John 16:31

16:31 Jesus replied, ¹  “Do you now believe?

John 14:1

Jesus’ Parting Words to His Disciples

14:1 “Do not let your hearts be distressed. ²  You believe in God; ³  believe also in me.

John 14:11

14:11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, but if you do not believe me, ⁴  believe because of the miraculous deeds ⁵  themselves.

John 5:47

5:47 But if you do not believe what Moses ⁶  wrote, how will you believe my words?”

John 6:36

6:36 But I told you ⁷  that you have seen me ⁸  and still do not believe.

John 8:45

8:45 But because I am telling you ⁹  the truth, you do not believe me.

John 10:26

10:26 But you refuse to believe because you are not my sheep.

John 10:37

10:37 If I do not perform ¹⁰  the deeds ¹¹  of my Father, do not believe me.

John 3:12

3:12 If I have told you people ¹²  about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? ¹³ 

John 8:46

8:46 Who among you can prove me guilty ¹⁴  of any sin? ¹⁵  If I am telling you ¹⁶  the truth, why don’t you believe me?

John 5:38

5:38 nor do you have his word residing in you, because you do not believe the one whom he sent.

John 12:36

12:36 While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become sons of light.” ¹⁷  When Jesus had said these things, he went away and hid himself from them.

John 10:25

10:25 Jesus replied, ¹⁸  “I told you and you do not believe. The deeds ¹⁹  I do in my Father’s name testify about me.

John 10:38

10:38 But if I do them, even if you do not believe me, believe the deeds, ²⁰  so that you may come to know ²¹  and understand that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”

[16:31]  ¹ tn Grk “Jesus answered them.”

[14:1]  ² sn The same verb is used to describe Jesus’ own state in John 11:33, 12:27, and 13:21. Jesus is looking ahead to the events of the evening and the next day, his arrest, trials, crucifixion, and death, which will cause his disciples extreme emotional distress.

[14:1]  ³ tn Or “Believe in God.” The translation of the two uses of πιστεύετε (pisteuete) is difficult. Both may be either indicative or imperative, and as L. Morris points out (John [NICNT], 637), this results in a bewildering variety of possibilities. To complicate matters further, the first may be understood as a question: “Do you believe in God? Believe also in me.” Morris argues against the KJV translation which renders the first πιστεύετε as indicative and the second as imperative on the grounds that for the writer of the Fourth Gospel, faith in Jesus is inseparable from faith in God. But this is precisely the point that Jesus is addressing in context. He is about to undergo rejection by his own people as their Messiah. The disciples’ faith in him as Messiah and Lord would be cast into extreme doubt by these events, which the author makes clear were not at this time foreseen by the disciples. After the resurrection it is this identification between Jesus and the Father which needs to be reaffirmed (cf. John 20:24-29). Thus it seems best to take the first πιστεύετε as indicative and the second as imperative, producing the translation “You believe in God; believe also in me.”

[14:11]  ³ tn The phrase “but if you do not believe me” contains an ellipsis; the Greek text reads Grk “but if not.” The ellipsis has been filled out (“but if [you do] not [believe me]…”) for the benefit of the modern English reader.

[14:11]  ⁴ tn Grk “because of the works.”

[5:47]  ⁴ tn Grk “that one” (“he”); the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:36]  ⁵ tn Grk “But I said to you.”

[6:36]  ⁶ tc A few witnesses lack με (me, “me”; א A a b e q sy^s,c), while the rest of the tradition has the word (Ì^66,75vid rell). It is possible that the mss that lack the pronoun preserve the original wording here, with the rest of the witnesses adding the pronoun for clarity’s sake. This likelihood increases since the object is not required in Greek. Without it, however, ambiguity increases: The referent could be “me” or it could be “signs,” reaching back to vv. 26 and 30. However, the oblique form of ἐγώ (egw, the first person personal pronoun) occurs some two dozen times in this chapter alone, yet it vacillates between the emphatic form and the unemphatic form. Although generally the unemphatic form is used with verbs, there are several exceptions to this in John (cf. 8:12; 12:26, 45, 48; 13:20; 14:9). If the pronoun is a later addition here, one wonders why it is so consistently the unemphatic form in the mss. Further, that two unrelated Greek witnesses lack this small word could easily be due to accidental deletion. Finally, the date and diversity of the witnesses for the pronoun are so weighty that it is likely to be authentic and should thus be retained in the text.

[8:45]  ⁶ tn Or “because I tell you.”

[10:37]  ⁷ tn Or “do.”

[10:37]  ⁸ tn Or “works.”

[3:12]  ⁸ tn The word “people” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied to indicate that the verb is second person plural (referring to more than Nicodemus alone).

[3:12]  ⁹ sn Obviously earthly things and heavenly things are in contrast, but what is the contrast? What are earthly things which Jesus has just spoken to Nicodemus? And through him to others – this is not the first instance of the plural pronoun, see v. 7, you must all. Since Nicodemus began with a plural (we know, v. 2) Jesus continues it, and through Nicodemus addresses a broader audience. It makes most sense to take this as a reference to the things Jesus has just said (and the things he is about to say, vv. 13-15). If this is the case (and it seems the most natural explanation) then earthly things are not necessarily strictly physical things, but are so called because they take place on earth, in contrast to things like v. 16, which take place in heaven. Some have added the suggestion that the things are called earthly because physical analogies (birth, wind, water) are used to describe them. This is possible, but it seems more probable that Jesus calls these things earthly because they happen on earth (even though they are spiritual things). In the context, taking earthly things as referring to the words Jesus has just spoken fits with the fact that Nicodemus did not believe. And he would not after hearing heavenly things either, unless he first believed in the earthly things – which included the necessity of a regenerating work from above, by the Holy Spirit.

[8:46]  ⁹ tn Or “can convict me.”

[8:46]  ¹⁰ tn Or “of having sinned”; Grk “of sin.”

[8:46]  ¹¹ tn Or “if I tell you.”

[12:36]  ¹⁰ tn The idiom “sons of light” means essentially “people characterized by light,” that is, “people of God.”

[10:25]  ¹¹ tn Grk “answered them.”

[10:25]  ¹² tn Or “the works.”

[10:38]  ¹² tn Or “works.”

[10:38]  ¹³ tn Or “so that you may learn.”