Yohanes 12:23-43
Konteks12:23 Jesus replied, 1 “The time 2 has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 3 12:24 I tell you the solemn truth, 4 unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains by itself alone. 5 But if it dies, it produces 6 much grain. 7 12:25 The one who loves his life 8 destroys 9 it, and the one who hates his life in this world guards 10 it for eternal life. 12:26 If anyone wants to serve me, he must follow 11 me, and where I am, my servant will be too. 12 If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
12:27 “Now my soul is greatly distressed. And what should I say? ‘Father, deliver me 13 from this hour’? 14 No, but for this very reason I have come to this hour. 15 12:28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, 16 “I have glorified it, 17 and I will glorify it 18 again.” 12:29 The crowd that stood there and heard the voice 19 said that it had thundered. Others said that an angel had spoken to him. 20 12:30 Jesus said, 21 “This voice has not come for my benefit 22 but for yours. 12:31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world 23 will be driven out. 24 12:32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people 25 to myself.” 12:33 (Now he said this to indicate clearly what kind of death he was going to die.) 26
12:34 Then the crowd responded, 27 “We have heard from the law that the Christ 28 will remain forever. 29 How 30 can you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?” 12:35 Jesus replied, 31 “The light is with you for a little while longer. 32 Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. 33 The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. 12:36 While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become sons of light.” 34 When Jesus had said these things, he went away and hid himself from them.
12:37 Although Jesus 35 had performed 36 so many miraculous signs before them, they still refused to believe in him, 12:38 so that the word 37 of Isaiah the prophet would be fulfilled. He said, 38 “Lord, who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord 39 been revealed?” 40 12:39 For this reason they could not believe, 41 because again Isaiah said,
12:40 “He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their heart, 42
so that they would not see with their eyes
and understand with their heart, 43
and turn to me, 44 and I would heal them.” 45
12:41 Isaiah said these things because he saw Christ’s 46 glory, and spoke about him.
12:42 Nevertheless, even among the rulers 47 many believed in him, but because of the Pharisees 48 they would not confess Jesus to be the Christ, 49 so that they would not be put out of 50 the synagogue. 51 12:43 For they loved praise 52 from men more than praise 53 from God.
[12:23] 1 tn Grk “Jesus answered them, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated here.
[12:23] 3 sn Jesus’ reply, the time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified, is a bit puzzling. As far as the author’s account is concerned, Jesus totally ignores these Greeks and makes no further reference to them whatsoever. It appears that his words are addressed to Andrew and Philip, but in fact they must have had a wider audience, including possibly the Greeks who had wished to see him in the first place. The words the time has come recall all the previous references to “the hour” throughout the Fourth Gospel (see the note on time in 2:4). There is no doubt, in light of the following verse, that Jesus refers to his death here. On his pathway to glorification lies the cross, and it is just ahead.
[12:24] 4 tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”
[12:24] 5 tn Or “it remains only a single kernel.”
[12:24] 7 tn Grk “much fruit.”
[12:25] 9 tn Or “loses.” Although the traditional English translation of ἀπολλύει (apolluei) in John 12:25 is “loses,” the contrast with φυλάξει (fulaxei, “keeps” or “guards”) in the second half of the verse favors the meaning “destroy” here.
[12:26] 11 tn As a third person imperative in Greek, ἀκολουθείτω (akolouqeitw) is usually translated “let him follow me.” This could be understood by the modern English reader as merely permissive, however (“he may follow me if he wishes”). In this context there is no permissive sense, but rather a command, so the translation “he must follow me” is preferred.
[12:26] 12 tn Grk “where I am, there my servant will be too.”
[12:27] 14 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] 15 tn Or “this occasion.”
[12:28] 16 tn Or “from the sky” (see note on 1:32).
[12:28] 17 tn “It” is not in the Greek text. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.
[12:28] 18 tn “It” is not in the Greek text. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.
[12:29] 19 tn “The voice” is not in the Greek text. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.
[12:29] 20 tn Grk “Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” The direct discourse in the second half of v. 29 was converted to indirect discourse in the translation to maintain the parallelism with the first half of the verse, which is better in keeping with English style.
[12:30] 21 tn Grk “Jesus answered and said.”
[12:30] 22 tn Or “for my sake.”
[12:31] 23 sn The ruler of this world is a reference to Satan.
[12:31] 24 tn Or “will be thrown out.” This translation regards the future passive ἐκβληθήσεται (ekblhqhsetai) as referring to an event future to the time of speaking.
