John 3:8

3:8 The wind ¹  blows wherever it will, and you hear the sound it makes, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” ² 

John 3:29

3:29 The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands by and listens for him, rejoices greatly ³  when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. This then is my joy, and it is complete. ⁴ 

John 4:42

4:42 They said to the woman, “No longer do we believe because of your words, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this one ⁵  really is the Savior of the world.” ⁶ 

John 4:47

4:47 When he heard that Jesus had come back from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and begged him ⁷  to come down and heal his son, who was about to die.

John 5:24

5:24 “I tell you the solemn truth, ⁸  the one who hears ⁹  my message ¹⁰  and believes the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned, ¹¹  but has crossed over from death to life.

John 5:30

5:30 I can do nothing on my own initiative. ¹²  Just as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, ¹³  because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the one who sent me. ¹⁴ 

John 8:26

8:26 I have many things to say and to judge ¹⁵  about you, but the Father ¹⁶  who sent me is truthful, ¹⁷  and the things I have heard from him I speak to the world.” ¹⁸ 

John 10:16

10:16 I have ¹⁹  other sheep that do not come from ²⁰  this sheepfold. ²¹  I must bring them too, and they will listen to my voice, ²²  so that ²³  there will be one flock and ²⁴  one shepherd.

John 11:4

11:4 When Jesus heard this, he said, “This sickness will not lead to death, ²⁵  but to God’s glory, ²⁶  so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” ²⁷ 

John 12:47

12:47 If anyone ²⁸  hears my words and does not obey them, ²⁹  I do not judge him. For I have not come to judge the world, but to save the world. ³⁰ 

John 14:24

14:24 The person who does not love me does not obey ³¹  my words. And the word ³²  you hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me.

John 14:28

14:28 You heard me say to you, ³³  ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad ³⁴  that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I am. ³⁵ 

John 15:15

15:15 I no longer call you slaves, ³⁶  because the slave does not understand ³⁷  what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because I have revealed to you everything ³⁸  I heard ³⁹  from my Father.

John 16:13

16:13 But when he, ⁴⁰  the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide ⁴¹  you into all truth. ⁴²  For he will not speak on his own authority, ⁴³  but will speak whatever he hears, and will tell you ⁴⁴  what is to come. ⁴⁵ 

[3:8]  ¹ tn The same Greek word, πνεύματος (pneumatos), may be translated “wind” or “spirit.”

[3:8]  ² sn Again, the physical illustrates the spiritual, although the force is heightened by the word-play here on wind-spirit (see the note on wind at the beginning of this verse). By the end of the verse, however, the final usage of πνεύματος (pneumatos) refers to the Holy Spirit.

[3:29]  ³ tn Grk “rejoices with joy” (an idiom).

[3:29]  ⁴ tn Grk “Therefore this my joy is fulfilled.”

[4:42]  ⁵ tn Or “this.” The Greek pronoun can mean either “this one” or “this” (BDAG 740 s.v. οὗτος 1).

[4:42]  ⁶ sn There is irony in the Samaritans’ declaration that Jesus was really the Savior of the world, an irony foreshadowed in the prologue to the Fourth Gospel (1:11): “He came to his own, and his own did not receive him.” Yet the Samaritans welcomed Jesus and proclaimed him to be not the Jewish Messiah only, but the Savior of the world.

[4:47]  ⁷ tn The direct object of ἠρώτα (hrwta) is supplied from context. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[5:24]  ⁹ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[5:24]  ¹⁰ tn Or “obeys.”

[5:24]  ¹¹ tn Or “word.”

[5:24]  ¹² tn Grk “and does not come into judgment.”

[5:30]  ¹¹ tn Grk “nothing from myself.”

[5:30]  ¹² tn Or “righteous,” or “proper.”

[5:30]  ¹³ tn That is, “the will of the Father who sent me.”

[8:26]  ¹³ tn Or “I have many things to pronounce in judgment about you.” The two Greek infinitives could be understood as a hendiadys, resulting in one phrase.

[8:26]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “the one”; the referent (the Father) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:26]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “true” (in the sense of one who always tells the truth).

[8:26]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “and what things I have heard from him, these things I speak to the world.”

[10:16]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “And I have.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[10:16]  ¹⁶ tn Or “that do not belong to”; Grk “that are not of.”

[10:16]  ¹⁷ sn The statement I have other sheep that do not come from this sheepfold almost certainly refers to Gentiles. Jesus has sheep in the fold who are Jewish; there are other sheep which, while not of the same fold, belong to him also. This recalls the mission of the Son in 3:16-17, which was to save the world – not just the nation of Israel. Such an emphasis would be particularly appropriate to the author if he were writing to a non-Palestinian and primarily non-Jewish audience.

