John 12:23-36

12:23 Jesus replied, ¹  “The time ²  has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. ³  12:24 I tell you the solemn truth, ⁴  unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains by itself alone. ⁵  But if it dies, it produces ⁶  much grain. ⁷  12:25 The one who loves his life ⁸  destroys ⁹  it, and the one who hates his life in this world guards ¹⁰  it for eternal life. 12:26 If anyone wants to serve me, he must follow ¹¹  me, and where I am, my servant will be too. ¹²  If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

12:27 “Now my soul is greatly distressed. And what should I say? ‘Father, deliver me ¹³  from this hour’? ¹⁴  No, but for this very reason I have come to this hour. ¹⁵  12:28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, ¹⁶  “I have glorified it, ¹⁷  and I will glorify it ¹⁸  again.” 12:29 The crowd that stood there and heard the voice ¹⁹  said that it had thundered. Others said that an angel had spoken to him. ²⁰  12:30 Jesus said, ²¹  “This voice has not come for my benefit ²²  but for yours. 12:31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world ²³  will be driven out. ²⁴  12:32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people ²⁵  to myself.” 12:33 (Now he said this to indicate clearly what kind of death he was going to die.) ²⁶ 

12:34 Then the crowd responded, ²⁷  “We have heard from the law that the Christ ²⁸  will remain forever. ²⁹  How ³⁰  can you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?” 12:35 Jesus replied, ³¹  “The light is with you for a little while longer. ³²  Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. ³³  The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. 12:36 While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become sons of light.” ³⁴  When Jesus had said these things, he went away and hid himself from them.

[12:23]  ¹ tn Grk “Jesus answered them, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated here.

[12:23]  ² tn Grk “the hour.”

[12:23]  ³ sn Jesus’ reply, the time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified, is a bit puzzling. As far as the author’s account is concerned, Jesus totally ignores these Greeks and makes no further reference to them whatsoever. It appears that his words are addressed to Andrew and Philip, but in fact they must have had a wider audience, including possibly the Greeks who had wished to see him in the first place. The words the time has come recall all the previous references to “the hour” throughout the Fourth Gospel (see the note on time in 2:4). There is no doubt, in light of the following verse, that Jesus refers to his death here. On his pathway to glorification lies the cross, and it is just ahead.

[12:24]  ⁴ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[12:24]  ⁵ tn Or “it remains only a single kernel.”

[12:24]  ⁶ tn Or “bears.”

[12:24]  ⁷ tn Grk “much fruit.”

[12:25]  ⁸ tn Or “soul.”

[12:25]  ⁹ tn Or “loses.” Although the traditional English translation of ἀπολλύει (apolluei) in John 12:25 is “loses,” the contrast with φυλάξει (fulaxei, “keeps” or “guards”) in the second half of the verse favors the meaning “destroy” here.

[12:25]  ¹⁰ tn Or “keeps.”

[12:26]  ¹¹ tn As a third person imperative in Greek, ἀκολουθείτω (akolouqeitw) is usually translated “let him follow me.” This could be understood by the modern English reader as merely permissive, however (“he may follow me if he wishes”). In this context there is no permissive sense, but rather a command, so the translation “he must follow me” is preferred.

[12:26]  ¹² tn Grk “where I am, there my servant will be too.”

[12:27]  ¹³ tn Or “save me.”

[12:27]  ¹⁴ tn Or “this occasion.”

[12:27]  ¹⁵ tn Or “this occasion.”

[12:28]  ¹⁶ tn Or “from the sky” (see note on 1:32).

[12:28]  ¹⁷ tn “It” is not in the Greek text. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[12:28]  ¹⁸ tn “It” is not in the Greek text. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[12:29]  ¹⁹ tn “The voice” is not in the Greek text. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[12:29]  ²⁰ tn Grk “Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” The direct discourse in the second half of v. 29 was converted to indirect discourse in the translation to maintain the parallelism with the first half of the verse, which is better in keeping with English style.

[12:30]  ²¹ tn Grk “Jesus answered and said.”

[12:30]  ²² tn Or “for my sake.”

[12:31]  ²³ sn The ruler of this world is a reference to Satan.

[12:31]  ²⁴ tn Or “will be thrown out.” This translation regards the future passive ἐκβληθήσεται (ekblhqhsetai) as referring to an event future to the time of speaking.

[12:32]  ²⁵ tn Grk “all.” The word “people” is not in the Greek text but is supplied for stylistic reasons and for clarity (cf. KJV “all men”).

[12:33]  ²⁶ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[12:34]  ²⁷ tn Grk “Then the crowd answered him.”

[12:34]  ²⁸ tn Or “the Messiah” (Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “one who has been anointed”).

[12:34]  ²⁹ tn Probably an allusion to Ps 89:35-37. It is difficult to pinpoint the passage in the Mosaic law to which the crowd refers. The ones most often suggested are Ps 89:36-37, Ps 110:4, Isa 9:7, Ezek 37:25, and Dan 7:14. None of these passages are in the Pentateuch per se, but “law” could in common usage refer to the entire OT (compare Jesus’ use in John 10:34). Of the passages mentioned, Ps 89:36-37 is the most likely candidate. This verse speaks of David’s “seed” remaining forever. Later in the same psalm, v. 51 speaks of the “anointed” (Messiah), and the psalm was interpreted messianically in both the NT (Acts 13:22, Rev 1:5, 3:14) and in the rabbinic literature (Genesis Rabbah 97).

[12:34]  ³⁰ tn Grk “And how”; the conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has been left untranslated here for improved English style.

[12:35]  ³¹ tn Grk “Then Jesus said to them.”

[12:35]  ³² tn Grk “Yet a little while the light is with you.”

[12:35]  ³³ sn The warning Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you operates on at least two different levels: (1) To the Jewish people in Jerusalem to whom Jesus spoke, the warning was a reminder that there was only a little time left for them to accept him as their Messiah. (2) To those later individuals to whom the Fourth Gospel was written, and to every person since, the words of Jesus are also a warning: There is a finite, limited time in which each individual has opportunity to respond to the Light of the world (i.e., Jesus); after that comes darkness. One’s response to the Light decisively determines one’s judgment for eternity.

[12:36]  ³⁴ tn The idiom “sons of light” means essentially “people characterized by light,” that is, “people of God.”