Yohanes 6:65

6:65 So Jesus added, ¹  “Because of this I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has allowed him to come.” ² 

Yohanes 5:44

5:44 How can you believe, if you accept praise ³  from one another and don’t seek the praise ⁴  that comes from the only God? ⁵ 

Yohanes 8:43

8:43 Why don’t you understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot accept ⁶  my teaching. ⁷ 

Yohanes 12:37-40

The Outcome of Jesus’ Public Ministry Foretold

12:37 Although Jesus ⁸  had performed ⁹  so many miraculous signs before them, they still refused to believe in him, 12:38 so that the word ¹⁰  of Isaiah the prophet would be fulfilled. He said, ¹¹  “Lord, who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord ¹²  been revealed?” ¹³  12:39 For this reason they could not believe, ¹⁴  because again Isaiah said,

12:40 “He has blinded their eyes

and hardened their heart, ¹⁵ 

so that they would not see with their eyes

and understand with their heart, ¹⁶ 

and turn to me, ¹⁷  and I would heal them.” ¹⁸ 

[6:65]  ¹ tn Grk “And he said”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:65]  ² tn Grk “unless it has been permitted to him by the Father.”

[5:44]  ³ tn Or “honor” (Grk “glory,” in the sense of respect or honor accorded to a person because of their status).

[5:44]  ⁴ tn Or “honor” (Grk “glory,” in the sense of respect or honor accorded to a person because of their status).

[5:44]  ⁵ tc Several early and important witnesses (Ì^66,75 B W a b sa) lack θεοῦ (qeou, “God”) here, thus reading “the only one,” while most of the rest of the tradition, including some important mss, has the name ({א A D L Θ Ψ 33 Ï}). Internally, it could be argued that the name of God was not used here, in keeping with the NT practice of suppressing the name of God at times for rhetorical effect, drawing the reader inexorably to the conclusion that the one being spoken of is God himself. On the other hand, never is ὁ μόνος (Jo mono") used absolutely in the NT (i.e., without a noun or substantive with it), and always the subject of the adjunct is God (cf. Matt 24:36; John 17:3; 1 Tim 6:16). What then is to explain the shorter reading? In uncial script, with θεοῦ written as a nomen sacrum, envisioning accidental omission of the name by way of homoioteleuton requires little imagination, largely because of the succession of words ending in -ου: toumonouqMuou. It is thus preferable to retain the word in the text.

[8:43]  ⁶ tn Grk “you cannot hear,” but this is not a reference to deafness, but rather hearing in the sense of listening to something and responding to it.

[8:43]  ⁷ tn Grk “my word.”

[12:37]  ⁸ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:37]  ⁹ tn Or “done.”

[12:38]  ¹⁰ tn Or “message.”

[12:38]  ¹¹ tn Grk “who said.”

[12:38]  ¹² tn “The arm of the Lord” is an idiom for “God’s great power” (as exemplified through Jesus’ miraculous signs). This response of unbelief is interpreted by the author as a fulfillment of the prophetic words of Isaiah (Isa 53:1). The phrase ὁ βραχίων κυρίου (Jo braciwn kuriou) is a figurative reference to God’s activity and power which has been revealed in the sign-miracles which Jesus has performed (compare the previous verse).

[12:38]  ¹³ sn A quotation from Isa 53:1.

[12:39]  ¹⁴ sn The author explicitly states here that Jesus’ Jewish opponents could not believe, and quotes Isa 6:10 to show that God had in fact blinded their eyes and hardened their heart. This OT passage was used elsewhere in the NT to explain Jewish unbelief: Paul’s final words in Acts (28:26-27) are a quotation of this same passage, which he uses to explain why the Jewish people have not accepted the gospel he has preached. A similar passage (Isa 29:10) is quoted in a similar context in Rom 11:8.

[12:40]  ¹⁵ tn Or “closed their mind.”

[12:40]  ¹⁶ tn Or “their mind.”

[12:40]  ¹⁷ tn One could also translate στραφῶσιν (strafwsin) as “repent” or “change their ways,” but both of these terms would be subject to misinterpretation by the modern English reader. The idea is one of turning back to God, however. The words “to me” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.

[12:40]  ¹⁸ sn A quotation from Isa 6:10.