Discovery BoxJohn 4:35 
Context4:35 Don’t you say, 1 ‘There are four more months and then comes the harvest?’ I tell you, look up 2 and see that the fields are already white 3 for harvest!
John 6:14
Context6:14 Now when the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus 4 performed, they began to say to one another, “This is certainly the Prophet 5 who is to come into the world.” 6
John 6:42
Context6:42 and they said, “Isn’t this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
John 8:26
Context8:26 I have many things to say and to judge 7 about you, but the Father 8 who sent me is truthful, 9 and the things I have heard from him I speak to the world.” 10
John 8:52
Context8:52 Then 11 the Judeans 12 responded, 13 “Now we know you’re possessed by a demon! 14 Both Abraham and the prophets died, and yet 15 you say, ‘If anyone obeys 16 my teaching, 17 he will never experience 18 death.’ 19
John 8:55
Context8:55 Yet 20 you do not know him, but I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, 21 I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I obey 22 his teaching. 23
John 9:17
Context9:17 So again they asked the man who used to be blind, 24 “What do you say about him, since he caused you to see?” 25 “He is a prophet,” the man replied. 26
John 11:51
Context11:51 (Now he did not say this on his own, 27 but because he was high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the Jewish nation, 28
John 12:27
Context12:27 “Now my soul is greatly distressed. And what should I say? ‘Father, deliver me 29 from this hour’? 30 No, but for this very reason I have come to this hour. 31
John 12:34
Context12:34 Then the crowd responded, 32 “We have heard from the law that the Christ 33 will remain forever. 34 How 35 can you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?”
John 14:9
Context14:9 Jesus replied, 36 “Have I been with you for so long, and you have not known 37 me, Philip? The person who has seen me has seen the Father! How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
John 14:28
Context14:28 You heard me say to you, 38 ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad 39 that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I am. 40
1 tn The recitative ὅτι (Joti) after λέγετε (legete) has not been translated.
2 tn Grk “lift up your eyes” (an idiom). BDAG 357 s.v. ἐπαίρω 1 has “look up” here.
3 tn That is, “ripe.”
4 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
5 sn The Prophet is a reference to the “prophet like Moses” of Deut 18:15, by this time an eschatological figure in popular belief.
6 sn An allusion to Deut 18:15.
7 tn Or “I have many things to pronounce in judgment about you.” The two Greek infinitives could be understood as a hendiadys, resulting in one phrase.
8 tn Grk “the one”; the referent (the Father) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
9 tn Grk “true” (in the sense of one who always tells the truth).
10 tn Grk “and what things I have heard from him, these things I speak to the world.”
11 tc ‡ Important and early witnesses (Ì66 א B C W Θ 579 it) lack the conjunction here, while other witnesses read οὖν (oun, “therefore”; Ì75 D L Ψ 070 Ë1,13 33 Ï lat). This conjunction occurs in John some 200 times, far more than in any other NT book. Even though the most important Johannine papyrus (Ì75) has the conjunction, the combination of Ì66 א B for the omission is even stronger. Further, the reading seems to be a predictable scribal emendation. In particular, οὖν is frequently used with the plural of εἶπον (eipon, “they said”) in John (in this chapter alone, note vv. 13, 39, 48, 57, and possibly 41). On balance, it is probably best to consider the shorter reading as authentic, even though “Then” is virtually required in translation for English stylistic reasons. NA27 has the conjunction in brackets, indicating some doubt as to its authenticity.
12 tn Grk “the Jews.” See the note on this term in v. 31. Here, as in vv. 31 and 48, the phrase refers to the Jewish people in Jerusalem (“Judeans”; cf. BDAG 479 s.v. ᾿Ιουδαῖος 2.e) who had been listening to Jesus’ teaching in the temple courts (8:20) and had initially believed his claim to be the Messiah (cf. 8:31).
13 tn Grk “said to him.”
14 tn Grk “you have a demon.”
15 tn “Yet” has been supplied to show the contrastive element present in the context.
16 tn Grk “If anyone keeps.”
17 tn Grk “my word.”
