John 1:23-25

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. John 1:23 tn Grk “He”; the referent (John the Baptist) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2. John 1:23 sn This call to “make straight” is probably an allusion to preparation through repentance.
3. John 1:23 sn A quotation from Isa 40:3.
4. John 1:24 sn Pharisees were members of one of the most important and influential religious and political parties of Judaism in the time of Jesus. There were more Pharisees than Sadducees (according to Josephus, Ant. 17.2.4 [17.42] there were more than 6,000 Pharisees at about this time). Pharisees differed with Sadducees on certain doctrines and patterns of behavior. The Pharisees were strict and zealous adherents to the laws of the OT and to numerous additional traditions such as angels and bodily resurrection.
5. John 1:24 sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.
6. John 1:25 tn Grk “And they asked him, and said to him”; the referent (John) has been specified in the translation for clarity, and the phrase has been simplified in the translation to “So they asked John.”
7. John 1:25 tn Or “the Messiah” (Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “one who has been anointed”).sn See the note on Christ in 1:20.