John 4:36

4:36 The one who reaps receives pay ¹  and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that the one who sows and the one who reaps can rejoice together.

John 5:39

5:39 You study the scriptures thoroughly ²  because you think in them you possess eternal life, ³  and it is these same scriptures ⁴  that testify about me,

John 6:54

6:54 The one who eats ⁵  my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. ⁶ 

John 10:10

10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill ⁷  and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, and may have it abundantly. ⁸ 

John 10:28

10:28 I give ⁹  them eternal life, and they will never perish; ¹⁰  no one will snatch ¹¹  them from my hand.

John 11:25

11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live ¹²  even if he dies,

John 12:50

12:50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. ¹³  Thus the things I say, I say just as the Father has told me.” ¹⁴ 

John 14:6

14:6 Jesus replied, ¹⁵  “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. ¹⁶  No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 17:3

17:3 Now this ¹⁷  is eternal life ¹⁸  – that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, ¹⁹  whom you sent.

[4:36]  ¹ tn Or “a reward”; see L&N 38.14 and 57.173. This is something of a wordplay.

[5:39]  ² tn Or “Study the scriptures thoroughly” (an imperative). For the meaning of the verb see G. Delling, TDNT 2:655-57.

[5:39]  ³ sn In them you possess eternal life. Note the following examples from the rabbinic tractate Pirqe Avot (“The Sayings of the Fathers”): Pirqe Avot 2:8, “He who has acquired the words of the law has acquired for himself the life of the world to come”; Pirqe Avot 6:7, “Great is the law for it gives to those who practice it life in this world and in the world to come.”

[5:39]  ⁴ tn The words “same scriptures” are not in the Greek text, but are supplied to clarify the referent (“these”).

[6:54]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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).

[10:10]  ⁴ tn That is, “to slaughter” (in reference to animals).

[10:10]  ⁵ tn That is, more than one would normally expect or anticipate.

[10:28]  ⁵ tn Grk “And I give.”

[10:28]  ⁶ tn Or “will never die” or “will never be lost.”

[10:28]  ⁷ tn Or “no one will seize.”

[11:25]  ⁶ tn That is, will come to life.

[12:50]  ⁷ tn Or “his commandment results in eternal life.”

[12:50]  ⁸ tn Grk “The things I speak, just as the Father has spoken to me, thus I speak.”

[14:6]  ⁸ tn Grk “Jesus said to him.”

[14:6]  ⁹ tn Or “I am the way, even the truth and the life.”

[17:3]  ⁹ tn Using αὕτη δέ (Jauth de) to introduce an explanation is typical Johannine style; it was used before in John 1:19, 3:19, and 15:12.

[17:3]  ¹⁰ sn This is eternal life. The author here defines eternal life for the readers, although it is worked into the prayer in such a way that many interpreters do not regard it as another of the author’s parenthetical comments. It is not just unending life in the sense of prolonged duration. Rather it is a quality of life, with its quality derived from a relationship with God. Having eternal life is here defined as being in relationship with the Father, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom the Father sent. Christ (Χριστός, Cristos) is not characteristically attached to Jesus’ name in John’s Gospel; it occurs elsewhere primarily as a title and is used with Jesus’ name only in 1:17. But that is connected to its use here: The statement here in 17:3 enables us to correlate the statement made in 1:18 of the prologue, that Jesus has fully revealed what God is like, with Jesus’ statement in 10:10 that he has come that people might have life, and have it abundantly. These two purposes are really one, according to 17:3, because (abundant) eternal life is defined as knowing (being in relationship with) the Father and the Son. The only way to gain this eternal life, that is, to obtain this knowledge of the Father, is through the Son (cf. 14:6). Although some have pointed to the use of know (γινώσκω, ginwskw) here as evidence of Gnostic influence in the Fourth Gospel, there is a crucial difference: For John this knowledge is not intellectual, but relational. It involves being in relationship.

[17:3]  ¹¹ tn Or “and Jesus the Messiah” (Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “one who has been anointed”).