John 5:39

5:39 You study the scriptures thoroughly ¹  because you think in them you possess eternal life, ²  and it is these same scriptures ³  that testify about me,

John 5:45

5:45 “Do not suppose that I will accuse you before the Father. The one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have placed your hope. ⁴ 

John 11:13

11:13 (Now Jesus had been talking about ⁵  his death, but they ⁶  thought he had been talking about real sleep.) ⁷ 

John 11:56

11:56 Thus they were looking for Jesus, ⁸  and saying to one another as they stood in the temple courts, ⁹  “What do you think? That he won’t come to the feast?”

John 16:2

16:2 They will put you out of ¹⁰  the synagogue, ¹¹  yet a time ¹²  is coming when the one who kills you will think he is offering service to God. ¹³ 

John 11:31

11:31 Then the people ¹⁴  who were with Mary ¹⁵  in the house consoling her saw her ¹⁶  get up quickly and go out. They followed her, because they thought she was going to the tomb to weep ¹⁷  there.

John 13:29

13:29 Some thought that, because Judas had the money box, Jesus was telling him to buy whatever they needed for the feast, ¹⁸  or to give something to the poor.) ¹⁹ 

John 20:15

20:15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?” Because she ²⁰  thought he was the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will take him.”

[5:39]  ¹ tn Or “Study the scriptures thoroughly” (an imperative). For the meaning of the verb see G. Delling, TDNT 2:655-57.

[5:39]  ² 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]  ³ tn The words “same scriptures” are not in the Greek text, but are supplied to clarify the referent (“these”).

[5:45]  ⁴ sn The final condemnation will come from Moses himself – again ironic, since Moses is the very one the Jewish authorities have trusted in (placed your hope). This is again ironic if it is occurring at Pentecost, which at this time was being celebrated as the occasion of the giving of the Torah to Moses on Mt. Sinai. There is evidence that some Jews of the 1st century looked on Moses as their intercessor at the final judgment (see W. A. Meeks, The Prophet King [NovTSup], 161). This would mean the statement Moses, in whom you have placed your hope should be taken literally and relates directly to Jesus’ statements about the final judgment in John 5:28-29.

[11:13]  ⁷ tn Or “speaking about.”

[11:13]  ⁸ tn Grk “these.”

[11:13]  ⁹ tn Grk “the sleep of slumber”; this is a redundant expression to emphasize physical sleep as opposed to death.

[11:56]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “they were seeking Jesus.”

[11:56]  ¹¹ tn Grk “in the temple.”

[16:2]  ¹³ tn Or “expel you from.”

[16:2]  ¹⁴ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:59.

[16:2]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “an hour.”

[16:2]  ¹⁶ sn Jesus now refers not to the time of his return to the Father, as he has frequently done up to this point, but to the disciples’ time of persecution. They will be excommunicated from Jewish synagogues. There will even be a time when those who kill Jesus’ disciples will think that they are offering service to God by putting the disciples to death. Because of the reference to service offered to God, it is almost certain that Jewish opposition is intended here in both cases rather than Jewish opposition in the first instance (putting the disciples out of synagogues) and Roman opposition in the second (putting the disciples to death). Such opposition materializes later and is recorded in Acts: The stoning of Stephen in 7:58-60 and the slaying of James the brother of John by Herod Agrippa I in Acts 12:2-3 are notable examples.

[11:31]  ¹⁶ tn Or “the Judeans”; Grk “the Jews.” Here the phrase refers to the friends, acquaintances, and relatives of Lazarus or his sisters who had come to mourn, since the Jewish religious authorities are specifically mentioned as a separate group in John 11:46-47. See also the notes on the phrase “the Jewish leaders” in v. 8 and “the Jewish people of the region” in v. 19.

[11:31]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “her”; the referent (Mary) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:31]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “Mary”; the proper name (Mary) has been replaced with the pronoun (her) in keeping with conventional English style, to avoid repetition.

[11:31]  ¹⁹ tn Or “to mourn” (referring to the loud wailing or crying typical of public mourning in that culture).

[13:29]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “telling him, ‘Buy whatever we need for the feast.’” The first clause is direct discourse and the second clause indirect discourse. For smoothness of English style, the first clause has been converted to indirect discourse to parallel the second (the meaning is left unchanged).

[13:29]  ²⁰ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[20:15]  ²² tn Grk “that one” (referring to Mary Magdalene).