Yohanes 1:45

1:45 Philip found Nathanael ¹  and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, and the prophets also ²  wrote about – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

Yohanes 5:39

5:39 You study the scriptures thoroughly ³  because you think in them you possess eternal life, ⁴  and it is these same scriptures ⁵  that testify about me,

Yohanes 5:46-47

5:46 If ⁶  you believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me. 5:47 But if you do not believe what Moses ⁷  wrote, how will you believe my words?”

Yohanes 8:56

8:56 Your father Abraham was overjoyed ⁸  to see my day, and he saw it and was glad.” ⁹ 

[1:45]  ¹ sn Nathanael is traditionally identified with Bartholomew (although John never describes him as such). He appears here after Philip, while in all lists of the twelve except in Acts 1:13, Bartholomew follows Philip. Also, the Aramaic Bar-tolmai means “son of Tolmai,” the surname; the man almost certainly had another name.

[1:45]  ² tn “Also” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

[5:39]  ³ tn Or “Study the scriptures thoroughly” (an imperative). For the meaning of the verb see G. Delling, TDNT 2:655-57.

[5:39]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn The words “same scriptures” are not in the Greek text, but are supplied to clarify the referent (“these”).

[5:46]  ⁶ tn Grk “For if.”

[5:47]  ⁷ tn Grk “that one” (“he”); the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:56]  ⁸ tn Or “rejoiced greatly.”

[8:56]  ⁹ tn What is the meaning of Jesus’ statement that the patriarch Abraham “saw” his day and rejoiced? The use of past tenses would seem to refer to something that occurred during the patriarch’s lifetime. Genesis Rabbah 44:25ff, (cf. 59:6) states that Rabbi Akiba, in a debate with Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai, held that Abraham had been shown not this world only but the world to come (this would include the days of the Messiah). More realistically, it is likely that Gen 22:13-15 lies behind Jesus’ words. This passage, known to rabbis as the Akedah (“Binding”), tells of Abraham finding the ram which will replace his son Isaac on the altar of sacrifice – an occasion of certain rejoicing.