For a literal translation of this verse, see Revised Standard Version: “but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God; this is not what Abraham did.” Good News Translation restructures this verse by inverting the order of the first two clauses; thus the clause “but now you seek to kill me” is placed immediately before the statement “this is not what Abraham did.” Without this restructuring, the text may be ambiguous; the reader could possibly connect “a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God” with the clause “this is not what Abraham did.”
In Good News Translation Jesus refers to himself in the first person throughout this verse, while in the Greek text he refers to himself in the third person (“a man who has told you the truth”) and in the first person (“which I heard from God”). It is common in Hebrew, and so in the Greek influenced by Hebrew grammatical style, to shift from third to first person in the same discourse, when referring to the same individual. However, to do so is not natural in English, and Good News Translation restructures the sentence to achieve a smoother and more understandable English style.
Finally, in Greek the verb “have told” is in the perfect tense, indicating that Jesus had been and was continuing to tell the truth that he heard from God. Good News Translation therefore translates All I have ever done is to tell.
The truth I heard from God must be rendered in some languages “the true words which I heard from God” or “the true words which God told me.”
In the last sentence of this verse the demonstrative pronoun this refers back to the totality of the verse, indicating that Abraham never tried to kill anyone who spoke to him the truth that had come from God. Abraham did nothing like this! may be rendered in some languages “Abraham never behaved that way” or “Abraham never acted in such a manner.”
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 .