Yohanes 1:46-49

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

1:47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and exclaimed, ⁵  “Look, a true Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” ⁶  1:48 Nathanael asked him, “How do you know me?” Jesus replied, ⁷  “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, ⁸  I saw you.” 1:49 Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king ⁹  of Israel!” ¹⁰ 

Yohanes 8:31-32

Abraham’s Children and the Devil’s Children

8:31 Then Jesus said to those Judeans ¹¹  who had believed him, “If you continue to follow my teaching, ¹²  you are really ¹³  my disciples 8:32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” ¹⁴ 

Yohanes 8:43

8:43 Why don’t you understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot accept ¹⁵  my teaching. ¹⁶ 

Yohanes 8:47

8:47 The one who belongs to ¹⁷  God listens and responds ¹⁸  to God’s words. You don’t listen and respond, ¹⁹  because you don’t belong to God.” ²⁰ 

[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.”

[1:47]  ⁵ tn Grk “said about him.”

[1:47]  ⁶ tn Or “treachery.”

[1:47]  sn An allusion to Ps 32:2.

[1:48]  ⁷ tn Grk “answered and said to him.” This is somewhat redundant in English and has been simplified in the translation to “replied.”

[1:48]  ⁸ sn Many have speculated about what Nathanael was doing under the fig tree. Meditating on the Messiah who was to come? A good possibility, since the fig tree was used as shade for teaching or studying by the later rabbis (Ecclesiastes Rabbah 5:11). Also, the fig tree was symbolic for messianic peace and plenty (Mic 4:4, Zech 3:10.)

[1:49]  ⁹ tn Although βασιλεύς (basileus) lacks the article it is definite due to contextual and syntactical considerations. See ExSyn 263.

[1:49]  ¹⁰ sn Nathanael’s confession – You are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel – is best understood as a confession of Jesus’ messiahship. It has strong allusions to Ps 2:6-7, a well-known messianic psalm. What Nathanael’s exact understanding was at this point is hard to determine, but “son of God” was a designation for the Davidic king in the OT, and Nathanael parallels it with King of Israel here.

[8:31]  ¹¹ tn Grk “to the Jews.” In NT usage the term ᾿Ιουδαῖοι (Ioudaioi) may refer to the entire Jewish people, the residents of Jerusalem and surrounding territory (i.e., “Judeans”), 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; also BDAG 479 s.v. ᾿Ιουδαῖος 2.e.) Here the phrase refers to the Jewish people in Jerusalem who had been listening to Jesus’ teaching in the temple and had believed his claim to be the Messiah, hence, “those Judeans who had believed him.” The term “Judeans” is preferred here to the more general “people” because the debate concerns descent from Abraham (v. 33).

[8:31]  ¹² tn Grk “If you continue in my word.”

[8:31]  ¹³ tn Or “truly.”

[8:32]  ¹⁴ tn Or “the truth will release you.” The translation “set you free” or “release you” (unlike the more traditional “make you free”) conveys more the idea that the hearers were currently in a state of slavery from which they needed to be freed. The following context supports precisely this idea.

[8:32]  sn The statement the truth will set you free is often taken as referring to truth in the philosophical (or absolute) sense, or in the intellectual sense, or even (as the Jews apparently took it) in the political sense. In the context of John’s Gospel (particularly in light of the prologue) this must refer to truth about the person and work of Jesus. It is saving truth. As L. Morris says, “it is the truth which saves men from the darkness of sin, not that which saves them from the darkness of error (though there is a sense in which men in Christ are delivered from gross error)” (John [NICNT], 457).

[8:43]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “you cannot hear,” but this is not a reference to deafness, but rather hearing in the sense of listening to something and responding to it.

[8:43]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “my word.”

[8:47]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “who is of.”

[8:47]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “to God hears” (in the sense of listening to something and responding to it).

[8:47]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “you do not hear” (in the sense of listening to something and responding to it).

[8:47]  ²⁰ tn Grk “you are not of God.”