[10:16]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “they will hear my voice.”

[10:16]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “voice, and.”

[10:16]  ²⁰ tn The word “and” is not in the Greek text, but must be supplied to conform to English style. In Greek it is an instance of asyndeton (omission of a connective), usually somewhat emphatic.

[11:4]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “This sickness is not to death.”

[11:4]  ¹⁸ tn Or “to God’s praise.”

[11:4]  ¹⁹ sn So that the Son of God may be glorified through it. These statements are highly ironic: For Lazarus, the sickness did not end in his death, because he was restored to life. But for Jesus himself, the miraculous sign he performed led to his own death, because it confirmed the authorities in their plan to kill Jesus (11:47-53). In the Gospel of John, Jesus’ death is consistently portrayed as his ‘glorification’ through which he accomplishes his return to the Father.

[12:47]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “And if anyone”; the conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has been left untranslated here for improved English style.

[12:47]  ²⁰ tn Or “guard them,” “keep them.”

[12:47]  ²¹ sn Cf. John 3:17.

[14:24]  ²¹ tn Or “does not keep.”

[14:24]  ²² tn Or “the message.”

[14:28]  ²³ tn Or “You have heard that I said to you.”

[14:28]  ²⁴ tn Or “you would rejoice.”

[14:28]  ²⁵ sn Jesus’ statement the Father is greater than I am has caused much christological and trinitarian debate. Although the Arians appealed to this text to justify their subordinationist Christology, it seems evident that by the fact Jesus compares himself to the Father, his divine nature is taken for granted. There have been two orthodox interpretations: (1) The Son is eternally generated while the Father is not: Origen, Tertullian, Athanasius, Hilary, etc. (2) As man the incarnate Son was less than the Father: Cyril of Alexandria, Ambrose, Augustine. In the context of the Fourth Gospel the second explanation seems more plausible. But why should the disciples have rejoiced? Because Jesus was on the way to the Father who would glorify him (cf. 17:4-5); his departure now signifies that the work the Father has given him is completed (cf. 19:30). Now Jesus will be glorified with that glory that he had with the Father before the world was (cf. 17:5). This should be a cause of rejoicing to the disciples because when Jesus is glorified he will glorify his disciples as well (17:22).

[15:15]  ²⁵ tn See the note on the word “slaves” in 4:51.

[15:15]  ²⁶ tn Or “does not know.”

[15:15]  ²⁷ tn Grk “all things.”

[15:15]  ²⁸ tn Or “learned.”

[16:13]  ²⁷ tn Grk “that one.”

[16:13]  ²⁸ tn Or “will lead.”

[16:13]  ²⁹ sn Three important points must be noted here. (1) When the Holy Spirit comes, he will guide the disciples into all truth. What Jesus had said in 8:31-32, “If you continue to follow my teaching you are really my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free,” will ultimately be realized in the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit to the disciples after Jesus’ departure. (2) The things the Holy Spirit speaks to them will not be things which originate from himself (he will not speak on his own authority), but things he has heard. This could be taken to mean that no new revelation is involved, as R. E. Brown does (John [AB], 2:714-15). This is a possible but not a necessary inference. The point here concerns the source of the things the Spirit will say to the disciples and does not specifically exclude originality of content. (3) Part at least of what the Holy Spirit will reveal to the disciples will concern what is to come, not just fuller implications of previous sayings of Jesus and the like. This does seem to indicate that at least some new revelation is involved. But the Spirit is not the source or originator of these things – Jesus is the source, and he will continue to speak to his disciples through the Spirit who has come to indwell them. This does not answer the question, however, whether these words are addressed to all followers of Jesus, or only to his apostles. Different modern commentators will answer this question differently. Since in the context of the Farewell Discourse Jesus is preparing the twelve to carry on his ministry after his departure, it is probably best to take these statements as specifically related only to the twelve. Some of this the Holy Spirit does directly for all believers today; other parts of this statement are fulfilled through the apostles (e.g., in giving the Book of Revelation the Spirit speaks through the apostles to the church today of things to come). One of the implications of this is that a doctrine does not have to be traced back to an explicit teaching of Jesus to be authentic; all that is required is apostolic authority.

[16:13]  ³⁰ tn Grk “speak from himself.”

[16:13]  ³¹ tn Or will announce to you.”

[16:13]  ³² tn Grk “will tell you the things to come.”