John 7:18

7:18 The person who speaks on his own authority ¹  desires ²  to receive honor ³  for himself; the one who desires ⁴  the honor ⁵  of the one who sent him is a man of integrity, ⁶  and there is no unrighteousness in him.

John 9:21

9:21 But we do not know how he is now able to see, nor do we know who caused him to see. ⁷  Ask him, he is a mature adult. ⁸  He will speak for himself.”

John 15:4

15:4 Remain ⁹  in me, and I will remain in you. ¹⁰  Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, ¹¹  unless it remains ¹²  in ¹³  the vine, so neither can you unless you remain ¹⁴  in me.

John 16:13

16:13 But when he, ¹⁵  the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide ¹⁶  you into all truth. ¹⁷  For he will not speak on his own authority, ¹⁸  but will speak whatever he hears, and will tell you ¹⁹  what is to come. ²⁰ 

[7:18]  ¹ tn Grk “who speaks from himself.”

[7:18]  ² tn Or “seeks.”

[7:18]  ³ tn Or “praise”; Grk “glory.”

[7:18]  ⁴ tn Or “seeks.”

[7:18]  ⁵ tn Or “praise”; Grk “glory.”

[7:18]  ⁶ tn Or “is truthful”; Grk “is true.”

[9:21]  ⁷ tn Grk “who opened his eyes” (an idiom referring to restoration of sight).

[9:21]  ⁸ tn Or “he is of age.”

[15:4]  ¹³ tn Or “Reside.”

[15:4]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “and I in you.” The verb has been repeated for clarity and to conform to contemporary English style, which typically allows fewer ellipses (omitted or understood words) than Greek.

[15:4]  ¹⁵ sn The branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it remains connected to the vine, from which its life and sustenance flows. As far as the disciples were concerned, they would produce no fruit from themselves if they did not remain in their relationship to Jesus, because the eternal life which a disciple must possess in order to bear fruit originates with Jesus; he is the source of all life and productivity for the disciple.

[15:4]  ¹⁶ tn Or “resides.”

[15:4]  ¹⁷ tn While it would be more natural to say “on the vine” (so NAB), the English preposition “in” has been retained here to emphasize the parallelism with the following clause “unless you remain in me.” To speak of remaining “in” a person is not natural English either, but is nevertheless a biblical concept (cf. “in Christ” in Eph 1:3, 4, 6, 7, 11).

[15:4]  ¹⁸ tn Or “you reside.”

[16:13]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “that one.”

[16:13]  ²⁰ tn Or “will lead.”

[16:13]  ²¹ 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]  ²² tn Grk “speak from himself.”

[16:13]  ²³ tn Or will announce to you.”

[16:13]  ²⁴ tn Grk “will tell you the things to come.”