[12:31] sn The phrase driven out must refer to Satan’s loss of authority over this world. This must be in principle rather than in immediate fact, since 1 John 5:19 states that the whole world (still) lies in the power of the evil one (a reference to Satan). In an absolute sense the reference is proleptic. The coming of Jesus’ hour (his crucifixion, death, resurrection, and exaltation to the Father) marks the end of Satan’s domain and brings about his defeat, even though that defeat has not been ultimately worked out in history yet and awaits the consummation of the age.
[12:32] 25 tn Grk “all.” The word “people” is not in the Greek text but is supplied for stylistic reasons and for clarity (cf. KJV “all men”).
[12:33] 26 sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.
[12:34] 27 tn Grk “Then the crowd answered him.”
[12:34] 28 tn Or “the Messiah” (Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “one who has been anointed”).
[12:34] sn See the note on Christ in 1:20.
[12:34] 29 tn Probably an allusion to Ps 89:35-37. It is difficult to pinpoint the passage in the Mosaic law to which the crowd refers. The ones most often suggested are Ps 89:36-37, Ps 110:4, Isa 9:7, Ezek 37:25, and Dan 7:14. None of these passages are in the Pentateuch per se, but “law” could in common usage refer to the entire OT (compare Jesus’ use in John 10:34). Of the passages mentioned, Ps 89:36-37 is the most likely candidate. This verse speaks of David’s “seed” remaining forever. Later in the same psalm, v. 51 speaks of the “anointed” (Messiah), and the psalm was interpreted messianically in both the NT (Acts 13:22, Rev 1:5, 3:14) and in the rabbinic literature (Genesis Rabbah 97).
[12:34] 30 tn Grk “And how”; the conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has been left untranslated here for improved English style.
[12:35] 31 tn Grk “Then Jesus said to them.”
[12:35] 32 tn Grk “Yet a little while the light is with you.”
[12:35] 33 sn The warning Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you operates on at least two different levels: (1) To the Jewish people in Jerusalem to whom Jesus spoke, the warning was a reminder that there was only a little time left for them to accept him as their Messiah. (2) To those later individuals to whom the Fourth Gospel was written, and to every person since, the words of Jesus are also a warning: There is a finite, limited time in which each individual has opportunity to respond to the Light of the world (i.e., Jesus); after that comes darkness. One’s response to the Light decisively determines one’s judgment for eternity.
[12:36] 34 tn The idiom “sons of light” means essentially “people characterized by light,” that is, “people of God.”
[12:36] sn The expression sons of light refers to men and women to whom the truth of God has been revealed and who are therefore living according to that truth, thus, “people of God.”
[12:37] 35 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[12:38] 39 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] 40 sn A quotation from Isa 53:1.
[12:39] 41 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] 42 tn Or “closed their mind.”
[12:40] 43 tn Or “their mind.”
[12:40] 44 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] 45 sn A quotation from Isa 6:10.
[12:41] 46 tn Grk “his”; the referent (Christ) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The referent supplied here is “Christ” rather than “Jesus” because it involves what Isaiah saw. It is clear that the author presents Isaiah as having seen the preincarnate glory of Christ, which was the very revelation of the Father (see John 1:18; John 14:9).
[12:41] sn Because he saw Christ’s glory. The glory which Isaiah saw in Isa 6:3 was the glory of Yahweh (typically rendered as “Lord” in the OT). Here John speaks of the prophet seeing the glory of Christ since in the next clause and spoke about him, “him” can hardly refer to Yahweh, but must refer to Christ. On the basis of statements like 1:14 in the prologue, the author probably put no great distinction between the two. Since the author presents Jesus as fully God (cf. John 1:1), it presents no problem to him to take words originally spoken by Isaiah of Yahweh himself and apply them to Jesus.
[12:42] 47 sn The term rulers here denotes members of the Sanhedrin, the highest legal, legislative, and judicial body among the Jews. Note the same word (“ruler”) is used to describe Nicodemus in 3:1.
[12:42] 48 sn See the note on Pharisees in 1:24.
[12:42] 49 tn The words “Jesus to be the Christ” are not in the Greek text, but are implied (see 9:22). As is often the case in Greek, the direct object is omitted for the verb ὡμολόγουν (Jwmologoun). Some translators supply an ambiguous “it,” or derive the implied direct object from the previous clause “believed in him” so that the rulers would not confess “their faith” or “their belief.” However, when one compares John 9:22, which has many verbal parallels to this verse, it seems clear that the content of the confession would have been “Jesus is the Christ (i.e., Messiah).”
[12:42] sn See the note on Christ in 1:20.
[12:42] 50 tn Or “be expelled from.”
[12:42] 51 sn Compare John 9:22. See the note on synagogue in 6:59.
