John 1:21

1:21 So they asked him, “Then who are you? ¹  Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not!” ²  “Are you the Prophet?” ³  He answered, “No!”

John 6:41

6:41 Then the Jews who were hostile to Jesus ⁴  began complaining about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven,”

John 8:16

8:16 But if I judge, my evaluation is accurate, ⁵  because I am not alone when I judge, ⁶  but I and the Father who sent me do so together. ⁷ 

John 8:24

8:24 Thus I told you ⁸  that you will die in your sins. For unless you believe that I am he, ⁹  you will die in your sins.”

John 9:9

9:9 Some people said, ¹⁰  “This is the man!” ¹¹  while others said, “No, but he looks like him.” ¹²  The man himself ¹³  kept insisting, “I am the one!” ¹⁴ 

John 10:9

10:9 I am the door. If anyone enters through me, he will be saved, and will come in and go out, ¹⁵  and find pasture. ¹⁶ 

John 10:11

10:11 “I am the good ¹⁷  shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life ¹⁸  for the sheep.

John 10:36

10:36 do you say about the one whom the Father set apart ¹⁹  and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?

John 11:25

11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live ²⁰  even if he dies,

John 14:3

14:3 And if I go and make ready ²¹  a place for you, I will come again and take you ²²  to be with me, ²³  so that where I am you may be too.

John 14:6

14:6 Jesus replied, ²⁴  “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. ²⁵  No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 18:5

18:5 They replied, ²⁶  “Jesus the Nazarene.” He told them, “I am he.” (Now Judas, the one who betrayed him, was standing there with them.) ²⁷ 

John 18:35

18:35 Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? ²⁸  Your own people ²⁹  and your chief priests handed you over ³⁰  to me. What have you done?”

[1:21]  ¹ tn Grk “What then?” (an idiom).

[1:21]  ² sn According to the 1st century rabbinic interpretation of 2 Kgs 2:11, Elijah was still alive. In Mal 4:5 it is said that Elijah would be the precursor of Messiah. How does one reconcile John the Baptist’s denial here (“I am not”) with Jesus’ statements in Matt 11:14 (see also Mark 9:13 and Matt 17:12) that John the Baptist was Elijah? Some have attempted to remove the difficulty by a reconstruction of the text in the Gospel of John which makes the Baptist say that he was Elijah. However, external support for such emendations is lacking. According to Gregory the Great, John was not Elijah, but exercised toward Jesus the function of Elijah by preparing his way. But this avoids the real difficulty, since in John’s Gospel the question of the Jewish authorities to the Baptist concerns precisely his function. It has also been suggested that the author of the Gospel here preserves a historically correct reminiscence – that John the Baptist did not think of himself as Elijah, although Jesus said otherwise. Mark 6:14-16 and Mark 8:28 indicate the people and Herod both distinguished between John and Elijah – probably because he did not see himself as Elijah. But Jesus’ remarks in Matt 11:14, Mark 9:13, and Matt 17:12 indicate that John did perform the function of Elijah – John did for Jesus what Elijah was to have done for the coming of the Lord. C. F. D. Moule pointed out that it is too simple to see a straight contradiction between John’s account and that of the synoptic gospels: “We have to ask by whom the identification is made, and by whom refused. The synoptic gospels represent Jesus as identifying, or comparing, the Baptist with Elijah, while John represents the Baptist as rejecting the identification when it is offered him by his interviewers. Now these two, so far from being incompatible, are psychologically complementary. The Baptist humbly rejects the exalted title, but Jesus, on the contrary, bestows it on him. Why should not the two both be correct?” (The Phenomenon of the New Testament [SBT], 70).

[1:21]  ³ sn The Prophet is a reference to the “prophet like Moses” of Deut 18:15, by this time an eschatological figure in popular belief. Acts 3:22 identifies Jesus as this prophet.

