Psalms 26:6

26:6 I maintain a pure lifestyle, ¹ 

so I can appear before your altar, ²  O Lord,

Psalms 51:6-7

51:6 Look, ³  you desire ⁴  integrity in the inner man; ⁵ 

you want me to possess wisdom. ⁶ 

51:7 Sprinkle me ⁷  with water ⁸  and I will be pure; ⁹ 

wash me ¹⁰  and I will be whiter than snow. ¹¹ 

John 13:10

13:10 Jesus replied, ¹²  “The one who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, ¹³  but is completely ¹⁴  clean. ¹⁵  And you disciples ¹⁶  are clean, but not every one of you.”

John 13:1

Washing the Disciples’ Feet

13:1 Just before the Passover feast, Jesus knew that his time ¹⁷  had come to depart ¹⁸  from this world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now loved them to the very end. ¹⁹ 

John 1:7

1:7 He came as a witness ²⁰  to testify ²¹  about the light, so that everyone ²²  might believe through him.

John 1:9

1:9 The true light, who gives light to everyone, ²³  was coming into the world. ²⁴ 

[26:6]  ¹ tn Heb “I wash my hands in innocence.” The psalmist uses an image from cultic ritual to picture his moral lifestyle. The imperfect verbal emphasizes that this is his habit.

[26:6]  ² tn Heb “so I can go around your altar” (probably in ritual procession). Following the imperfect of the preceding line, the cohortative with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose or result.

[51:6]  ³ sn The juxtaposition of two occurrences of “look” in vv. 5-6 draws attention to the sharp contrast between the sinful reality of the psalmist’s condition and the lofty ideal God has for him.

[51:6]  ⁴ tn The perfect is used in a generalizing sense here.

[51:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “in the covered [places],” i.e., in the inner man.

[51:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “in the secret [place] wisdom you cause me to know.” The Hiphil verbal form is causative, while the imperfect is used in a modal sense to indicate God’s desire (note the parallel verb “desire”).

[51:7]  ⁷ tn The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.

[51:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “cleanse me with hyssop.” “Hyssop” was a small plant (see 1 Kgs 4:33) used to apply water (or blood) in purification rites (see Exod 12:22; Lev 14:4-6, 49-52; Num 19:6-18. The psalmist uses the language and imagery of such rites to describe spiritual cleansing through forgiveness.

[51:7]  ⁹ tn After the preceding imperfect, the imperfect with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates result.

[51:7]  ¹⁰ tn The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.

[51:7]  ¹¹ sn I will be whiter than snow. Whiteness here symbolizes the moral purity resulting from forgiveness (see Isa 1:18).

[13:10]  ¹² tn Grk “Jesus said to him.”

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

[13:10]  ¹⁴ tn Or “entirely.”

[13:10]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ 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.

[13:1]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “his hour.”

[13:1]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “that he should depart.” The ἵνα (Jina) clause in Koine Greek frequently encroached on the simple infinitive (for the sake of greater clarity).

[13:1]  ¹⁹ tn Or “he now loved them completely,” or “he now loved them to the uttermost” (see John 19:30). All of John 13:1 is a single sentence in Greek, although in English this would be unacceptably awkward. At the end of the verse the idiom εἰς τέλος (eis telos) was translated literally as “to the end” and the modern equivalents given in the note above, because there is an important lexical link between this passage and John 19:30, τετέλεσται (tetelestai, “It is ended”).

[1:7]  ²⁰ tn Grk “came for a testimony.”

[1:7]  ²¹ tn Or “to bear witness.”

[1:7]  ²² tn Grk “all.”

[1:9]  ²³ tn Grk “every man” (but in a generic sense, “every person,” or “every human being”).

[1:9]  ²⁴ tn Or “He was the true light, who gives light to everyone who comes into the world.” The participle ἐρχόμενον (ercomenon) may be either (1) neuter nominative, agreeing with τὸ φῶς (to fw"), or (2) masculine accusative, agreeing with ἄνθρωπον (anqrwpon). Option (1) results in a periphrastic imperfect with ἦν (hn), ἦν τὸ φῶς… ἐρχόμενον, referring to the incarnation. Option (2) would have the participle modifying ἄνθρωπον and referring to the true light as enlightening “every man who comes into the world.” Option (2) has some rabbinic parallels: The phrase “all who come into the world” is a fairly common expression for “every man” (cf. Leviticus Rabbah 31.6). But (1) must be preferred here, because: (a) In the next verse the light is in the world; it is logical for v. 9 to speak of its entering the world; (b) in other passages Jesus is described as “coming into the world” (6:14, 9:39, 11:27, 16:28) and in 12:46 Jesus says: ἐγὼ φῶς εἰς τὸν κόσμον ἐλήλυθα (egw fw" ei" ton kosmon elhluqa); (c) use of a periphrastic participle with the imperfect tense is typical Johannine style: 1:28, 2:6, 3:23, 10:40, 11:1, 13:23, 18:18 and 25. In every one of these except 13:23 the finite verb is first and separated by one or more intervening words from the participle.