Yohanes 8:33

8:33 “We are descendants ¹  of Abraham,” they replied, ²  “and have never been anyone’s slaves! How can you say, ³  ‘You will become free’?”

Yohanes 12:34

12:34 Then the crowd responded, ⁴  “We have heard from the law that the Christ ⁵  will remain forever. ⁶  How ⁷  can you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?”

Yohanes 16:5

16:5 But now I am going to the one who sent me, ⁸  and not one of you is asking me, ‘Where are you going?’ ⁹ 

Yohanes 18:21

18:21 Why do you ask me? Ask those who heard what I said. ¹⁰  They ¹¹  know what I said.”

Yohanes 18:31

18:31 Pilate told them, ¹²  “Take him yourselves and pass judgment on him ¹³  according to your own law!” ¹⁴  The Jewish leaders ¹⁵  replied, ¹⁶  “We cannot legally put anyone to death.” ¹⁷ 

Yohanes 21:12

21:12 “Come, have breakfast,” Jesus said. ¹⁸  But none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord.

[8:33]  ¹ tn Grk “We are the seed” (an idiom).

[8:33]  ² tn Grk “They answered to him.”

[8:33]  ³ tn Or “How is it that you say.”

[12:34]  ⁴ tn Grk “Then the crowd answered him.”

[12:34]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Grk “And how”; the conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has been left untranslated here for improved English style.

[16:5]  ⁸ sn Now the theme of Jesus’ impending departure is resumed (I am going to the one who sent me). It will also be mentioned in 16:10, 17, and 28. Jesus had said to his opponents in 7:33 that he was going to the one who sent him; in 13:33 he had spoken of going where the disciples could not come. At that point Peter had inquired where he was going, but it appears that Peter did not understand Jesus’ reply at that time and did not persist in further questioning. In 14:5 Thomas had asked Jesus where he was going.

[16:5]  ⁹ sn Now none of the disciples asks Jesus where he is going, and the reason is given in the following verse: They have been overcome with sadness as a result of the predictions of coming persecution that Jesus has just spoken to them in 15:18-25 and 16:1-4a. Their shock at Jesus’ revelation of coming persecution is so great that none of them thinks to ask him where it is that he is going.

[18:21]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “Ask those who heard what I said to them.” The words “to them” are not translated since they are redundant in English.

[18:21]  ¹¹ tn Grk “Look, these know what I said.”

[18:31]  ¹² tn Grk “Then Pilate said to them.”

[18:31]  ¹³ tn Or “judge him.” For the translation “pass judgment on him” see R. E. Brown (John [AB], 2:848).

[18:31]  ¹⁴ sn Pilate, as the sole representative of Rome in a troubled area, was probably in Jerusalem for the Passover because of the danger of an uprising (the normal residence for the Roman governor was in Caesarea as mentioned in Acts 23:35). At this time on the eve of the feast he would have been a busy and perhaps even a worried man. It is not surprising that he offered to hand Jesus back over to the Jewish authorities to pass judgment on him. It may well be that Pilate realized when no specific charge was mentioned that he was dealing with an internal dispute over some religious matter. Pilate wanted nothing to do with such matters, as the statement “Pass judgment on him according to your own law!” indicates. As far as the author is concerned, this points out who was really responsible for Jesus’ death: The Roman governor Pilate would have had nothing to do with it if he had not been pressured by the Jewish religious authorities, upon whom the real responsibility rested.

[18:31]  ¹⁵ tn Or “the Jewish authorities”; Grk “the Jews.” Here the phrase refers to the Jewish leaders, especially members of the Sanhedrin. See the note on the phrase “Jewish leaders” in v. 12.

[18:31]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “said to him.”

[18:31]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “It is not permitted to us to kill anyone.”

[18:31]  sn The historical background behind the statement We cannot legally put anyone to death is difficult to reconstruct. Scholars are divided over whether this statement in the Fourth Gospel accurately reflects the judicial situation between the Jewish authorities and the Romans in 1st century Palestine. It appears that the Roman governor may have given the Jews the power of capital punishment for specific offenses, some of them religious (the death penalty for Gentiles caught trespassing in the inner courts of the temple, for example). It is also pointed out that the Jewish authorities did carry out a number of executions, some of them specifically pertaining to Christians (Stephen, according to Acts 7:58-60; and James the Just, who was stoned in the 60s according to Josephus, Ant. 20.9.1 [20.200]). But Stephen’s death may be explained as a result of “mob violence” rather than a formal execution, and as Josephus in the above account goes on to point out, James was executed in the period between two Roman governors, and the high priest at the time was subsequently punished for the action. Two studies by A. N. Sherwin-White (Roman Society and Roman Law in the New Testament, 1-47; and “The Trial of Christ,” Historicity and Chronology in the New Testament [SPCKTC], 97-116) have tended to support the accuracy of John’s account. He concluded that the Romans kept very close control of the death penalty for fear that in the hands of rebellious locals such power could be used to eliminate factions favorable or useful to Rome. A province as troublesome as Judea would not have been likely to be made an exception to this.

[21:12]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “said to them.” The words “to them” are omitted because it is clear in context to whom Jesus was speaking, and the words are slightly redundant in English.