John 2:16

2:16 To those who sold the doves he said, “Take these things away from here! Do not make ¹  my Father’s house a marketplace!” ² 

John 3:4

3:4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb and be born a second time, can he?” ³ 

John 7:31

7:31 Yet many of the crowd ⁴  believed in him and said, “Whenever the Christ ⁵  comes, he won’t perform more miraculous signs than this man did, will he?” ⁶ 

John 7:37

Teaching About the Spirit

7:37 On the last day of the feast, the greatest day, ⁷  Jesus stood up and shouted out, ⁸  “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and

John 18:31

18:31 Pilate told them, ⁹  “Take him yourselves and pass judgment on him ¹⁰  according to your own law!” ¹¹  The Jewish leaders ¹²  replied, ¹³  “We cannot legally put anyone to death.” ¹⁴ 

[2:16]  ¹ tn Or (perhaps) “Stop making.”

[2:16]  ² tn Or “a house of merchants” (an allusion to Zech 14:21).

[3:4]  ³ tn The grammatical structure of the question in Greek presupposes a negative reply.

[7:31]  ⁵ tn Or “The common people” (as opposed to the religious authorities).

[7:31]  ⁶ tn Or “the Messiah” (Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “one who has been anointed”).

[7:31]  ⁷ 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 it is “will he?”).

[7:37]  ⁷ sn There is a problem with the identification of this reference to the last day of the feast, the greatest day: It appears from Deut 16:13 that the feast went for seven days. Lev 23:36, however, makes it plain that there was an eighth day, though it was mentioned separately from the seven. It is not completely clear whether the seventh or eighth day was the climax of the feast, called here by the author the “last great day of the feast.” Since according to the Mishnah (m. Sukkah 4.1) the ceremonies with water and lights did not continue after the seventh day, it seems more probable that this is the day the author mentions.

[7:37]  ⁸ tn Grk “Jesus stood up and cried out, saying.”

[18:31]  ⁹ tn Grk “Then Pilate said to them.”

[18:31]  ¹⁰ tn Or “judge him.” For the translation “pass judgment on him” see R. E. Brown (John [AB], 2:848).

[18:31]  ¹¹ sn Pilate, as the sole representative of Rome in a troubled area, was probably in Jerusalem for the Passover because of the danger of an uprising (the normal residence for the Roman governor was in Caesarea as mentioned in Acts 23:35). At this time on the eve of the feast he would have been a busy and perhaps even a worried man. It is not surprising that he offered to hand Jesus back over to the Jewish authorities to pass judgment on him. It may well be that Pilate realized when no specific charge was mentioned that he was dealing with an internal dispute over some religious matter. Pilate wanted nothing to do with such matters, as the statement “Pass judgment on him according to your own law!” indicates. As far as the author is concerned, this points out who was really responsible for Jesus’ death: The Roman governor Pilate would have had nothing to do with it if he had not been pressured by the Jewish religious authorities, upon whom the real responsibility rested.

[18:31]  ¹² tn Or “the Jewish authorities”; Grk “the Jews.” Here the phrase refers to the Jewish leaders, especially members of the Sanhedrin. See the note on the phrase “Jewish leaders” in v. 12.

[18:31]  ¹³ tn Grk “said to him.”

[18:31]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “It is not permitted to us to kill anyone.”