John 7:15

7:15 Then the Jewish leaders ¹  were astonished ²  and said, “How does this man know so much when he has never had formal instruction?” ³ 

John 19:35

19:35 And the person who saw it ⁴  has testified (and his testimony is true, and he ⁵  knows that he is telling the truth), ⁶  so that you also may believe.

John 15:15

15:15 I no longer call you slaves, ⁷  because the slave does not understand ⁸  what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because I have revealed to you everything ⁹  I heard ¹⁰  from my Father.

John 12:35

12:35 Jesus replied, ¹¹  “The light is with you for a little while longer. ¹²  Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. ¹³  The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.

[7:15]  ¹ tn Or “the Jewish authorities”; Grk “the Jews.” Here the phrase refers to the Jewish authorities or leaders who were Jesus’ primary opponents. See the note on the phrase “the Jewish leaders” in v. 1.

[7:15]  ² tn Or “began to be astonished.” This imperfect verb could also be translated ingressively (“began to be astonished”), but for English stylistic reasons it is rendered as a simple past.

[7:15]  ³ tn Grk “How does this man know learning since he has not been taught?” The implication here is not that Jesus never went to school (in all probability he did attend a local synagogue school while a youth), but that he was not the disciple of a particular rabbi and had not had formal or advanced instruction under a recognized rabbi (compare Acts 4:13 where a similar charge is made against Peter and John; see also Paul’s comment in Acts 22:3).

[19:35]  ⁴ tn The word “it” is not in the Greek text but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[19:35]  ⁵ tn Grk “and that one.”

[19:35]  ⁶ sn A parenthetical note by the author.

[15:15]  ⁷ tn See the note on the word “slaves” in 4:51.

[15:15]  ⁸ tn Or “does not know.”

[15:15]  ⁹ tn Grk “all things.”

[15:15]  ¹⁰ tn Or “learned.”

[12:35]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “Then Jesus said to them.”

[12:35]  ¹¹ tn Grk “Yet a little while the light is with you.”

[12:35]  ¹² sn The warning Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you operates on at least two different levels: (1) To the Jewish people in Jerusalem to whom Jesus spoke, the warning was a reminder that there was only a little time left for them to accept him as their Messiah. (2) To those later individuals to whom the Fourth Gospel was written, and to every person since, the words of Jesus are also a warning: There is a finite, limited time in which each individual has opportunity to respond to the Light of the world (i.e., Jesus); after that comes darkness. One’s response to the Light decisively determines one’s judgment for eternity.