 |
| JOHN |
| Explanatory Footnotes |
| 2:6 Eyewitness Details Numerous specific details show that an eyewitness wrote the book of John. Here, the author describes stone water jars; elsewhere, he records the exact number of fish caught (21:11). 3:2 A Reason for Secrecy This meeting took place at night, in secret. Nicodemus was a ruling member of the Pharisees, a group that violently opposed Jesus. He likely risked danger by meeting with Jesus. Two other references to Nicodumus indicate that Jesus must have had a strong effect on him. He stood up for Jesus at the Jewish ruling council (7:50) and helped prepare Jesus' body for burial (19:39). Jesus' meeting with the Samaritan woman (4:4-42) probably had some of the same tension, although it occurred in daylight. Conversations between a Jew and a Samaritan, let alone between a religious teacher and an adulterer, were taboo. 4:50 A Long-Distance Miracle This miracle has certain similarities to another performed at the request of a Roman centurion (Luke 7:2-10; Matthew 8:5-13). Of Jesus' two dozen recorded miracles of healing, only these occurred over a distance. 6:60 Words Too Hard to Swallow Chapter 6 shows the full cycle of people's response to Jesus. At first, excited by his miracle of feeding the 5,000, folk tried to make him king. But Jesus escaped. The next day he rebuked them for having an interest only in physical concerns, not in spiritual truth (verse 26). He used the miracle of the feeding to give an important lesson on the bread of life, using words that were later applied to the Lord's Supper, or the Eucharist. These words, however, so disappointed the sensation-seeking crowd that many turned away from him. |