John 13:14

13:14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you too ought to wash one another’s feet.

John 12:3

12:3 Then Mary took three quarters of a pound ¹  of expensive aromatic oil from pure nard ²  and anointed the feet of Jesus. She ³  then wiped his feet dry with her hair. (Now the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfumed oil.) ⁴ 

John 13:6

13:6 Then he came to Simon Peter. Peter ⁵  said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash ⁶  my feet?”

John 13:9

13:9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, wash ⁷  not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!”

John 11:2

11:2 (Now it was Mary who anointed the Lord with perfumed oil ⁸  and wiped his feet dry with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.) ⁹ 

John 13:5

13:5 He poured water into the washbasin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel he had wrapped around himself. ¹⁰ 

John 11:32

11:32 Now when Mary came to the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

John 11:44

11:44 The one who had died came out, his feet and hands tied up with strips of cloth, ¹¹  and a cloth wrapped around his face. ¹²  Jesus said to them, “Unwrap him ¹³  and let him go.”

John 13:8

13:8 Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet!” ¹⁴  Jesus replied, ¹⁵  “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” ¹⁶ 

John 13:10

13:10 Jesus replied, ¹⁷  “The one who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, ¹⁸  but is completely ¹⁹  clean. ²⁰  And you disciples ²¹  are clean, but not every one of you.”

John 13:12

13:12 So when Jesus ²²  had washed their feet and put his outer clothing back on, he took his place at the table ²³  again and said to them, “Do you understand ²⁴  what I have done for you?

[12:3]  ¹ tn Or “half a liter”; Grk “a pound” (that is, a Roman pound, about 325 grams or 12 ounces).

[12:3]  ² tn Μύρον (muron) was usually made of myrrh (from which the English word is derived) but here it is used in the sense of ointment or perfumed oil (L&N 6.205). The adjective πιστικῆς (pistikh") is difficult with regard to its exact meaning; some have taken it to derive from πίστις (pistis) and relate to the purity of the oil of nard. More probably it is something like a brand name, “pistic nard,” the exact significance of which has not been discovered.

[12:3]  ³ tn Grk “And she.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[12:3]  ⁴ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author. With a note characteristic of someone who was there and remembered, the author adds that the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfumed oil. In the later rabbinic literature, Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7.1.1 states “The fragrance of good oil is diffused from the bedroom to the dining hall, but a good name is diffused from one end of the world to the other.” If such a saying was known in the 1st century, this might be the author’s way of indicating that Mary’s act of devotion would be spoken of throughout the entire world (compare the comment in Mark 14:9).

[13:6]  ¹ tn Grk “He”; the referent (Peter) is specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:6]  ² tn Grk “do you wash” or “are you washing.”

[13:9]  ¹ tn The word “wash” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Here it is supplied to improve the English style by making Peter’s utterance a complete sentence.

[11:2]  ¹ tn Or “perfume,” “ointment.”

[11:2]  ² sn This is a parenthetical note by the author. It is a bit surprising that the author here identifies Mary as the one who anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and wiped his feet dry with her hair, since this event is not mentioned until later, in 12:3. Many see this “proleptic” reference as an indication that the author expected his readers to be familiar with the story already, and go on to assume that in general the author in writing the Fourth Gospel assumed his readers were familiar with the other three gospels. Whether the author assumed actual familiarity with the synoptic gospels or not, it is probable that he did assume some familiarity with Mary’s anointing activity.

[13:5]  ¹ tn Grk “with the towel with which he was girded.”

[11:44]  ¹ sn Many have wondered how Lazarus got out of the tomb if his hands and feet were still tied up with strips of cloth. The author does not tell, and with a miracle of this magnitude, this is not an important fact to know. If Lazarus’ decomposing body was brought back to life by the power of God, then it could certainly have been moved out of the tomb by that same power. Others have suggested that the legs were bound separately, which would remove the difficulty, but the account gives no indication of this. What may be of more significance for the author is the comparison which this picture naturally evokes with the resurrection of Jesus, where the graveclothes stayed in the tomb neatly folded (20:6-7). Jesus, unlike Lazarus, would never need graveclothes again.

[11:44]  ² tn Grk “and his face tied around with cloth.”

[11:44]  ³ tn Grk “Loose him.”

[13:8]  ¹ tn Grk “You will never wash my feet forever.” The negation is emphatic in Greek but somewhat awkward in English. Emphasis is conveyed in the translation by the use of an exclamation point.

[13:8]  ² tn Grk “Jesus answered him.”

[13:8]  ³ tn Or “you have no part in me.”

[13:10]  ¹ tn Grk “Jesus said to him.”

[13:10]  ² tn Grk “has no need except to wash his feet.”

[13:10]  ³ tn Or “entirely.”

[13:10]  ⁴ sn The one who has bathed needs only to wash his feet. A common understanding is that the “bath” Jesus referred to is the initial cleansing from sin, which necessitates only “lesser, partial” cleansings from sins after conversion. This makes a fine illustration from a homiletic standpoint, but is it the meaning of the passage? This seems highly doubtful. Jesus stated that the disciples were completely clean except for Judas (vv. 10b, 11). What they needed was to have their feet washed by Jesus. In the broader context of the Fourth Gospel, the significance of the foot-washing seems to point not just to an example of humble service (as most understand it), but something more – Jesus’ self-sacrificial death on the cross. If this is correct, then the foot-washing which they needed to undergo represented their acceptance of this act of self-sacrifice on the part of their master. This makes Peter’s initial abhorrence of the act of humiliation by his master all the more significant in context; it also explains Jesus’ seemingly harsh reply to Peter (above, v. 8; compare Matt 16:21-23 where Jesus says to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan”).

[13:10]  ⁵ tn The word “disciples” is supplied in English to clarify the plural Greek pronoun and verb. Peter is not the only one Jesus is addressing here.

[13:12]  ¹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:12]  ² tn Grk “he reclined at the table.” The phrase reflects the normal 1st century Near Eastern practice of eating a meal in a semi-reclining position.

[13:12]  ³ tn Grk “Do you know.”