John 3:9

3:9 Nicodemus replied, ¹  “How can these things be?” ² 

John 6:43

6:43 Jesus replied, ³  “Do not complain about me to one another. ⁴ 

John 6:67

6:67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “You don’t want to go away too, do you?” ⁵ 

John 7:21

7:21 Jesus replied, ⁶  “I performed one miracle ⁷  and you are all amazed. ⁸ 

John 8:58

8:58 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the solemn truth, ⁹  before Abraham came into existence, ¹⁰  I am!” ¹¹ 

John 9:36

9:36 The man ¹²  replied, ¹³  “And who is he, sir, that ¹⁴  I may believe in him?”

John 11:14

11:14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died,

John 12:39

12:39 For this reason they could not believe, ¹⁵  because again Isaiah said,

John 12:41

12:41 Isaiah said these things because he saw Christ’s ¹⁶  glory, and spoke about him.

John 13:28

13:28 (Now none of those present at the table ¹⁷  understood ¹⁸  why Jesus ¹⁹  said this to Judas. ²⁰ 

John 20:28

20:28 Thomas replied to him, ²¹  “My Lord and my God!” ²² 

[3:9]  ¹ tn Grk “Nicodemus answered and said to him.”

[3:9]  ² sn “How can these things be?” is Nicodemus’ answer. It is clear that at this time he has still not grasped what Jesus is saying. Note also that this is the last appearance of Nicodemus in the dialogue. Having served the purpose of the author, at this point he disappears from the scene. As a character in the narrative, he has served to illustrate the prevailing Jewish misunderstanding of Jesus’ teaching about the necessity of a new, spiritual birth from above. Whatever parting words Nicodemus might have had with Jesus, the author does not record them.

[6:43]  ³ tn Grk “answered and said to them.”

[6:43]  ⁴ tn Or “Do not grumble among yourselves.” The words “about me” are supplied to clarify the translation “complain to one another” (otherwise the Jewish opponents could be understood to be complaining about one another, rather than complaining to one another about Jesus).

[6:67]  ⁵ tn Questions prefaced with μή (mh) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end in English (here it is “do you?”).

[7:21]  ⁷ tn Grk “Jesus answered and said to them.”

[7:21]  ⁸ tn Grk “I did one deed.”

[7:21]  ⁹ sn The “one miracle” that caused them all to be amazed was the last previous public miracle in Jerusalem recorded by the author, the healing of the paralyzed man in John 5:1-9 on the Sabbath. (The synoptic gospels record other Sabbath healings, but John does not mention them.)

[8:58]  ⁹ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[8:58]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “before Abraham was.”

[8:58]  ¹¹ sn I am! is an explicit claim to deity. Although each occurrence of the phrase “I am” in the Fourth Gospel needs to be examined individually in context to see if an association with Exod 3:14 is present, it seems clear that this is the case here (as the response of the Jewish authorities in the following verse shows).

[9:36]  ¹¹ tn Grk “That one.”

[9:36]  ¹² tn Grk answered and said.” This has been simplified in the translation to “replied.”

[9:36]  ¹³ tn Or “And who is he, sir? Tell me so that…” Some translations supply elliptical words like “Tell me” (NIV, NRSV) following the man’s initial question, but the shorter form given in the translation is clear enough.

[12:39]  ¹³ sn The author explicitly states here that Jesus’ Jewish opponents could not believe, and quotes Isa 6:10 to show that God had in fact blinded their eyes and hardened their heart. This OT passage was used elsewhere in the NT to explain Jewish unbelief: Paul’s final words in Acts (28:26-27) are a quotation of this same passage, which he uses to explain why the Jewish people have not accepted the gospel he has preached. A similar passage (Isa 29:10) is quoted in a similar context in Rom 11:8.

[12:41]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “his”; the referent (Christ) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The referent supplied here is “Christ” rather than “Jesus” because it involves what Isaiah saw. It is clear that the author presents Isaiah as having seen the preincarnate glory of Christ, which was the very revelation of the Father (see John 1:18; John 14:9).

[13:28]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “reclining at the table.” The phrase reclining at the table reflects the normal practice in 1st century Near Eastern culture of eating a meal in a semi-reclining position.

[13:28]  ¹⁸ tn Or “knew.”

[13:28]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:28]  ²⁰ tn Grk “to him”; the referent (Judas) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:28]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “answered and said to him.”

[20:28]  ²⁰ sn Should Thomas’ exclamation be understood as two subjects with the rest of the sentence omitted (“My Lord and my God has truly risen from the dead”), as predicate nominatives (“You are my Lord and my God”), or as vocatives (“My Lord and my God!”)? Probably the most likely is something between the second and third alternatives. It seems that the second is slightly more likely here, because the context appears confessional. Thomas’ statement, while it may have been an exclamation, does in fact confess the faith which he had previously lacked, and Jesus responds to Thomas’ statement in the following verse as if it were a confession. With the proclamation by Thomas here, it is difficult to see how any more profound analysis of Jesus’ person could be given. It echoes 1:1 and 1:14 together: The Word was God, and the Word became flesh (Jesus of Nazareth). The Fourth Gospel opened with many other titles for Jesus: the Lamb of God (1:29, 36); the Son of God (1:34, 49); Rabbi (1:38); Messiah (1:41); the King of Israel (1:49); the Son of Man (1:51). Now the climax is reached with the proclamation by Thomas, “My Lord and my God,” and the reader has come full circle from 1:1, where the author had introduced him to who Jesus was, to 20:28, where the last of the disciples has come to the full realization of who Jesus was. What Jesus had predicted in John 8:28 had come to pass: “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he” (Grk “I am”). By being lifted up in crucifixion (which led in turn to his death, resurrection, and exaltation with the Father) Jesus has revealed his true identity as both Lord (κύριος [kurios], used by the LXX to translate Yahweh) and God (θεός [qeos], used by the LXX to translate Elohim).