SIL Translator’s Notes on John 5:40

5:40

yet you refuse to come to Me to have life: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as yet introduces a result that one does not expect. The religious leaders were refusing to believe in Jesus even though the Scriptures testified about him.

Here are other ways to translate this clause:

and you still do not want to come to me so that I will give life to you
-or-
But you are not willing to come to me so that you may have life (NET Bible)

you refuse: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as you refuse is more literally “you do not want.” It includes the idea of not being willing to do something, of choosing against something. For example:

you are not willing (Good News Translation)

to come to Me: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as come to Me refers to a spiritual way of going to Jesus. That way involved believing and trusting him as the Messiah.

to have life: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as to have life indicates a purpose. The purpose of coming to Jesus is to receive the life mentioned in 5:39b. Here are other ways to translate this phrase:

in order to have life (Good News Translation)
-or-
for eternal life (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
to receive that life (Revised English Bible)

© 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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