[6:41]  ⁴ tn Grk “Then the Jews.” In NT usage the term ᾿Ιουδαῖοι (Ioudaioi) may refer to the entire Jewish people, the residents of Jerusalem and surrounding territory, the authorities in Jerusalem, or merely those who were hostile to Jesus. (For further information see R. G. Bratcher, “‘The Jews’ in the Gospel of John,” BT 26 [1975]: 401-9.) Here the translation restricts the phrase to those Jews who were hostile to Jesus (cf. BDAG 479 s.v. ᾿Ιουδαῖος 2.e.β), since the “crowd” mentioned in 6:22-24 was almost all Jewish (as suggested by their addressing Jesus as “Rabbi” (6:25). Likewise, the designation “Judeans” does not fit here because the location is Galilee rather than Judea.

[8:16]  ⁷ tn Grk “my judgment is true.”

[8:16]  ⁸ tn The phrase “when I judge” is not in the Greek text, but is implied by the context.

[8:16]  ⁹ tn The phrase “do so together” is not in the Greek text, but is implied by the context.

[8:24]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “thus I said to you.”

[8:24]  ¹¹ tn Grk “unless you believe that I am.” In this context there is an implied predicate nominative (“he”) following the “I am” phrase. What Jesus’ hearers had to acknowledge is that he was who he claimed to be, i.e., the Messiah (cf. 20:31). This view is also reflected in English translations like NIV (“if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be”), NLT (“unless you believe that I am who I say I am”), and CEV (“if you don’t have faith in me for who I am”). For a different view that takes this “I am” and the one in 8:28 as nonpredicated (i.e., absolute), see R. E. Brown, John (AB), 1:533-38. Such a view refers sees the nonpredicated “I am” as a reference to the divine Name revealed in Exod 3:14, and is reflected in English translations like NAB (“if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins”) and TEV (“you will die in your sins if you do not believe that ‘I Am Who I Am’”).

[9:9]  ¹³ tn Grk “Others were saying.”

[9:9]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “This is the one.”

[9:9]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “No, but he is like him.”

[9:9]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “That one”; the referent (the man himself) is specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:9]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “I am he.”

[10:9]  ¹⁶ tn Since the Greek phrase εἰσέρχομαι καὶ ἐξέρχομαι (eisercomai kai exercomai, “come in and go out”) is in some places an idiom for living or conducting oneself in relationship to some community (“to live with, to live among” [cf. Acts 1:21; see also Num 27:17; 2 Chr 1:10]), it may well be that Jesus’ words here look forward to the new covenant community of believers. Another significant NT text is Luke 9:4, where both these verbs occur in the context of the safety and security provided by a given household for the disciples. See also BDAG 294 s.v. εἰσέρχομαι 1.b.β.

[10:9]  ¹⁷ sn That is, pasture land in contrast to cultivated land.

[10:11]  ¹⁹ tn Or “model” (see R. E. Brown, John [AB], 1:386, who argues that “model” is a more exact translation of καλός [kalos] here).

[10:11]  ²⁰ tn Or “The good shepherd dies willingly.”

[10:36]  ²² tn Or “dedicated.”

[11:25]  ²⁵ tn That is, will come to life.

[14:3]  ²⁸ tn Or “prepare.”

[14:3]  ²⁹ tn Or “bring you.”

[14:3]  ³⁰ tn Grk “to myself.”

[14:6]  ³¹ tn Grk “Jesus said to him.”

[14:6]  ³² tn Or “I am the way, even the truth and the life.”

[18:5]  ³⁴ tn Grk “They answered.”

[18:5]  ³⁵ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author. Before he states the response to Jesus’ identification of himself, the author inserts a parenthetical note that Judas, again identified as the one who betrayed him (cf. 18:2), was standing with the group of soldiers and officers of the chief priests. Many commentators have considered this to be an awkward insertion, but in fact it heightens considerably the dramatic effect of the response to Jesus’ self-identification in the following verse, and has the added effect of informing the reader that along with the others the betrayer himself ironically falls down at Jesus’ feet (18:6).

[18:35]  ³⁷ sn Many have seen in Pilate’s reply “I am not a Jew, am I?” the Roman contempt for the Jewish people. Some of that may indeed be present, but strictly speaking, all Pilate affirms is that he, as a Roman, has no firsthand knowledge of Jewish custom or belief. What he knows of Jesus must have come from the Jewish authorities. They are the ones (your own people and your chief priests) who have handed Jesus over to Pilate.

[18:35]  ³⁸ tn Or “your own nation.”

[18:35]  ³⁹ tn Or “delivered you over.”