Yohanes 3:14-16

3:14 Just as ¹  Moses lifted up the serpent ²  in the wilderness, ³  so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ⁴  3:15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” ⁵ 

3:16 For this is the way ⁶  God loved the world: He gave his one and only ⁷  Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish ⁸  but have eternal life. ⁹ 

Yohanes 5:25-27

5:25 I tell you the solemn truth, ¹⁰  a time ¹¹  is coming – and is now here – when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 5:26 For just as the Father has life in himself, thus he has granted the Son to have life in himself, 5:27 and he has granted the Son ¹²  authority to execute judgment, ¹³  because he is the Son of Man.

Yohanes 8:53-58

8:53 You aren’t greater than our father Abraham who died, are you? ¹⁴  And the prophets died too! Who do you claim to be?” 8:54 Jesus replied, ¹⁵  “If I glorify myself, my glory is worthless. ¹⁶  The one who glorifies me is my Father, about whom you people ¹⁷  say, ‘He is our God.’ 8:55 Yet ¹⁸  you do not know him, but I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, ¹⁹  I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I obey ²⁰  his teaching. ²¹  8:56 Your father Abraham was overjoyed ²²  to see my day, and he saw it and was glad.” ²³ 

8:57 Then the Judeans ²⁴  replied, ²⁵  “You are not yet fifty years old! ²⁶  Have ²⁷  you seen Abraham?” 8:58 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the solemn truth, ²⁸  before Abraham came into existence, ²⁹  I am!” ³⁰ 

Matius 16:13

Peter’s Confession

16:13 When ³¹  Jesus came to the area of Caesarea Philippi, ³²  he asked his disciples, ³³  “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”

Matius 21:10

21:10 As he entered Jerusalem the whole city was thrown into an uproar, ³⁴  saying, “Who is this?”

Matius 22:42-45

22:42 “What do you think about the Christ? ³⁵  Whose son is he?” They said, “The son of David.” ³⁶  22:43 He said to them, “How then does David by the Spirit call him ‘Lord,’ saying,

22:44 ‘The Lord said to my lord, ³⁷ 

“Sit at my right hand,

until I put your enemies under your feet”’? ³⁸ 

22:45 If David then calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” ³⁹ 

[3:14]  ¹ tn Grk “And just as.”

[3:14]  ² sn Or the snake, referring to the bronze serpent mentioned in Num 21:9.

[3:14]  ³ sn An allusion to Num 21:5-9.

[3:14]  ⁴ sn So must the Son of Man be lifted up. This is ultimately a prediction of Jesus’ crucifixion. Nicodemus could not have understood this, but John’s readers, the audience to whom the Gospel is addressed, certainly could have (compare the wording of John 12:32). In John, being lifted up refers to one continuous action of ascent, beginning with the cross but ending at the right hand of the Father. Step 1 is Jesus’ death; step 2 is his resurrection; and step 3 is the ascension back to heaven. It is the upward swing of the “pendulum” which began with the incarnation, the descent of the Word become flesh from heaven to earth (cf. Paul in Phil 2:5-11). See also the note on the title Son of Man in 1:51.

[3:15]  ⁵ tn This is the first use of the term ζωὴν αἰώνιον (zwhn aiwnion) in the Gospel, although ζωή (zwh) in chap. 1 is to be understood in the same way without the qualifying αἰώνιος (aiwnios).

[3:15]  sn Some interpreters extend the quotation of Jesus’ words through v. 21.

[3:16]  ⁶ tn Or “this is how much”; or “in this way.” The Greek adverb οὕτως (Joutws) can refer (1) to the degree to which God loved the world, that is, to such an extent or so much that he gave his own Son (see R. E. Brown, John [AB], 1:133-34; D. A. Carson, John, 204) or (2) simply to the manner in which God loved the world, i.e., by sending his own son (see R. H. Gundry and R. W. Howell, “The Sense and Syntax of John 3:14-17 with Special Reference to the Use of Οὕτως…ὥστε in John 3:16,” NovT 41 [1999]: 24-39). Though the term more frequently refers to the manner in which something is done (see BDAG 741-42 s.v. οὕτω/οὕτως), the following clause involving ὥστε (Jwste) plus the indicative (which stresses actual, but [usually] unexpected result) emphasizes the greatness of the gift God has given. With this in mind, then, it is likely (3) that John is emphasizing both the degree to which God loved the world as well as the manner in which He chose to express that love. This is in keeping with John’s style of using double entendre or double meaning. Thus, the focus of the Greek construction here is on the nature of God's love, addressing its mode, intensity, and extent.

