SIL Translator’s Notes on John 6:46

6:46a

not that anyone has seen the Father: This clause is in contrast to 6:45c. Although people have heard and learned from God the Father, no human being has seen him.

Here are other ways to translate this clause:

No one has seen the Father (New International Version)
-or-
This does not mean that anyone has seen the Father (Good News Translation)

6:46b

except the One who is from God: This expression means that only one person has seen the Father. It tells the exception to the general truth of 6:46a. That one person who has seen the Father, the one who comes from him, is Jesus.

Here is another way to translate this expression.

Only the one who is from God (God’s Word)
-or-
because only the one who came from God

from God: God here refers to the Father. In some languages it may be necessary to make this clear by not using a different term for the Father. For example:

from him (Contemporary English Version)

6:46c

He has seen the Father: In your translation, it should be clear that the Father is God. If a literal translation causes readers to think that they are different beings, you may need to say:

he has seen him

General Comment on 6:46b–c

Jesus used third person pronouns, but he was referring to himself. If a literal translation would mean that he was referring to someone else, you may need to use first-person pronouns:

except me. I have come from God my Father and have seen him.

General Comment on 6:46a–c

In some languages it may be natural to reorder this verse and translate it as a positive statement. For example:

The only one who has seen the Father is the one who has come from him. (Contemporary English Version)

© 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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