John 1:29

1:29 On the next day John ¹  saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God ²  who takes away the sin of the world!

John 8:34

8:34 Jesus answered them, “I tell you the solemn truth, ³  everyone who practices ⁴  sin is a slave ⁵  of sin.

John 9:41

9:41 Jesus replied, ⁶  “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin, ⁷  but now because you claim that you can see, ⁸  your guilt ⁹  remains.” ¹⁰ 

John 15:22

15:22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. ¹¹  But they no longer have any excuse for their sin.

[1:29]  ¹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (John) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[1:29]  ² sn Gen 22:8 is an important passage in the background of the title Lamb of God as applied to Jesus. In Jewish thought this was held to be a supremely important sacrifice. G. Vermès stated: “For the Palestinian Jew, all lamb sacrifice, and especially the Passover lamb and the Tamid offering, was a memorial of the Akedah with its effects of deliverance, forgiveness of sin and messianic salvation” (Scripture and Tradition in Judaism [StPB], 225).

[8:34]  ³ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[8:34]  ⁴ tn Or “who commits.” This could simply be translated, “everyone who sins,” but the Greek is more emphatic, using the participle ποιῶν (poiwn) in a construction with πᾶς (pas), a typical Johannine construction. Here repeated, continuous action is in view. The one whose lifestyle is characterized by repeated, continuous sin is a slave to sin. That one is not free; sin has enslaved him. To break free from this bondage requires outside (divine) intervention. Although the statement is true at the general level (the person who continually practices a lifestyle of sin is enslaved to sin) the particular sin of the Jewish authorities, repeatedly emphasized in the Fourth Gospel, is the sin of unbelief. The present tense in this instance looks at the continuing refusal on the part of the Jewish leaders to acknowledge who Jesus is, in spite of mounting evidence.

[8:34]  ⁵ tn See the note on the word “slaves” in 4:51.

[9:41]  ⁵ tn Grk “Jesus said to them.”

[9:41]  ⁶ tn Grk “you would not have sin.”

[9:41]  ⁷ tn Grk “now because you say, ‘We see…’”

[9:41]  ⁸ tn Or “your sin.”

[9:41]  ⁹ 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).

[15:22]  ⁷ tn Grk “they would not have sin” (an idiom).