John 3:6

3:6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, ¹  and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.

John 8:15

8:15 You people ²  judge by outward appearances; ³  I do not judge anyone. ⁴ 

John 1:13

1:13 – children not born ⁵  by human parents ⁶  or by human desire ⁷  or a husband’s ⁸  decision, ⁹  but by God.

John 6:55-56

6:55 For my flesh is true ¹⁰  food, and my blood is true ¹¹  drink. 6:56 The one who eats ¹²  my flesh and drinks my blood resides in me, and I in him. ¹³ 

John 17:2

17:2 just as you have given him authority over all humanity, ¹⁴  so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him. ¹⁵ 

John 1:14

1:14 Now ¹⁶  the Word became flesh ¹⁷  and took up residence ¹⁸  among us. We ¹⁹  saw his glory – the glory of the one and only, ²⁰  full of grace and truth, who came from the Father.

John 6:52

6:52 Then the Jews who were hostile to Jesus ²¹  began to argue with one another, ²²  “How can this man ²³  give us his flesh to eat?”

John 6:54

6:54 The one who eats ²⁴  my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. ²⁵ 

John 6:53

6:53 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the solemn truth, ²⁶  unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ²⁷  you have no life ²⁸  in yourselves.

John 6:63

6:63 The Spirit is the one who gives life; human nature is of no help! ²⁹  The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. ³⁰ 

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 ³¹  that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

[3:6]  ¹ sn What is born of the flesh is flesh, i.e., what is born of physical heritage is physical. (It is interesting to compare this terminology with that of the dialogue in John 4, especially 4:23, 24.) For John the “flesh” (σάρξ, sarx) emphasizes merely the weakness and mortality of the creature – a neutral term, not necessarily sinful as in Paul. This is confirmed by the reference in John 1:14 to the Logos becoming “flesh.” The author avoids associating sinfulness with the incarnate Christ.

[8:15]  ² tn The word “people” is supplied in the translation to indicate that the pronoun and verb (“judge”) in Greek are plural.

[8:15]  ³ tn Or “judge according to external things”; Grk “according to the flesh.” These translations are given by BDAG 916 s.v. σάρξ 5.

[8:15]  ⁴ sn What is the meaning of Jesus’ statement “I do not judge anyone”? It is clear that Jesus did judge (even in the next verse). The point is that he didn’t practice the same kind of judgment that the Pharisees did. Their kind of judgment was condemnatory. They tried to condemn people. Jesus did not come to judge the world, but to save it (3:17). Nevertheless, and not contradictory to this, the coming of Jesus did bring judgment, because it forced people to make a choice. Would they accept Jesus or reject him? Would they come to the light or shrink back into the darkness? As they responded, so were they judged – just as 3:19-21 previously stated. One’s response to Jesus determines one’s eternal destiny.

[1:13]  ³ tn The Greek term translated “born” here also involves conception.

[1:13]  ⁴ tn Grk “of blood(s).” The plural αἱμάτων (Jaimatwn) has seemed a problem to many interpreters. At least some sources in antiquity imply that blood was thought of as being important in the development of the fetus during its time in the womb: thus Wis 7:1: “in the womb of a mother I was molded into flesh, within the period of 10 months, compacted with blood, from the seed of a man and the pleasure of marriage.” In John 1:13, the plural αἱμάτων may imply the action of both parents. It may also refer to the “genetic” contribution of both parents, and so be equivalent to “human descent” (see BDAG 26 s.v. αἷμα 1.a). E. C. Hoskyns thinks John could not have used the singular here because Christians are in fact ‘begotten’ by the blood of Christ (The Fourth Gospel, 143), although the context would seem to make it clear that the blood in question is something other than the blood of Christ.

[1:13]  ⁵ tn Or “of the will of the flesh.” The phrase οὐδὲ ἐκ θελήματος σαρκός (oude ek qelhmato" sarko") is more clearly a reference to sexual desire, but it should be noted that σάρξ (sarx) in John does not convey the evil sense common in Pauline usage. For John it refers to the physical nature in its weakness rather than in its sinfulness. There is no clearer confirmation of this than the immediately following verse, where the λόγος (logos) became σάρξ.

[1:13]  ⁶ tn Or “man’s.”

[1:13]  ⁷ tn The third phrase, οὐδὲ ἐκ θελήματος ἀνδρός (oude ek qelhmato" andros), means much the same as the second one. The word here (ἀνηρ, anhr) is often used for a husband, resulting in the translation “or a husband’s decision,” or more generally, “or of any human volition whatsoever.” L. Morris may be right when he sees here an emphasis directed at the Jewish pride in race and patriarchal ancestry, although such a specific reference is difficult to prove (John [NICNT], 101).

