Deuteronomy 31:2-7

31:2 He said to them, “Today I am a hundred and twenty years old. I am no longer able to get about, ¹  and the Lord has said to me, ‘You will not cross the Jordan.’ 31:3 As for the Lord your God, he is about to cross over before you; he will destroy these nations before you and dispossess them. As for Joshua, he is about to cross before you just as the Lord has said. 31:4 The Lord will do to them just what he did to Sihon and Og, the Amorite kings, and to their land, which he destroyed. 31:5 The Lord will deliver them over to you and you will do to them according to the whole commandment I have given you. 31:6 Be strong and courageous! Do not fear or tremble before them, for the Lord your God is the one who is going with you. He will not fail you or abandon you!” 31:7 Then Moses called out to Joshua ²  in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you will accompany these people to the land that the Lord promised to give their ancestors, ³  and you will enable them to inherit it.

Ecclesiastes 9:10

9:10 Whatever you find to do with your hands, ⁴ 

do it with all your might,

because there is neither work nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave, ⁵ 

the place where you will eventually go. ⁶ 

John 3:30

3:30 He must become more important while I become less important.” ⁷ 

John 4:37-38

4:37 For in this instance the saying is true, ⁸  ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 4:38 I sent you to reap what you did not work for; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.”

John 9:4

9:4 We must perform the deeds ⁹  of the one who sent me ¹⁰  as long as ¹¹  it is daytime. Night is coming when no one can work.

John 13:1-2

Washing the Disciples’ Feet

13:1 Just before the Passover feast, Jesus knew that his time ¹²  had come to depart ¹³  from this world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now loved them to the very end. ¹⁴  13:2 The evening meal ¹⁵  was in progress, and the devil had already put into the heart ¹⁶  of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, that he should betray ¹⁷  Jesus. ¹⁸ 

John 1:13-15

1:13 – children not born ¹⁹  by human parents ²⁰  or by human desire ²¹  or a husband’s ²²  decision, ²³  but by God.

1:14 Now ²⁴  the Word became flesh ²⁵  and took up residence ²⁶  among us. We ²⁷  saw his glory – the glory of the one and only, ²⁸  full of grace and truth, who came from the Father. 1:15 John ²⁹  testified ³⁰  about him and shouted out, ³¹  “This one was the one about whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is greater than I am, ³²  because he existed before me.’”

[31:2]  ¹ tn Or “am no longer able to lead you” (NIV, NLT); Heb “am no longer able to go out and come in.”

[31:7]  ² tn The Hebrew text includes “and said to him.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[31:7]  ³ tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 20).

[9:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “Whatever your hand finds to do.”

[9:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “Sheol.”

[9:10]  ⁶ tn Or “where you are about to go.”

[3:30]  ⁷ sn Some interpreters extend the quotation of John the Baptist’s words through v. 36.

[4:37]  ⁸ tn The recitative ὅτι (Joti) after ἀληθινός (alhqino") has not been translated.

[9:4]  ⁹ tn Grk “We must work the works.”

[9:4]  ¹⁰ tn Or “of him who sent me” (God).

[9:4]  ¹¹ tn Or “while.”

[13:1]  ¹² tn Grk “his hour.”

[13:1]  ¹³ tn Grk “that he should depart.” The ἵνα (Jina) clause in Koine Greek frequently encroached on the simple infinitive (for the sake of greater clarity).

[13:1]  ¹⁴ tn Or “he now loved them completely,” or “he now loved them to the uttermost” (see John 19:30). All of John 13:1 is a single sentence in Greek, although in English this would be unacceptably awkward. At the end of the verse the idiom εἰς τέλος (eis telos) was translated literally as “to the end” and the modern equivalents given in the note above, because there is an important lexical link between this passage and John 19:30, τετέλεσται (tetelestai, “It is ended”).

[13:2]  ¹⁵ tn Or “Supper.” To avoid possible confusion because of different regional English usage regarding the distinction between “dinner” and “supper” as an evening meal, the translation simply refers to “the evening meal.”

