Yohanes 3:4

3:4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb and be born a second time, can he?” ¹ 

Yohanes 5:39

5:39 You study the scriptures thoroughly ²  because you think in them you possess eternal life, ³  and it is these same scriptures ⁴  that testify about me,

Yohanes 5:45

5:45 “Do not suppose that I will accuse you before the Father. The one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have placed your hope. ⁵ 

Yohanes 12:24

12:24 I tell you the solemn truth, ⁶  unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains by itself alone. ⁷  But if it dies, it produces ⁸  much grain. ⁹ 

Yohanes 12:27

12:27 “Now my soul is greatly distressed. And what should I say? ‘Father, deliver me ¹⁰  from this hour’? ¹¹  No, but for this very reason I have come to this hour. ¹² 

Yohanes 13:35

13:35 Everyone ¹³  will know by this that you are my disciples – if you have love for one another.”

Yohanes 16:2

16:2 They will put you out of ¹⁴  the synagogue, ¹⁵  yet a time ¹⁶  is coming when the one who kills you will think he is offering service to God. ¹⁷ 

[3:4]  ¹ tn The grammatical structure of the question in Greek presupposes a negative reply.

[5:39]  ² tn Or “Study the scriptures thoroughly” (an imperative). For the meaning of the verb see G. Delling, TDNT 2:655-57.

[5:39]  ³ sn In them you possess eternal life. Note the following examples from the rabbinic tractate Pirqe Avot (“The Sayings of the Fathers”): Pirqe Avot 2:8, “He who has acquired the words of the law has acquired for himself the life of the world to come”; Pirqe Avot 6:7, “Great is the law for it gives to those who practice it life in this world and in the world to come.”

[5:39]  ⁴ tn The words “same scriptures” are not in the Greek text, but are supplied to clarify the referent (“these”).

[5:45]  ⁵ sn The final condemnation will come from Moses himself – again ironic, since Moses is the very one the Jewish authorities have trusted in (placed your hope). This is again ironic if it is occurring at Pentecost, which at this time was being celebrated as the occasion of the giving of the Torah to Moses on Mt. Sinai. There is evidence that some Jews of the 1st century looked on Moses as their intercessor at the final judgment (see W. A. Meeks, The Prophet King [NovTSup], 161). This would mean the statement Moses, in whom you have placed your hope should be taken literally and relates directly to Jesus’ statements about the final judgment in John 5:28-29.

[12:24]  ⁶ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[12:24]  ⁷ tn Or “it remains only a single kernel.”

[12:24]  ⁸ tn Or “bears.”

[12:24]  ⁹ tn Grk “much fruit.”

[12:27]  ¹⁰ tn Or “save me.”

[12:27]  ¹¹ tn Or “this occasion.”

[12:27]  sn Father, deliver me from this hour. It is now clear that Jesus’ hour has come – the hour of his return to the Father through crucifixion, death, resurrection, and ascension (see 12:23). This will be reiterated in 13:1 and 17:1. Jesus states (employing words similar to those of Ps 6:4) that his soul is troubled. What shall his response to his imminent death be? A prayer to the Father to deliver him from that hour? No, because it is on account of this very hour that Jesus has come. His sacrificial death has always remained the primary purpose of his mission into the world. Now, faced with the completion of that mission, shall he ask the Father to spare him from it? The expected answer is no.

[12:27]  ¹² tn Or “this occasion.”

[13:35]  ¹³ tn Grk “All people,” although many modern translations have rendered πάντες (pantes) as “all men” (ASV, RSV, NASB, NIV). While the gender of the pronoun is masculine, it is collective and includes people of both genders.

[16:2]  ¹⁴ tn Or “expel you from.”

[16:2]  ¹⁵ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:59.

[16:2]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “an hour.”

[16:2]  ¹⁷ sn Jesus now refers not to the time of his return to the Father, as he has frequently done up to this point, but to the disciples’ time of persecution. They will be excommunicated from Jewish synagogues. There will even be a time when those who kill Jesus’ disciples will think that they are offering service to God by putting the disciples to death. Because of the reference to service offered to God, it is almost certain that Jewish opposition is intended here in both cases rather than Jewish opposition in the first instance (putting the disciples out of synagogues) and Roman opposition in the second (putting the disciples to death). Such opposition materializes later and is recorded in Acts: The stoning of Stephen in 7:58-60 and the slaying of James the brother of John by Herod Agrippa I in Acts 12:2-3 are notable examples.