Discovery BoxJohn 1:39 
Context1:39 Jesus 1 answered, 2 “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. Now it was about four o’clock in the afternoon. 3
John 4:35
Context4:35 Don’t you say, 4 ‘There are four more months and then comes the harvest?’ I tell you, look up 5 and see that the fields are already white 6 for harvest!
John 11:39
Context11:39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” 7 Martha, the sister of the deceased, 8 replied, “Lord, by this time the body will have a bad smell, 9 because he has been buried 10 four days.” 11
John 19:23
Context19:23 Now when the soldiers crucified 12 Jesus, they took his clothes and made four shares, one for each soldier, 13 and the tunic 14 remained. (Now the tunic 15 was seamless, woven from top to bottom as a single piece.) 16
1 tn Grk “He”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tn Grk “said to them.”
3 tn Grk “about the tenth hour.”
sn About four o’clock in the afternoon. What system of time reckoning is the author using? B. F. Westcott thought John, unlike the synoptic gospels, was using Roman time, which started at midnight (St. John, 282). This would make the time 10 a.m., which would fit here. But later in the Gospel’s Passover account (John 19:42, where the sixth hour is on the “eve of the Passover”) it seems clear the author had to be using Jewish reckoning, which began at 6 a.m. This would make the time here in 1:39 to be 4 p.m. This may be significant: If the hour was late, Andrew and the unnamed disciple probably spent the night in the same house where Jesus was staying, and the events of 1:41-42 took place on the next day. The evidence for Westcott’s view, that the Gospel is using Roman time, is very slim. The Roman reckoning which started at midnight was only used by authorities as legal time (for contracts, official documents, etc.). Otherwise, the Romans too reckoned time from 6 a.m. (e.g., Roman sundials are marked VI, not XII, for noon).
4 tn The recitative ὅτι (Joti) after λέγετε (legete) has not been translated.
5 tn Grk “lift up your eyes” (an idiom). BDAG 357 s.v. ἐπαίρω 1 has “look up” here.
6 tn That is, “ripe.”
7 tn Or “Remove the stone.”
8 tn Grk “the sister of the one who had died.”
9 tn Grk “already he stinks.”
10 tn Or “been there” (in the tomb – see John 11:17).
11 sn He has been buried four days. Although all the details of the miracle itself are not given, those details which are mentioned are important. The statement made by Martha is extremely significant for understanding what actually took place. There is no doubt that Lazarus had really died, because the decomposition of his body had already begun to take place, since he had been dead for four days.
12 sn See the note on Crucify in 19:6.
13 sn Four shares, one for each soldier. The Gospel of John is the only one to specify the number of soldiers involved in the crucifixion. This was a quaternion, a squad of four soldiers. It was accepted Roman practice for the soldiers who performed a crucifixion to divide the possessions of the person executed among themselves.
14 tn Or “shirt” (a long garment worn under the cloak next to the skin). The name for this garment (χιτών, citwn) presents some difficulty in translation. Most modern readers would not understand what a ‘tunic’ was any more than they would be familiar with a ‘chiton.’ On the other hand, attempts to find a modern equivalent are also a problem: “Shirt” conveys the idea of a much shorter garment that covers only the upper body, and “undergarment” (given the styles of modern underwear) is more misleading still. “Tunic” was therefore employed, but with a note to explain its nature.
15 tn Or “shirt” (a long garment worn under the cloak next to the skin). See the note on the same word earlier in this verse.
16 sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.
