Yohanes 12:35-36

12:35 Jesus replied, ¹  “The light is with you for a little while longer. ²  Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. ³  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.” ⁴  When Jesus had said these things, he went away and hid himself from them.

Yohanes 13:1

Washing the Disciples’ Feet

13:1 Just before the Passover feast, Jesus knew that his time ⁵  had come to depart ⁶  from this world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now loved them to the very end. ⁷ 

Yohanes 13:3

13:3 Because Jesus ⁸  knew that the Father had handed all things over to him, ⁹  and that he had come from God and was going back to God,

Yohanes 13:33

13:33 Children, I am still with you for a little while. You will look for me, ¹⁰  and just as I said to the Jewish religious leaders, ¹¹  ‘Where I am going you cannot come,’ ¹²  now I tell you the same. ¹³ 

Yohanes 16:5

16:5 But now I am going to the one who sent me, ¹⁴  and not one of you is asking me, ‘Where are you going?’ ¹⁵ 

Yohanes 16:16-22

16:16 In a little while you ¹⁶  will see me no longer; again after a little while, you ¹⁷  will see me.” ¹⁸ 

16:17 Then some of his disciples said to one another, “What is the meaning of what he is saying, ¹⁹  ‘In a little while you ²⁰  will not see me; again after a little while, you ²¹  will see me,’ and, ‘because I am going to the Father’?” ²²  16:18 So they kept on repeating, ²³  “What is the meaning of what he says, ²⁴  ‘In a little while’? ²⁵  We do not understand ²⁶  what he is talking about.” ²⁷ 

16:19 Jesus could see ²⁸  that they wanted to ask him about these things, ²⁹  so ³⁰  he said to them, “Are you asking ³¹  each other about this – that I said, ‘In a little while you ³²  will not see me; again after a little while, you ³³  will see me’? 16:20 I tell you the solemn truth, ³⁴  you will weep ³⁵  and wail, ³⁶  but the world will rejoice; you will be sad, ³⁷  but your sadness will turn into ³⁸  joy. 16:21 When a woman gives birth, she has distress ³⁹  because her time ⁴⁰  has come, but when her child is born, she no longer remembers the suffering because of her joy that a human being ⁴¹  has been born into the world. ⁴²  16:22 So also you have sorrow ⁴³  now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. ⁴⁴ 

Yohanes 17:11

17:11 I ⁴⁵  am no longer in the world, but ⁴⁶  they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them safe ⁴⁷  in your name ⁴⁸  that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one. ⁴⁹ 

Yohanes 17:13

17:13 But now I am coming to you, and I am saying these things in the world, so they may experience ⁵⁰  my joy completed ⁵¹  in themselves.

[12:35]  ¹ tn Grk “Then Jesus said to them.”

[12:35]  ² tn Grk “Yet a little while the light is with you.”

[12:35]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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.”

[13:1]  ⁵ tn Grk “his hour.”

[13:1]  ⁶ tn Grk “that he should depart.” The ἵνα (Jina) clause in Koine Greek frequently encroached on the simple infinitive (for the sake of greater clarity).

[13:1]  ⁷ tn Or “he now loved them completely,” or “he now loved them to the uttermost” (see John 19:30). All of John 13:1 is a single sentence in Greek, although in English this would be unacceptably awkward. At the end of the verse the idiom εἰς τέλος (eis telos) was translated literally as “to the end” and the modern equivalents given in the note above, because there is an important lexical link between this passage and John 19:30, τετέλεσται (tetelestai, “It is ended”).

[13:1]  sn The full extent of Jesus’ love for his disciples is not merely seen in his humble service to them in washing their feet (the most common interpretation of the passage). The full extent of his love for them is demonstrated in his sacrificial death for them on the cross. The footwashing episode which follows then becomes a prophetic act, or acting out beforehand, of his upcoming death on their behalf. The message for the disciples was that they were to love one another not just in humble, self-effacing service, but were to be willing to die for one another. At least one of them got this message eventually, though none understood it at the time (see 1 John 3:16).

[13:3]  ⁸ tn Grk “Because he knew”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:3]  ⁹ tn Grk “had given all things into his hands.”

[13:33]  ¹⁰ tn Or “You will seek me.”

[13:33]  ¹¹ tn Grk “the Jews.” In NT usage the term ᾿Ιουδαῖοι (Ioudaioi) may refer to the entire Jewish people, the residents of Jerusalem and surrounding territory, the authorities in Jerusalem, or merely those who were hostile to Jesus. (For further information see R. G. Bratcher, “‘The Jews’ in the Gospel of John,” BT 26 [1975]: 401-9.) Here the phrase refers to the residents of Jerusalem in general, or to the Jewish religious leaders in particular, who had sent servants to attempt to arrest Jesus on that occasion (John 7:33-35). The last option is the one adopted in the translation above.

