Discovery BoxJohn 6:35 
Context6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. The one who comes to me will never go hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty. 1
John 9:11
Context9:11 He replied, 2 “The man called Jesus made mud, 3 smeared it 4 on my eyes and told me, 5 ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed, and was able to see.” 6
John 11:31
Context11:31 Then the people 7 who were with Mary 8 in the house consoling her saw her 9 get up quickly and go out. They followed her, because they thought she was going to the tomb to weep 10 there.
John 11:44
Context11:44 The one who had died came out, his feet and hands tied up with strips of cloth, 11 and a cloth wrapped around his face. 12 Jesus said to them, “Unwrap him 13 and let him go.”
John 14:3
Context14:3 And if I go and make ready 14 a place for you, I will come again and take you 15 to be with me, 16 so that where I am you may be too.
John 15:16
Context15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you 17 and appointed you to go and bear 18 fruit, fruit that remains, 19 so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.
John 20:17
Context20:17 Jesus replied, 20 “Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father. Go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
John 21:3
Context21:3 Simon Peter told them, “I am going fishing.” “We will go with you,” they replied. 21 They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
1 tn Grk “the one who believes in me will not possibly thirst, ever.”
sn The one who believes in me will never be thirsty. Note the parallelism between “coming to Jesus” in the first part of v. 35 and “believing in Jesus” in the second part of v. 35. For the author of the Gospel of John these terms are virtually equivalent, both referring to a positive response to Jesus (see John 3:17-21).
2 tn Grk “That one answered.”
3 tn Or “clay” (moistened earth of a clay-like consistency).
4 tn Grk “and smeared.” Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when obvious from the context.
5 tn Grk “said to me.”
6 tn Or “and I gained my sight.”
7 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.
8 tn Grk “her”; the referent (Mary) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
9 tn Grk “Mary”; the proper name (Mary) has been replaced with the pronoun (her) in keeping with conventional English style, to avoid repetition.
10 tn Or “to mourn” (referring to the loud wailing or crying typical of public mourning in that culture).
11 sn Many have wondered how Lazarus got out of the tomb if his hands and feet were still tied up with strips of cloth. The author does not tell, and with a miracle of this magnitude, this is not an important fact to know. If Lazarus’ decomposing body was brought back to life by the power of God, then it could certainly have been moved out of the tomb by that same power. Others have suggested that the legs were bound separately, which would remove the difficulty, but the account gives no indication of this. What may be of more significance for the author is the comparison which this picture naturally evokes with the resurrection of Jesus, where the graveclothes stayed in the tomb neatly folded (20:6-7). Jesus, unlike Lazarus, would never need graveclothes again.
12 tn Grk “and his face tied around with cloth.”
13 tn Grk “Loose him.”
14 tn Or “prepare.”
15 tn Or “bring you.”
16 tn Grk “to myself.”
17 sn You did not choose me, but I chose you. If the disciples are now elevated in status from slaves to friends, they are friends who have been chosen by Jesus, rather than the opposite way round. Again this is true of all Christians, not just the twelve, and the theme that Christians are “chosen” by God appears frequently in other NT texts (e.g., Rom 8:33; Eph 1:4ff.; Col 3:12; and 1 Pet 2:4). Putting this together with the comments on 15:14 one may ask whether the author sees any special significance at all for the twelve. Jesus said in John 6:70 and 13:18 that he chose them, and 15:27 makes clear that Jesus in the immediate context is addressing those who have been with him from the beginning. In the Fourth Gospel the twelve, as the most intimate and most committed followers of Jesus, are presented as the models for all Christians, both in terms of their election and in terms of their mission.
18 tn Or “and yield.”
19 sn The purpose for which the disciples were appointed (“commissioned”) is to go and bear fruit, fruit that remains. The introduction of the idea of “going” at this point suggests that the fruit is something more than just character qualities in the disciples’ own lives, but rather involves fruit in the lives of others, i.e., Christian converts. There is a mission involved (cf. John 4:36). The idea that their fruit is permanent, however, relates back to vv. 7-8, as does the reference to asking the Father in Jesus’ name. It appears that as the imagery of the vine and the branches develops, the “fruit” which the branches produce shifts in emphasis from qualities in the disciples’ own lives in John 15:2, 4, 5 to the idea of a mission which affects the lives of others in John 15:16. The point of transition would be the reference to fruit in 15:8.
20 tn Grk “Jesus said to her.”
21 tn Grk “they said to him.”
