Yohanes 10:18

10:18 No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down ¹  of my own free will. ²  I have the authority ³  to lay it down, and I have the authority ⁴  to take it back again. This commandment ⁵  I received from my Father.”

Yohanes 15:15

15:15 I no longer call you slaves, ⁶  because the slave does not understand ⁷  what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because I have revealed to you everything ⁸  I heard ⁹  from my Father.

Yohanes 17:8

17:8 because I have given them the words you have given me. They ¹⁰  accepted ¹¹  them ¹²  and really ¹³  understand ¹⁴  that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.

Yohanes 19:25

19:25 Now standing beside Jesus’ cross were his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. ¹⁵ 

[10:18]  ¹ tn Or “give it up.”

[10:18]  ² tn Or “of my own accord.” “Of my own free will” is given by BDAG 321 s.v. ἐμαυτοῦ c.

[10:18]  ³ tn Or “I have the right.”

[10:18]  ⁴ tn Or “I have the right.”

[10:18]  ⁵ tn Or “order.”

[15:15]  ⁶ tn See the note on the word “slaves” in 4:51.

[15:15]  ⁷ tn Or “does not know.”

[15:15]  ⁸ tn Grk “all things.”

[15:15]  ⁹ tn Or “learned.”

[17:8]  ¹⁰ tn Grk And they.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.

[17:8]  ¹¹ tn Or “received.”

[17:8]  ¹² tn The word “them” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[17:8]  ¹³ tn Or “truly.”

[17:8]  ¹⁴ tn Or have come to know.”

[19:25]  ¹⁵ sn Several women are mentioned, but it is not easy to determine how many. It is not clear whether his mother’s sister and Mary the wife of Clopas are to be understood as the same individual (in which case only three women are mentioned: Jesus’ mother, her sister Mary, and Mary Magdalene) or as two different individuals (in which case four women are mentioned: Jesus’ mother, her sister, Mary Clopas’ wife, and Mary Magdalene). It is impossible to be certain, but when John’s account is compared to the synoptics it is easier to reconcile the accounts if four women were present than if there were only three. It also seems that if there were four women present, this would have been seen by the author to be in juxtaposition to the four soldiers present who performed the crucifixion, and this may explain the transition from the one incident in 23-24 to the other in 25-27. Finally, if only three were present, this would mean that both Jesus’ mother and her sister were named Mary, and this is highly improbable in a Jewish family of that time. If there were four women present, the name of the second, the sister of Jesus’ mother, is not mentioned. It is entirely possible that the sister of Jesus’ mother mentioned here is to be identified with the woman named Salome mentioned in Mark 15:40 and also with the woman identified as “the mother of the sons of Zebedee” mentioned in Matt 27:56. If so, and if John the Apostle is to be identified as the beloved disciple, then the reason for the omission of the second woman’s name becomes clear; she would have been John’s own mother, and he consistently omitted direct reference to himself or his brother James or any other members of his family in the Fourth Gospel.