John 1:45

1:45 Philip found Nathanael ¹  and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, and the prophets also ²  wrote about – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

John 5:30

5:30 I can do nothing on my own initiative. ³  Just as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, ⁴  because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the one who sent me. ⁵ 

John 7:18

7:18 The person who speaks on his own authority ⁶  desires ⁷  to receive honor ⁸  for himself; the one who desires ⁹  the honor ¹⁰  of the one who sent him is a man of integrity, ¹¹  and there is no unrighteousness in him.

John 8:28

8:28 Then Jesus said, ¹²  “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, ¹³  and I do nothing on my own initiative, ¹⁴  but I speak just what the Father taught me. ¹⁵ 

John 8:42

8:42 Jesus replied, ¹⁶  “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come from God and am now here. ¹⁷  I ¹⁸  have not come on my own initiative, ¹⁹  but he ²⁰  sent me.

John 15:4

15:4 Remain ²¹  in me, and I will remain in you. ²²  Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, ²³  unless it remains ²⁴  in ²⁵  the vine, so neither can you unless you remain ²⁶  in me.

John 16:13

16:13 But when he, ²⁷  the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide ²⁸  you into all truth. ²⁹  For he will not speak on his own authority, ³⁰  but will speak whatever he hears, and will tell you ³¹  what is to come. ³² 

John 16:22

16:22 So also you have sorrow ³³  now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. ³⁴ 

John 18:28

Jesus Brought Before Pilate

18:28 Then they brought Jesus from Caiaphas to the Roman governor’s residence. ³⁵  (Now it was very early morning.) ³⁶  They ³⁷  did not go into the governor’s residence ³⁸  so they would not be ceremonially defiled, but could eat the Passover meal.

John 21:2

21:2 Simon Peter, Thomas ³⁹  (called Didymus), ⁴⁰  Nathanael ⁴¹  (who was from Cana ⁴²  in Galilee), the sons ⁴³  of Zebedee, ⁴⁴  and two other disciples ⁴⁵  of his were together.

John 21:6

21:6 He told them, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” ⁴⁶  So they threw the net, ⁴⁷  and were not able to pull it in because of the large number of fish.

[1:45]  ¹ sn Nathanael is traditionally identified with Bartholomew (although John never describes him as such). He appears here after Philip, while in all lists of the twelve except in Acts 1:13, Bartholomew follows Philip. Also, the Aramaic Bar-tolmai means “son of Tolmai,” the surname; the man almost certainly had another name.

[1:45]  ² tn “Also” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

[5:30]  ³ tn Grk “nothing from myself.”

[5:30]  ⁴ tn Or “righteous,” or “proper.”

[5:30]  ⁵ tn That is, “the will of the Father who sent me.”

[7:18]  ⁵ tn Grk “who speaks from himself.”

[7:18]  ⁶ tn Or “seeks.”

[7:18]  ⁷ tn Or “praise”; Grk “glory.”

[7:18]  ⁸ tn Or “seeks.”

[7:18]  ⁹ tn Or “praise”; Grk “glory.”

[7:18]  ¹⁰ tn Or “is truthful”; Grk “is true.”

[8:28]  ⁷ tn Grk “Then Jesus said to them” (the words “to them” are not found in all mss).

[8:28]  ⁸ tn Grk “that I am.” See the note on this phrase in v. 24.

[8:28]  ⁹ tn Grk “I do nothing from myself.”

[8:28]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “but just as the Father taught me, these things I speak.”

[8:42]  ⁹ tn Grk “Jesus said to them.”

[8:42]  ¹⁰ tn Or “I came from God and have arrived.”

[8:42]  ¹¹ tn Grk “For I.” Here γάρ (gar) has not been translated.

[8:42]  ¹² tn Grk “from myself.”

[8:42]  ¹³ tn Grk “that one” (referring to God).

[15:4]  ¹¹ tn Or “Reside.”

[15:4]  ¹² tn Grk “and I in you.” The verb has been repeated for clarity and to conform to contemporary English style, which typically allows fewer ellipses (omitted or understood words) than Greek.

[15:4]  ¹³ sn The branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it remains connected to the vine, from which its life and sustenance flows. As far as the disciples were concerned, they would produce no fruit from themselves if they did not remain in their relationship to Jesus, because the eternal life which a disciple must possess in order to bear fruit originates with Jesus; he is the source of all life and productivity for the disciple.

