Yohanes 1:50-51

1:50 Jesus said to him, ¹  “Because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” ²  1:51 He continued, ³  “I tell all of you the solemn truth ⁴  – you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” ⁵ 

Yohanes 3:14

3:14 Just as ⁶  Moses lifted up the serpent ⁷  in the wilderness, ⁸  so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ⁹ 

[1:50]  ¹ tn Grk “answered and said to him.” This has been simplified in the translation to “said to him.”

[1:50]  ² sn What are the greater things Jesus had in mind? In the narrative this forms an excellent foreshadowing of the miraculous signs which began at Cana of Galilee.

[1:51]  ³ tn Grk “and he said to him.”

[1:51]  ⁴ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[1:51]  ⁵ sn The title Son of Man appears 13 times in John’s Gospel. It is associated especially with the themes of crucifixion (3:14; 8:28), revelation (6:27; 6:53), and eschatological authority (5:27; 9:35). The title as used in John’s Gospel has for its background the son of man figure who appears in Dan 7:13-14 and is granted universal regal authority. Thus for the author, the emphasis in this title is not on Jesus’ humanity, but on his heavenly origin and divine authority.

[3:14]  ⁶ tn Grk “And just as.”

[3:14]  ⁷ sn Or the snake, referring to the bronze serpent mentioned in Num 21:9.

[3:14]  ⁸ sn An allusion to Num 21:5-9.

[3:14]  ⁹ 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.