John 16:31

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

John 16:12

16:12 “I have many more things to say to you, ²  but you cannot bear ³  them now.

John 5:17

5:17 So he ⁴  told ⁵  them, “My Father is working until now, and I too am working.” ⁶ 

John 13:19

13:19 I am telling you this now, ⁷  before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe ⁸  that I am he. ⁹ 

John 14:7

14:7 If you have known me, you will know my Father too. ¹⁰  And from now on you do know him and have seen him.”

John 2:10

2:10 and said to him, “Everyone ¹¹  serves the good wine first, and then the cheaper ¹²  wine when the guests ¹³  are drunk. You have kept the good wine until now!”

John 9:19

9:19 They asked the parents, ¹⁴  “Is this your son, whom you say ¹⁵  was born blind? Then how does he now see?”

John 9:25

9:25 He replied, ¹⁶  “I do not know whether he is a sinner. I do know one thing – that although I was blind, now I can see.”

John 13:7

13:7 Jesus replied, ¹⁷  “You do not understand ¹⁸  what I am doing now, but you will understand ¹⁹  after these things.”

John 13:37

13:37 Peter said to him, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you!” ²⁰ 

John 16:24

16:24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive it, ²¹  so that your joy may be complete.

John 13:33

13:33 Children, I am still with you for a little while. You will look for me, ²²  and just as I said to the Jewish religious leaders, ²³  ‘Where I am going you cannot come,’ ²⁴  now I tell you the same. ²⁵ 

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

[16:12]  ² sn In what sense does Jesus have many more things to say to the disciples? Does this imply the continuation of revelation after his departure? This is probably the case, especially in light of v. 13 and following, which describe the work of the Holy Spirit in guiding the disciples into all truth. Thus Jesus was saying that he would continue to speak (to the twelve, at least) after his return to the Father. He would do this through the Holy Spirit whom he was going to send. It is possible that an audience broader than the twelve is addressed, and in the Johannine tradition there is evidence that later other Christians (or perhaps, professed Christians) claimed to be recipients of revelation through the Spirit-Paraclete (1 John 4:1-6).

[16:12]  ³ tn Or (perhaps) “you cannot accept.”

[5:17]  ³ tc ‡ Most witnesses (Ì⁶⁶ A D L Θ Ψ Ë^1,13 33 Ï latt co) have ᾿Ιησοῦς (Ihsou", “Jesus”) here, while generally better witnesses (Ì⁷⁵ א B W {0141} 892 1241 pbo) lack the name. Although it is possible that Alexandrian scribes deleted the name due to proclivities to prune, this is not as likely as other witnesses adding it for clarification, especially since multiple strands of the Alexandrian text are represented in the shorter reading. NA²⁷ places the word in brackets, indicating some doubts as to authenticity.

[5:17]  ⁴ tn Grk “answered.”

[5:17]  ⁵ sn “My Father is working until now, and I too am working.” What is the significance of Jesus’ claim? A preliminary understanding can be obtained from John 5:18, noting the Jewish authorities’ response and the author’s comment. They sought to kill Jesus, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was also calling God his own Father, thus making himself equal with God. This must be seen in the context of the relation of God to the Sabbath rest. In the commandment (Exod 20:11) it is explained that “In six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth…and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” Philo, based on the LXX translation of Exod 20:11, denied outright that God had ever ceased his creative activity. And when Rabban Gamaliel II, R. Joshua, R. Eleazar ben Azariah, and R. Akiba were in Rome, ca. a.d. 95, they gave as a rebuttal to sectarian arguments evidence that God might do as he willed in the world without breaking the Sabbath because the entire world was his private residence. So even the rabbis realized that God did not really cease to work on the Sabbath: Divine providence remained active on the Sabbath, otherwise, all nature and life would cease to exist. As regards men, divine activity was visible in two ways: Men were born and men died on the Sabbath. Since only God could give life and only God could deal with the fate of the dead in judgment, this meant God was active on the Sabbath. This seems to be the background for Jesus’ words in 5:17. He justified his work of healing on the Sabbath by reminding the Jewish authorities that they admitted God worked on the Sabbath. This explains the violence of the reaction. The Sabbath privilege was peculiar to God, and no one was equal to God. In claiming the right to work even as his Father worked, Jesus was claiming a divine prerogative. He was literally making himself equal to God, as 5:18 goes on to state explicitly for the benefit of the reader who might not have made the connection.

