John 1:41

1:41 He first ¹  found his own brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah!” ²  (which is translated Christ). ³ 

John 2:10

2:10 and said to him, “Everyone ⁴  serves the good wine first, and then the cheaper ⁵  wine when the guests ⁶  are drunk. You have kept the good wine until now!”

John 7:51

7:51 “Our law doesn’t condemn ⁷  a man unless it first hears from him and learns ⁸  what he is doing, does it?” ⁹ 

John 10:40

10:40 Jesus ¹⁰  went back across the Jordan River ¹¹  again to the place where John ¹²  had been baptizing at an earlier time, ¹³  and he stayed there.

John 19:39

19:39 Nicodemus, the man who had previously come to Jesus ¹⁴  at night, ¹⁵  accompanied Joseph, ¹⁶  carrying a mixture of myrrh and aloes ¹⁷  weighing about seventy-five pounds. ¹⁸ 

¹ tc Most witnesses (א* L W^s Ï) read πρῶτος (prwtos) here instead of πρῶτον (prwton). The former reading would be a predicate adjective and suggest that Andrew “was the first” person to proselytize another regarding Jesus. The reading preferred, however, is the neuter πρῶτον, used as an adverb (BDAG 893 s.v. πρῶτος 1.a.β.), and it suggests that the first thing that Andrew did was to proselytize Peter. The evidence for this reading is early and weighty: Ì^66,75 א² A B Θ Ψ 083 Ë^1,13 892 al lat.

² sn Naturally part of Andrew’s concept of the Messiah would have been learned from John the Baptist (v. 40). However, there were a number of different messianic expectations in 1st century Palestine (see the note on “Who are you?” in v. 19), and it would be wrong to assume that what Andrew meant here is the same thing the author means in the purpose statement at the end of the Fourth Gospel, 20:31. The issue here is not whether the disciples’ initial faith in Jesus as Messiah was genuine or not, but whether their concept of who Jesus was grew and developed progressively as they spent time following him, until finally after his resurrection it is affirmed in the climactic statement of John’s Gospel, the affirmation of Thomas in 20:28.

³ tn Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “the one who has been anointed.”

⁴ tn Grk “every man” (in a generic sense).

⁵ tn Or “poorer.”

⁶ tn Grk “when they”; the referent (the guests) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁷ tn Grk “judge.”

⁸ tn Grk “knows.”

⁹ tn Questions prefaced with μή (mh) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end in English (here the tag is “does it?”).

¹⁰ tn Grk “He”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹¹ tn The word “River” is not in the Greek text but is supplied for clarity.

¹² sn John refers to John the Baptist.

¹³ tn Grk “formerly.”

¹³ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁴ sn See John 3:1-21.

¹⁵ tn Grk “came”; the words “accompanied Joseph” are not in the Greek text but are supplied for clarity.

¹⁶ sn Aloes refers to an aromatic resin from a plant similar to a lily, used for embalming a corpse.

¹⁷ sn The Roman pound (λίτρα, litra) weighed twelve ounces or 325 grams. Thus 100 Roman pounds would be about 32.5 kilograms or 75 pounds.