Proverbs 8:35-36

8:35 For the one who finds me finds ¹  life

and receives ²  favor from the Lord.

8:36 But the one who does not find me ³  brings harm ⁴  to himself; ⁵ 

all who hate me ⁶  love death.”

John 12:25

12:25 The one who loves his life ⁷  destroys ⁸  it, and the one who hates his life in this world guards ⁹  it for eternal life.

John 12:1

Jesus’ Anointing

12:1 Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom he ¹⁰  had raised from the dead.

John 3:10

3:10 Jesus answered, ¹¹  “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you don’t understand these things? ¹² 

[8:35]  ¹ tc The Kethib reads plurals: “those who find me are finders of life”; this is reflected in the LXX and Syriac. But the Qere is singular: “whoever finds me finds life.” The Qere is generally favored as the original reading in such cases as these.

[8:35]  ² tn The preterite with vav (ו) consecutive carries the same nuance as the perfect tense that came before it, setting out the timeless principle.

[8:36]  ³ tn Heb “the one sinning [against] me.” The verb חָטָא (khata’, “to sin”) forms a contrast with “find” in the previous verse, and so has its basic meaning of “failing to find, miss.” So it is talking about the one who misses wisdom, as opposed to the one who finds it.

[8:36]  ⁴ tn The Qal active participle functions verbally here. The word stresses both social and physical harm and violence.

[8:36]  ⁵ tn Heb “his soul.”

[8:36]  ⁶ tn The basic idea of the verb שָׂנֵא (sane’, “to hate”) is that of rejection. Its antonym is also used in the line, “love,” which has the idea of choosing. So not choosing (i.e., hating) wisdom amounts to choosing (i.e., loving) death.

[12:25]  ⁷ tn Or “soul.”

[12:25]  ⁸ tn Or “loses.” Although the traditional English translation of ἀπολλύει (apolluei) in John 12:25 is “loses,” the contrast with φυλάξει (fulaxei, “keeps” or “guards”) in the second half of the verse favors the meaning “destroy” here.

[12:25]  ⁹ tn Or “keeps.”

[12:1]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “whom Jesus,” but a repetition of the proper name (Jesus) here would be redundant in the English clause structure, so the pronoun (“he”) is substituted in the translation.

[3:10]  ¹¹ tn Grk “Jesus answered and said to him.”

[3:10]  ¹² sn Jesus’ question “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you don’t understand these things?” implies that Nicodemus had enough information at his disposal from the OT scriptures to have understood Jesus’ statements about the necessity of being born from above by the regenerating work of the Spirit. Isa 44:3-5 and Ezek 37:9-10 are passages Nicodemus might have known which would have given him insight into Jesus’ words. Another significant passage which contains many of these concepts is Prov 30:4-5.