3:31 The one who comes from above is superior to all. 5 The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things. 6 The one who comes from heaven 7 is superior to all. 8
8:28 Then Jesus said, 9 “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, 10 and I do nothing on my own initiative, 11 but I speak just what the Father taught me. 12
1:1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, 31 which God gave him to show his servants 32 what must happen very soon. 33 He made it clear 34 by sending his angel to his servant 35 John,
1 tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”
2 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to show the contrast present in the context.
3 tn The word “people” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied in the translation to indicate that the verb is second person plural (referring to more than Nicodemus alone).
4 sn Note the remarkable similarity of Jesus’ testimony to the later testimony of the Apostle John himself in 1 John 1:2: “And we have seen and testify and report to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was revealed to us.” This is only one example of how thoroughly the author’s own thoughts were saturated with the words of Jesus (and also how difficult it is to distinguish the words of Jesus from the words of the author in the Fourth Gospel).
5 tn Or “is above all.”
6 tn Grk “speaks from the earth.”
7 sn The one who comes from heaven refers to Christ. As in John 1:1, the Word’s preexistence is indicated here.
8 tc Ì75 א* D Ë1 565 as well as several versions and fathers lack the phrase “is superior to all” (ἐπάνω πάντων ἐστίν, epanw pantwn estin). This effectively joins the last sentence of v. 31 with v. 32: “The one who comes from heaven testifies about what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony.” On the other side, the phrase may have been deleted because of perceived redundancy, since it duplicates what is said earlier in the verse. The witnesses that include ἐπάνω πάντων ἐστίν in both places are weighty and widespread (Ì36vid,66 א2 A B L Ws Θ Ψ 083 086 Ë13 33 Ï lat sys,p,h bo). On balance, the longer reading should probably be considered authentic.
9 tn Grk “Then Jesus said to them” (the words “to them” are not found in all
10 tn Grk “that I am.” See the note on this phrase in v. 24.
11 tn Grk “I do nothing from myself.”
12 tn Grk “but just as the Father taught me, these things I speak.”
13 tn Grk “I have not spoken from myself.”
14 tn Grk “has given me commandment.”
15 tn Or “his commandment results in eternal life.”
16 tn Grk “The things I speak, just as the Father has spoken to me, thus I speak.”
17 tn The mutual interrelationship of the Father and the Son (ἐγὼ ἐν τῷ πατρὶ καὶ ὁ πατὴρ ἐν ἐμοί ἐστιν, egw en tw patri kai Jo pathr en emoi estin) is something that Jesus expected even his opponents to recognize (cf. John 10:38). The question Jesus asks of Philip (οὐ πιστεύεις, ou pisteuei") expects the answer “yes.” Note that the following statement is addressed to all the disciples, however, because the plural pronoun (ὑμῖν, Jumin) is used. Jesus says that his teaching (the words he spoke to them all) did not originate from himself, but the Father, who permanently remains (μένων, menwn) in relationship with Jesus, performs his works. One would have expected “speaks his words” here rather than “performs his works”; many of the church fathers (e.g., Augustine and Chrysostom) identified the two by saying that Jesus’ words were works. But there is an implicit contrast in the next verse between words and works, and v. 12 seems to demand that the works are real works, not just words. It is probably best to see the two terms as related but not identical; there is a progression in the idea here. Both Jesus’ words (recall the Samaritans’ response in John 4:42) and Jesus’ works are revelatory of who he is, but as the next verse indicates, works have greater confirmatory power than words.
18 tn Grk “I do not speak from myself.”
19 tn Or “does.”
20 tn Or “his mighty acts”; Grk “his works.”
21 tn Or “does not keep.”
22 tn Or “the message.”
23 tn Grk And they.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.
24 tn Or “received.”
25 tn The word “them” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.
26 tn Or “truly.”
27 tn Or have come to know.”
28 tn Or “your message.”
29 tn Grk “because they are not of the world.”
30 tn Grk “just as I am not of the world.”
31 tn The phrase ἀποκάλυψις ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ (ajpokaluyi" Ihsou Cristou, “the revelation of Jesus Christ”) could be interpreted as either an objective genitive (“the revelation about Jesus Christ”), subjective genitive (“the revelation from Jesus Christ”), or both (M. Zerwick’s “general” genitive [Biblical Greek, §§36-39]; D. B. Wallace’s “plenary” genitive [ExSyn 119-21]). In 1:1 and 22:16 it is clear that Jesus has sent his angel to proclaim the message to John; thus the message is from Christ, and this would be a subjective genitive. On a broader scale, though, the revelation is about Christ, so this would be an objective genitive. One important point to note is that the phrase under consideration is best regarded as the title of the book and therefore refers to the whole of the work in all its aspects. This fact favors considering this as a plenary genitive.
32 tn Grk “slaves.” Although this translation frequently renders δοῦλος (doulos) as “slave,” the connotation is often of one who has sold himself into slavery; in a spiritual sense, the idea is that of becoming a slave of God or of Jesus Christ voluntarily. The voluntary notion is not conspicuous here; hence, the translation “servants.” In any case, the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times…in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v.). The most accurate translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος), in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force.
33 tn BDAG 992-93 s.v. τάχος has “quickly, at once, without delay Ac 10:33 D; 12:7; 17:15 D; 22:18; 1 Cl 48:1; 63:4…soon, in a short time…Rv 1:1; 22:6…shortly Ac 25:4.”
34 tn Or “He indicated it clearly” (L&N 33.153).
35 tn See the note on the word “servants” earlier in this verse.