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John Chapter 5

John Chapter 5

(Underlining marks a quotation/allusion. [Brackets] mark a textual variant.fnWhen two (or more) different copies of an original manuscript disagree on any given word or phrase — addition, omission, word order, etc. — the disagreement is called a "textual variant". ~99% of existing textual variants are either minor (like spelling), obviously not original (often appearing only in a few late manuscripts), or don't affect meaning (like "Jesus Christ" vs. "Christ Jesus"). The ~1% that remain do not affect any central doctrine of Christianity. The BOS Bible only marks significant textual variants that affect the meaning; smaller variants that do not affect meaning won't be marked for readability.  "Love" with a caret ("^love") is agapé.fn"agapé" The Greek words ἀγάπη (agapé, noun), and ἀγαπάω (agapaó; verb) are typically translated "love".  However, unlike our English word "love" – which primarily speaks of affection and feelings — agapé centers on choice and behavior.  It’s the "love" based on will, choice, behavior, and action; not feelings.  (Feelings-based love is the Greek word φιλέω (phileó), which properly means "brotherly love/affection".)  Thus, you could hate someone passionately and still treat him with "agapé".  Agapé "love" is best understood as the pursuit of what is most beneficial to someone or something, regardless of the cost to yourself or the type of response received from the person or thing.  It can also indicate a preference for someone or something over other things. An asterisk (*) indicates a verb in the Greek perfect tense.fnThe Greek perfect tense signifies a completed action in the past with a result and/or an ongoing state that extends into the present. For example, Hebrews 12:2 says in part: "He *sat down at the right hand of the throne of God"; the verb for "sat" is in the perfect tense, indicating that He sat down once (completed action in the past), and also that He remains seated until the present moment (ongoing state).)

Glossary

Note: this glossary is currently a work in progress; entries that do not expand will be added as time permits

Ages/of ages
“ages” and “of ages” are the Greek words “αἰών” (aión, noun form) and “αἰώνιος” (aiónios, adjective form) respectively.  The adjective form is typically translated “eternal”, as in “eternal life”. The noun form refers to a whole time period, (Keizer, “Life Time Entirety”) such as a person’s lifetime (an older Greek sense), an age/epoch (e.g., 2 Cor 4:4), or even time in its entirety, making its meaning similar to “forever” (e.g., John 14:16). The adjective form is similarly context-dependent, and the New Testament context often dictates a meaning similar to “forever” (but not always: e.g. 2 Tim 1:9).  Alternately or additionally, it can indicate the quality of a time period — indicating greatness/severity — like the English idiom “of ages” (e.g. “battle of the ages”). Thus, “of ages” was chosen for the adjective form so that both the time and quality senses remain visible.

Clean/unclean

Covenant

Faith

Flesh

Forgive/forgiveness

Grace
The Greek word is “χάρις” (charis), most often translated “grace”, “gift”, or “thanks”. It was a technical term in the 1st century, referring to the Patronage system in place. The Patron (from “pater” = “father”) would give gifts or do favors (both called a charis). A charis was always given/done freely to anyone who would be grateful for it, and this person then became a “client” of the patron. The clients were expected to reciprocate by telling everyone what the patron had done, and offering their services to the patron whenever the patron needed them. This reciprocal act was also called “charis”, and the ones who reciprocated were “being faithful” by giving thanks in this way. Both were done out of gratitude, not legal obligation. A client who wasn’t faithful and grateful probably wouldn’t receive any more charis from his patron, or any other patrons. The patron was responsible for taking care of all his clients, and making sure their needs were met. New Testament usage typically casts God the Father as a Heavenly Patron, to whom Christians should be grateful and faithful because of the gifts He has given us. (e.g. salvation, provision, protection, etc.)

Holy

Justification

Law (Torah)

Make purification

Pure/Impure

Purification offering
In the Old Testament, this is typically the Hebrew “חַטָּ֖את” (khat-tat); in the New Testament, it’s typically “περὶ ἁμαρτίας” (peri hamartias), which is what the Septuagint (an ancient translation of the Old Testament into Greek) used to translate the Hebrew. It’s traditionally translated “sin offering”, but that translation has less support in high-level scholarship. The Hebrew word can mean “sin”, but it can also mean “purification” (e.g. Numbers 8:7). This offering was used to purify uncleanness, whether or not a sin was committed. Thus, it was required even when no sin was committed, such as after childbirth (Leviticus 12:1-8), for certain diseases (Leviticus 14), etc. High-level, peer-reviewed scholarship dedicated to the field (e.g. Milgrom, Levine, Gane, Sklar, Wright, Gorman, etc.) is largely united on the “purification offering” understanding. The BOS Bible has aligned itself with that high-level, peer-reviewed scholarship in its translation.

Ransom

Redemption

Repent/repentance

Righteous/righteousness

Salvation/save

Soul
“soul” is the Greek word “ψυχή/psuché” and Hebrew word “נֶפֶשׁ/nephesh”. The BOS Bible translates these words as “soul” for consistency, and so the full meaning of “soul” isn’t obscured by different translations in different places. They closely overlap in meaning and are typically translated “soul” or “life”. They refer to the animating force of a living thing, and thus can also refer to its life, or to the whole of any person or creature, including animals (e.g. fish in Revelation 8:9 and Genesis 1). They are frequently used as an emphatic reference to a person’s whole self, including longings, deep emotions, and inner life. (e.g. Ps 42:11) Note: while “soul” has significant overlap in meaning with “spirit”, the words have distinct meanings and usages throughout scripture. For example, lions tear apart a soul in Psalm 7:2, and a “dead soul” is mentioned in Leviticus 21:11; “spirit” has no analogous usages, and it returns to God at death (Ecc 12:7; Acts 7:59). The adjective forms of soul and spirit are contrasted in 1 Corinthians 2:14-15; see also: Hebrews 4:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:23.

