1:23 John 1 said, “I am the voice of one shouting in the wilderness, ‘Make straight 2 the way for the Lord,’ 3 as Isaiah the prophet said.”
1 tn Grk “He”; the referent (John the Baptist) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 sn This call to “make straight” is probably an allusion to preparation through repentance.
3 sn A quotation from Isa 40:3.
4 tn Grk “answered and said to him.”
5 tn Grk “Well have you said.”
6 tn The word order in Jesus’ reply is reversed from the woman’s original statement. The word “husband” in Jesus’ reply is placed in an emphatic position.
7 tn Or “the Messiah” (Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “one who has been anointed”).
sn See the note on Christ in 1:20.
8 tn An initial negative reply (“No”) is suggested by the causal or explanatory γάρ (gar) which begins the clause.
9 tn Questions prefaced with μή (mh) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end in English (here the tag is “does he?”).
10 tn Grk “Others were saying.”
11 tn Grk “This is the one.”
12 tn Grk “No, but he is like him.”
13 tn Grk “That one”; the referent (the man himself) is specified in the translation for clarity.
14 tn Grk “I am he.”
15 tn “The voice” is not in the Greek text. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.
16 tn Grk “Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” The direct discourse in the second half of v. 29 was converted to indirect discourse in the translation to maintain the parallelism with the first half of the verse, which is better in keeping with English style.
17 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
18 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Peter) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
19 sn This is a parenthetical note by the author. The phrase by what kind of death Peter was going to glorify God almost certainly indicates martyrdom (cf. 1 Pet 4:16), and it may not predict anything more than that. But the parallelism of this phrase to similar phrases in John 12:33 and 18:32 which describe Jesus’ own death by crucifixion have led many to suggest that the picture Jesus is portraying for Peter looks not just at martyrdom but at death by crucifixion. This seems to be confirmed by the phrase you will stretch out your hands in the preceding verse. There is some evidence that the early church understood this and similar phrases (one of them in Isa 65:2) to refer to crucifixion (for a detailed discussion of the evidence see L. Morris, John [NICNT], 876, n. 52). Some have objected that if this phrase does indeed refer to crucifixion, the order within v. 18 is wrong, because the stretching out of the hands in crucifixion precedes the binding and leading where one does not wish to go. R. E. Brown (John [AB], 2:1108) sees this as a deliberate reversal of the normal order (hysteron proteron) intended to emphasize the stretching out of the hands. Another possible explanation for the unusual order is the Roman practice in crucifixions of tying the condemned prisoner’s arms to the crossbeam (patibulum) and forcing him to carry it to the place of execution (W. Bauer as cited by O. Cullmann in Peter: Disciple, Apostle, Martyr [LHD], 88).
20 tn Grk “After he said this, he said to him”; the referents (first Jesus, second Peter) have been specified in the translation for clarity.