[3:16]  ⁷ tn Although this word is often translated “only begotten,” such a translation is misleading, since in English it appears to express a metaphysical relationship. The word in Greek was used of an only child (a son [Luke 7:12, 9:38] or a daughter [Luke 8:42]). It was also used of something unique (only one of its kind) such as the mythological Phoenix (1 Clement 25:2). From here it passes easily to a description of Isaac (Heb 11:17 and Josephus, Ant. 1.13.1 [1.222]) who was not Abraham’s only son, but was one-of-a-kind because he was the child of the promise. Thus the word means “one-of-a-kind” and is reserved for Jesus in the Johannine literature of the NT. While all Christians are children of God (τέκνα θεοῦ, tekna qeou), Jesus is God’s Son in a unique, one-of-a-kind sense. The word is used in this way in all its uses in the Gospel of John (1:14, 1:18, 3:16, and 3:18).

[3:16]  ⁸ tn In John the word ἀπόλλυμι (apollumi) can mean either (1) to be lost (2) to perish or be destroyed, depending on the context.

[3:16]  ⁹ sn The alternatives presented are only two (again, it is typical of Johannine thought for this to be presented in terms of polar opposites): perish or have eternal life.

[5:25]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[5:25]  ¹¹ tn Grk “an hour.”

[5:27]  ¹² tn Grk “him.”

[5:27]  ¹³ tn Grk “authority to judge.”

[8:53]  ¹⁴ tn Questions prefaced with μή (mh) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end in English (here the tag is “are you?”).

[8:54]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “Jesus answered.”

[8:54]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “is nothing.”

[8:54]  ¹⁷ tn The word “people” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied in English to clarify the plural Greek pronoun and verb.

[8:55]  ¹⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “Yet” to indicate the contrast present in the context.

[8:55]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “If I say, ‘I do not know him.’”

[8:55]  ²⁰ tn Grk “I keep.”

[8:55]  ²¹ tn Grk “his word.”

[8:56]  ²² tn Or “rejoiced greatly.”

[8:56]  ²³ tn What is the meaning of Jesus’ statement that the patriarch Abraham “saw” his day and rejoiced? The use of past tenses would seem to refer to something that occurred during the patriarch’s lifetime. Genesis Rabbah 44:25ff, (cf. 59:6) states that Rabbi Akiba, in a debate with Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai, held that Abraham had been shown not this world only but the world to come (this would include the days of the Messiah). More realistically, it is likely that Gen 22:13-15 lies behind Jesus’ words. This passage, known to rabbis as the Akedah (“Binding”), tells of Abraham finding the ram which will replace his son Isaac on the altar of sacrifice – an occasion of certain rejoicing.

[8:57]  ²⁴ tn Grk “Then the Jews.” See the note on this term in v. 31. Here, as in vv. 31, 48, and 52, 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). They have now become completely hostile, as John 8:59 clearly shows.

[8:57]  ²⁵ tn Grk “said to him.”

[8:57]  ²⁶ tn Grk ‘You do not yet have fifty years” (an idiom).

[8:57]  ²⁷ tn Grk “And have.”

[8:58]  ²⁸ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[8:58]  ²⁹ tn Grk “before Abraham was.”

[8:58]  ³⁰ sn I am! is an explicit claim to deity. Although each occurrence of the phrase “I am” in the Fourth Gospel needs to be examined individually in context to see if an association with Exod 3:14 is present, it seems clear that this is the case here (as the response of the Jewish authorities in the following verse shows).

[16:13]  ³¹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[16:13]  ³² map For location see Map1 C1; Map2 F4.

[16:13]  ³³ tn Grk “he asked his disciples, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant and has been left untranslated.

[21:10]  ³⁴ tn Grk “was shaken.” The translation “thrown into an uproar” is given by L&N 25.233.

[22:42]  ³⁵ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[22:42]  sn See the note on Christ in 1:16.

[22:42]  ³⁶ sn It was a common belief in Judaism that Messiah would be the son of David in that he would come from the lineage of David. On this point the Pharisees agreed and were correct. But their understanding was nonetheless incomplete, for Messiah is also David’s Lord. With this statement Jesus was affirming that, as the Messiah, he is both God and man.

[22:44]  ³⁷ sn The Lord said to my Lord. With David being the speaker, this indicates his respect for his descendant (referred to as my Lord). Jesus was arguing, as the ancient exposition assumed, that the passage is about the Lord’s anointed. The passage looks at an enthronement of this figure and a declaration of honor for him as he takes his place at the side of God. In Jerusalem, the king’s palace was located to the right of the temple to indicate this kind of relationship. Jesus was pressing the language here to get his opponents to reflect on how great Messiah is.

[22:44]  ³⁸ sn A quotation from Ps 110:1.

[22:45]  ³⁹ tn Grk “how is he his son?”