Yohanes 3:31

3:31 The one who comes from above is superior to all. ¹  The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things. ²  The one who comes from heaven ³  is superior to all. ⁴ 

Yohanes 4:12

4:12 Surely you’re not greater than our ancestor ⁵  Jacob, are you? For he gave us this well and drank from it himself, along with his sons and his livestock.” ⁶ 

Yohanes 8:53-58

8:53 You aren’t greater than our father Abraham who died, are you? ⁷  And the prophets died too! Who do you claim to be?” 8:54 Jesus replied, ⁸  “If I glorify myself, my glory is worthless. ⁹  The one who glorifies me is my Father, about whom you people ¹⁰  say, ‘He is our God.’ 8:55 Yet ¹¹  you do not know him, but I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, ¹²  I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I obey ¹³  his teaching. ¹⁴  8:56 Your father Abraham was overjoyed ¹⁵  to see my day, and he saw it and was glad.” ¹⁶ 

8:57 Then the Judeans ¹⁷  replied, ¹⁸  “You are not yet fifty years old! ¹⁹  Have ²⁰  you seen Abraham?” 8:58 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the solemn truth, ²¹  before Abraham came into existence, ²²  I am!” ²³ 

[3:31]  ¹ tn Or “is above all.”

[3:31]  ² tn Grk “speaks from the earth.”

[3:31]  ³ sn The one who comes from heaven refers to Christ. As in John 1:1, the Word’s preexistence is indicated here.

[3:31]  ⁴ tc Ì⁷⁵ א* D ˹ 565 as well as several versions and fathers lack the phrase “is superior to all” (ἐπάνω πάντων ἐστίν, epanw pantwn estin). This effectively joins the last sentence of v. 31 with v. 32: “The one who comes from heaven testifies about what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony.” On the other side, the phrase may have been deleted because of perceived redundancy, since it duplicates what is said earlier in the verse. The witnesses that include ἐπάνω πάντων ἐστίν in both places are weighty and widespread (Ì^36vid,66 א² A B L W^s Θ Ψ 083 086 ˹³ 33 Ï lat sy^s,p,h bo). On balance, the longer reading should probably be considered authentic.

[3:31]  tn Or “is above all.”

[4:12]  ⁵ tn Or “our forefather”; Grk “our father.”

[4:12]  ⁶ tn Questions prefaced with μή (mh) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end. In this instance all of v. 12 is one question. It has been broken into two sentences for the sake of English style (instead of “for he” the Greek reads “who”).

[8:53]  ⁷ tn Questions prefaced with μή (mh) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end in English (here the tag is “are you?”).

[8:54]  ⁸ tn Grk “Jesus answered.”

[8:54]  ⁹ tn Grk “is nothing.”

[8:54]  ¹⁰ tn The word “people” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied in English to clarify the plural Greek pronoun and verb.

[8:55]  ¹¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “Yet” to indicate the contrast present in the context.

[8:55]  ¹² tn Grk “If I say, ‘I do not know him.’”

[8:55]  ¹³ tn Grk “I keep.”

[8:55]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “his word.”

[8:56]  ¹⁵ tn Or “rejoiced greatly.”

[8:56]  ¹⁶ 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.

[8:57]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “Then the Jews.” See the note on this term in v. 31. Here, as in vv. 31, 48, and 52, the phrase refers to the Jewish people in Jerusalem (“Judeans”; cf. BDAG 479 s.v. ᾿Ιουδαῖος 2.e) who had been listening to Jesus’ teaching in the temple courts (8:20) and had initially believed his claim to be the Messiah (cf. 8:31). They have now become completely hostile, as John 8:59 clearly shows.

[8:57]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “said to him.”

[8:57]  ¹⁹ tn Grk ‘You do not yet have fifty years” (an idiom).

[8:57]  ²⁰ tn Grk “And have.”

[8:58]  ²¹ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[8:58]  ²² tn Grk “before Abraham was.”

[8:58]  ²³ sn I am! is an explicit claim to deity. Although each occurrence of the phrase “I am” in the Fourth Gospel needs to be examined individually in context to see if an association with Exod 3:14 is present, it seems clear that this is the case here (as the response of the Jewish authorities in the following verse shows).