John 3:4-5

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?” ¹ 

3:5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the solemn truth, ²  unless a person is born of water and spirit, ³  he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

John 18:1

Betrayal and Arrest

18:1 When he had said these things, ⁴  Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron Valley. ⁵  There was an orchard ⁶  there, and he and his disciples went into it.

John 18:28

Jesus Brought Before Pilate

18:28 Then they brought Jesus from Caiaphas to the Roman governor’s residence. ⁷  (Now it was very early morning.) ⁸  They ⁹  did not go into the governor’s residence ¹⁰  so they would not be ceremonially defiled, but could eat the Passover meal.

[3:4]  ¹ tn The grammatical structure of the question in Greek presupposes a negative reply.

[3:5]  ² tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[3:5]  ³ tn Or “born of water and wind” (the same Greek word, πνεύματος [pneumatos], may be translated either “spirit/Spirit” or “wind”).

[18:1]  ³ sn When he had said these things appears to be a natural transition at the end of the Farewell Discourse (the farewell speech of Jesus to his disciples in John 13:31-17:26, including the final prayer in 17:1-26). The author states that Jesus went out with his disciples, a probable reference to their leaving the upper room where the meal and discourse described in chaps. 13-17 took place (although some have seen this only as a reference to their leaving the city, with the understanding that some of the Farewell Discourse, including the concluding prayer, was given en route, cf. 14:31). They crossed the Kidron Valley and came to a garden, or olive orchard, identified in Matt 26:36 and Mark 14:32 as Gethsemane. The name is not given in Luke’s or John’s Gospel, but the garden must have been located somewhere on the lower slopes of the Mount of Olives.

[18:1]  ⁴ tn Grk “the wadi of the Kidron,” or “the ravine of the Kidron” (a wadi is a stream that flows only during the rainy season and is dry during the dry season).

[18:1]  ⁵ tn Or “a garden.”

[18:28]  ⁴ tn Grk “to the praetorium.”

[18:28]  ⁵ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[18:28]  ⁶ tn Grk “And they.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.

[18:28]  ⁷ tn Grk “into the praetorium.”