This verse gives the immediate effect of the raising of Lazarus from the dead.

In Greek the verbs translated had come and saw in Good News Translation are actually participles, but Good News Translation restructures this sentence for naturalness in English, and makes explicit that Jesus is the subject of the verb did, whereas the Greek has only “he.” It is especially important, when new sections are begun, to identify the participants by name.

To visit Mary is more literally “to Mary,” but visit is obviously implied, as several translations indicate (New English Bible, New American Bible, Jerusalem Bible, Goodspeed, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). The meaning is not that the people had come “with Mary” (so Revised Standard Version). The reference is to verse 19. It may seem strange to have a reference to Mary without any indication of her sister Martha. Some translators, therefore, want to render this passage “to visit Martha and Mary.” However, it is not the task of the translator to revise the original text.

There is a textual problem in the word that Good News Translation translates what (in what Jesus did). Some Greek manuscripts have the singular, while the strongest evidence is in favour of the plural (literally “what things”). Evidently the majority of English translations prefer ambiguity here, and so translate what, as Good News Translation does.

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 .