John 8:55-57

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. John 8:55 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “Yet” to indicate the contrast present in the context.
2. John 8:55 tn Grk “If I say, ‘I do not know him.’”
3. John 8:55 tn Grk “I keep.”
4. John 8:55 tn Grk “his word.”
5. John 8:56 tn Or “rejoiced greatly.”
6. John 8:56 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.
7. John 8:57 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. John 8:57 tn Grk “said to him.”
9. John 8:57 tn Grk ‘You do not yet have fifty years” (an idiom).
10. John 8:57 tn Grk “And have.”