SIL Translator’s Notes on John 18:9

18:9

18:9 is a comment by the author John, not part of the story. So some English translations such as the Revised English Bible place this verse in parentheses. You should indicate that this is parenthetical information in a way that is natural in your language.

18:9a

This was to fulfill the word He had spoken: This clause indicates that when Jesus protected his disciples in 18:8, he fulfilled his own prayer in 17:12. He had said that he had kept his followers safe, and he did in fact do so. The expression fulfill the word… is used often in the New Testament. See how you translated it in 12:38 and 13:18. It usually indicates that things happened that the Old Testament had said would happen. Here it refers to Jesus’ words being fulfilled in the same way that Old Testament scriptures were fulfilled.

Here are other ways to translate this clause:

This happened so that the words he had spoken might be fulfilled (New International Version)
-or-
This happened so that the words Jesus said before would come true (New Century Version)
-or-
In this way what Jesus had said came true (God’s Word)

This was: The word This refers to the way Jesus spoke up to protect his followers. In some languages it may be natural to indicate more explicitly to what This refers. For example:

What he said
-or-
In this way (God’s Word)

to fulfill: This phrase indicates that things happened just as Jesus said they would happen. Use the expression that is natural in your language. For example:

would come true (New Century Version)
-or-
came true (God’s Word)

the word He had spoken: This clause refers to the words in Jesus’ prayer, “not one of them was lost” (see John 17:12). Those words refer to his disciples, that he would keep them safe. This statement did not include Judas, as Jesus explained in 17:12. Here are other ways to translate this clause:

what Jesus had said (God’s Word)
-or-
his own statement (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
his previous words (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)

18:9b

I have not lost one of those You have given Me: This is a free (approximate) quotation of Jesus’ words in 17:12. In that verse Jesus probably referred to eternal salvation but here John relates it more to physical safety. However, by protecting the disciples physically, Jesus protected them from possible spiritual damage. See how you translated 17:12 and translate this in a way that is similar but can refer to physical protection. For example:

I have not lost any of the ones you gave me. (New Century Version)
-or-
Not one of those you gave me have I lost. (New Jerusalem Bible)

In some languages it may be natural to use a positive expression. For example:

I have kept safe every one of those whom you gave me.
-or-
I have protected each one whom you gave me.

This is a direct quotation. John quoted what Jesus had said a few hours before. He did not use the exact same words. In some languages it is more natural to use an indirect quotation for such an approximate quotation. For example:

Saying that fulfilled what he said earlier, that none of those whom God had trusted to him would be lost.
-or-
This fulfilled what Jesus had said, that he had not lost any of those God had given to him.

one of those You have given Me: The Greek text emphasizes the word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as one. None of Jesus’ disciples died with him, not even one. For example:

even one of those you gave me (Good News Translation)

those You have given Me: This clause refers to Jesus’ disciples. Jesus was saying that God his Father chose them so that they would believe and follow him. See the note for a similar clause in 17:2b and how you translated the clause there. For example:

those whom God had trusted to him

© 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

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