Isaiah 30:10-11

30:10 They ¹  say to the visionaries, “See no more visions!”

and to the seers, “Don’t relate messages to us about what is right! ² 

Tell us nice things,

relate deceptive messages. ³ 

30:11 Turn aside from the way,

stray off the path. ⁴ 

Remove from our presence the Holy One of Israel.” ⁵ 

Micah 2:6

2:6 ‘Don’t preach with such impassioned rhetoric,’ they say excitedly. ⁶ 

‘These prophets should not preach of such things;

we will not be overtaken by humiliation.’ ⁷ 

Micah 2:11

2:11 If a lying windbag should come and say, ⁸ 

‘I’ll promise you blessings of wine and beer,’ ⁹ 

he would be just the right preacher for these people! ¹⁰ 

John 3:19-21

3:19 Now this is the basis for judging: ¹¹  that the light has come into the world and people ¹²  loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. 3:20 For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed. 3:21 But the one who practices the truth comes to the light, so that it may be plainly evident that his deeds have been done in God. ¹³ 

John 3:2

3:2 came to Jesus ¹⁴  at night ¹⁵  and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs ¹⁶  that you do unless God is with him.”

John 2:9-11

2:9 When ¹⁷  the head steward tasted the water that had been turned to wine, not knowing where it came from ¹⁸  (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), he ¹⁹  called the bridegroom 2:10 and said to him, “Everyone ²⁰  serves the good wine first, and then the cheaper ²¹  wine when the guests ²²  are drunk. You have kept the good wine until now!” 2:11 Jesus did this as the first of his miraculous signs, ²³  in Cana ²⁴  of Galilee. In this way he revealed ²⁵  his glory, and his disciples believed in him. ²⁶ 

John 2:2

2:2 and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. ²⁷ 

John 4:3-4

4:3 he left Judea and set out once more for Galilee. ²⁸ 

Conversation With a Samaritan Woman

4:4 But he had ²⁹  to pass through Samaria. ³⁰ 

[30:10]  ¹ tn Heb “who” (so NASB, NRSV). A new sentence was started here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[30:10]  ² tn Heb “Do not see for us right things.”

[30:10]  ³ tn Heb “Tell us smooth things, see deceptive things.”

[30:11]  ⁴ sn The imagery refers to the way or path of truth, as revealed by God to the prophet.

[30:11]  ⁵ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[2:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “‘Do not foam at the mouth,’ they foam at the mouth.” The verb נָטַף (nataf) means “to drip.” When used of speech it probably has the nuance “to drivel, to foam at the mouth” (HALOT 694 s.v. נטף). The sinful people tell the Lord’s prophets not to “foam at the mouth,” which probably refers in a derogatory way to their impassioned style of delivery. But the Lord (who is probably still speaking here, see v. 3) sarcastically refers to their impassioned exhortation as “foaming at the mouth.”

[2:6]  ⁷ tc If one follows the MT as it stands, it would appear that the Lord here condemns the people for their “foaming at the mouth” and then announces that judgment is inevitable. The present translation assumes that this is a continuation of the quotation of what the people say. In this case the subject of “foam at the mouth” is the Lord’s prophets. In the second line יִסַּג (yissag, a Niphal imperfect from סוּג, sug, “to remove”) is emended to יַסִּגֵנוּ (yassigenu; a Hiphil imperfect from נָסַג/נָשַׂג, nasag/nasag, “to reach; to overtake”).

[2:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “if a man, coming [as] wind and falsehood, should lie”; NASB “walking after wind and falsehood”; NIV “a liar and a deceiver.”

[2:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “I will foam at the mouth concerning wine and beer.”

[2:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he would be the foamer at the mouth for this people.”

[3:19]  ¹¹ tn Or “this is the reason for God judging,” or “this is how judgment works.”

[3:19]  ¹² tn Grk “and men,” but in a generic sense, referring to people of both genders (as “everyone” in v. 20 makes clear).