[15:4]  ¹⁴ tn Or “resides.”

[15:4]  ¹⁵ tn While it would be more natural to say “on the vine” (so NAB), the English preposition “in” has been retained here to emphasize the parallelism with the following clause “unless you remain in me.” To speak of remaining “in” a person is not natural English either, but is nevertheless a biblical concept (cf. “in Christ” in Eph 1:3, 4, 6, 7, 11).

[15:4]  ¹⁶ tn Or “you reside.”

[16:13]  ¹³ tn Grk “that one.”

[16:13]  ¹⁴ tn Or “will lead.”

[16:13]  ¹⁵ sn Three important points must be noted here. (1) When the Holy Spirit comes, he will guide the disciples into all truth. What Jesus had said in 8:31-32, “If you continue to follow my teaching you are really my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free,” will ultimately be realized in the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit to the disciples after Jesus’ departure. (2) The things the Holy Spirit speaks to them will not be things which originate from himself (he will not speak on his own authority), but things he has heard. This could be taken to mean that no new revelation is involved, as R. E. Brown does (John [AB], 2:714-15). This is a possible but not a necessary inference. The point here concerns the source of the things the Spirit will say to the disciples and does not specifically exclude originality of content. (3) Part at least of what the Holy Spirit will reveal to the disciples will concern what is to come, not just fuller implications of previous sayings of Jesus and the like. This does seem to indicate that at least some new revelation is involved. But the Spirit is not the source or originator of these things – Jesus is the source, and he will continue to speak to his disciples through the Spirit who has come to indwell them. This does not answer the question, however, whether these words are addressed to all followers of Jesus, or only to his apostles. Different modern commentators will answer this question differently. Since in the context of the Farewell Discourse Jesus is preparing the twelve to carry on his ministry after his departure, it is probably best to take these statements as specifically related only to the twelve. Some of this the Holy Spirit does directly for all believers today; other parts of this statement are fulfilled through the apostles (e.g., in giving the Book of Revelation the Spirit speaks through the apostles to the church today of things to come). One of the implications of this is that a doctrine does not have to be traced back to an explicit teaching of Jesus to be authentic; all that is required is apostolic authority.

[16:13]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “speak from himself.”

[16:13]  ¹⁷ tn Or will announce to you.”

[16:13]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “will tell you the things to come.”

[16:22]  ¹⁵ tn Or “distress.”

[16:22]  ¹⁶ sn An allusion to Isa 66:14 LXX, which reads: “Then you will see, and your heart will be glad, and your bones will flourish like the new grass; and the hand of the Lord will be made known to his servants, but he will be indignant toward his enemies.” The change from “you will see [me]” to I will see you places more emphasis on Jesus as the one who reinitiates the relationship with the disciples after his resurrection, but v. 16 (you will see me) is more like Isa 66:14. Further support for seeing this allusion as intentional is found in Isa 66:7, which uses the same imagery of the woman giving birth found in John 16:21. In the context of Isa 66 the passages refer to the institution of the messianic kingdom, and in fact the last clause of 66:14 along with the following verses (15-17) have yet to be fulfilled. This is part of the tension of present and future eschatological fulfillment that runs throughout the NT, by virtue of the fact that there are two advents. Some prophecies are fulfilled or partially fulfilled at the first advent, while other prophecies or parts of prophecies await fulfillment at the second.

[18:28]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “to the praetorium.”

[18:28]  ¹⁸ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[18:28]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “And they.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.

[18:28]  ²⁰ tn Grk “into the praetorium.”

[21:2]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “and Thomas.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements of a series.

[21:2]  ²⁰ sn Didymus means “the twin” in Greek.

[21:2]  ²¹ tn Grk “and Nathanael.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements of a series.

[21:2]  ²² map For location see Map1 C3; Map2 D2; Map3 C5.

[21:2]  ²³ tn Grk “and the sons.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements of a series.

[21:2]  ²⁴ sn The sons of Zebedee were James and John.

[21:2]  ²⁵ sn The two other disciples who are not named may have been Andrew and Philip, who are mentioned together in John 6:7-8 and 12:22.

[21:6]  ²¹ tn The word “some” is not in the Greek text but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[21:6]  ²² tn The words “the net” are not in the Greek text but are implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.