John 8:39

8:39 They answered him, ¹  “Abraham is our father!” ²  Jesus replied, ³  “If you are ⁴  Abraham’s children, you would be doing ⁵  the deeds of Abraham.

John 13:10

13:10 Jesus replied, ⁶  “The one who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, ⁷  but is completely ⁸  clean. ⁹  And you disciples ¹⁰  are clean, but not every one of you.”

John 15:19

15:19 If you belonged to the world, ¹¹  the world would love you as its own. ¹²  However, because you do not belong to the world, ¹³  but I chose you out of the world, for this reason ¹⁴  the world hates you. ¹⁵ 

[8:39]  ¹ tn Grk “They answered and said to him.”

[8:39]  ² tn Or “Our father is Abraham.”

[8:39]  ³ tn Grk “Jesus said to them.”

[8:39]  ⁴ tc Although most mss (C W Θ Ψ 0250 Ë^1,13 33 Ï) have the imperfect ἦτε (hte, “you were”) here, making this sentence a proper second class condition, the harder reading, ἐστε (este, “you are”), is found in the better witnesses (Ì^66,75 א B D L 070 pc lat).

[8:39]  ⁵ tc Some important mss (Ì⁶⁶ B* [700]) have the present imperative ποιεῖτε (poieite) here: “If you are Abraham’s children, then do,” while many others (א² C K L N Δ Ψ Ë^1,13 33 565 579 892 pm) add the contingent particle ἄν (an) to ἐποιεῖτε (epoieite) making it a more proper second class condition by Attic standards. The simple ἐποιεῖτε without the ἄν is the hardest reading, and is found in some excellent witnesses (Ì⁷⁵ א* B² D W Γ Θ 070 0250 1424 pm).

[13:10]  ⁶ tn Grk “Jesus said to him.”

[13:10]  ⁷ tn Grk “has no need except to wash his feet.”

[13:10]  ⁸ tn Or “entirely.”

[13:10]  ⁹ sn The one who has bathed needs only to wash his feet. A common understanding is that the “bath” Jesus referred to is the initial cleansing from sin, which necessitates only “lesser, partial” cleansings from sins after conversion. This makes a fine illustration from a homiletic standpoint, but is it the meaning of the passage? This seems highly doubtful. Jesus stated that the disciples were completely clean except for Judas (vv. 10b, 11). What they needed was to have their feet washed by Jesus. In the broader context of the Fourth Gospel, the significance of the foot-washing seems to point not just to an example of humble service (as most understand it), but something more – Jesus’ self-sacrificial death on the cross. If this is correct, then the foot-washing which they needed to undergo represented their acceptance of this act of self-sacrifice on the part of their master. This makes Peter’s initial abhorrence of the act of humiliation by his master all the more significant in context; it also explains Jesus’ seemingly harsh reply to Peter (above, v. 8; compare Matt 16:21-23 where Jesus says to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan”).

[13:10]  ¹⁰ tn The word “disciples” is supplied in English to clarify the plural Greek pronoun and verb. Peter is not the only one Jesus is addressing here.

[15:19]  ¹¹ tn Grk “if you were of the world.”

[15:19]  ¹² tn The words “you as” are not in the original but are supplied for clarity.

[15:19]  ¹³ tn Grk “because you are not of the world.”

[15:19]  ¹⁴ tn Or “world, therefore.”

[15:19]  ¹⁵ sn I chose you out of the world…the world hates you. Two themes are brought together here. In 8:23 Jesus had distinguished himself from the world in addressing his Jewish opponents: “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world.” In 15:16 Jesus told the disciples “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you.” Now Jesus has united these two ideas as he informs the disciples that he has chosen them out of the world. While the disciples will still be “in” the world after Jesus has departed, they will not belong to it, and Jesus prays later in John 17:15-16 to the Father, “I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” The same theme also occurs in 1 John 4:5-6: “They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us.” Thus the basic reason why the world hates the disciples (as it hated Jesus before them) is because they are not of the world. They are born from above, and are not of the world. For this reason the world hates them.