In some Greek manuscripts you have seen Abraham is “Abraham has seen you,” which probably represents a scribe’s attempt to harmonize the Jews’ question with Jesus’ statement of verse 56, he saw it. The reading followed by Good News Translation has the best manuscript support, and it is more natural in the context. Because the Jews assumed that Abraham is superior to Jesus (verse 53), they would more naturally speak of Jesus as seeing Abraham than of Abraham as seeing Jesus. Most modern translations are based upon the Greek text followed by Good News Translation. Moffatt and Phillips base their translations on the alternative Greek text.

In some languages it may be necessary to modify the exclamatory question you have seen Abraham? One may translate, for example, “You are not even fifty years old yet; therefore how can you say you have seen Abraham?” or “… how is it possible that you have seen Abraham?”

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 .