Discovery BoxJohn 3:20 
Context3:20 For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed.
John 4:38
Context4:38 I sent you to reap what you did not work for; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.”
John 11:19
Context11:19 so many of the Jewish people of the region 1 had come to Martha and Mary to console them 2 over the loss of their brother.) 3
John 15:22
Context15:22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. 4 But they no longer have any excuse for their sin.
John 18:12
Context18:12 Then the squad of soldiers 5 with their commanding officer 6 and the officers of the Jewish leaders 7 arrested 8 Jesus and tied him up. 9
John 18:14
Context18:14 (Now it was Caiaphas who had advised 10 the Jewish leaders 11 that it was to their advantage that one man die for the people.) 12
1 tn Or “many of the Judeans” (cf. BDAG 479 s.v. ᾿Ιουδαῖος 2.e); Grk “many of the Jews.” Here the phrase refers to the residents of Jerusalem and the surrounding area in general (those who had been friends or relatives of Lazarus or his sisters would mainly be in view) since the Jewish religious authorities (“the chief priests and the Pharisees”) are specifically mentioned as a separate group in John 11:46-47. See also the note on the phrase “the Jewish leaders” in v. 8.
2 tn Or “to comfort them” or “to offer them sympathy.”
3 tn Grk “to comfort them concerning their brother”; the words “loss of” are not in the Greek text but are implied.
sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.
4 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.”
5 tn Grk “a cohort” (but since this was a unit of 600 soldiers, a smaller detachment is almost certainly intended).
6 tn Grk “their chiliarch” (an officer in command of a thousand soldiers). In Greek the term χιλίαρχος (ciliarco") literally described the “commander of a thousand,” but it was used as the standard translation for the Latin tribunus militum or tribunus militaris, the military tribune who commanded a cohort of 600 men.
7 tn Or “the Jewish authorities”; Grk “the Jews.” In NT usage the term ᾿Ιουδαῖοι (Ioudaioi) may refer to the entire Jewish people, the residents of Jerusalem and surrounding territory, the authorities in Jerusalem, or merely those who were hostile to Jesus. (For further information see R. G. Bratcher, “‘The Jews’ in the Gospel of John,” BT 26 [1975]: 401-9.) Here the phrase refers to the Jewish leaders, who were named as “chief priests and Pharisees” in John 18:3.
8 tn Or “seized.”
9 tn Or “bound him.”
10 tn Or “counseled.”
11 tn Grk “the Jews.” Here the phrase refers to the Jewish leaders, specifically members of the Sanhedrin (see John 11:49-50). See also the note on the phrase “Jewish leaders” in v. 12.
12 sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.
