Yohanes 5:24-40

5:24 “I tell you the solemn truth, ¹  the one who hears ²  my message ³  and believes the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned, ⁴  but has crossed over from death to life. 5:25 I tell you the solemn truth, ⁵  a time ⁶  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 ⁷  authority to execute judgment, ⁸  because he is the Son of Man.

5:28 “Do not be amazed at this, because a time ⁹  is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 5:29 and will come out – the ones who have done what is good to the resurrection resulting in life, and the ones who have done what is evil to the resurrection resulting in condemnation. ¹⁰  5:30 I can do nothing on my own initiative. ¹¹  Just as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, ¹²  because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the one who sent me. ¹³ 

More Testimony About Jesus

5:31 “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. 5:32 There is another ¹⁴  who testifies about me, and I know the testimony he testifies about me is true. 5:33 You have sent to John, ¹⁵  and he has testified to the truth. 5:34 (I do not accept ¹⁶  human testimony, but I say this so that you may be saved.) 5:35 He was a lamp that was burning and shining, ¹⁷  and you wanted to rejoice greatly for a short time ¹⁸  in his light.

5:36 “But I have a testimony greater than that from John. For the deeds ¹⁹  that the Father has assigned me to complete – the deeds ²⁰  I am now doing – testify about me that the Father has sent me. 5:37 And the Father who sent me has himself testified about me. You people ²¹  have never heard his voice nor seen his form at any time, ²²  5:38 nor do you have his word residing in you, because you do not believe the one whom he sent. 5:39 You study the scriptures thoroughly ²³  because you think in them you possess eternal life, ²⁴  and it is these same scriptures ²⁵  that testify about me, 5:40 but you are not willing to come to me so that you may have life.

[5:24]  ¹ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[5:24]  ² tn Or “obeys.”

[5:24]  ³ tn Or “word.”

[5:24]  ⁴ tn Grk “and does not come into judgment.”

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

[5:25]  ⁶ tn Grk “an hour.”

[5:27]  ⁷ tn Grk “him.”

[5:27]  ⁸ tn Grk “authority to judge.”

[5:28]  ⁹ tn Grk “an hour.”

[5:29]  ¹⁰ tn Or “a resurrection resulting in judgment.”

[5:30]  ¹¹ tn Grk “nothing from myself.”

[5:30]  ¹² tn Or “righteous,” or “proper.”

[5:30]  ¹³ tn That is, “the will of the Father who sent me.”

[5:32]  ¹⁴ sn To whom does another refer? To John the Baptist or to the Father? In the nearer context, v. 33, it would seem to be John the Baptist. But v. 34 seems to indicate that Jesus does not receive testimony from men. Probably it is better to view v. 32 as identical to v. 37, with the comments about the Baptist as a parenthetical digression.

[5:33]  ¹⁵ sn John refers to John the Baptist.

[5:34]  ¹⁶ tn Or “I do not receive.”

[5:35]  ¹⁷ sn He was a lamp that was burning and shining. Sir 48:1 states that the word of Elijah was “a flame like a torch.” Because of the connection of John the Baptist with Elijah (see John 1:21 and the note on John’s reply, “I am not”), it was natural for Jesus to apply this description to John.

[5:35]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “for an hour.”

[5:36]  ¹⁹ tn Or “works.”

[5:36]  ²⁰ tn Grk “complete, which I am now doing”; the referent of the relative pronoun has been specified by repeating “deeds” from the previous clause.

[5:37]  ²¹ tn The word “people” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied to clarify that the following verbs (“heard,” “seen,” “have residing,” “do not believe”) are second person plural.

[5:37]  ²² sn You people have never heard his voice nor seen his form at any time. Compare Deut 4:12. Also see Deut 5:24 ff., where the Israelites begged to hear the voice no longer – their request (ironically) has by this time been granted. How ironic this would be if the feast is Pentecost, where by the 1st century a.d. the giving of the law at Sinai was being celebrated.

[5:39]  ²³ tn Or “Study the scriptures thoroughly” (an imperative). For the meaning of the verb see G. Delling, TDNT 2:655-57.

[5:39]  ²⁴ 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]  ²⁵ tn The words “same scriptures” are not in the Greek text, but are supplied to clarify the referent (“these”).