John 6:7

6:7 Philip replied, ¹  “Two hundred silver coins worth ²  of bread would not be enough for them, for each one to get a little.”

John 8:39

8:39 They answered him, ³  “Abraham is our father!” ⁴  Jesus replied, ⁵  “If you are ⁶  Abraham’s children, you would be doing ⁷  the deeds of Abraham.

John 9:41

9:41 Jesus replied, ⁸  “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin, ⁹  but now because you claim that you can see, ¹⁰  your guilt ¹¹  remains.” ¹² 

John 15:22

15:22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. ¹³  But they no longer have any excuse for their sin.

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¹ tn Grk “Philip answered him.”

² tn Grk “two hundred denarii.” The denarius was a silver coin worth about a day’s wage for a laborer; this would be an amount worth about eight months’ pay.

³ tn Grk “They answered and said to him.”

⁴ tn Or “Our father is Abraham.”

⁵ tn Grk “Jesus said to them.”

⁶ tc Although most mss (C W Θ Ψ 0250 Ë^1,13 33 Ï) have the imperfect ἦτε (hte, “you were”) here, making this sentence a proper second class condition, the harder reading, ἐστε (este, “you are”), is found in the better witnesses (Ì^66,75 א B D L 070 pc lat).

⁷ tc Some important mss (Ì⁶⁶ B* [700]) have the present imperative ποιεῖτε (poieite) here: “If you are Abraham’s children, then do,” while many others (א² C K L N Δ Ψ Ë^1,13 33 565 579 892 pm) add the contingent particle ἄν (an) to ἐποιεῖτε (epoieite) making it a more proper second class condition by Attic standards. The simple ἐποιεῖτε without the ἄν is the hardest reading, and is found in some excellent witnesses (Ì⁷⁵ א* B² D W Γ Θ 070 0250 1424 pm).

tn Or “you would do.”

⁸ tn Grk “Jesus said to them.”

⁹ tn Grk “you would not have sin.”

¹⁰ tn Grk “now because you say, ‘We see…’”

¹¹ tn Or “your sin.”

¹² sn Because you claim that you can see, your guilt remains. The blind man received sight physically, and this led him to see spiritually as well. But the Pharisees, who claimed to possess spiritual sight, were spiritually blinded. The reader might recall Jesus’ words to Nicodemus in 3:10, “Are you the teacher of Israel and don’t understand these things?” In other words, to receive Jesus was to receive the light of the world, to reject him was to reject the light, close one’s eyes, and become blind. This is the serious sin of which Jesus had warned before (8:21-24). The blindness of such people was incurable since they had rejected the only cure that exists (cf. 12:39-41).

¹³ tn Grk “they would not have sin” (an idiom).

sn Jesus now describes the guilt of the world. He came to these people with both words (15:22) and sign-miracles (15:24), yet they remained obstinate in their unbelief, and this sin of unbelief was without excuse. Jesus was not saying that if he had not come and spoken to these people they would be sinless; rather he was saying that if he had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of the sin of rejecting him and the Father he came to reveal. Rejecting Jesus is the one ultimate sin for which there can be no forgiveness, because the one who has committed this sin has at the same time rejected the only cure that exists. Jesus spoke similarly to the Pharisees in 9:41: “If you were blind, you would have no sin (same phrase as here), but now you say ‘We see’ your sin remains.”