John 1:31-32

1:31 I did not recognize ¹  him, but I came baptizing with water so that he could be revealed to Israel.” ² 

1:32 Then ³  John testified, ⁴  “I saw the Spirit descending like a dove ⁵  from heaven, ⁶  and it remained on him. ⁷ 

John 6:31

6:31 Our ancestors ⁸  ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” ⁹ 

John 10:20

10:20 Many of them were saying, “He is possessed by a demon and has lost his mind! ¹⁰  Why do you listen to him?”

John 16:27-28

16:27 For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. ¹¹  16:28 I came from the Father and entered into the world, but in turn, ¹²  I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.” ¹³ 

John 18:4

18:4 Then Jesus, because he knew everything that was going to happen to him, ¹⁴  came and asked them, “Who are you looking for?” ¹⁵ 

John 18:40

18:40 Then they shouted back, ¹⁶  “Not this man, ¹⁷  but Barabbas!” ¹⁸  (Now Barabbas was a revolutionary. ¹⁹ ) ²⁰ 

John 21:5

21:5 So Jesus said to them, “Children, you don’t have any fish, ²¹  do you?” ²²  They replied, ²³  “No.”

[1:31]  ¹ tn Or “know.”

[1:31]  ² sn John the Baptist, who has been so reluctant to elaborate his own role, now more than willingly gives his testimony about Jesus. For the author, the emphasis is totally on John the Baptist as a witness to Jesus. No attention is given to the Baptist’s call to national repentance and very little to his baptizing. Everything is focused on what he has to say about Jesus: so that he could be revealed to Israel.

[1:32]  ³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events in the narrative. Greek style often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” but English style generally does not.

[1:32]  ⁴ tn Grk “testified, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[1:32]  ⁵ sn The phrase like a dove is a descriptive comparison. The Spirit is not a dove, but descended like one in some sort of bodily representation.

[1:32]  ⁶ tn Or “from the sky.” The Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) may be translated “sky” or “heaven,” depending on the context.

[1:32]  ⁷ sn John says the Spirit remained on Jesus. The Greek verb μένω (menw) is a favorite Johannine word, used 40 times in the Gospel and 27 times in the Epistles (67 together) against 118 times total in the NT. The general significance of the verb μένω for John is to express the permanency of relationship between Father and Son and Son and believer. Here the use of the word implies that Jesus permanently possesses the Holy Spirit, and because he does, he will dispense the Holy Spirit to others in baptism. Other notes on the dispensation of the Spirit occur at John 3:5 and following (at least implied by the wordplay), John 3:34, 7:38-39, numerous passages in John 14-16 (the Paraclete passages) and John 20:22. Note also the allusion to Isa 42:1 – “Behold my servant…my chosen one in whom my soul delights. I have put my Spirit on him.”

[6:31]  ⁵ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[6:31]  ⁶ sn A quotation from Ps 78:24 (referring to the events of Exod 16:4-36).

[10:20]  ⁷ tn Or “is insane.” To translate simply “he is mad” (so KJV, ASV, RSV; “raving mad” NIV) could give the impression that Jesus was angry, while the actual charge was madness or insanity.

[16:27]  ⁹ tc A number of early mss (א¹ B C* D L pc co) read πατρός (patros, “Father”) here instead of θεοῦ (qeou, “God”; found in Ì⁵ א*^,2 A C³ W Θ Ψ 33 Ë^1,13 Ï). Although externally πατρός has relatively strong support, it is evidently an assimilation to “I came from the Father” at the beginning of v. 28, or more generally to the consistent mention of God as Father throughout this chapter (πατήρ [pathr, “Father”] occurs eleven times in this chapter, while θεός [qeos, “God”] occurs only two other times [16:2, 30]).

[16:28]  ¹¹ tn Or “into the world; again.” Here πάλιν (palin) functions as a marker of contrast, with the implication of a sequence.

[16:28]  ¹² sn The statement I am leaving the world and going to the Father is a summary of the entire Gospel of John. It summarizes the earthly career of the Word made flesh, Jesus of Nazareth, on his mission from the Father to be the Savior of the world, beginning with his entry into the world as he came forth from God and concluding with his departure from the world as he returned to the Father.

[18:4]  ¹³ tn Grk “knowing all things that were coming upon him.”

[18:4]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “Whom do you seek?”

[18:40]  ¹⁵ tn Or “they shouted again,” or “they shouted in turn.” On the difficulty of translating πάλιν (palin) see BDAG 753 s.v. 5. It is simplest in the context of John’s Gospel to understand the phrase to mean “they shouted back” as a reply to Pilate’s question.

[18:40]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “this one.”

[18:40]  ¹⁷ sn The name Barabbas in Aramaic means “son of abba,” that is, “son of the father,” and presumably the man in question had another name (it may also have been Jesus, according to the textual variant in Matt 27:16, although this is uncertain). For the author this name held ironic significance: The crowd was asking for the release of a man called Barabbas, “son of the father,” while Jesus, who was truly the Son of the Father, was condemned to die instead.

[18:40]  ¹⁸ tn Or “robber.” It is possible that Barabbas was merely a robber or highwayman, but more likely, given the use of the term ληστής (lhsth") in Josephus and other early sources, that he was a guerrilla warrior or revolutionary leader. See both R. E. Brown (John [AB], 2:857) and K. H. Rengstorf (TDNT 4:258) for more information. The word λῃστής was used a number of times by Josephus (J. W. 2.13.2-3 [2.253-254]) to describe the revolutionaries or guerrilla fighters who, from mixed motives of nationalism and greed, kept the rural districts of Judea in constant turmoil.

[18:40]  ¹⁹ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[21:5]  ¹⁷ tn The word προσφάγιον (prosfagion) is unusual. According to BDAG 886 s.v. in Hellenistic Greek it described a side dish to be eaten with bread, and in some contexts was the equivalent of ὄψον (oyon), “fish.” Used in addressing a group of returning fishermen, however, it is quite clear that the speaker had fish in mind.

[21:5]  ¹⁸ tn Questions prefaced with μή (mh) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end in English (here the tag is “do you?”).

[21:5]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “They answered him.”