John 3:2

3:2 came to Jesus ¹  at night ²  and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs ³  that you do unless God is with him.”

John 6:51

6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats from this bread he will live forever. The bread ⁴  that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

John 13:1

Washing the Disciples’ Feet

13:1 Just before the Passover feast, Jesus knew that his time ⁵  had come to depart ⁶  from this world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now loved them to the very end. ⁷ 

John 19:24

19:24 So the soldiers said to one another, “Let’s not tear it, but throw dice ⁸  to see who will get it.” ⁹  This took place ¹⁰  to fulfill the scripture that says, “They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they threw dice.” ¹¹  So the soldiers did these things.

John 19:31

19:31 Then, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies should not stay on the crosses on the Sabbath ¹²  (for that Sabbath was an especially important one), ¹³  the Jewish leaders ¹⁴  asked Pilate to have the victims’ legs ¹⁵  broken ¹⁶  and the bodies taken down. ¹⁷ 

[3:2]  ¹ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:2]  ² tn Or “during the night.”

[3:2]  ³ sn The reference to signs (σημεῖα, shmeia) forms a link with John 2:23-25. Those people in Jerusalem believed in Jesus because of the signs he had performed. Nicodemus had apparently seen them too. But for Nicodemus all the signs meant is that Jesus was a great teacher sent from God. His approach to Jesus was well-intentioned but theologically inadequate; he had failed to grasp the messianic implications of the miraculous signs.

[6:51]  ⁴ tn Grk “And the bread.”

[13:1]  ⁷ tn Grk “his hour.”

[13:1]  ⁸ tn Grk “that he should depart.” The ἵνα (Jina) clause in Koine Greek frequently encroached on the simple infinitive (for the sake of greater clarity).

[13:1]  ⁹ tn Or “he now loved them completely,” or “he now loved them to the uttermost” (see John 19:30). All of John 13:1 is a single sentence in Greek, although in English this would be unacceptably awkward. At the end of the verse the idiom εἰς τέλος (eis telos) was translated literally as “to the end” and the modern equivalents given in the note above, because there is an important lexical link between this passage and John 19:30, τετέλεσται (tetelestai, “It is ended”).

[19:24]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “but choose by lot” (probably by using marked pebbles or broken pieces of pottery). A modern equivalent, “throw dice,” was chosen here because of its association with gambling.

[19:24]  ¹¹ tn Grk “to see whose it will be.”

[19:24]  ¹² tn The words “This took place” are not in the Greek text but are implied.

[19:24]  ¹³ tn Grk “cast lots.” See the note on “throw dice” earlier in the verse.

[19:31]  ¹³ sn The Jewish authorities, because this was the day of preparation for the Sabbath and the Passover (cf. 19:14), requested Pilate to order the legs of the three who had been crucified to be broken. This would hasten their deaths, so that the bodies could be removed before the beginning of the Sabbath at 6 p.m. This was based on the law of Deut 21:22-23 and Josh 8:29 that specified the bodies of executed criminals who had been hanged on a tree should not remain there overnight. According to Josephus this law was interpreted in the 1st century to cover the bodies of those who had been crucified (J. W. 4.5.2 [4.317]). Philo of Alexandria also mentions that on occasion, especially at festivals, the bodies were taken down and given to relatives to bury (Flaccus 10 [83]). The normal Roman practice would have been to leave the bodies on the crosses, to serve as a warning to other would-be offenders.

[19:31]  ¹⁴ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[19:31]  ¹⁵ tn Or “the Jewish authorities”; Grk “the Jews.” Here the phrase refers to the Jewish leaders. See also the note on the phrase “Jewish leaders” in v. 7.

[19:31]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “asked Pilate that the legs of them might be broken.” The referent of “them” (the three individuals who were crucified, collectively referred to as “the victims”) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[19:31]  ¹⁷ sn To have the legs…broken. Breaking the legs of a crucified person was a way of speeding up his death, since the victim could no longer use his legs to push upward in order to be able to draw a breath. This breaking of the legs was called in Latin crurifragium, and was done with a heavy mallet.

[19:31]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and they might be taken down.” Here because of the numerous ambiguous third person references it is necessary to clarify that it was the crucified men whose legs were to be broken and whose corpses were to be removed from the crosses.