[6:55]  ⁴ tn Or “real.”

[6:55]  ⁵ tn Or “real.”

[6:56]  ⁵ tn Or “who chews.” On the alternation between ἐσθίω (esqiw, “eat,” v. 53) and τρώγω (trwgw, “eats,” vv. 54, 56, 58; “consumes,” v. 57) see the note on “eats” in v. 54.

[6:56]  ⁶ sn Resides in me, and I in him. Note how in John 6:54 eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking his blood produces eternal life and the promise of resurrection at the last day. Here the same process of eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking his blood leads to a relationship of mutual indwelling (resides in me, and I in him). This suggests strongly that for the author (and for Jesus) the concepts of ‘possessing eternal life’ and of ‘residing in Jesus’ are virtually interchangeable.

[17:2]  ⁶ tn Or “all people”; Grk “all flesh.”

[17:2]  ⁷ tn Grk “so that to everyone whom you have given to him, he may give to them eternal life.”

[1:14]  ⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic, the incarnation of the Word. Greek style often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” but English style generally does not.

[1:14]  ⁸ tn This looks at the Word incarnate in humility and weakness; the word σάρξ (sarx) does not carry overtones of sinfulness here as it frequently does in Pauline usage. See also John 3:6.

[1:14]  ⁹ tn Grk “and tabernacled.”

[1:14]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “and we saw.”

[1:14]  ¹¹ tn Or “of the unique one.” Although this word is often translated “only begotten,” such a translation is misleading, since in English it appears to express a metaphysical relationship. The word in Greek was used of an only child (a son [Luke 7:12, 9:38] or a daughter [Luke 8:42]). It was also used of something unique (only one of its kind) such as the mythological Phoenix (1 Clem. 25:2). From here it passes easily to a description of Isaac (Heb 11:17 and Josephus, Ant., 1.13.1 [1.222]) who was not Abraham’s only son, but was one-of-a-kind because he was the child of the promise. Thus the word means “one-of-a-kind” and is reserved for Jesus in the Johannine literature of the NT. While all Christians are children of God, Jesus is God’s Son in a unique, one-of-a-kind sense. The word is used in this way in all its uses in the Gospel of John (1:14, 1:18, 3:16, and 3:18).

[6:52]  ⁸ tn Grk “Then the Jews began to argue.” Here the translation restricts the phrase to those Jews who were hostile to Jesus (cf. BDAG 479 s.v. ᾿Ιουδαῖος 2.e.β), since the “crowd” mentioned in 6:22-24 was almost all Jewish (as suggested by their addressing Jesus as “Rabbi” (6:25). See also the note on the phrase “the Jews who were hostile to Jesus” in v. 41.

[6:52]  ⁹ tn Grk “with one another, saying.”

[6:52]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “this one,” “this person.”

[6:54]  ⁹ tn Or “who chews”; Grk ὁ τρώγων (Jo trwgwn). The alternation between ἐσθίω (esqiw, “eat,” v. 53) and τρώγω (trwgw, “eats,” vv. 54, 56, 58; “consumes,” v. 57) may simply reflect a preference for one form over the other on the author’s part, rather than an attempt to express a slightly more graphic meaning. If there is a difference, however, the word used here (τρώγω) is the more graphic and vivid of the two (“gnaw” or “chew”).

[6:54]  ¹⁰ sn Notice that here the result (has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day) is produced by eating (Jesus’) flesh and drinking his blood. Compare John 6:40 where the same result is produced by “looking on the Son and believing in him.” This suggests that the phrase here (eats my flesh and drinks my blood) is to be understood by the phrase in 6:40 (looks on the Son and believes in him).

[6:53]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[6:53]  ¹¹ sn Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood. These words are at the heart of the discourse on the Bread of Life, and have created great misunderstanding among interpreters. Anyone who is inclined toward a sacramental viewpoint will almost certainly want to take these words as a reference to the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, or the Eucharist, because of the reference to eating and drinking. But this does not automatically follow: By anyone’s definition there must be a symbolic element to the eating which Jesus speaks of in the discourse, and once this is admitted, it is better to understand it here, as in the previous references in the passage, to a personal receiving of (or appropriation of) Christ and his work.

[6:53]  ¹² tn That is, “no eternal life” (as opposed to physical life).

[6:63]  ¹¹ tn Grk “the flesh counts for nothing.”

[6:63]  ¹² tn Or “are spirit-giving and life-producing.”

[6:51]  ¹² tn Grk “And the bread.”