Yohanes 3:19

3:19 Now this is the basis for judging: ¹  that the light has come into the world and people ²  loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil.

Yohanes 3:29

3:29 The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands by and listens for him, rejoices greatly ³  when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. This then is my joy, and it is complete. ⁴ 

Yohanes 4:9

4:9 So the Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you – a Jew ⁵  – ask me, a Samaritan woman, for water ⁶  to drink?” (For Jews use nothing in common ⁷  with Samaritans.) ⁸ 

Yohanes 4:53

4:53 Then the father realized that it was the very time ⁹  Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live,” and he himself believed along with his entire household.

Yohanes 5:30

5:30 I can do nothing on my own initiative. ¹⁰  Just as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, ¹¹  because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the one who sent me. ¹² 

Yohanes 12:3

12:3 Then Mary took three quarters of a pound ¹³  of expensive aromatic oil from pure nard ¹⁴  and anointed the feet of Jesus. She ¹⁵  then wiped his feet dry with her hair. (Now the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfumed oil.) ¹⁶ 

Yohanes 16:21

16:21 When a woman gives birth, she has distress ¹⁷  because her time ¹⁸  has come, but when her child is born, she no longer remembers the suffering because of her joy that a human being ¹⁹  has been born into the world. ²⁰ 

Yohanes 18:17

18:17 The girl ²¹  who was the doorkeeper said to Peter, “You’re not one of this man’s disciples too, are you?” ²²  He replied, ²³  “I am not.”

[3:19]  ¹ tn Or “this is the reason for God judging,” or “this is how judgment works.”

[3:19]  ² tn Grk “and men,” but in a generic sense, referring to people of both genders (as “everyone” in v. 20 makes clear).

[3:29]  ³ tn Grk “rejoices with joy” (an idiom).

[3:29]  ⁴ tn Grk “Therefore this my joy is fulfilled.”

[4:9]  ⁵ tn Or “a Judean.” Here BDAG 478 s.v. ᾿Ιουδαίος 2.a states, “Judean (with respect to birth, nationality, or cult).” The same term occurs in the plural later in this verse. In one sense “Judean” would work very well in the translation here, since the contrast is between residents of the two geographical regions. However, since in the context of this chapter the discussion soon becomes a religious rather than a territorial one (cf. vv. 19-26), the translation “Jew” has been retained here and in v. 22.

[4:9]  ⁶ tn “Water” is supplied as the understood direct object of the infinitive πεῖν (pein).

[4:9]  ⁷ tn D. Daube (“Jesus and the Samaritan Woman: the Meaning of συγχράομαι [Jn 4:7ff],” JBL 69 [1950]: 137-47) suggests this meaning.

[4:9]  sn The background to the statement use nothing in common is the general assumption among Jews that the Samaritans were ritually impure or unclean. Thus a Jew who used a drinking vessel after a Samaritan had touched it would become ceremonially unclean.

[4:9]  ⁸ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[4:53]  ⁹ tn Grk “at that hour.”

[5:30]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “nothing from myself.”

[5:30]  ¹¹ tn Or “righteous,” or “proper.”

[5:30]  ¹² tn That is, “the will of the Father who sent me.”

[12:3]  ¹³ tn Or “half a liter”; Grk “a pound” (that is, a Roman pound, about 325 grams or 12 ounces).

[12:3]  ¹⁴ tn Μύρον (muron) was usually made of myrrh (from which the English word is derived) but here it is used in the sense of ointment or perfumed oil (L&N 6.205). The adjective πιστικῆς (pistikh") is difficult with regard to its exact meaning; some have taken it to derive from πίστις (pistis) and relate to the purity of the oil of nard. More probably it is something like a brand name, “pistic nard,” the exact significance of which has not been discovered.

[12:3]  sn Nard or spikenard is a fragrant oil from the root and spike of the nard plant of northern India. This aromatic oil, if made of something like nard, would have been extremely expensive, costing up to a year’s pay for an average laborer.

[12:3]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “And she.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[12:3]  ¹⁶ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author. With a note characteristic of someone who was there and remembered, the author adds that the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfumed oil. In the later rabbinic literature, Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7.1.1 states “The fragrance of good oil is diffused from the bedroom to the dining hall, but a good name is diffused from one end of the world to the other.” If such a saying was known in the 1st century, this might be the author’s way of indicating that Mary’s act of devotion would be spoken of throughout the entire world (compare the comment in Mark 14:9).

[16:21]  ¹⁷ sn The same word translated distress here has been translated sadness in the previous verse (a wordplay that is not exactly reproducible in English).

[16:21]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “her hour.”

[16:21]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “that a man” (but in a generic sense, referring to a human being).

[16:21]  ²⁰ sn Jesus now compares the situation of the disciples to a woman in childbirth. Just as the woman in the delivery of her child experiences real pain and anguish (has distress), so the disciples will also undergo real anguish at the crucifixion of Jesus. But once the child has been born, the mother’s anguish is turned into joy, and she forgets the past suffering. The same will be true of the disciples, who after Jesus’ resurrection and reappearance to them will forget the anguish they suffered at his death on account of their joy.

[18:17]  ²¹ tn Grk “slave girl.” Since the descriptive term “slave girl” was introduced in the translation in the previous verse, it would be redundant to repeat the full expression here.

[18:17]  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 “are you?”).

[18:17]  ²³ tn Grk “He said.”