John 1:49

1:49 Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king ¹  of Israel!” ² 

John 3:13-14

3:13 No one ³  has ascended ⁴  into heaven except the one who descended from heaven – the Son of Man. ⁵  3:14 Just as ⁶  Moses lifted up the serpent ⁷  in the wilderness, ⁸  so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ⁹ 

John 4:5

4:5 Now he came to a Samaritan town ¹⁰  called Sychar, ¹¹  near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ¹² 

John 4:50

4:50 Jesus told him, “Go home; ¹³  your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and set off for home. ¹⁴ 

John 5:22

5:22 Furthermore, the Father does not judge ¹⁵  anyone, but has assigned ¹⁶  all judgment to the Son,

John 5:26

5:26 For just as the Father has life in himself, thus he has granted the Son to have life in himself,

John 6:62

6:62 Then what if you see the Son of Man ascending where he was before? ¹⁷ 

John 6:71

6:71 (Now he said this about Judas son of Simon Iscariot, ¹⁸  for Judas, ¹⁹  one of the twelve, was going to betray him.) ²⁰ 

John 8:35

8:35 The slave does not remain in the family ²¹  forever, but the son remains forever. ²² 

John 9:19-20

9:19 They asked the parents, ²³  “Is this your son, whom you say ²⁴  was born blind? Then how does he now see?” 9:20 So his parents replied, ²⁵  “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind.

John 12:23

12:23 Jesus replied, ²⁶  “The time ²⁷  has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. ²⁸ 

John 13:2

13:2 The evening meal ²⁹  was in progress, and the devil had already put into the heart ³⁰  of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, that he should betray ³¹  Jesus. ³² 

John 13:31

The Prediction of Peter’s Denial

13:31 When ³³  Judas ³⁴  had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him.

John 14:13

14:13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, ³⁵  so that the Father may be glorified ³⁶  in the Son.

[1:49]  ¹ tn Although βασιλεύς (basileus) lacks the article it is definite due to contextual and syntactical considerations. See ExSyn 263.

[1:49]  ² sn Nathanael’s confession – You are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel – is best understood as a confession of Jesus’ messiahship. It has strong allusions to Ps 2:6-7, a well-known messianic psalm. What Nathanael’s exact understanding was at this point is hard to determine, but “son of God” was a designation for the Davidic king in the OT, and Nathanael parallels it with King of Israel here.

[3:13]  ³ tn Grk “And no one.”

[3:13]  ⁴ sn The verb ascended is a perfect tense in Greek (ἀναβέβηκεν, anabebhken) which seems to look at a past, completed event. (This is not as much of a problem for those who take Jesus’ words to end at v. 12, and these words to be a comment by the author, looking back on Jesus’ ascension.) As a saying of Jesus, these words are a bit harder to explain. Note, however, the lexical similarities with 1:51: “ascending,” “descending,” and “son of man.” Here, though, the ascent and descent is accomplished by the Son himself, not the angels as in 1:51. There is no need to limit this saying to Jesus’ ascent following the resurrection, however; the point of the Jacob story (Gen 28), which seems to be the background for 1:51, is the freedom of communication and relationship between God and men (a major theme of John’s Gospel). This communication comes through the angels in Gen 28 (and John 1:51); but here (most appropriately) it comes directly through the Son of Man. Although Jesus could be referring to a prior ascent, after an appearance as the preincarnate Son of Man, more likely he is simply pointing out that no one from earth has ever gone up to heaven and come down again. The Son, who has come down from heaven, is the only one who has been ‘up’ there. In both Jewish intertestamental literature and later rabbinic accounts, Moses is portrayed as ascending to heaven to receive the Torah and descending to distribute it to men (e.g., Targum Ps 68:19.) In contrast to these Jewish legends, the Son is the only one who has ever made the ascent and descent.

[3:13]  ⁵ tc Most witnesses, including a few important ones (A^[*^] Θ Ψ 050 Ë^1,13 Ï latt sy^c,p,h), have at the end of this verse “the one who is in heaven” (ὁ ὢν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, Jo wn en tw ouranw). A few others have variations on this phrase, such as “who was in heaven” (e sy^c), or “the one who is from heaven” (0141 pc sy^s). The witnesses normally considered the best, along with several others, lack the phrase in its entirety (Ì^66,75 א B L T W^s 083 086 33 1241 pc co). On the one hand, if the reading ὁ ὢν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ is authentic it may suggest that while Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus he spoke of himself as in heaven even while he was on earth. If that is the case, one could see why variations from this hard saying arose: “who was in heaven,” “the one who is from heaven,” and omission of the clause. At the same time, such a saying could be interpreted (though with difficulty) as part of the narrator’s comments rather than Jesus’ statement to Nicodemus, alleviating the problem. And if v. 13 was viewed in early times as the evangelist’s statement, “the one who is in heaven” could have crept into the text through a marginal note. Other internal evidence suggests that this saying may be authentic. The adjectival participle, ὁ ὤν, is used in the Fourth Gospel more than any other NT book (though the Apocalypse comes in a close second), and frequently with reference to Jesus (1:18; 6:46; 8:47). It may be looking back to the LXX of Exod 3:14 (ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν). Especially since this exact construction is not necessary to communicate the location of the Son of Man, its presence in many witnesses here may suggest authenticity. Further, John uses the singular of οὐρανός (ourano", “heaven”) in all 18 instances of the word in this Gospel, and all but twice with the article (only 1:32 and 6:58 are anarthrous, and even in the latter there is significant testimony to the article). At the same time, the witnesses that lack this clause are very weighty and must not be discounted. Generally speaking, if other factors are equal, the reading of such mss should be preferred. And internally, it could be argued that ὁ ὤν is the most concise way to speak of the Son of Man in heaven at that time (without the participle the point would be more ambiguous). Further, the articular singular οὐρανός is already used twice in this verse, thus sufficiently prompting scribes to add the same in the longer reading. This combination of factors suggests that ὁ ὢν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ is not a genuine Johannism. Further intrinsic evidence against the longer reading relates to the evangelist’s purposes: If he intended v. 13 to be his own comments rather than Jesus’ statement, his switch back to Jesus’ words in v. 14 (for the lifting up of the Son of Man is still seen as in the future) seems inexplicable. The reading “who is in heaven” thus seems to be too hard. All things considered, as intriguing as the longer reading is, it seems almost surely to have been a marginal gloss added inadvertently to the text in the process of transmission. For an argument in favor of the longer reading, see David Alan Black, “The Text of John 3:13,” GTJ 6 (1985): 49-66.

