John 1:32

1:32 Then ¹  John testified, ²  “I saw the Spirit descending like a dove ³  from heaven, ⁴  and it remained on him. ⁵ 

John 3:27

3:27 John replied, ⁶  “No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven.

John 6:31

6:31 Our ancestors ⁷  ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” ⁸ 

John 6:38

6:38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me.

John 6:41

6:41 Then the Jews who were hostile to Jesus ⁹  began complaining about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven,”

John 6:50

6:50 This ¹⁰  is the bread that has come down from heaven, so that a person ¹¹  may eat from it and not die.

[1:32]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Grk “testified, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[1:32]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Or “from the sky.” The Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) may be translated “sky” or “heaven,” depending on the context.

[1:32]  ⁵ 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.”

[3:27]  ⁶ tn Grk “answered and said.”

[6:31]  ¹¹ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[6:31]  ¹² sn A quotation from Ps 78:24 (referring to the events of Exod 16:4-36).

[6:41]  ¹⁶ 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.

[6:50]  ²¹ tn Or “Here.”

[6:50]  ²² tn Grk “someone” (τις, tis).