[13:19]  ⁴ tn Or (perhaps) “I am certainly telling you this.” According to BDF §12.3 ἀπ᾿ ἄρτι (ap’ arti) should be read as ἀπαρτί (aparti), meaning “exactly, certainly.”

[13:19]  ⁵ tn Grk “so that you may believe.”

[13:19]  ⁶ tn Grk “that I am.” R. E. Brown (John [AB], 2:555) argues for a nonpredicated ἐγώ εἰμι (egw eimi) here, but this is far from certain.

[14:7]  ⁵ tc There is a difficult textual problem here: The statement reads either “If you have known (ἐγνώκατε, egnwkate) me, you will know (γνώσεσθε, gnwsesqe) my Father” or “If you had really known (ἐγνώκειτε, egnwkeite) me, you would have known (ἐγνώκειτε ἄν or ἂν ἤδειτε [egnwkeite an or an hdeite]) my Father.” The division of the external evidence is difficult, but can be laid out as follows: The mss that have the perfect ἐγνώκατε in the protasis (Ì⁶⁶ [א D* W] 579 pc it) also have, for the most part, the future indicative γνώσεσθε in the apodosis (Ì⁶⁶ א D W [579] pc sa bo), rendering Jesus’ statement as a first-class condition. The mss that have the pluperfect ἐγνώκειτε in the protasis (A B C D¹ L Θ Ψ Ë^1,13 33 Ï) also have, for the most part, a pluperfect in the apodosis (either ἂν ἤδειτε in B C* [L] Q Ψ 1 33 565 al, or ἐγνώκειτε ἄν in A C³ Θ Ë¹³ Ï), rendering Jesus’ statement a contrary-to-fact second-class condition. The external evidence slightly favors the first-class condition, since there is an Alexandrian-Western alliance supported by Ì⁶⁶. As well, the fact that the readings with a second-class condition utilize two different verbs with ἄν in different positions suggests that these readings are secondary. However, it could be argued that the second-class conditions are harder readings in that they speak negatively of the apostles (so K. Aland in TCGNT 207); in this case, the ἐγνώκειτε…ἐγνώκειτε ἄν reading should be given preference. Although a decision is difficult, the first-class condition is to be slightly preferred. In this case Jesus promises the disciples that, assuming they have known him, they will know the Father. Contextually this fits better with the following phrase (v. 7b) which asserts that “from the present time you know him and have seen him” (cf. John 1:18).

[2:10]  ⁶ tn Grk “every man” (in a generic sense).

[2:10]  ⁷ tn Or “poorer.”

[2:10]  ⁸ tn Grk “when they”; the referent (the guests) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:19]  ⁷ tn Grk “and they asked them, saying”; the referent (the parents) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:19]  ⁸ tn The Greek pronoun and verb are both plural (both parents are addressed).

[9:25]  ⁸ tn Grk “Then that one answered.”

[13:7]  ⁹ tn Grk “answered and said to him.”

[13:7]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “You do not know.”

[13:7]  ¹¹ tn Grk “you will know.”

[13:37]  ¹⁰ tn Or “I will die willingly for you.”

[16:24]  ¹¹ tn The word “it” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[13:33]  ¹² tn Or “You will seek me.”

[13:33]  ¹³ tn Grk “the Jews.” In NT usage the term ᾿Ιουδαῖοι (Ioudaioi) may refer to the entire Jewish people, the residents of Jerusalem and surrounding territory, the authorities in Jerusalem, or merely those who were hostile to Jesus. (For further information see R. G. Bratcher, “‘The Jews’ in the Gospel of John,” BT 26 [1975]: 401-9.) Here the phrase refers to the residents of Jerusalem in general, or to the Jewish religious leaders in particular, who had sent servants to attempt to arrest Jesus on that occasion (John 7:33-35). The last option is the one adopted in the translation above.

[13:33]  ¹⁴ sn See John 7:33-34.

[13:33]  ¹⁵ tn The words “the same” are not in the Greek text but are implied. Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when clear from the context.