John 9:29

9:29 We know that God has spoken to Moses! We do not know where this man ¹  comes from!”

John 14:5

14:5 Thomas said, ²  “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

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. ³  Ask him, he is a mature adult. ⁴  He will speak for himself.”

John 7:27

7:27 But we know where this man ⁵  comes from. ⁶  Whenever the Christ ⁷  comes, no one will know where he comes from.” ⁸ 

John 16:18

16:18 So they kept on repeating, ⁹  “What is the meaning of what he says, ¹⁰  ‘In a little while’? ¹¹  We do not understand ¹²  what he is talking about.” ¹³ 

John 3:11

3:11 I tell you the solemn truth, ¹⁴  we speak about what we know and testify about what we have seen, but ¹⁵  you people ¹⁶  do not accept our testimony. ¹⁷ 

John 4:22

4:22 You people ¹⁸  worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, because salvation is from the Jews. ¹⁹ 

John 9:20

9:20 So his parents replied, ²⁰  “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind.

John 9:31

9:31 We know that God doesn’t listen to ²¹  sinners, but if anyone is devout ²²  and does his will, God ²³  listens to ²⁴  him. ²⁵ 

John 16:30

16:30 Now we know that you know everything ²⁶  and do not need anyone ²⁷  to ask you anything. ²⁸  Because of this ²⁹  we believe that you have come from God.”

John 21:24

A Final Note

21:24 This is the disciple who testifies about these things and has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.

John 4:42

4:42 They said to the woman, “No longer do we believe because of your words, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this one ³⁰  really is the Savior of the world.” ³¹ 

John 6:42

6:42 and they said, “Isn’t this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

John 9:24

9:24 Then they summoned ³²  the man who used to be blind ³³  a second time and said to him, “Promise before God to tell the truth. ³⁴  We know that this man ³⁵  is a sinner.”

John 20:2

20:2 So she went running ³⁶  to Simon Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

John 3:2

3:2 came to Jesus ³⁷  at night ³⁸  and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs ³⁹  that you do unless God is with him.”

[9:29]  ¹ tn Grk “where this one.”

[14:5]  ² tn Grk “said to him.”

[9:21]  ³ tn Grk “who opened his eyes” (an idiom referring to restoration of sight).

[9:21]  ⁴ tn Or “he is of age.”

[7:27]  ⁴ tn Grk “this one.”

[7:27]  ⁵ sn We know where this man comes from. The author apparently did not consider this objection worth answering. The true facts about Jesus’ origins were readily available for any reader who didn’t know already. Here is an instance where the author assumes knowledge about Jesus that is independent from the material he records.

[7:27]  ⁶ tn Or “the Messiah” (Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “one who has been anointed”).

[7:27]  ⁷ sn The view of these people regarding the Messiah that no one will know where he comes from reflects the idea that the origin of the Messiah is a mystery. In the Talmud (b. Sanhedrin 97a) Rabbi Zera taught: “Three come unawares: Messiah, a found article, and a scorpion.” Apparently OT prophetic passages like Mal 3:1 and Dan 9:25 were interpreted by some as indicating a sudden appearance of Messiah. It appears that this was not a universal view: The scribes summoned by Herod at the coming of the Magi in Matt 2 knew that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. It is important to remember that Jewish messianic expectations in the early 1st century were not monolithic.

[16:18]  ⁵ tn Grk “they kept on saying.”

[16:18]  ⁶ tn Grk “What is this that he says.”

[16:18]  ⁷ tn Grk “A little while.” Although the phrase τὸ μικρόν (to mikron) in John 16:18 could be translated simply “a little while,” it was translated “in a little while” to maintain the connection to John 16:16, where it has the latter meaning in context.

[16:18]  ⁸ tn Or “we do not know.”

[16:18]  ⁹ tn Grk “what he is speaking.”

[3:11]  ⁶ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[3:11]  ⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to show the contrast present in the context.

[3:11]  ⁸ tn The word “people” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied in the translation to indicate that the verb is second person plural (referring to more than Nicodemus alone).

[3:11]  ⁹ sn Note the remarkable similarity of Jesus’ testimony to the later testimony of the Apostle John himself in 1 John 1:2: “And we have seen and testify and report to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was revealed to us.” This is only one example of how thoroughly the author’s own thoughts were saturated with the words of Jesus (and also how difficult it is to distinguish the words of Jesus from the words of the author in the Fourth Gospel).

[4:22]  ⁷ tn The word “people” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied to indicate that the Greek verb translated “worship” is second person plural and thus refers to more than the woman alone.

[4:22]  ⁸ tn Or “from the Judeans.” See the note on “Jew” in v. 9.

[9:20]  ⁸ tn Grk “So his parents answered and said.”

[9:31]  ⁹ tn Grk “God does not hear.”

[9:31]  ¹⁰ tn Or “godly.”

[9:31]  ¹¹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:31]  ¹² tn Or “hears.”

[9:31]  ¹³ tn Grk “this one.”

[16:30]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “all things.”

[16:30]  ¹¹ tn Grk “and have no need of anyone.”

[16:30]  ¹² tn The word “anything” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[16:30]  ¹³ tn Or “By this.”

[4:42]  ¹¹ tn Or “this.” The Greek pronoun can mean either “this one” or “this” (BDAG 740 s.v. οὗτος 1).

[4:42]  ¹² sn There is irony in the Samaritans’ declaration that Jesus was really the Savior of the world, an irony foreshadowed in the prologue to the Fourth Gospel (1:11): “He came to his own, and his own did not receive him.” Yet the Samaritans welcomed Jesus and proclaimed him to be not the Jewish Messiah only, but the Savior of the world.

[9:24]  ¹² tn Grk “they called.”

[9:24]  ¹³ tn Grk “who was blind.”

[9:24]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “Give glory to God” (an idiomatic formula used in placing someone under oath to tell the truth).

[9:24]  ¹⁵ tn The phrase “this man” is a reference to Jesus.

[20:2]  ¹³ tn Grk “So she ran and came.”

[3:2]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:2]  ¹⁵ tn Or “during the night.”

[3:2]  ¹⁶ sn The reference to signs (σημεῖα, shmeia) forms a link with John 2:23-25. Those people in Jerusalem believed in Jesus because of the signs he had performed. Nicodemus had apparently seen them too. But for Nicodemus all the signs meant is that Jesus was a great teacher sent from God. His approach to Jesus was well-intentioned but theologically inadequate; he had failed to grasp the messianic implications of the miraculous signs.