This crowd is no doubt equivalent to the rabbinical phrase “the people of the land,” used to describe the masses of the people, as opposed to the “students of the law.” As a rule this expression had derogatory connotations.

The Law of Moses is literally “the Law.” It is extremely important that the reader be made to see that the religious law, not the law of the state, is referred to. Some translators try to make this information explicit by translating “law” with a capital “L,” but this device is of no help to those who only hear the Scripture read.

So they are under God’s curse is literally “they are under a curse,” but obviously God’s curse is referred to, and Good News Translation makes this information explicit. Other translations attempt to do this in other ways. Note, for example, New American Bible “they are lost anyway!”; Phillips “is damned anyway!”; Jerusalem Bible “they are damned.” It is important that the reader recognize that this curse is not imposed by the authorities or by the Pharisees, and that it is not such a curse as one experiences in voodoo, for example.

In order to render the term curse it is necessary in some languages to say “to cause people to be destroyed by God,” for when a person curses another, he calls upon God to destroy such an individual. It is, of course, impossible for God to curse in the sense of putting a person under God’s curse. The closest equivalent may simply be “God will destroy them anyway” or “God will cause them to perish.”

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 .