[3:21]  ¹³ sn John 3:16-21 provides an introduction to the (so-called) “realized” eschatology of the Fourth Gospel: Judgment has come; eternal life may be possessed now, in the present life, as well as in the future. The terminology “realized eschatology” was originally coined by E. Haenchen and used by J. Jeremias in discussion with C. H. Dodd, but is now characteristically used to describe Dodd’s own formulation. See L. Goppelt, Theology of the New Testament, 1:54, note 10, and R. E. Brown (John [AB], 1:cxvii-cxviii) for further discussion. Especially important to note is the element of choice portrayed in John’s Gospel. If there is a twofold reaction to Jesus in John’s Gospel, it should be emphasized that that reaction is very much dependent on a person’s choice, a choice that is influenced by his way of life, whether his deeds are wicked or are done in God (John 3:20-21). For John there is virtually no trace of determinism at the surface. Only when one looks beneath the surface does one find statements like “no one can come to me, unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44).

[3:2]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:2]  ¹⁵ tn Or “during the night.”

[3:2]  ¹⁶ sn The reference to signs (σημεῖα, shmeia) forms a link with John 2:23-25. Those people in Jerusalem believed in Jesus because of the signs he had performed. Nicodemus had apparently seen them too. But for Nicodemus all the signs meant is that Jesus was a great teacher sent from God. His approach to Jesus was well-intentioned but theologically inadequate; he had failed to grasp the messianic implications of the miraculous signs.

[2:9]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “And when.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, δέ (de) has not been translated here.

[2:9]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “and he did not know where it came from.”

[2:9]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “the head steward”; here the repetition of the phrase is somewhat redundant in English and the pronoun (“he”) is substituted in the translation.

[2:10]  ²⁰ tn Grk “every man” (in a generic sense).

[2:10]  ²¹ tn Or “poorer.”

[2:10]  ²² tn Grk “when they”; the referent (the guests) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:11]  ²³ tn This sentence in Greek involves an object-complement construction. The force can be either “Jesus did this as,” or possibly “Jesus made this to be.” The latter translation accents not only Jesus’ power but his sovereignty too. Cf. also 4:54 where the same construction occurs.

[2:11]  ²⁴ map For location see Map1 C3; Map2 D2; Map3 C5.

[2:11]  ²⁵ tn Grk “in Cana of Galilee, and he revealed.”

[2:11]  ²⁶ tn Or “his disciples trusted in him,” or “his disciples put their faith in him.”

[2:2]  ²⁷ sn There is no clue to the identity of the bride and groom, but in all probability either relatives or friends of Jesus’ family were involved, since Jesus’ mother and both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the celebration. The attitude of Mary in approaching Jesus and asking him to do something when the wine ran out also suggests that familial obligations were involved.

[4:3]  ²⁸ sn The author doesn’t tell why Jesus chose to set out once more for Galilee. Some have suggested that the Pharisees turned their attention to Jesus because John the Baptist had now been thrown into prison. But the text gives no hint of this. In any case, perhaps Jesus simply did not want to provoke a confrontation at this time (knowing that his “hour” had not yet come).

[4:4]  ²⁹ sn Travel through Samaria was not geographically necessary; the normal route for Jews ran up the east side of the Jordan River (Transjordan). Although some take the impersonal verb had to (δεῖ, dei) here to indicate logical necessity only, normally in John’s Gospel its use involves God’s will or plan (3:7, 3:14, 3:30, 4:4, 4:20, 4:24, 9:4, 10:16, 12:34, 20:9).

[4:4]  ³⁰ sn Samaria. The Samaritans were descendants of 2 groups: (1) The remnant of native Israelites who were not deported after the fall of the Northern Kingdom in 722 b.c.; (2) Foreign colonists brought in from Babylonia and Media by the Assyrian conquerors to settle the land with inhabitants who would be loyal to Assyria. There was theological opposition between the Samaritans and the Jews because the former refused to worship in Jerusalem. After the exile the Samaritans put obstacles in the way of the Jewish restoration of Jerusalem, and in the 2nd century b.c. the Samaritans helped the Syrians in their wars against the Jews. In 128 b.c. the Jewish high priest retaliated and burned the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim.