John 15:18

The World’s Hatred

15:18 “If the world hates you, be aware ¹  that it hated me first. ² 

John 18:13

18:13 They ³  brought him first to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. ⁴ 

John 1:41

1:41 He first ⁵  found his own brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah!” ⁶  (which is translated Christ). ⁷ 

John 2:10

2:10 and said to him, “Everyone ⁸  serves the good wine first, and then the cheaper ⁹  wine when the guests ¹⁰  are drunk. You have kept the good wine until now!”

John 7:51

7:51 “Our law doesn’t condemn ¹¹  a man unless it first hears from him and learns ¹²  what he is doing, does it?” ¹³ 

John 10:40

10:40 Jesus ¹⁴  went back across the Jordan River ¹⁵  again to the place where John ¹⁶  had been baptizing at an earlier time, ¹⁷  and he stayed there.

John 19:39

19:39 Nicodemus, the man who had previously come to Jesus ¹⁸  at night, ¹⁹  accompanied Joseph, ²⁰  carrying a mixture of myrrh and aloes ²¹  weighing about seventy-five pounds. ²² 

John 12:16

12:16 (His disciples did not understand these things when they first happened, ²³  but when Jesus was glorified, ²⁴  then they remembered that these things were written about him and that these things had happened ²⁵  to him.) ²⁶ 

[15:18]  ¹ tn Grk “know.”

[15:18]  ² tn Grk “it hated me before you.”

[18:13]  ³ tn Grk “up, and brought.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[18:13]  ⁴ sn Jesus was taken first to Annas. Only the Gospel of John mentions this pretrial hearing before Annas, and that Annas was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who is said to be high priest in that year. Caiaphas is also mentioned as being high priest in John 11:49. But in 18:15, 16, 19, and 22 Annas is called high priest. Annas is also referred to as high priest by Luke in Acts 4:6. Many scholars have dismissed these references as mistakes on the part of both Luke and John, but as mentioned above, John 11:49 and 18:13 indicate that John knew that Caiaphas was high priest in the year that Jesus was crucified. This has led others to suggest that Annas and Caiaphas shared the high priesthood, but there is no historical evidence to support this view. Annas had been high priest from a.d. 6 to a.d. 15 when he was deposed by the Roman prefect Valerius Gratus (according to Josephus, Ant. 18.2.2 [18.34]). His five sons all eventually became high priests. The family was noted for its greed, wealth, and power. There are a number of ways the references in both Luke and John to Annas being high priest may be explained. Some Jews may have refused to recognize the changes in high priests effected by the Roman authorities, since according to the Torah the high priesthood was a lifetime office (Num 25:13). Another possibility is that it was simply customary to retain the title after a person had left the office as a courtesy, much as retired ambassadors are referred to as “Mr. Ambassador” or ex-presidents as “Mr. President.” Finally, the use of the title by Luke and John may simply be a reflection of the real power behind the high priesthood of the time: Although Annas no longer technically held the office, he may well have managed to control those relatives of his who did hold it from behind the scenes. In fact this seems most probable and would also explain why Jesus was brought to him immediately after his arrest for a sort of “pretrial hearing” before being sent on to the entire Sanhedrin.

[1:41]  ⁵ tc Most witnesses (א* L W^s Ï) read πρῶτος (prwtos) here instead of πρῶτον (prwton). The former reading would be a predicate adjective and suggest that Andrew “was the first” person to proselytize another regarding Jesus. The reading preferred, however, is the neuter πρῶτον, used as an adverb (BDAG 893 s.v. πρῶτος 1.a.β.), and it suggests that the first thing that Andrew did was to proselytize Peter. The evidence for this reading is early and weighty: Ì^66,75 א² A B Θ Ψ 083 Ë^1,13 892 al lat.

[1:41]  ⁶ sn Naturally part of Andrew’s concept of the Messiah would have been learned from John the Baptist (v. 40). However, there were a number of different messianic expectations in 1st century Palestine (see the note on “Who are you?” in v. 19), and it would be wrong to assume that what Andrew meant here is the same thing the author means in the purpose statement at the end of the Fourth Gospel, 20:31. The issue here is not whether the disciples’ initial faith in Jesus as Messiah was genuine or not, but whether their concept of who Jesus was grew and developed progressively as they spent time following him, until finally after his resurrection it is affirmed in the climactic statement of John’s Gospel, the affirmation of Thomas in 20:28.

[1:41]  ⁷ tn Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “the one who has been anointed.”

[2:10]  ⁷ tn Grk “every man” (in a generic sense).

[2:10]  ⁸ tn Or “poorer.”

[2:10]  ⁹ tn Grk “when they”; the referent (the guests) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:51]  ⁹ tn Grk “judge.”

[7:51]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “knows.”

[7:51]  ¹¹ 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 “does it?”).

[10:40]  ¹¹ tn Grk “He”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:40]  ¹² tn The word “River” is not in the Greek text but is supplied for clarity.

[10:40]  ¹³ sn John refers to John the Baptist.

[10:40]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “formerly.”

[19:39]  ¹³ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[19:39]  ¹⁴ sn See John 3:1-21.

[19:39]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “came”; the words “accompanied Joseph” are not in the Greek text but are supplied for clarity.

[19:39]  ¹⁶ sn Aloes refers to an aromatic resin from a plant similar to a lily, used for embalming a corpse.

[19:39]  ¹⁷ sn The Roman pound (λίτρα, litra) weighed twelve ounces or 325 grams. Thus 100 Roman pounds would be about 32.5 kilograms or 75 pounds.

[12:16]  ¹⁵ tn Or “did not understand these things at first”; Grk “formerly.”

[12:16]  ¹⁶ sn When Jesus was glorified, that is, glorified through his resurrection, exaltation, and return to the Father. Jesus’ glorification is consistently portrayed this way in the Gospel of John.

[12:16]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “and that they had done these things,” though the referent is probably indefinite and not referring to the disciples; as such, the best rendering is as a passive (see ExSyn 402-3; R. E. Brown, John [AB], 1:458).

[12:16]  ¹⁸ sn The comment His disciples did not understand these things when they first happened (a parenthetical note by the author) informs the reader that Jesus’ disciples did not at first associate the prophecy from Zechariah with the events as they happened. This came with the later (postresurrection) insight which the Holy Spirit would provide after Jesus’ resurrection and return to the Father. Note the similarity with John 2:22, which follows another allusion to a prophecy in Zechariah (14:21).