John 1:25

1:25 So they asked John, ¹  “Why then are you baptizing if you are not the Christ, ²  nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

John 6:46

6:46 (Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God – he ³  has seen the Father.) ⁴ 

John 7:4

7:4 For no one who seeks to make a reputation for himself ⁵  does anything in secret. ⁶  If you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.”

John 7:23

7:23 But if a male child ⁷  is circumcised ⁸  on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses is not broken, ⁹  why are you angry with me because I made a man completely well ¹⁰  on the Sabbath?

John 9:25

9:25 He replied, ¹¹  “I do not know whether he is a sinner. I do know one thing – that although I was blind, now I can see.”

John 9:41

9:41 Jesus replied, ¹²  “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin, ¹³  but now because you claim that you can see, ¹⁴  your guilt ¹⁵  remains.” ¹⁶ 

John 10:10

10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill ¹⁷  and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, and may have it abundantly. ¹⁸ 

John 10:35

10:35 If those people to whom the word of God came were called ‘gods’ (and the scripture cannot be broken), ¹⁹ 

John 13:14

13:14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you too ought to wash one another’s feet.

John 14:2

14:2 There are many dwelling places ²⁰  in my Father’s house. ²¹  Otherwise, I would have told you, because ²²  I am going away to make ready ²³  a place for you. ²⁴ 

John 14:6

14:6 Jesus replied, ²⁵  “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. ²⁶  No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 14:11

14:11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, but if you do not believe me, ²⁷  believe because of the miraculous deeds ²⁸  themselves.

John 15:22

15:22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. ²⁹  But they no longer have any excuse for their sin.

[1:25]  ¹ tn Grk “And they asked him, and said to him”; the referent (John) has been specified in the translation for clarity, and the phrase has been simplified in the translation to “So they asked John.”

[1:25]  ² tn Or “the Messiah” (Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “one who has been anointed”).

[6:46]  ³ tn Grk “this one.”

[6:46]  ⁴ sn This is best taken as a parenthetical note by the author. Although some would attribute these words to Jesus himself, the switch from first person in Jesus’ preceding and following remarks to third person in v. 46 suggests that the author has added a clarifying comment here.

[7:4]  ⁵ tn Or “seeks to be well known.”

[7:4]  ⁶ sn No one who seeks to make a reputation for himself does anything in secret means, in effect: “if you’re going to perform signs to authenticate yourself as Messiah, you should do them at Jerusalem.” (Jerusalem is where mainstream Jewish apocalyptic tradition held that Messiah would appear.)

[7:23]  ⁷ tn Grk “a man.” See the note on “male child” in the previous verse.

[7:23]  ⁸ tn Grk “receives circumcision.”

[7:23]  ⁹ sn If a male child is circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses is not broken. The Rabbis counted 248 parts to a man’s body. In the Talmud (b. Yoma 85b) R. Eleazar ben Azariah (ca. a.d. 100) states: “If circumcision, which attaches to one only of the 248 members of the human body, suspends the Sabbath, how much more shall the saving of the whole body suspend the Sabbath?” So absolutely binding did rabbinic Judaism regard the command of Lev 12:3 to circumcise on the eighth day, that in the Mishnah m. Shabbat 18.3; 19.1, 2; and m. Nedarim 3.11 all hold that the command to circumcise overrides the command to observe the Sabbath.

[7:23]  ¹⁰ tn Or “made an entire man well.”

[9:25]  ⁹ tn Grk “Then that one answered.”

[9:41]  ¹¹ tn Grk “Jesus said to them.”

[9:41]  ¹² tn Grk “you would not have sin.”

[9:41]  ¹³ tn Grk “now because you say, ‘We see…’”

[9:41]  ¹⁴ tn Or “your sin.”

[9:41]  ¹⁵ sn Because you claim that you can see, your guilt remains. The blind man received sight physically, and this led him to see spiritually as well. But the Pharisees, who claimed to possess spiritual sight, were spiritually blinded. The reader might recall Jesus’ words to Nicodemus in 3:10, “Are you the teacher of Israel and don’t understand these things?” In other words, to receive Jesus was to receive the light of the world, to reject him was to reject the light, close one’s eyes, and become blind. This is the serious sin of which Jesus had warned before (8:21-24). The blindness of such people was incurable since they had rejected the only cure that exists (cf. 12:39-41).

[10:10]  ¹³ tn That is, “to slaughter” (in reference to animals).

[10:10]  ¹⁴ tn That is, more than one would normally expect or anticipate.

[10:35]  ¹⁵ sn The parenthetical note And the scripture cannot be broken belongs to Jesus’ words rather than the author’s. Not only does Jesus appeal to the OT to defend himself against the charge of blasphemy, but he also adds that the scripture cannot be “broken.” In this context he does not explain precisely what is meant by “broken,” but it is not too hard to determine. Jesus’ argument depended on the exact word used in the context of Ps 82:6. If any other word for “judge” had been used in the psalm, his argument would have been meaningless. Since the scriptures do use this word in Ps 82:6, the argument is binding, because they cannot be “broken” in the sense of being shown to be in error.

