¹ tn Or “a Judean.” Here BDAG 478 s.v. ᾿Ιουδαίος 2.a states, “Judean (with respect to birth, nationality, or cult).” The same term occurs in the plural later in this verse. In one sense “Judean” would work very well in the translation here, since the contrast is between residents of the two geographical regions. However, since in the context of this chapter the discussion soon becomes a religious rather than a territorial one (cf. vv. 19-26), the translation “Jew” has been retained here and in v. 22.

² tn “Water” is supplied as the understood direct object of the infinitive πεῖν (pein).

³ tn D. Daube (“Jesus and the Samaritan Woman: the Meaning of συγχράομαι [Jn 4:7ff],” JBL 69 [1950]: 137-47) suggests this meaning.

sn The background to the statement use nothing in common is the general assumption among Jews that the Samaritans were ritually impure or unclean. Thus a Jew who used a drinking vessel after a Samaritan had touched it would become ceremonially unclean.

⁴ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

⁵ tn Grk “answered and said to them.”

⁶ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

⁷ tn Grk “nothing from himself.”

⁸ tn Grk “that one”; the referent (the Father) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁹ sn What works does the Son do likewise? The same that the Father does – and the same that the rabbis recognized as legitimate works of God on the Sabbath (see note on working in v. 17). (1) Jesus grants life (just as the Father grants life) on the Sabbath. But as the Father gives physical life on the Sabbath, so the Son grants spiritual life (John 5:21; note the “greater things” mentioned in v. 20). (2) Jesus judges (determines the destiny of people) on the Sabbath, just as the Father judges those who die on the Sabbath, because the Father has granted authority to the Son to judge (John 5:22-23). But this is not all. Not only has this power been granted to Jesus in the present; it will be his in the future as well. In v. 28 there is a reference not to spiritually dead (only) but also physically dead. At their resurrection they respond to the Son as well.

¹⁰ tn Grk “nothing from myself.”

¹¹ tn Or “righteous,” or “proper.”

¹² tn That is, “the will of the Father who sent me.”

¹³ tn Grk “Then Jesus said to them” (the words “to them” are not found in all mss).

¹⁴ tn Grk “that I am.” See the note on this phrase in v. 24.

¹⁵ tn Grk “I do nothing from myself.”

¹⁶ tn Grk “but just as the Father taught me, these things I speak.”

¹⁷ tn Or “resides.”

¹⁸ tn Or “yields.”

¹⁹ tn Grk “in him, this one bears much fruit.” The pronoun “this one” has been omitted from the translation because it is redundant according to contemporary English style.

sn Many interpret the imagery of fruit here and in 15:2, 4 in terms of good deeds or character qualities, relating it to passages elsewhere in the NT like Matt 3:8 and 7:20, Rom 6:22, Gal 5:22, etc. This is not necessarily inaccurate, but one must remember that for John, to have life at all is to bear fruit, while one who does not bear fruit shows that he does not have the life (once again, conduct is the clue to paternity, as in John 8:41; compare also 1 John 4:20).

²⁰ tn Or “do.”

²¹ tn Grk “Jesus answered him.”

²² sn See the note on synagogue in 6:59.

²³ tn Grk “in the temple.”

²⁴ tn Grk “the Jews.” Here the phrase refers to the Jewish people generally, for whom the synagogues and the temple courts in Jerusalem were important public gathering places. See also the note on the phrase “Jewish religious leaders” in v. 12.

²⁵ tn Grk “And I.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.

²⁶ tn Grk “they said to him.”