Editorial Comments in the Gospel of John
Editorial Comments in the Gospel of John, also called "Asides", consist of explanatory commentary interspersed throughout the elegantly written book. Sometimes modern translations place them inside parentheses if they are merely a sentence long.
The authenticity of the asides can be analyzed by comparing their vocabulary and syntax to the distinctive style of the Gospel of John as a whole. Some of the Asides have their own style and vocabulary unlike anything else in the Gospel of John or the entire Bible itself. For example, two of the Asides (John 12:6 and John 13:29 ) use a Greek term for "moneybag" or "money box" (γλωσσόκομον) that appears nowhere else in the Bible, even though the concept is used elsewhere.
It is known that late manuscripts of the Gospel of John contain non-authentic material inserted subsequent to the earliest manuscripts from the A.D. 300s, such as the Codex Vaticanus. But these editorial comments are in the earliest discovered manuscripts also.
Contents
John 4:22
The aside of John 4:22 contains a Greek word for salvation (σωτηρία) that does not appear anywhere else in the Gospel of John:
| “ | You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. | ” |
Theologically, the expression "salvation is from the Jews" is very odd. Also, the phrase "we worship what we know," with its use of "we" and "know", is unlike anything else in the Gospel of John. John 1:10 states nearly the opposite: "yet the world did not know him."[1]
John 4:43
Consider, for example, the following parenthetical in the ESV translation, from John Chapter 4:
| “ | 43 After the two days he departed for Galilee. 44 (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) 45 So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast. | ” |
John 7:39
John 7:39 appears to be an explanatory aside:
| “ | Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. | ” |
John 12:4-6 contains two Asides
| “ | 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, 5 “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” 6 He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. | ” |
- ANALYSIS: the particular Greek term for "moneybag" used here is used in only other place in the entire Bible: in another John Aside.
John 12:14-16
The Gospel of John does not ordinarily include the "just as it is written" type of references to the Old Testament.[2] Beginning with that phrase the following is potentially a later insertion that is different from John's style, at John 12:14-16 :
| “ | 14 And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,
15 “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming,
16 His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him.[3] |
” |
Analysis
Some or all of the editorial comments could have been added later by scribes or church leaders desiring, for example, more explanation or additional references to the Old Testament.
See also
- Analysis of the Gospel of John including the Asides
- John J. O'Rouke, "Asides in the Gospel of John," NovT 21 (1979) 210-219
- Donald A. Carson, "Understanding Misunderstandings in the Fourth Gospel"
- John 12:37-43
- M. C. Tenney, 'The Footnotes of John's Gospel', BS 117 (1960) 350-364.
