Yohanes 16:32

16:32 Look, a time ¹  is coming – and has come – when you will be scattered, each one to his own home, ²  and I will be left alone. ³  Yet ⁴  I am not alone, because my Father ⁵  is with me.

Yohanes 11:52

11:52 and not for the Jewish nation ⁶  only, ⁷  but to gather together ⁸  into one the children of God who are scattered.) ⁹ 

Yohanes 10:12

10:12 The hired hand, ¹⁰  who is not a shepherd and does not own sheep, sees the wolf coming and abandons ¹¹  the sheep and runs away. ¹²  So the wolf attacks ¹³  the sheep and scatters them.

Yohanes 15:5

15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains ¹⁴  in me – and I in him – bears ¹⁵  much fruit, ¹⁶  because apart from me you can accomplish ¹⁷  nothing.

Yohanes 7:35

7:35 Then the Jewish leaders ¹⁸  said to one another, “Where is he ¹⁹  going to go that we cannot find him? ²⁰  He is not going to go to the Jewish people dispersed ²¹  among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, is he? ²² 

[16:32]  ¹ tn Grk “an hour.”

[16:32]  ² tn Grk “each one to his own”; the word “home” is not in the Greek text but is implied. The phrase “each one to his own” may be completed in a number of different ways: “each one to his own property”; “each one to his own family”; or “each one to his own home.” The last option seems to fit most easily into the context and so is used in the translation.

[16:32]  ³ sn The proof of Jesus’ negative evaluation of the disciples’ faith is now given: Jesus foretells their abandonment of him at his arrest, trials, and crucifixion (I will be left alone). This parallels the synoptic accounts in Matt 26:31 and Mark 14:27 when Jesus, after the last supper and on the way to Gethsemane, foretold the desertion of the disciples as a fulfillment of Zech 13:7: “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.” Yet although the disciples would abandon Jesus, he reaffirmed that he was not alone, because the Father was still with him.

[16:32]  ⁴ tn Grk “And” (but with some contrastive force).

[16:32]  ⁵ tn Grk “the Father.”

[11:52]  ⁶ tn See the note on the word “nation” in the previous verse.

[11:52]  ⁷ sn The author in his comment expands the prophecy to include the Gentiles (not for the Jewish nation only), a confirmation that the Fourth Gospel was directed, at least partly, to a Gentile audience. There are echoes of Pauline concepts here (particularly Eph 2:11-22) in the stress on the unity of Jew and Gentile.

[11:52]  ⁸ tn Grk “that he might gather together.”

[11:52]  ⁹ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[10:12]  ¹⁰ sn Jesus contrasts the behavior of the shepherd with that of the hired hand. This is a worker who is simply paid to do a job; he has no other interest in the sheep and is certainly not about to risk his life for them. When they are threatened, he simply runs away.

[10:12]  ¹¹ tn Grk “leaves.”

[10:12]  ¹² tn Or “flees.”

[10:12]  ¹³ tn Or “seizes.” The more traditional rendering, “snatches,” has the idea of seizing something by force and carrying it off, which is certainly possible here. However, in the sequence in John 10:12, this action precedes the scattering of the flock of sheep, so “attacks” is preferable.

[15:5]  ¹⁴ tn Or “resides.”

[15:5]  ¹⁵ tn Or “yields.”

[15:5]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “in him, this one bears much fruit.” The pronoun “this one” has been omitted from the translation because it is redundant according to contemporary English style.

[15:5]  sn Many interpret the imagery of fruit here and in 15:2, 4 in terms of good deeds or character qualities, relating it to passages elsewhere in the NT like Matt 3:8 and 7:20, Rom 6:22, Gal 5:22, etc. This is not necessarily inaccurate, but one must remember that for John, to have life at all is to bear fruit, while one who does not bear fruit shows that he does not have the life (once again, conduct is the clue to paternity, as in John 8:41; compare also 1 John 4:20).

[15:5]  ¹⁷ tn Or “do.”

[7:35]  ¹⁸ tn Or “the Jewish authorities”; Grk “the Jews.” In NT usage the term ᾿Ιουδαῖοι (Ioudaioi) may refer to the entire Jewish people, the residents of Jerusalem and surrounding territory, 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.) Here the phrase is understood to refer to the Jewish authorities or leaders, since the Jewish leaders are mentioned in this context both before and after the present verse (7:32, 45).

[7:35]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “this one.”

[7:35]  ²⁰ tn Grk “will not find him.”

[7:35]  ²¹ sn The Jewish people dispersed (Grk “He is not going to the Diaspora”). The Greek term diaspora (“dispersion”) originally meant those Jews not living in Palestine, but dispersed or scattered among the Gentiles.

[7:35]  ²² 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 “is he?”).

[7:35]  sn Note the Jewish opponents’ misunderstanding of Jesus’ words, as made clear in vv. 35-36. They didn’t realize he spoke of his departure out of the world. This is another example of the author’s use of misunderstanding as a literary device to emphasize a point.