Good News Translation and a number of others (Revised Standard Version, Moffatt, Phillips, Zürcher Bibel, La Sainte Bible: Nouvelle version Segond révisée, New American Bible, Luther) take the first verb of this verse to be transitive passive when he was raised, with God as the implied agent (for example, “when God raised him from the dead”). Others take the verb to be intransitive, “when Jesus rose from the dead” (Jerusalem Bible, Bible de Jérusalem, Goodspeed). New English Bible is neutral and translates “after his resurrection.” The verb may be intransitive (compare John 10.17-18), since John’s Gospel emphasizes Jesus’ identity with the Father and consequently his unique power more than any other Gospel. In verse 19 Jesus said that he would raise the Temple up in three days. On the other hand, a number of passages in the New Testament state explicitly that God raised Jesus from the dead and that could well be the meaning here. No decision can be absolute, though most modern translators evidently accept the choice of rendering that Good News Translation has.
In some languages a neutral position between intransitive and transitive passive may be rendered “when Jesus came back from death.” The intransitive meaning would be rendered in some languages “when Jesus caused himself to live again.” However, translators generally employ either a passive form or an active form with God as the agent; for example, “when God caused Jesus to rise from death” or “when God caused Jesus to live again.”
He had said this is in the imperfect tense and so may imply that Jesus said it on more than one occasion. To reflect fully the possible implications of the imperfect tense, one may translate “he said this from time to time” or “he said this on different occasions.” In indirect discourse Greek retains the original tense of the verb, whereas English requires a change in tense, if the controlling verb is in the past tense, as here (“they remembered”). This explains the use of the English pluperfect by Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation.
To point out the logical relation between the second and third clauses of verse 22, one may begin the final section “and as a result of this, they believed the scripture and what Jesus had said” or, as in some languages, “and therefore they believed what was written in the scriptures….”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .