Yohanes 1:38-39

1:38 Jesus turned around and saw them following and said to them, “What do you want?” ¹  So they said to him, “Rabbi” (which is translated Teacher), ²  “where are you staying?” 1:39 Jesus ³  answered, ⁴  “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. Now it was about four o’clock in the afternoon. ⁵ 

Yohanes 6:19

6:19 Then, when they had rowed about three or four miles, ⁶  they caught sight of Jesus walking on the lake, ⁷  approaching the boat, and they were frightened.

Yohanes 9:24

9:24 Then they summoned ⁸  the man who used to be blind ⁹  a second time and said to him, “Promise before God to tell the truth. ¹⁰  We know that this man ¹¹  is a sinner.”

Yohanes 21:8

21:8 Meanwhile the other disciples came with the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from land, only about a hundred yards. ¹² 

[1:38]  ¹ tn Grk “What are you seeking?”

[1:38]  ² sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[1:39]  ³ tn Grk “He”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:39]  ⁴ tn Grk “said to them.”

[1:39]  ⁵ tn Grk “about the tenth hour.”

[1:39]  sn About four o’clock in the afternoon. What system of time reckoning is the author using? B. F. Westcott thought John, unlike the synoptic gospels, was using Roman time, which started at midnight (St. John, 282). This would make the time 10 a.m., which would fit here. But later in the Gospel’s Passover account (John 19:42, where the sixth hour is on the “eve of the Passover”) it seems clear the author had to be using Jewish reckoning, which began at 6 a.m. This would make the time here in 1:39 to be 4 p.m. This may be significant: If the hour was late, Andrew and the unnamed disciple probably spent the night in the same house where Jesus was staying, and the events of 1:41-42 took place on the next day. The evidence for Westcott’s view, that the Gospel is using Roman time, is very slim. The Roman reckoning which started at midnight was only used by authorities as legal time (for contracts, official documents, etc.). Otherwise, the Romans too reckoned time from 6 a.m. (e.g., Roman sundials are marked VI, not XII, for noon).

[6:19]  ⁶ tn Grk “about twenty-five or thirty stades” (a stade as a unit of linear measure is about 607 feet or 187 meters).

[6:19]  sn About three or four miles. The Sea of Galilee was at its widest point 7 mi (11.6 km) by 12 mi (20 km). So at this point the disciples were in about the middle of the lake.

[6:19]  ⁷ tn Or “sea.” See the note on “lake” in v. 16. John uses the phrase ἐπί (epi, “on”) followed by the genitive (as in Mark, instead of Matthew’s ἐπί followed by the accusative) to describe Jesus walking “on the lake.”

[9:24]  ⁸ tn Grk “they called.”

[9:24]  ⁹ tn Grk “who was blind.”

[9:24]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “Give glory to God” (an idiomatic formula used in placing someone under oath to tell the truth).

[9:24]  ¹¹ tn The phrase “this man” is a reference to Jesus.

[21:8]  ¹² tn Or “about a hundred meters”; Grk “about two hundred cubits.” According to BDAG 812 s.v., a πῆχυς (phcu") was about 18 inches or .462 meters, so two hundred πηχῶν (phcwn) would be about 100 yards (92.4 meters).