6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. The one who comes to me will never go hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty. 9
8:19 Then they began asking 11 him, “Who is your father?” Jesus answered, “You do not know either me or my Father. If you knew me you would know my Father too.” 12
15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains 37 in me – and I in him – bears 38 much fruit, 39 because apart from me you can accomplish 40 nothing.
17:6 “I have revealed 41 your name to the men 42 you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, 43 and you gave them to me, and they have obeyed 44 your word.
1 sn John refers to John the Baptist.
2 tn Or “bore witness.”
3 tn Grk “and shouted out saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant is English and has not been translated.
4 tn Or “has a higher rank than I.”
5 tn Or “Lord.” The Greek κύριος (kurios) means both “Sir” and “Lord.” In this passage the paralytic who was healed by Jesus never acknowledges Jesus as Lord – he rather reports Jesus to the authorities.
6 tn Grk “while I am going.”
7 tn Grk “another.”
8 tn The word “there” is not in the Greek text but is implied.
9 tn Grk “the one who believes in me will not possibly thirst, ever.”
sn The one who believes in me will never be thirsty. Note the parallelism between “coming to Jesus” in the first part of v. 35 and “believing in Jesus” in the second part of v. 35. For the author of the Gospel of John these terms are virtually equivalent, both referring to a positive response to Jesus (see John 3:17-21).
10 tn Or “resurrect them all,” or “make them all live again”; Grk “raise it up.” The word “all” is supplied to bring out the collective nature of the neuter singular pronoun αὐτό (auto) in Greek. The plural pronoun “them” is used rather than neuter singular “it” because this is clearer in English, which does not use neuter collective singulars in the same way Greek does.
11 tn Grk “Then they were saying to him.” The imperfect verb has been translated with ingressive force here because of the introduction of a new line of questioning by the Pharisees. Jesus had just claimed his Father as a second witness; now his opponents want to know who his father is.
12 sn If you knew me you would know my Father too. Jesus’ reply is based on his identity with the Father (see also John 1:18; 14:9).
13 tn Grk “Jesus said to them.”
14 tn Or “I came from God and have arrived.”
15 tn Grk “For I.” Here γάρ (gar) has not been translated.
16 tn Grk “from myself.”
17 tn Grk “that one” (referring to God).
18 tn Or “works.”
sn Jesus says that in the final analysis, the deeds he did should indicate whether he was truly from the Father. If the authorities could not believe in him, it would be better to believe in the deeds he did than not to believe at all.
19 tn Or “so that you may learn.”
20 tn Grk “that you always hear me.”
21 tn The word “this” is not in the Greek text. Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when clear from the context.
22 tn Grk “Jesus said to him.”
23 tn Or “recognized.”
24 tn Or “keeps.”
25 tn Grk “obeys them, that one is the one who loves me.”
26 tn Grk “And the one.” Here the conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated to improve the English style.
27 tn Or “will disclose.”
28 tn Or “You have heard that I said to you.”
29 tn Or “you would rejoice.”
30 sn Jesus’ statement the Father is greater than I am has caused much christological and trinitarian debate. Although the Arians appealed to this text to justify their subordinationist Christology, it seems evident that by the fact Jesus compares himself to the Father, his divine nature is taken for granted. There have been two orthodox interpretations: (1) The Son is eternally generated while the Father is not: Origen, Tertullian, Athanasius, Hilary, etc. (2) As man the incarnate Son was less than the Father: Cyril of Alexandria, Ambrose, Augustine. In the context of the Fourth Gospel the second explanation seems more plausible. But why should the disciples have rejoiced? Because Jesus was on the way to the Father who would glorify him (cf. 17:4-5); his departure now signifies that the work the Father has given him is completed (cf. 19:30). Now Jesus will be glorified with that glory that he had with the Father before the world was (cf. 17:5). This should be a cause of rejoicing to the disciples because when Jesus is glorified he will glorify his disciples as well (17:22).
31 tn Or “Reside.”
32 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.
33 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.
34 tn Or “resides.”
35 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).
36 tn Or “you reside.”
37 tn Or “resides.”
38 tn Or “yields.”
39 tn Grk “in him, this one bears much fruit.” The pronoun “this one” has been omitted from the translation because it is redundant according to contemporary English style.
sn Many interpret the imagery of fruit here and in 15:2, 4 in terms of good deeds or character qualities, relating it to passages elsewhere in the NT like Matt 3:8 and 7:20, Rom 6:22, Gal 5:22, etc. This is not necessarily inaccurate, but one must remember that for John, to have life at all is to bear fruit, while one who does not bear fruit shows that he does not have the life (once again, conduct is the clue to paternity, as in John 8:41; compare also 1 John 4:20).
40 tn Or “do.”
41 tn Or “made known,” “disclosed.”
42 tn Here “men” is retained as a translation for ἀνθρώποις (anqrwpoi") rather than the more generic “people” because in context it specifically refers to the eleven men Jesus had chosen as apostles (Judas had already departed, John 13:30). If one understands the referent here to be the broader group of Jesus’ followers that included both men and women, a translation like “to the people” should be used here instead.
43 tn Grk “Yours they were.”
44 tn Or “have kept.”
45 tn Grk And they.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.
46 tn Or “received.”
47 tn The word “them” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.
48 tn Or “truly.”
49 tn Or have come to know.”
50 tn The words “I pray” are repeated from the first part of v. 20 for clarity.
51 tn Or “power.”
52 tn Or “who delivered me over to you.”
sn The one who handed me over to you appears to be a reference to Judas at first; yet Judas did not deliver Jesus up to Pilate, but to the Jewish authorities. The singular may be a reference to Caiaphas, who as high priest was representative of all the Jewish authorities, or it may be a generic singular referring to all the Jewish authorities directly. In either case the end result is more or less the same.
53 tn Grk “has the greater sin” (an idiom).
sn Because Pilate had no authority over Jesus except what had been given to him from God, the one who handed Jesus over to Pilate was guilty of greater sin. This does not absolve Pilate of guilt; it simply means his guilt was less than those who handed Jesus over to him, because he was not acting against Jesus out of deliberate hatred or calculated malice, like the Jewish religious authorities. These were thereby guilty of greater sin.