Yohanes 1:46

1:46 Nathanael ¹  replied, ²  “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” ³  Philip replied, ⁴  “Come and see.”

Yohanes 3:3

3:3 Jesus replied, ⁵  “I tell you the solemn truth, ⁶  unless a person is born from above, ⁷  he cannot see the kingdom of God.” ⁸ 

Yohanes 3:27

3:27 John replied, ⁹  “No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven.

Yohanes 6:44

6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, ¹⁰  and I will raise him up at the last day.

Yohanes 6:52

6:52 Then the Jews who were hostile to Jesus ¹¹  began to argue with one another, ¹²  “How can this man ¹³  give us his flesh to eat?”

Yohanes 6:60

6:60 Then many of his disciples, when they heard these things, ¹⁴  said, “This is a difficult ¹⁵  saying! ¹⁶  Who can understand it?” ¹⁷ 

Yohanes 6:65

6:65 So Jesus added, ¹⁸  “Because of this I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has allowed him to come.” ¹⁹ 

Yohanes 7:7

7:7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I am testifying about it that its deeds are evil.

Yohanes 9:4

9:4 We must perform the deeds ²⁰  of the one who sent me ²¹  as long as ²²  it is daytime. Night is coming when no one can work.

Yohanes 10:29

10:29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, ²³  and no one can snatch ²⁴  them from my Father’s hand.

Yohanes 10:35

10:35 If those people to whom the word of God came were called ‘gods’ (and the scripture cannot be broken), ²⁵ 

[1:46]  ¹ tn Grk “And Nathanael.”

[1:46]  ² tn Grk “said to him.”

[1:46]  ³ sn Can anything good come out of Nazareth? may be a local proverb expressing jealousy among the towns.

[1:46]  map For location see Map1 D3; Map2 C2; Map3 D5; Map4 C1; Map5 G3.

[1:46]  ⁴ tn Grk “And Philip said to him.”

[3:3]  ⁵ tn Grk “answered and said to him.”

[3:3]  ⁶ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[3:3]  ⁷ tn The word ἄνωθεν (anwqen) has a double meaning, either “again” (in which case it is synonymous with παλίν [palin]) or “from above” (BDAG 92 s.v. ἄνωθεν). This is a favorite technique of the author of the Fourth Gospel, and it is lost in almost all translations at this point. John uses the word 5 times, in 3:3, 7; 3:31; 19:11 and 23. In the latter 3 cases the context makes clear that it means “from above.” Here (3:3, 7) it could mean either, but the primary meaning intended by Jesus is “from above.” Nicodemus apparently understood it the other way, which explains his reply, “How can a man be born when he is old? He can’t enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born, can he?” The author uses the technique of the “misunderstood question” often to bring out a particularly important point: Jesus says something which is misunderstood by the disciples or (as here) someone else, which then gives Jesus the opportunity to explain more fully and in more detail what he really meant.

[3:3]  sn Or born again. The Greek word ἄνωθεν (anwqen) can mean both “again” and “from above,” giving rise to Nicodemus’ misunderstanding about a second physical birth (v. 4).

[3:3]  ⁸ sn What does Jesus’ statement about not being able to see the kingdom of God mean within the framework of John’s Gospel? John uses the word kingdom (βασιλεία, basileia) only 5 times (3:3, 5; 18:36 [3x]). Only here is it qualified with the phrase of God. The fact that John does not stress the concept of the kingdom of God does not mean it is absent from his theology, however. Remember the messianic implications found in John 2, both the wedding and miracle at Cana and the cleansing of the temple. For Nicodemus, the term must surely have brought to mind the messianic kingdom which Messiah was supposed to bring. But Nicodemus had missed precisely this point about who Jesus was. It was the Messiah himself with whom Nicodemus was speaking. Whatever Nicodemus understood, it is clear that the point is this: He misunderstood Jesus’ words. He over-literalized them, and thought Jesus was talking about repeated physical birth, when he was in fact referring to new spiritual birth.

[3:27]  ⁹ tn Grk “answered and said.”

[6:44]  ¹⁰ tn Or “attracts him,” or “pulls him.” The word is used of pulling or dragging, often by force. It is even used once of magnetic attraction (A. Oepke, TDNT 2:503).

[6:44]  sn The Father who sent me draws him. The author never specifically explains what this “drawing” consists of. It is evidently some kind of attraction; whether it is binding and irresistible or not is not mentioned. But there does seem to be a parallel with 6:65, where Jesus says that no one is able to come to him unless the Father has allowed it. This apparently parallels the use of Isaiah by John to reflect the spiritual blindness of the Jewish leaders (see the quotations from Isaiah in John 9:41 and 12:39-40).

[6:52]  ¹¹ tn Grk “Then the Jews began to argue.” Here the translation restricts the phrase to those Jews who were hostile to Jesus (cf. BDAG 479 s.v. ᾿Ιουδαῖος 2.e.β), since the “crowd” mentioned in 6:22-24 was almost all Jewish (as suggested by their addressing Jesus as “Rabbi” (6:25). See also the note on the phrase “the Jews who were hostile to Jesus” in v. 41.

[6:52]  ¹² tn Grk “with one another, saying.”

[6:52]  ¹³ tn Grk “this one,” “this person.”

[6:60]  ¹⁴ tn The words “these things” are not present in the Greek text but are implied. Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when clear from the context, and must be supplied for the English reader.

[6:60]  ¹⁵ tn Or “hard,” “demanding.”

[6:60]  ¹⁶ tn Or “teaching”; Grk “word.”

[6:60]  ¹⁷ tn Or “obey it”; Grk “hear it.” The Greek word ἀκούω (akouw) could imply hearing with obedience here, in the sense of “obey.” It could also point to the acceptance of what Jesus had just said, (i.e., “who can accept what he said?” However, since the context contains several replies by those in the crowd of hearers that suggest uncertainty or confusion over the meaning of what Jesus had said (6:42; 6:52), the meaning “understand” is preferred here.

[6:65]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “And he said”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:65]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “unless it has been permitted to him by the Father.”

[9:4]  ²⁰ tn Grk “We must work the works.”

[9:4]  ²¹ tn Or “of him who sent me” (God).

[9:4]  ²² tn Or “while.”

[10:29]  ²³ tn Or “is superior to all.”

[10:29]  ²⁴ tn Or “no one can seize.”

[10:35]  ²⁵ sn The parenthetical note And the scripture cannot be broken belongs to Jesus’ words rather than the author’s. Not only does Jesus appeal to the OT to defend himself against the charge of blasphemy, but he also adds that the scripture cannot be “broken.” In this context he does not explain precisely what is meant by “broken,” but it is not too hard to determine. Jesus’ argument depended on the exact word used in the context of Ps 82:6. If any other word for “judge” had been used in the psalm, his argument would have been meaningless. Since the scriptures do use this word in Ps 82:6, the argument is binding, because they cannot be “broken” in the sense of being shown to be in error.