Discovery BoxJohn 5:18-19 
Context5:18 For this reason the Jewish leaders 1 were trying even harder to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was also calling God his own Father, thus making himself equal with God.
5:19 So Jesus answered them, 2 “I tell you the solemn truth, 3 the Son can do nothing on his own initiative, 4 but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father 5 does, the Son does likewise. 6
John 7:18
Context7:18 The person who speaks on his own authority 7 desires 8 to receive honor 9 for himself; the one who desires 10 the honor 11 of the one who sent him is a man of integrity, 12 and there is no unrighteousness in him.
John 8:28
Context8:28 Then Jesus said, 13 “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, 14 and I do nothing on my own initiative, 15 but I speak just what the Father taught me. 16
John 8:42
Context8:42 Jesus replied, 17 “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come from God and am now here. 18 I 19 have not come on my own initiative, 20 but he 21 sent me.
John 10:12
Context10:12 The hired hand, 22 who is not a shepherd and does not own sheep, sees the wolf coming and abandons 23 the sheep and runs away. 24 So the wolf attacks 25 the sheep and scatters them.
John 11:51
Context11:51 (Now he did not say this on his own, 26 but because he was high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the Jewish nation, 27
John 13:1
Context13:1 Just before the Passover feast, Jesus knew that his time 28 had come to depart 29 from this world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now loved them to the very end. 30
John 15:19
Context15:19 If you belonged to the world, 31 the world would love you as its own. 32 However, because you do not belong to the world, 33 but I chose you out of the world, for this reason 34 the world hates you. 35
John 16:13
Context16:13 But when he, 36 the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide 37 you into all truth. 38 For he will not speak on his own authority, 39 but will speak whatever he hears, and will tell you 40 what is to come. 41
John 16:32
Context16:32 Look, a time 42 is coming – and has come – when you will be scattered, each one to his own home, 43 and I will be left alone. 44 Yet 45 I am not alone, because my Father 46 is with me.
1 tn Or “the Jewish authorities”; Grk “the Jews.” See the note on the phrase “Jewish leaders” in v. 10.
2 tn Grk “answered and said to them.”
3 tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”
4 tn Grk “nothing from himself.”
5 tn Grk “that one”; the referent (the Father) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
6 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.
7 tn Grk “who speaks from himself.”
8 tn Or “seeks.”
9 tn Or “praise”; Grk “glory.”
10 tn Or “seeks.”
11 tn Or “praise”; Grk “glory.”
12 tn Or “is truthful”; Grk “is true.”
13 tn Grk “Then Jesus said to them” (the words “to them” are not found in all
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 Grk “Jesus said to them.”
18 tn Or “I came from God and have arrived.”
19 tn Grk “For I.” Here γάρ (gar) has not been translated.
20 tn Grk “from myself.”
21 tn Grk “that one” (referring to God).
22 sn Jesus contrasts the behavior of the shepherd with that of the hired hand. This is a worker who is simply paid to do a job; he has no other interest in the sheep and is certainly not about to risk his life for them. When they are threatened, he simply runs away.
23 tn Grk “leaves.”
24 tn Or “flees.”
25 tn Or “seizes.” The more traditional rendering, “snatches,” has the idea of seizing something by force and carrying it off, which is certainly possible here. However, in the sequence in John 10:12, this action precedes the scattering of the flock of sheep, so “attacks” is preferable.
26 tn Grk “say this from himself.”
27 tn The word “Jewish” is not in the Greek text, but is clearly implied by the context (so also NIV; TEV “the Jewish people”).
28 tn Grk “his hour.”
29 tn Grk “that he should depart.” The ἵνα (Jina) clause in Koine Greek frequently encroached on the simple infinitive (for the sake of greater clarity).