[13:33]  ¹² sn See John 7:33-34.

[13:33]  ¹³ tn The words “the same” are not in the Greek text but are implied. Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when clear from the context.

[16:5]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ 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.

[16:16]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “A little while, and you.”

[16:16]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “and again a little while, and you.”

[16:16]  ¹⁸ sn The phrase after a little while, you will see me is sometimes taken to refer to the coming of the Holy Spirit after Jesus departs, but (as at 14:19) it is much more probable that it refers to the postresurrection appearances of Jesus to the disciples. There is no indication in the context that the disciples will see Jesus only with “spiritual” sight, as would be the case if the coming of the Spirit is in view.

[16:17]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “What is this that he is saying to us.”

[16:17]  ²⁰ tn Grk “A little while, and you.”

[16:17]  ²¹ tn Grk “and again a little while, and you.”

[16:17]  ²² sn These fragmentary quotations of Jesus’ statements are from 16:16 and 16:10, and indicate that the disciples heard only part of what Jesus had to say to them on this occasion.

[16:18]  ²³ tn Grk “they kept on saying.”

[16:18]  ²⁴ tn Grk “What is this that he says.”

[16:18]  ²⁵ tn Grk “A little while.” Although the phrase τὸ μικρόν (to mikron) in John 16:18 could be translated simply “a little while,” it was translated “in a little while” to maintain the connection to John 16:16, where it has the latter meaning in context.

[16:18]  ²⁶ tn Or “we do not know.”

[16:18]  ²⁷ tn Grk “what he is speaking.”

[16:19]  ²⁸ tn Grk “knew.”

[16:19]  sn Jesus could see. Supernatural knowledge of what the disciples were thinking is not necessarily in view here. Given the disciples’ confused statements in the preceding verses, it was probably obvious to Jesus that they wanted to ask what he meant.

[16:19]  ²⁹ tn The words “about these things” are not in the Greek text, but are implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[16:19]  ³⁰ tn Καί (kai) has been translated as “so” here to indicate the following statement is a result of Jesus’ observation in v. 19a.

[16:19]  ³¹ tn Grk “inquiring” or “seeking.”

[16:19]  ³² tn Grk “A little while, and you.”

[16:19]  ³³ tn Grk “and again a little while, and you.”

[16:20]  ³⁴ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[16:20]  ³⁵ tn Or “wail,” “cry.”

[16:20]  ³⁶ tn Or “lament.”

[16:20]  ³⁷ tn Or “sorrowful.”

[16:20]  ³⁸ tn Grk “will become.”

[16:21]  ³⁹ sn The same word translated distress here has been translated sadness in the previous verse (a wordplay that is not exactly reproducible in English).

[16:21]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “her hour.”

[16:21]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “that a man” (but in a generic sense, referring to a human being).

[16:21]  ⁴² sn Jesus now compares the situation of the disciples to a woman in childbirth. Just as the woman in the delivery of her child experiences real pain and anguish (has distress), so the disciples will also undergo real anguish at the crucifixion of Jesus. But once the child has been born, the mother’s anguish is turned into joy, and she forgets the past suffering. The same will be true of the disciples, who after Jesus’ resurrection and reappearance to them will forget the anguish they suffered at his death on account of their joy.

[16:22]  ⁴³ tn Or “distress.”

[16:22]  ⁴⁴ sn An allusion to Isa 66:14 LXX, which reads: “Then you will see, and your heart will be glad, and your bones will flourish like the new grass; and the hand of the Lord will be made known to his servants, but he will be indignant toward his enemies.” The change from “you will see [me]” to I will see you places more emphasis on Jesus as the one who reinitiates the relationship with the disciples after his resurrection, but v. 16 (you will see me) is more like Isa 66:14. Further support for seeing this allusion as intentional is found in Isa 66:7, which uses the same imagery of the woman giving birth found in John 16:21. In the context of Isa 66 the passages refer to the institution of the messianic kingdom, and in fact the last clause of 66:14 along with the following verses (15-17) have yet to be fulfilled. This is part of the tension of present and future eschatological fulfillment that runs throughout the NT, by virtue of the fact that there are two advents. Some prophecies are fulfilled or partially fulfilled at the first advent, while other prophecies or parts of prophecies await fulfillment at the second.

[17:11]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk And I.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.

[17:11]  ⁴⁶ tn The context indicates that this should be translated as an adversative or contrastive conjunction.

[17:11]  ⁴⁷ tn Or “protect them”; Grk “keep them.”

[17:11]  ⁴⁸ tn Or “by your name.”

[17:11]  ⁴⁹ tn The second repetition of “one” is implied, and is supplied here for clarity.

[17:13]  ⁵⁰ tn Grk “they may have.”

[17:13]  ⁵¹ tn Or “fulfilled.”