[14:2]  ¹⁷ tn Many interpreters have associated μοναί (monai) with an Aramaic word that can refer to a stopping place or resting place for a traveler on a journey. This is similar to one of the meanings the word can have in secular Greek (Pausanius 10.31.7). Origen understood the use here to refer to stations on the road to God. This may well have been the understanding of the Latin translators who translated μονή (monh) by mansio, a stopping place. The English translation “mansions” can be traced back to Tyndale, but in Middle English the word simply meant “a dwelling place” (not necessarily large or imposing) with no connotation of being temporary. The interpretation put forward by Origen would have been well suited to Gnosticism, where the soul in its ascent passes through stages during which it is gradually purified of all that is material and therefore evil. It is much more likely that the word μονή should be related to its cognate verb μένω (menw), which is frequently used in the Fourth Gospel to refer to the permanence of relationship between Jesus and the Father and/or Jesus and the believer. Thus the idea of a permanent dwelling place, rather than a temporary stopping place, would be in view. Luther’s translation of μοναί by Wohnungen is very accurate here, as it has the connotation of a permanent residence.

[14:2]  ¹⁸ sn Most interpreters have understood the reference to my Father’s house as a reference to heaven, and the dwelling places (μονή, monh) as the permanent residences of believers there. This seems consistent with the vocabulary and the context, where in v. 3 Jesus speaks of coming again to take the disciples to himself. However, the phrase in my Father’s house was used previously in the Fourth Gospel in 2:16 to refer to the temple in Jerusalem. The author in 2:19-22 then reinterpreted the temple as Jesus’ body, which was to be destroyed in death and then rebuilt in resurrection after three days. Even more suggestive is the statement by Jesus in 8:35, “Now the slave does not remain (μένω, menw) in the household forever, but the son remains (μένω) forever.” If in the imagery of the Fourth Gospel the phrase in my Father’s house is ultimately a reference to Jesus’ body, the relationship of μονή to μένω suggests the permanent relationship of the believer to Jesus and the Father as an adopted son who remains in the household forever. In this case the “dwelling place” is “in” Jesus himself, where he is, whether in heaven or on earth. The statement in v. 3, “I will come again and receive you to myself,” then refers not just to the parousia, but also to Jesus’ postresurrection return to the disciples in his glorified state, when by virtue of his death on their behalf they may enter into union with him and with the Father as adopted sons. Needless to say, this bears numerous similarities to Pauline theology, especially the concepts of adoption as sons and being “in Christ” which are prominent in passages like Eph 1. It is also important to note, however, the emphasis in the Fourth Gospel itself on the present reality of eternal life (John 5:24, 7:38-39, etc.) and the possibility of worshiping the Father “in the Spirit and in truth” (John 4:21-24) in the present age. There is a sense in which it is possible to say that the future reality is present now. See further J. McCaffrey, The House With Many Rooms (AnBib 114).

[14:2]  ¹⁹ tc A number of important mss (Ì^66c א A B C* D K L W Ψ Ë¹³ 33 565 579 892 al lat) have ὅτι (Joti) here, while the majority lack it (Ì^66* C² Θ Ï). Should the ὅτι be included or omitted? The external evidence is significantly stronger for the longer reading. Most Alexandrian and Western mss favor inclusion (it is a little unusual for the Alexandrian to favor the longer reading), while most Byzantine mss favor omission (again, a little unusual). However, the reading of Ì^66*, which aligns with the Byzantine, needs to be given some value. At the same time, the scribe of this papyrus was known for freely omitting and adding words, and the fact that the ms was corrected discounts its testimony here. But because the shorter reading is out of character for the Byzantine text, the shorter reading (omitting the ὅτι) may well be authentic. Internally, the question comes down to whether the shorter reading is more difficult or not. And here, it loses the battle, for it seems to be a clarifying omission (so TCGNT 206). R. E. Brown is certainly right when he states: “all in all, the translation without ὅτι makes the best sense” (John [AB], 2:620). But this tacitly argues for the authenticity of the word. Thus, on both external and internal grounds, the ὅτι should be regarded as authentic.

[14:2]  ²⁰ tn Or “to prepare.”

[14:2]  ²¹ tn Or “If not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?” What is the meaning of the last clause with or without the ὅτι? One of the questions that must be answered here is whether or not τόπος (topos) is to be equated with μονή (monh). In Rev 12:8 τόπος is used to refer to a place in heaven, which would suggest that the two are essentially equal here. Jesus is going ahead of believers to prepare a place for them, a permanent dwelling place in the Father’s house (see the note on this phrase in v. 2).

[14:6]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “Jesus said to him.”

[14:6]  ²⁰ tn Or “I am the way, even the truth and the life.”

[14:11]  ²¹ tn The phrase “but if you do not believe me” contains an ellipsis; the Greek text reads Grk “but if not.” The ellipsis has been filled out (“but if [you do] not [believe me]…”) for the benefit of the modern English reader.

[14:11]  ²² tn Grk “because of the works.”

[15:22]  ²³ tn Grk “they would not have sin” (an idiom).