30 tn Or “he now loved them completely,” or “he now loved them to the uttermost” (see John 19:30). All of John 13:1 is a single sentence in Greek, although in English this would be unacceptably awkward. At the end of the verse the idiom εἰς τέλος (eis telos) was translated literally as “to the end” and the modern equivalents given in the note above, because there is an important lexical link between this passage and John 19:30, τετέλεσται (tetelestai, “It is ended”).
sn The full extent of Jesus’ love for his disciples is not merely seen in his humble service to them in washing their feet (the most common interpretation of the passage). The full extent of his love for them is demonstrated in his sacrificial death for them on the cross. The footwashing episode which follows then becomes a prophetic act, or acting out beforehand, of his upcoming death on their behalf. The message for the disciples was that they were to love one another not just in humble, self-effacing service, but were to be willing to die for one another. At least one of them got this message eventually, though none understood it at the time (see 1 John 3:16).
31 tn Grk “if you were of the world.”
32 tn The words “you as” are not in the original but are supplied for clarity.
33 tn Grk “because you are not of the world.”
34 tn Or “world, therefore.”
35 sn I chose you out of the world…the world hates you. Two themes are brought together here. In 8:23 Jesus had distinguished himself from the world in addressing his Jewish opponents: “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world.” In 15:16 Jesus told the disciples “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you.” Now Jesus has united these two ideas as he informs the disciples that he has chosen them out of the world. While the disciples will still be “in” the world after Jesus has departed, they will not belong to it, and Jesus prays later in John 17:15-16 to the Father, “I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” The same theme also occurs in 1 John 4:5-6: “They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us.” Thus the basic reason why the world hates the disciples (as it hated Jesus before them) is because they are not of the world. They are born from above, and are not of the world. For this reason the world hates them.
36 tn Grk “that one.”
37 tn Or “will lead.”
38 sn Three important points must be noted here. (1) When the Holy Spirit comes, he will guide the disciples into all truth. What Jesus had said in 8:31-32, “If you continue to follow my teaching you are really my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free,” will ultimately be realized in the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit to the disciples after Jesus’ departure. (2) The things the Holy Spirit speaks to them will not be things which originate from himself (he will not speak on his own authority), but things he has heard. This could be taken to mean that no new revelation is involved, as R. E. Brown does (John [AB], 2:714-15). This is a possible but not a necessary inference. The point here concerns the source of the things the Spirit will say to the disciples and does not specifically exclude originality of content. (3) Part at least of what the Holy Spirit will reveal to the disciples will concern what is to come, not just fuller implications of previous sayings of Jesus and the like. This does seem to indicate that at least some new revelation is involved. But the Spirit is not the source or originator of these things – Jesus is the source, and he will continue to speak to his disciples through the Spirit who has come to indwell them. This does not answer the question, however, whether these words are addressed to all followers of Jesus, or only to his apostles. Different modern commentators will answer this question differently. Since in the context of the Farewell Discourse Jesus is preparing the twelve to carry on his ministry after his departure, it is probably best to take these statements as specifically related only to the twelve. Some of this the Holy Spirit does directly for all believers today; other parts of this statement are fulfilled through the apostles (e.g., in giving the Book of Revelation the Spirit speaks through the apostles to the church today of things to come). One of the implications of this is that a doctrine does not have to be traced back to an explicit teaching of Jesus to be authentic; all that is required is apostolic authority.
39 tn Grk “speak from himself.”
40 tn Or will announce to you.”
41 tn Grk “will tell you the things to come.”
42 tn Grk “an hour.”
43 tn Grk “each one to his own”; the word “home” is not in the Greek text but is implied. The phrase “each one to his own” may be completed in a number of different ways: “each one to his own property”; “each one to his own family”; or “each one to his own home.” The last option seems to fit most easily into the context and so is used in the translation.
44 sn The proof of Jesus’ negative evaluation of the disciples’ faith is now given: Jesus foretells their abandonment of him at his arrest, trials, and crucifixion (I will be left alone). This parallels the synoptic accounts in Matt 26:31 and Mark 14:27 when Jesus, after the last supper and on the way to Gethsemane, foretold the desertion of the disciples as a fulfillment of Zech 13:7: “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.” Yet although the disciples would abandon Jesus, he reaffirmed that he was not alone, because the Father was still with him.
45 tn Grk “And” (but with some contrastive force).
46 tn Grk “the Father.”