[3:14]  ⁵ tn Grk “And just as.”

[3:14]  ⁶ sn Or the snake, referring to the bronze serpent mentioned in Num 21:9.

[3:14]  ⁷ sn An allusion to Num 21:5-9.

[3:14]  ⁸ sn So must the Son of Man be lifted up. This is ultimately a prediction of Jesus’ crucifixion. Nicodemus could not have understood this, but John’s readers, the audience to whom the Gospel is addressed, certainly could have (compare the wording of John 12:32). In John, being lifted up refers to one continuous action of ascent, beginning with the cross but ending at the right hand of the Father. Step 1 is Jesus’ death; step 2 is his resurrection; and step 3 is the ascension back to heaven. It is the upward swing of the “pendulum” which began with the incarnation, the descent of the Word become flesh from heaven to earth (cf. Paul in Phil 2:5-11). See also the note on the title Son of Man in 1:51.

[4:5]  ⁷ tn Grk “town of Samaria.” The noun Σαμαρείας (Samareias) has been translated as an attributive genitive.

[4:5]  ⁸ sn Sychar was somewhere in the vicinity of Shechem, possibly the village of Askar, 1.5 km northeast of Jacob’s well.

[4:5]  ⁹ sn Perhaps referred to in Gen 48:22.

[4:50]  ⁹ tn Grk “Go”; the word “home” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

[4:50]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “and left.” The words “for home” are implied by the following verse.

[5:22]  ¹¹ tn Or “condemn.”

[5:22]  ¹² tn Or “given,” or “handed over.”

[6:62]  ¹³ tn Or “he was formerly?”

[6:71]  ¹⁵ sn At least six explanations for the name Iscariot have been proposed, but it is probably transliterated Hebrew with the meaning “man of Kerioth” (there are at least two villages that had that name). See D. A. Carson, John, 304.

[6:71]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “this one”; the referent (Judas) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:71]  ¹⁷ sn This parenthetical statement by the author helps the reader understand Jesus’ statement one of you is the devil in the previous verse. This is the first mention of Judas in the Fourth Gospel, and he is immediately identified (as he is in the synoptic gospels, Matt 10:4, Mark 3:19, Luke 6:16) as the one who would betray Jesus.

[8:35]  ¹⁷ tn Or “household.” The Greek work οἰκία (oikia) can denote the family as consisting of relatives by both descent and marriage, as well as slaves and servants, living in the same house (more the concept of an “extended family”).

[8:35]  ¹⁸ sn Jesus’ point is that while a slave may be part of a family or household, the slave is not guaranteed a permanent place there, while a son, as a descendant or blood relative, will always be guaranteed a place in the family (remains forever).

[9:19]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “and they asked them, saying”; the referent (the parents) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:19]  ²⁰ tn The Greek pronoun and verb are both plural (both parents are addressed).

[9:20]  ²¹ tn Grk “So his parents answered and said.”

[12:23]  ²³ tn Grk “Jesus answered them, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated here.

[12:23]  ²⁴ tn Grk “the hour.”

[12:23]  ²⁵ sn Jesus’ reply, the time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified, is a bit puzzling. As far as the author’s account is concerned, Jesus totally ignores these Greeks and makes no further reference to them whatsoever. It appears that his words are addressed to Andrew and Philip, but in fact they must have had a wider audience, including possibly the Greeks who had wished to see him in the first place. The words the time has come recall all the previous references to “the hour” throughout the Fourth Gospel (see the note on time in 2:4). There is no doubt, in light of the following verse, that Jesus refers to his death here. On his pathway to glorification lies the cross, and it is just ahead.

[13:2]  ²⁵ tn Or “Supper.” To avoid possible confusion because of different regional English usage regarding the distinction between “dinner” and “supper” as an evening meal, the translation simply refers to “the evening meal.”

[13:2]  ²⁶ sn At this point the devil had already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, that he should betray Jesus. C. K. Barrett (St. John, 365) thought this was a reference to the idea entering the devil’s own heart, but this does not seem likely. It is more probable that Judas’ heart is meant, since the use of the Greek article (rather than a possessive pronoun) is a typical idiom when a part of one’s own body is indicated. Judas’ name is withheld until the end of the sentence for dramatic effect (emphasis). This action must be read in light of 13:27, and appears to refer to a preliminary idea or plan.

[13:2]  ²⁷ tn Or “that he should hand over.”

[13:2]  ²⁸ tn Grk “betray him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:31]  ²⁷ tn Grk “Then when.”

[13:31]  ²⁸ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Judas) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[14:13]  ²⁹ tn Grk “And whatever you ask in my name, I will do it.”

[14:13]  ³⁰ tn Or “may be praised” or “may be honored.”