Yohanes 3:2

3:2 came to Jesus ¹  at night ²  and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs ³  that you do unless God is with him.”

Yohanes 5:43

5:43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept ⁴  me. If someone else comes in his own name, you will accept ⁵  him.

Yohanes 8:16

8:16 But if I judge, my evaluation is accurate, ⁶  because I am not alone when I judge, ⁷  but I and the Father who sent me do so together. ⁸ 

Yohanes 8:42

8:42 Jesus replied, ⁹  “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come from God and am now here. ¹⁰  I ¹¹  have not come on my own initiative, ¹²  but he ¹³  sent me.

Yohanes 10:36

10:36 do you say about the one whom the Father set apart ¹⁴  and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?

Yohanes 12:49

12:49 For I have not spoken from my own authority, ¹⁵  but the Father himself who sent me has commanded me ¹⁶  what I should say and what I should speak.

Yohanes 14:10

14:10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? ¹⁷  The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own initiative, ¹⁸  but the Father residing in me performs ¹⁹  his miraculous deeds. ²⁰ 

Yohanes 14:31

14:31 but I am doing just what the Father commanded me, so that the world may know ²¹  that I love the Father. ²²  Get up, let us go from here.” ²³ 

[3:2]  ¹ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:2]  ² tn Or “during the night.”

[3:2]  sn Possibly Nicodemus came…at night because he was afraid of public association with Jesus, or he wanted a lengthy discussion without interruptions; no explanation for the timing of the interview is given by the author. But the timing is significant for John in terms of the light-darkness motif – compare John 9:4, 11:10, 13:30 (especially), 19:39, and 21:3. Out of the darkness of his life and religiosity Nicodemus came to the Light of the world. The author probably had multiple meanings or associations in mind here, as is often the case.

[3:2]  ³ sn The reference to signs (σημεῖα, shmeia) forms a link with John 2:23-25. Those people in Jerusalem believed in Jesus because of the signs he had performed. Nicodemus had apparently seen them too. But for Nicodemus all the signs meant is that Jesus was a great teacher sent from God. His approach to Jesus was well-intentioned but theologically inadequate; he had failed to grasp the messianic implications of the miraculous signs.

[5:43]  ⁴ tn Or “you do not receive.”

[5:43]  ⁵ tn Or “you will receive.”

[8:16]  ⁶ tn Grk “my judgment is true.”

[8:16]  ⁷ tn The phrase “when I judge” is not in the Greek text, but is implied by the context.

[8:16]  ⁸ tn The phrase “do so together” is not in the Greek text, but is implied by the context.

[8:42]  ⁹ tn Grk “Jesus said to them.”

[8:42]  ¹⁰ tn Or “I came from God and have arrived.”

[8:42]  ¹¹ tn Grk “For I.” Here γάρ (gar) has not been translated.

[8:42]  ¹² tn Grk “from myself.”

[8:42]  ¹³ tn Grk “that one” (referring to God).

[10:36]  ¹⁴ tn Or “dedicated.”

[12:49]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “I have not spoken from myself.”

[12:49]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “has given me commandment.”

[14:10]  ¹⁷ tn The mutual interrelationship of the Father and the Son (ἐγὼ ἐν τῷ πατρὶ καὶ ὁ πατὴρ ἐν ἐμοί ἐστιν, egw en tw patri kai Jo pathr en emoi estin) is something that Jesus expected even his opponents to recognize (cf. John 10:38). The question Jesus asks of Philip (οὐ πιστεύεις, ou pisteuei") expects the answer “yes.” Note that the following statement is addressed to all the disciples, however, because the plural pronoun (ὑμῖν, Jumin) is used. Jesus says that his teaching (the words he spoke to them all) did not originate from himself, but the Father, who permanently remains (μένων, menwn) in relationship with Jesus, performs his works. One would have expected “speaks his words” here rather than “performs his works”; many of the church fathers (e.g., Augustine and Chrysostom) identified the two by saying that Jesus’ words were works. But there is an implicit contrast in the next verse between words and works, and v. 12 seems to demand that the works are real works, not just words. It is probably best to see the two terms as related but not identical; there is a progression in the idea here. Both Jesus’ words (recall the Samaritans’ response in John 4:42) and Jesus’ works are revelatory of who he is, but as the next verse indicates, works have greater confirmatory power than words.

[14:10]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “I do not speak from myself.”

[14:10]  ¹⁹ tn Or “does.”

[14:10]  ²⁰ tn Or “his mighty acts”; Grk “his works.”

[14:10]  sn Miraculous deeds is most likely a reference to the miraculous signs Jesus had performed, which he viewed as a manifestation of the mighty acts of God. Those he performed in the presence of the disciples served as a basis for faith (although a secondary basis to their personal relationship to him; see the following verse).

[14:31]  ²¹ tn Or “may learn.”

[14:31]  ²² tn Grk “But so that the world may know that I love the Father, and just as the Father commanded me, thus I do.” The order of the clauses has been rearranged in the translation to conform to contemporary English style.

[14:31]  ²³ sn Some have understood Jesus’ statement Get up, let us go from here to mean that at this point Jesus and the disciples got up and left the room where the meal was served and began the journey to the garden of Gethsemane. If so, the rest of the Farewell Discourse took place en route. Others have pointed to this statement as one of the “seams” in the discourse, indicating that the author used preexisting sources. Both explanations are possible, but not really necessary. Jesus could simply have stood up at this point (the disciples may or may not have stood with him) to finish the discourse before finally departing (in 18:1). In any case it may be argued that Jesus refers not to a literal departure at this point, but to preparing to meet the enemy who is on the way already in the person of Judas and the soldiers with him.