18 tn Grk “will never taste.” Here the Greek verb does not mean “sample a small amount” (as a typical English reader might infer from the word “taste”), but “experience something cognitively or emotionally; come to know something” (cf. BDAG 195 s.v. γεύομαι 2).
19 tn Grk “he will never taste of death forever.” The Greek negative here is emphatic.
20 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “Yet” to indicate the contrast present in the context.
21 tn Grk “If I say, ‘I do not know him.’”
22 tn Grk “I keep.”
23 tn Grk “his word.”
24 tn Grk “the blind man.”
25 tn Grk “since he opened your eyes” (an idiom referring to restoration of sight).
26 tn Grk “And he said, ‘He is a prophet.’”
sn At this point the man, pressed by the Pharisees, admitted there was something special about Jesus. But here, since prophet is anarthrous (is not accompanied by the Greek article) and since in his initial reply in 9:11-12 the man showed no particular insight into the true identity of Jesus, this probably does not refer to the prophet of Deut 18:15, but merely to an unusual person who is capable of working miracles. The Pharisees had put this man on the spot, and he felt compelled to say something about Jesus, but he still didn’t have a clear conception of who Jesus was, so he labeled him a “prophet.”
27 tn Grk “say this from himself.”
28 tn The word “Jewish” is not in the Greek text, but is clearly implied by the context (so also NIV; TEV “the Jewish people”).
29 tn Or “save me.”
30 tn Or “this occasion.”
sn Father, deliver me from this hour. It is now clear that Jesus’ hour has come – the hour of his return to the Father through crucifixion, death, resurrection, and ascension (see 12:23). This will be reiterated in 13:1 and 17:1. Jesus states (employing words similar to those of Ps 6:4) that his soul is troubled. What shall his response to his imminent death be? A prayer to the Father to deliver him from that hour? No, because it is on account of this very hour that Jesus has come. His sacrificial death has always remained the primary purpose of his mission into the world. Now, faced with the completion of that mission, shall he ask the Father to spare him from it? The expected answer is no.
31 tn Or “this occasion.”
32 tn Grk “Then the crowd answered him.”
33 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.
34 tn Probably an allusion to Ps 89:35-37. It is difficult to pinpoint the passage in the Mosaic law to which the crowd refers. The ones most often suggested are Ps 89:36-37, Ps 110:4, Isa 9:7, Ezek 37:25, and Dan 7:14. None of these passages are in the Pentateuch per se, but “law” could in common usage refer to the entire OT (compare Jesus’ use in John 10:34). Of the passages mentioned, Ps 89:36-37 is the most likely candidate. This verse speaks of David’s “seed” remaining forever. Later in the same psalm, v. 51 speaks of the “anointed” (Messiah), and the psalm was interpreted messianically in both the NT (Acts 13:22, Rev 1:5, 3:14) and in the rabbinic literature (Genesis Rabbah 97).
35 tn Grk “And how”; the conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has been left untranslated here for improved English style.
36 tn Grk “Jesus said to him.”
37 tn Or “recognized.”
38 tn Or “You have heard that I said to you.”
39 tn Or “you would rejoice.”
40 sn Jesus’ statement the Father is greater than I am has caused much christological and trinitarian debate. Although the Arians appealed to this text to justify their subordinationist Christology, it seems evident that by the fact Jesus compares himself to the Father, his divine nature is taken for granted. There have been two orthodox interpretations: (1) The Son is eternally generated while the Father is not: Origen, Tertullian, Athanasius, Hilary, etc. (2) As man the incarnate Son was less than the Father: Cyril of Alexandria, Ambrose, Augustine. In the context of the Fourth Gospel the second explanation seems more plausible. But why should the disciples have rejoiced? Because Jesus was on the way to the Father who would glorify him (cf. 17:4-5); his departure now signifies that the work the Father has given him is completed (cf. 19:30). Now Jesus will be glorified with that glory that he had with the Father before the world was (cf. 17:5). This should be a cause of rejoicing to the disciples because when Jesus is glorified he will glorify his disciples as well (17:22).
