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NASB | John 14:1 "Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | John 14:1 "Do not let your heart be troubled (afraid, cowardly). Believe [confidently] in God and trust in Him, [have faith, hold on to it, rely on it, keep going and] believe also in Me. |
Bible Question: Help me understand what this passage is about. Why are there variances in the translations? |
Bible Answer: Greetings Squeekie! Cheryl provided some excellent thoughts! Here is the NET Bible translation of John 14:1-7, followed by a portion of the commentary.. "14:1 “Do not let your hearts be distressed.1 You believe in God;2 believe also in me. 14:2 There are many dwelling places3 in my Father’s house.4 Otherwise, I would have told you.5 I am going away to make ready6 a place for you.7 14:3 And if I go and make ready8 a place for you, I will come again and take you9 to be with me,10 so that where I am you may be too. 14:4 And you know the way where I am going.”11 14:5 Thomas said,12 “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 14:6 Jesus replied,13 “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.14 No one comes to the Father except through me. 14:7 If you have known me, you will know my Father too.15 And from now on you do know him and have seen him.” ------------------------------------ 5tc A number of mss supply “that” (oti, Joti) here. Should the oti be included or omitted? The external evidence is almost equally divided. Most Alexandrian and Western mss favor inclusion (it is unusual for the Alexandrian to favor the longer reading) while most Byzantine mss favor omission (again unusual). Complicating things is the reading of Ì66, which aligns with the Byzantine. Because of the strength of a papyrus reading aligned with the Byzantine, and because the shorter reading is out of character for the Byzantine text, the shorter reading (omitting the oti) could certainly be authentic. If the oti is included, there are no less than four possible translations of the phrase: (1) “Otherwise I would have told you [warned you], because I am going to prepare a place” (2) “Otherwise would I have told you so, because I am going to prepare a place?” (3) “Otherwise I would have told you that I am going to prepare a place” (4) “Otherwise would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place?” The first option (1) can be understood only if “otherwise I would have told you” is a parenthetical statement, and the oti clause goes with the preceding “There are many dwelling places in my Father’s house.” Translations (2) and (4) should probably be ruled out because they imply a previous statement by Jesus that either (2) there are many dwelling places in his Father’s house or (4) He was going off to prepare a place for them. There is no indication anywhere in the Fourth Gospel that Jesus had made such statements prior to this time. Finally, (3) is understandable—if there were no dwelling places, Jesus would have told them that he was going off to make dwelling places. But the following verse makes clear that Jesus’ departure is not hypothetical but real—he is really going away. Thus all the possibilities for understanding the verse with the inclusion of oti present some difficulties. R. E. Brown is probably right when he states: “all in all, the translation without oti makes the best sense” (John [AB], 2:620). Thus the following translation seems best: “Otherwise, I would have told you [warned you]. I go to prepare a place.” 11tc Some early mss read, “You know where I am going, and you know the way.” Once again there is a difficult textual problem in this verse. Either assertion on the part of Jesus would be understandable: “you know the way where I am going” or “you know where I am going and you know the way.” In this case the shorter reading is basically Alexandrian; the primary Western codex D sides with Ì66 and the majority of Byzantine minuscules in favor of the longer reading kaiV thVn oJdovn oi[date (kai thn Jodon oidate). 15tc Again there is a difficult textual problem: the statement reads either “If you have known (ejgnwvkate, egnwkate) me, you will know (gnwvsesqe, gnwsesqe) my Father” or “If you had really known (ejgnwvkeite, egnwkeite) me, you would know (ejgnwvkeite) my Father.” The division of the external evidence is difficult, but would appear to favor the first alternative, since there is an Alexandrian-Western alliance supported by Ì66. In this case (a first class condition) Jesus promises the disciples that (assuming they have known him) they will know the Father. Contextually this fits better with the following phrase (7b) which asserts that “from the present time you know him and have seen him” (compare John 1:18)." [Taken from The Net Bible - http://www.bible.org] - Makarios |
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Questions and/or Subjects for John 14:1 | Author | ||
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Makarios | ||
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Squeekie | ||
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LuckyCharm | ||
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Makarios | ||
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Squeekie | ||
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CHARLES BREWER | ||
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fran1946 | ||
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meco | ||
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SUPPENNY |