Discovery BoxJohn 4:8 
Context4:8 (For his disciples had gone off into the town to buy supplies. 1 ) 2
John 4:44
Context4:44 (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) 3
John 5:5
Context5:5 Now a man was there who had been disabled for thirty-eight years. 4
John 7:50
Context7:50 Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus 5 before and who was one of the rulers, 6 said, 7
John 9:1
Context9:1 Now as Jesus was passing by, 8 he saw a man who had been blind from birth.
John 11:17
Context11:17 When 9 Jesus arrived, 10 he found that Lazarus 11 had been in the tomb four days already. 12
John 11:21
Context11:21 Martha 13 said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
John 11:36
Context11:36 Thus the people who had come to mourn 14 said, “Look how much he loved him!”
John 11:43
Context11:43 When 15 he had said this, he shouted in a loud voice, 16 “Lazarus, come out!”
John 11:46
Context11:46 But some of them went to the Pharisees 17 and reported to them 18 what Jesus had done.
John 12:20
Context12:20 Now some Greeks 19 were among those who had gone up to worship at the feast.
1 tn Grk “buy food.”
2 sn This is a parenthetical note by the author, indicating why Jesus asked the woman for a drink (for presumably his disciples also took the water bucket with them).
3 sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.
4 tn Grk “who had had thirty-eight years in his disability.”
5 tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
6 tn Grk “who was one of them”; the referent (the rulers) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
7 tn Grk “said to them.”
8 tn Or “going along.” The opening words of chap. 9, καὶ παράγων (kai paragwn), convey only the vaguest indication of the circumstances.
sn Since there is no break with chap. 8, Jesus is presumably still in Jerusalem, and presumably not still in the temple area. The events of chap. 9 fall somewhere between the feast of Tabernacles (John 7:2) and the feast of the Dedication (John 10:22). But in the author’s narrative the connection exists – the incident recorded in chap. 9 (along with the ensuing debates with the Pharisees) serves as a real-life illustration of the claim Jesus made in 8:12, I am the light of the world. This is in fact the probable theological motivation behind the juxtaposition of these two incidents in the narrative. The second serves as an illustration of the first, and as a concrete example of the victory of light over darkness. One other thing which should be pointed out about the miracle recorded in chap. 9 is its messianic significance. In the OT it is God himself who is associated with the giving of sight to the blind (Exod 4:11, Ps 146:8). In a number of passages in Isa (29:18, 35:5, 42:7) it is considered to be a messianic activity.
9 tn Grk “Then when.”
10 tn Grk “came.”
11 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Lazarus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
12 tn Grk “he had already had four days in the tomb” (an idiom).
sn There is no description of the journey itself. The author simply states that when Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had been in the tomb four days already. He had died some time before this but probably not very long (cf. Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:6,10 who were buried immediately after they died, as was the common practice of the time). There is some later evidence (early 3rd century) of a rabbinic belief that the soul hovered near the body of the deceased for three days, hoping to be able to return to the body. But on the fourth day it saw the beginning of decomposition and finally departed (Leviticus Rabbah 18.1). If this belief is as old as the 1st century, it might suggest the significance of the four days: After this time, resurrection would be a first-order miracle, an unequivocal demonstration of the power of God. It is not certain if the tradition is this early, but it is suggestive. Certainly the author does not appear to attach any symbolic significance to the four days in the narrative.
13 tn Grk “Then Martha.” Here οὖν (oun) has not been translated for stylistic reasons.
14 tn Or “the Judeans”; Grk “the Jews.” Here the phrase refers to the friends, acquaintances, and relatives of Lazarus or his sisters who had come to mourn, since the Jewish religious authorities are specifically mentioned as a separate group in John 11:46-47. See also the notes on the phrase “the Jewish leaders” in v. 8 and “the Jewish people of the region” in v. 19, as well as the notes on the word “people” in vv. 31, 33.
15 tn Grk “And when.”
16 sn The purpose of the loud voice was probably to ensure that all in the crowd could hear (compare the purpose of the prayer of thanksgiving in vv. 41-42).
17 sn See the note on Pharisees in 1:24.
18 tn Grk “told them.”
19 sn These Greeks (῞Ελληνές τινες, {ellhne" tine") who had come up to worship at the feast were probably “God-fearers” rather than proselytes in the strict sense. Had they been true proselytes, they would probably not have been referred to as Greeks any longer. Many came to worship at the major Jewish festivals without being proselytes to Judaism, for example, the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8:27, who could not have been a proselyte if he were physically a eunuch.
