John 1:45

1:45 Philip found Nathanael ¹  and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, and the prophets also ²  wrote about – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

John 6:32

6:32 Then Jesus told them, “I tell you the solemn truth, ³  it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but my Father is giving you the true bread from heaven.

John 7:23

7:23 But if a male child ⁴  is circumcised ⁵  on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses is not broken, ⁶  why are you angry with me because I made a man completely well ⁷  on the Sabbath?

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¹ sn Nathanael is traditionally identified with Bartholomew (although John never describes him as such). He appears here after Philip, while in all lists of the twelve except in Acts 1:13, Bartholomew follows Philip. Also, the Aramaic Bar-tolmai means “son of Tolmai,” the surname; the man almost certainly had another name.

² tn “Also” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

³ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

⁴ tn Grk “a man.” See the note on “male child” in the previous verse.

⁵ tn Grk “receives circumcision.”

⁶ sn If a male child is circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses is not broken. The Rabbis counted 248 parts to a man’s body. In the Talmud (b. Yoma 85b) R. Eleazar ben Azariah (ca. a.d. 100) states: “If circumcision, which attaches to one only of the 248 members of the human body, suspends the Sabbath, how much more shall the saving of the whole body suspend the Sabbath?” So absolutely binding did rabbinic Judaism regard the command of Lev 12:3 to circumcise on the eighth day, that in the Mishnah m. Shabbat 18.3; 19.1, 2; and m. Nedarim 3.11 all hold that the command to circumcise overrides the command to observe the Sabbath.

⁷ tn Or “made an entire man well.”