[13:2]  ¹⁶ sn At this point the devil had already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, that he should betray Jesus. C. K. Barrett (St. John, 365) thought this was a reference to the idea entering the devil’s own heart, but this does not seem likely. It is more probable that Judas’ heart is meant, since the use of the Greek article (rather than a possessive pronoun) is a typical idiom when a part of one’s own body is indicated. Judas’ name is withheld until the end of the sentence for dramatic effect (emphasis). This action must be read in light of 13:27, and appears to refer to a preliminary idea or plan.

[13:2]  ¹⁷ tn Or “that he should hand over.”

[13:2]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “betray him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:13]  ¹⁹ tn The Greek term translated “born” here also involves conception.

[1:13]  ²⁰ tn Grk “of blood(s).” The plural αἱμάτων (Jaimatwn) has seemed a problem to many interpreters. At least some sources in antiquity imply that blood was thought of as being important in the development of the fetus during its time in the womb: thus Wis 7:1: “in the womb of a mother I was molded into flesh, within the period of 10 months, compacted with blood, from the seed of a man and the pleasure of marriage.” In John 1:13, the plural αἱμάτων may imply the action of both parents. It may also refer to the “genetic” contribution of both parents, and so be equivalent to “human descent” (see BDAG 26 s.v. αἷμα 1.a). E. C. Hoskyns thinks John could not have used the singular here because Christians are in fact ‘begotten’ by the blood of Christ (The Fourth Gospel, 143), although the context would seem to make it clear that the blood in question is something other than the blood of Christ.

[1:13]  ²¹ tn Or “of the will of the flesh.” The phrase οὐδὲ ἐκ θελήματος σαρκός (oude ek qelhmato" sarko") is more clearly a reference to sexual desire, but it should be noted that σάρξ (sarx) in John does not convey the evil sense common in Pauline usage. For John it refers to the physical nature in its weakness rather than in its sinfulness. There is no clearer confirmation of this than the immediately following verse, where the λόγος (logos) became σάρξ.

[1:13]  ²² tn Or “man’s.”

[1:13]  ²³ tn The third phrase, οὐδὲ ἐκ θελήματος ἀνδρός (oude ek qelhmato" andros), means much the same as the second one. The word here (ἀνηρ, anhr) is often used for a husband, resulting in the translation “or a husband’s decision,” or more generally, “or of any human volition whatsoever.” L. Morris may be right when he sees here an emphasis directed at the Jewish pride in race and patriarchal ancestry, although such a specific reference is difficult to prove (John [NICNT], 101).

[1:14]  ²⁴ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic, the incarnation of the Word. Greek style often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” but English style generally does not.

[1:14]  ²⁵ tn This looks at the Word incarnate in humility and weakness; the word σάρξ (sarx) does not carry overtones of sinfulness here as it frequently does in Pauline usage. See also John 3:6.

[1:14]  ²⁶ tn Grk “and tabernacled.”

[1:14]  ²⁷ tn Grk “and we saw.”

[1:14]  ²⁸ tn Or “of the unique one.” Although this word is often translated “only begotten,” such a translation is misleading, since in English it appears to express a metaphysical relationship. The word in Greek was used of an only child (a son [Luke 7:12, 9:38] or a daughter [Luke 8:42]). It was also used of something unique (only one of its kind) such as the mythological Phoenix (1 Clem. 25:2). From here it passes easily to a description of Isaac (Heb 11:17 and Josephus, Ant., 1.13.1 [1.222]) who was not Abraham’s only son, but was one-of-a-kind because he was the child of the promise. Thus the word means “one-of-a-kind” and is reserved for Jesus in the Johannine literature of the NT. While all Christians are children of God, Jesus is God’s Son in a unique, one-of-a-kind sense. The word is used in this way in all its uses in the Gospel of John (1:14, 1:18, 3:16, and 3:18).

[1:15]  ²⁹ sn John refers to John the Baptist.

[1:15]  ³⁰ tn Or “bore witness.”

[1:15]  ³¹ tn Grk “and shouted out saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant is English and has not been translated.

[1:15]  ³² tn Or “has a higher rank than I.”