Mazmur 31:19

31:19 How great is your favor, ¹ 

which you store up for your loyal followers! ² 

In plain sight of everyone you bestow it on those who take shelter ³  in you. ⁴ 

Mazmur 86:5

86:5 Certainly ⁵  O Lord, you are kind ⁶  and forgiving,

and show great faithfulness to all who cry out to you.

Mazmur 86:15

86:15 But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and merciful God.

You are patient ⁷  and demonstrate great loyal love and faithfulness. ⁸ 

Mazmur 145:7-8

145:7 They will talk about the fame of your great kindness, ⁹ 

and sing about your justice. ¹⁰ 

145:8 The Lord is merciful and compassionate;

he is patient ¹¹  and demonstrates great loyal love. ¹² 

Keluaran 34:6

34:6 The Lord passed by before him and proclaimed: ¹³  “The Lord, the Lord, ¹⁴  the compassionate and gracious ¹⁵  God, slow to anger, ¹⁶  and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness, ¹⁷ 

Yohanes 3:16

3:16 For this is the way ¹⁸  God loved the world: He gave his one and only ¹⁹  Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish ²⁰  but have eternal life. ²¹ 

Yohanes 3:1

Conversation with Nicodemus

3:1 Now a certain man, a Pharisee ²²  named Nicodemus, who was a member of the Jewish ruling council, ²³ 

Yohanes 3:1

Conversation with Nicodemus

3:1 Now a certain man, a Pharisee ²⁴  named Nicodemus, who was a member of the Jewish ruling council, ²⁵ 

Yohanes 4:9-10

4:9 So the Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you – a Jew ²⁶  – ask me, a Samaritan woman, for water ²⁷  to drink?” (For Jews use nothing in common ²⁸  with Samaritans.) ²⁹ 

4:10 Jesus answered ³⁰  her, “If you had known ³¹  the gift of God and who it is who said to you, ‘Give me some water ³²  to drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” ³³ 

[31:19]  ¹ tn Or “How abundant are your blessings!”

[31:19]  ² tn Heb “for those who fear you.”

[31:19]  ³ tn “Taking shelter” in the Lord is an idiom for seeking his protection. Seeking his protection presupposes and even demonstrates the subject’s loyalty to the Lord. In the psalms those who “take shelter” in the Lord are contrasted with the wicked and equated with those who love, fear, and serve the Lord (Pss 2:12; 5:11-12; 34:21-22).

[31:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “you work [your favor] for the ones seeking shelter in you before the sons of men.”

[86:5]  ⁵ tn Or “for.”

[86:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “good.”

[86:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “slow to anger.”

[86:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “and great of loyal love and faithfulness.”

[86:15]  sn The psalmist’s confession of faith in this verse echoes Exod 34:6.

[145:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “the fame of the greatness of your goodness.”

[145:7]  ¹⁰ tn The prefixed verbal forms in v. 7 are understood as imperfects, indicating how the psalmist expects his audience to respond to his praise. Another option is to take the forms as jussives, indicating the psalmist’s wish, “may they talk…and sing.”

[145:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “slow to anger” (see Pss 86:15; 103:8).

[145:8]  ¹² tn Heb “and great of loyal love” (see Pss 86:15; 103:8).

[34:6]  ¹³ tn Here is one of the clearest examples of what it means “to call on the name of the Lord,” as that clause has been translated traditionally (וַיִּקְרָא בְשֵׁם יְהוָה, vayyiqra’ vÿshem yÿhvah). It seems more likely that it means “to make proclamation of Yahweh by name.” Yahweh came down and made a proclamation – and the next verses give the content of what he said. This cannot be prayer or praise; it is a proclamation of the nature or attributes of God (which is what his “name” means throughout the Bible). Attempts to make Moses the subject of the verb are awkward, for the verb is repeated in v. 6 with Yahweh clearly doing the proclaiming.

[34:6]  ¹⁴ sn U. Cassuto (Exodus, 439) suggests that these two names be written as a sentence: “Yahweh, He is Yahweh.” In this manner it reflects “I am that I am.” It is impossible to define his name in any other way than to make this affirmation and then show what it means.

[34:6]  ¹⁵ tn See Exod 33:19.

[34:6]  ¹⁶ sn This is literally “long of anger.” His anger prolongs itself, allowing for people to repent before punishment is inflicted.

[34:6]  ¹⁷ sn These two words (“loyal love” and “truth”) are often found together, occasionally in a hendiadys construction. If that is the interpretation here, then it means “faithful covenant love.” Even if they are left separate, they are dual elements of a single quality. The first word is God’s faithful covenant love; the second word is God’s reliability and faithfulness.

