John 3:7

3:7 Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must all ¹  be born from above.’ ² 

John 6:25

Jesus’ Discourse About the Bread of Life

6:25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, ³  they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” ⁴ 

John 6:28

6:28 So then they said to him, “What must we do to accomplish the deeds ⁵  God requires?” ⁶ 

John 6:34

6:34 So they said to him, “Sir, ⁷  give us this bread all the time!”

John 6:36

6:36 But I told you ⁸  that you have seen me ⁹  and still do not believe.

John 9:26

9:26 Then they said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he cause you to see?” ¹⁰ 

[3:7]  ¹ tn “All” has been supplied to indicate the plural pronoun in the Greek text.

[3:7]  ² tn Or “born again.” The same Greek word with the same double meaning occurs in v. 3.

[6:25]  ³ tn Or “sea.” See the note on “lake” in v. 16.

[6:25]  ⁴ sn John 6:25-31. The previous miracle of the multiplication of the bread had taken place near the town of Tiberias (cf. John 6:23). Jesus’ disciples set sail for Capernaum (6:17) and were joined by the Lord in the middle of the sea. The next day boats from Tiberias picked up a few of those who had seen the multiplication (certainly not the whole 5,000) and brought them to Capernaum. It was to this group that Jesus spoke in 6:26-27. But there were also people from Capernaum who had gathered to see Jesus, who had not witnessed the multiplication, and it was this group that asked Jesus for a miraculous sign like the manna (6:30-31). This would have seemed superfluous if it were the same crowd that had already seen the multiplication of the bread. But some from Capernaum had heard about it and wanted to see a similar miracle repeated.

[6:28]  ⁵ tn Grk “the works.”

[6:28]  ⁶ tn Grk “What must we do to work the works of God?”

[6:34]  ⁷ tn Or “Lord.” The Greek κύριος (kurios) means both “Sir” and “Lord.” In this passage it is not at all clear at this point that the crowd is acknowledging Jesus as Lord. More likely this is simply a form of polite address (“sir”).

[6:36]  ⁹ tn Grk “But I said to you.”

[6:36]  ¹⁰ tc A few witnesses lack με (me, “me”; א A a b e q sy^s,c), while the rest of the tradition has the word (Ì^66,75vid rell). It is possible that the mss that lack the pronoun preserve the original wording here, with the rest of the witnesses adding the pronoun for clarity’s sake. This likelihood increases since the object is not required in Greek. Without it, however, ambiguity increases: The referent could be “me” or it could be “signs,” reaching back to vv. 26 and 30. However, the oblique form of ἐγώ (egw, the first person personal pronoun) occurs some two dozen times in this chapter alone, yet it vacillates between the emphatic form and the unemphatic form. Although generally the unemphatic form is used with verbs, there are several exceptions to this in John (cf. 8:12; 12:26, 45, 48; 13:20; 14:9). If the pronoun is a later addition here, one wonders why it is so consistently the unemphatic form in the mss. Further, that two unrelated Greek witnesses lack this small word could easily be due to accidental deletion. Finally, the date and diversity of the witnesses for the pronoun are so weighty that it is likely to be authentic and should thus be retained in the text.

[9:26]  ¹¹ tn Grk “open your eyes” (an idiom referring to restoration of sight).