁷  began to argue with one another, ⁸  “How can this man ⁹  give us his flesh to eat?”

John 7:33

7:33 Then Jesus said, “I will be with you for only a little while longer, ¹⁰  and then ¹¹  I am going to the one who sent me.

John 11:3

11:3 So the sisters sent a message ¹²  to Jesus, ¹³  “Lord, look, the one you love is sick.”

¹ tn Or “made”; Grk “came into existence.”

² tn Or “made”; Grk “nothing came into existence.”

³ tc There is a major punctuation problem here: Should this relative clause go with v. 3 or v. 4? The earliest mss have no punctuation (Ì^66,75* א* A B Δ al). Many of the later mss which do have punctuation place it before the phrase, thus putting it with v. 4 (Ì^75c C D L W^s 050* pc). NA²⁵ placed the phrase in v. 3; NA²⁶ moved the words to the beginning of v. 4. In a detailed article K. Aland defended the change (“Eine Untersuchung zu Johannes 1, 3-4. Über die Bedeutung eines Punktes,” ZNW 59 [1968]: 174-209). He sought to prove that the attribution of ὃ γέγονεν (}o gegonen) to v. 3 began to be carried out in the 4th century in the Greek church. This came out of the Arian controversy, and was intended as a safeguard for doctrine. The change was unknown in the West. Aland is probably correct in affirming that the phrase was attached to v. 4 by the Gnostics and the Eastern Church; only when the Arians began to use the phrase was it attached to v. 3. But this does not rule out the possibility that, by moving the words from v. 4 to v. 3, one is restoring the original reading. Understanding the words as part of v. 3 is natural and adds to the emphasis which is built up there, while it also gives a terse, forceful statement in v. 4. On the other hand, taking the phrase ὃ γέγονεν with v. 4 gives a complicated expression: C. K. Barrett says that both ways of understanding v. 4 with ὃ γέγονεν included “are almost impossibly clumsy” (St. John, 157): “That which came into being – in it the Word was life”; “That which came into being – in the Word was its life.” The following stylistic points should be noted in the solution of this problem: (1) John frequently starts sentences with ἐν (en); (2) he repeats frequently (“nothing was created that has been created”); (3) 5:26 and 6:53 both give a sense similar to v. 4 if it is understood without the phrase; (4) it makes far better Johannine sense to say that in the Word was life than to say that the created universe (what was made, ὃ γέγονεν) was life in him. In conclusion, the phrase is best taken with v. 3. Schnackenburg, Barrett, Carson, Haenchen, Morris, KJV, and NIV concur (against Brown, Beasley-Murray, and NEB). The arguments of R. Schnackenburg, St. John, 1:239-40, are particularly persuasive.

⁴ tn The masculine form has been retained here in the translation to maintain the connection with “a man of the Pharisees” in 3:1, with the understanding that the reference is to people of both genders.

⁵ tn See previous note on “man” in this verse.

⁷ tn Grk “answered and said.”

¹⁰ tn Grk “Then the Jews began to argue.” Here the translation restricts the phrase to those Jews who were hostile to Jesus (cf. BDAG 479 s.v. ᾿Ιουδαῖος 2.e.β), since the “crowd” mentioned in 6:22-24 was almost all Jewish (as suggested by their addressing Jesus as “Rabbi” (6:25). See also the note on the phrase “the Jews who were hostile to Jesus” in v. 41.

¹¹ tn Grk “with one another, saying.”

¹² tn Grk “this one,” “this person.”

¹³ tn Grk “Yet a little I am with you.”

¹⁴ tn The word “then” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

¹⁶ tn The phrase “a message” is not in the Greek text but is implied. Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when clear from context.

¹⁷ tn Grk “to him, saying”; the referent (Jesus) is specified in the translation for clarity.