Discovery BoxJohn 8:52 
Context8:52 Then 1 the Judeans 2 responded, 3 “Now we know you’re possessed by a demon! 4 Both Abraham and the prophets died, and yet 5 you say, ‘If anyone obeys 6 my teaching, 7 he will never experience 8 death.’ 9
John 15:24
Context15:24 If I had not performed 10 among them the miraculous deeds 11 that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. 12 But now they have seen the deeds 13 and have hated both me and my Father. 14
1 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.
2 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).
3 tn Grk “said to him.”
4 tn Grk “you have a demon.”
5 tn “Yet” has been supplied to show the contrastive element present in the context.
6 tn Grk “If anyone keeps.”
7 tn Grk “my word.”
8 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).
9 tn Grk “he will never taste of death forever.” The Greek negative here is emphatic.
10 tn Or “If I had not done.”
11 tn Grk “the works.”
12 tn Grk “they would not have sin” (an idiom).
13 tn The words “the deeds” are supplied to clarify from context what was seen. Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when clear from the context.
14 tn Or “But now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father.” It is possible to understand both the “seeing” and the “hating” to refer to both Jesus and the Father, but this has the world “seeing” the Father, which seems alien to the Johannine Jesus. (Some point out John 14:9 as an example, but this is addressed to the disciples, not to the world.) It is more likely that the “seeing” refers to the miraculous deeds mentioned in the first half of the verse. Such an understanding of the first “both – and” construction is apparently supported by BDF §444.3.