Sin

Click to Collapse the Glossary
The Bethesda pool healing
  1. A feast of the Jews was after these things, and Jesus went up into Jerusalem.
  2. Now, in Jerusalem near the sheep gate is a pool having five porches, the pool called Bethesda in Hebrew.
  3. A crowd of the men being sick were lying in these porches – the blind, the lame and the withered – [waiting for the water’s movement.
  4. For an angel was occasionally descending into the pool and stirring the water.  Therefore, the man who entered first after the stirring of the water became well from whatever sickness he was being held by at that time.]
  5. And a man was there for thirty and eight years, having an infirmity in himself.
  6. Jesus – having seen him lying there and having known that he had already been there a long time – He says to him: “Do you want to become well?”
  7. The sick man answered Him: “Sir, I don’t have a man to help so that when the water is stirred, he might put me into the pool.  And whenfn“when” is literally “in which” I’m going by myself, another descends before me.”
  8. Jesus tells him: “Rise, pick up your bed mat, and walk.”
  9. And immediately the man became well, and picked up his bed mat, and was walking.  But it was the Sabbath on that day,
  10. so the Jews were saying to the man who was *healed: “It’s the Sabbath, and it’s not lawful for you to pick up your bed mat.”
  11. But he answered them: “The man who made me well, that man told me ‘Pick up your bed mat and walk’.”
  12. So they asked him: “Who is the man who told you: ‘Pick up your bed mat and walk’?”
  13. But the man who was healed hadn’t known who it is, for Jesus slipped away in a crowd at that place.
  14. After these things, Jesus finds him in the temple and told him: “Behold, you have become well.  Sin no more, so something worse doesn’t happen to you.”
  15. The man departed and reported to the Jews that Jesus is the man who made him well.
Jesus’ Deity
  1. And the Jews were persecuting Jesus because of this, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath.
  2. But Jesus answered them: “My Father is working until now,fnThis appears to be Jesus pointing out that while God rested from active creation work, He still “is working” in the sense of maintaining His creation; see Hebrews 1:3 and Colossians 1:17 and thus I’m working.”
  3. So the Jews were seeking to kill Him more because of this, because He was not only breaking the Sabbath, but also because He was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal to God.
  4. So Jesus answered and was telling them: “Amen, amen I tell you: the Son isn’t able to do anything from Himself unless it’s something He sees the Father doing.  For whatever He does, likewise the Son also does these things.
  5. “For the Father loves the Son, and shows all things to Him that He Himself is doing.  And He will show Him greater works than these so you might marvel.
  6. “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, in this way also, the Son gives life to whom He wills.
  7. “For neither does the Father judge anyone, but He has given all judgement to the Son,
  8. “so they all might honor the Son just as they honor the Father.   The man not honoring the Son doesn’t honor the Father, the One who sent Him.
  9. “Amen, amen I tell you, that the man hearing My message and believing the One who sent Me has the life of ages, and he isn’t going into judgement, but has passed from death into life.
  10. “Amen, amen I tell you that an hour is coming – and now is – when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and the men who heard it will live.
  11. “For just as the Father has life in Himself, in this way also, He gave life to the Son, to have it in Himself.
  12. “And He gave Him authority to make judgement because He is the Son of Man.fnquotation/allusion to Daniel 7:13–14
  13. “Don’t marvel at this, because an hour is coming in which all the men in the tombs will hear His voice,
  14. “and they will come out: the men who did good into the resurrection of life, but the men who practiced evil into the resurrection of judgement.fnquotation/allusion to Daniel 12:2
  15. “I’m able to do nothing from Myself.  I judge just as I hear, and My judgement is righteous because I’m not seeking My will, but the will of the One who sent Me.
Testimony about Jesus
  1. “If I testify about Myself, My testimony isn’t considered true.
  2. “It is another man testifying about Me, and I *know that the testimony which he’s testifying about Me is true.
  3. “You men have sent for John, and he has testified of the truth.
  4. “And the testimony I receive isn’t from man, but I say these things so you might be saved.
  5. “That man was the lamp burning and shining, and you wanted to greatly rejoice in his light for a time.
  6. “But I have testimony greater than John’s.  For the works which the Father has given to Me so I might accomplish them; these same works that I do testify about Me that the Father has sent Me.
  7. “And the One who sent Me, the Father, He has testified about Me, and you haven’t ever heard His voice nor seen His form.
  8. “And you don’t have His word remaining in you because you don’t believe Him whom He sent.
  9. “You examine the scriptures because you think you have the life of ages in them, and these scriptures are the ones testifying about Me.
  10. “And you aren’t willing to come to Me so you might have life.
  11. “I don’t receive glory from men.
  12. “But I *know you, that you don’t have the ^love of God in yourselves.
  13. “I have come in the name of My Father and you aren’t receiving Me.  If another comes in his own name, you will receive that man.
  14. “How are you able to believe while receiving glory from one another, and you don’t seek the glory that’s from the only God?
  15. “Don’t think that I will prosecute you to the Father.  There is one prosecuting you: Moses, in whom you have hoped.
  16. “For if you believed Moses you would believe in Me, for he wrote about Me.fnquotation/allusion to Deuteronomy 18:15-19
  17. “And if you don’t believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”

 

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