John 4:22
Context4:22 You people 1 worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, because salvation is from the Jews. 2
John 7:27
Context7:27 But we know where this man 3 comes from. 4 Whenever the Christ 5 comes, no one will know where he comes from.” 6
John 9:29
Context9:29 We know that God has spoken to Moses! We do not know where this man 7 comes from!”
John 14:5
Context14:5 Thomas said, 8 “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?”
1 tn The word “people” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied to indicate that the Greek verb translated “worship” is second person plural and thus refers to more than the woman alone.
2 tn Or “from the Judeans.” See the note on “Jew” in v. 9.
3 tn Grk “this one.”
4 sn We know where this man comes from. The author apparently did not consider this objection worth answering. The true facts about Jesus’ origins were readily available for any reader who didn’t know already. Here is an instance where the author assumes knowledge about Jesus that is independent from the material he records.
5 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.
6 sn The view of these people regarding the Messiah that no one will know where he comes from reflects the idea that the origin of the Messiah is a mystery. In the Talmud (b. Sanhedrin 97a) Rabbi Zera taught: “Three come unawares: Messiah, a found article, and a scorpion.” Apparently OT prophetic passages like Mal 3:1 and Dan 9:25 were interpreted by some as indicating a sudden appearance of Messiah. It appears that this was not a universal view: The scribes summoned by Herod at the coming of the Magi in Matt 2 knew that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. It is important to remember that Jewish messianic expectations in the early 1st century were not monolithic.
7 tn Grk “where this one.”
8 tn Grk “said to him.”