[3:16]  ¹⁸ tn Or “this is how much”; or “in this way.” The Greek adverb οὕτως (Joutws) can refer (1) to the degree to which God loved the world, that is, to such an extent or so much that he gave his own Son (see R. E. Brown, John [AB], 1:133-34; D. A. Carson, John, 204) or (2) simply to the manner in which God loved the world, i.e., by sending his own son (see R. H. Gundry and R. W. Howell, “The Sense and Syntax of John 3:14-17 with Special Reference to the Use of Οὕτως…ὥστε in John 3:16,” NovT 41 [1999]: 24-39). Though the term more frequently refers to the manner in which something is done (see BDAG 741-42 s.v. οὕτω/οὕτως), the following clause involving ὥστε (Jwste) plus the indicative (which stresses actual, but [usually] unexpected result) emphasizes the greatness of the gift God has given. With this in mind, then, it is likely (3) that John is emphasizing both the degree to which God loved the world as well as the manner in which He chose to express that love. This is in keeping with John’s style of using double entendre or double meaning. Thus, the focus of the Greek construction here is on the nature of God's love, addressing its mode, intensity, and extent.

[3:16]  ¹⁹ tn Although this word is often translated “only begotten,” such a translation is misleading, since in English it appears to express a metaphysical relationship. The word in Greek was used of an only child (a son [Luke 7:12, 9:38] or a daughter [Luke 8:42]). It was also used of something unique (only one of its kind) such as the mythological Phoenix (1 Clement 25:2). From here it passes easily to a description of Isaac (Heb 11:17 and Josephus, Ant. 1.13.1 [1.222]) who was not Abraham’s only son, but was one-of-a-kind because he was the child of the promise. Thus the word means “one-of-a-kind” and is reserved for Jesus in the Johannine literature of the NT. While all Christians are children of God (τέκνα θεοῦ, tekna qeou), Jesus is God’s Son in a unique, one-of-a-kind sense. The word is used in this way in all its uses in the Gospel of John (1:14, 1:18, 3:16, and 3:18).

[3:16]  ²⁰ tn In John the word ἀπόλλυμι (apollumi) can mean either (1) to be lost (2) to perish or be destroyed, depending on the context.

[3:16]  ²¹ sn The alternatives presented are only two (again, it is typical of Johannine thought for this to be presented in terms of polar opposites): perish or have eternal life.

[3:1]  ²² sn See the note on Pharisees in 1:24.

[3:1]  ²³ tn Grk “a ruler of the Jews” (denoting a member of the Sanhedrin, the highest legal, legislative, and judicial body among the Jews).

[3:1]  ²⁴ sn See the note on Pharisees in 1:24.

[3:1]  ²⁵ tn Grk “a ruler of the Jews” (denoting a member of the Sanhedrin, the highest legal, legislative, and judicial body among the Jews).

[4:9]  ²⁶ tn Or “a Judean.” Here BDAG 478 s.v. ᾿Ιουδαίος 2.a states, “Judean (with respect to birth, nationality, or cult).” The same term occurs in the plural later in this verse. In one sense “Judean” would work very well in the translation here, since the contrast is between residents of the two geographical regions. However, since in the context of this chapter the discussion soon becomes a religious rather than a territorial one (cf. vv. 19-26), the translation “Jew” has been retained here and in v. 22.

[4:9]  ²⁷ tn “Water” is supplied as the understood direct object of the infinitive πεῖν (pein).

[4:9]  ²⁸ tn D. Daube (“Jesus and the Samaritan Woman: the Meaning of συγχράομαι [Jn 4:7ff],” JBL 69 [1950]: 137-47) suggests this meaning.

[4:9]  sn The background to the statement use nothing in common is the general assumption among Jews that the Samaritans were ritually impure or unclean. Thus a Jew who used a drinking vessel after a Samaritan had touched it would become ceremonially unclean.

[4:9]  ²⁹ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[4:10]  ³⁰ tn Grk “answered and said to her.”

[4:10]  ³¹ tn Or “if you knew.”

[4:10]  ³² tn The phrase “some water” is supplied as the understood direct object of the infinitive πεῖν (pein).

[4:10]  ³³ tn This is a second class conditional sentence in Greek.

[4:10]  sn The word translated living is used in Greek of flowing water, which leads to the woman’s misunderstanding in the following verse. She thought Jesus was referring to some unknown source of drinkable water.