Now my heart is troubled (so also Goodspeed) is more literally “Now my soul is troubled.” The word “soul” is the same word translated life in verse 25, and so the translation here could read “Now I am troubled.” However, for English readers heart expresses more of the emotional overtones involved, and that is the reason for Good News Translation rendering. The verb troubled is used of the stirring of the water in 5.4. Now my heart is troubled may be expressed idiomatically in some languages, for example, “Now my liver is moving within me” or “Now my spleen is swollen.” However, one may also employ such an expression as “Now what shall I think?” This type of rendering often goes well with the expression that follows—and what shall I say? In other languages it may be more satisfactory to use such an expression as “Now what shall I do?” For languages in which the form of a question might be misunderstood, it is always possible to say “Now I do not know what to think, I do not know what to say, I could say, ‘Father, do not let this hour come upon me.’ ”

Father, do not let this hour come upon me may be punctuated either with a question mark, as in Good News Translation, or as a statement, as in some other translations. Good News Translation takes this sentence as a deliberative question and so introduces it with Shall I say and then concludes it with a question mark. That is, Good News Translation understands it as a thought that Jesus considered but dismissed from his mind. Support for this interpretation is found by the way these words are introduced in Greek (and what shall I say?).

However, some translations understand this sentence to be a genuine petition, and so make it a statement. Note, for example, Goodspeed “Now my heart is troubled; what can I say? Father, save me from this trial! And yet it was for this very purpose that I have come to this trial.” In the final analysis the meaning is essentially the same, though there is some difference of emphasis. If the clause in question is taken to be a question, then in the mind of Jesus the answer all along is “No.” But if it is taken as a genuine petition, then Jesus is seen asking the Father to save him from this hour, but then changing his mind as he realizes that it was for this hour of suffering that he came into the world. All in all, no final decision can be made in favor of one position or the other.

It would be an unusual language in which one could translate literally do not let this hour come upon me. In the first place, it would be unusual to speak of an hour “coming.” In the second place, a term such as “hour” would rarely suggest a time of trial or difficulty. In some languages one may say “do not permit this testing of me to come” or “do not allow me to be tested in this way.” In some languages an equivalent of “trial” may be “suffering.” Accordingly, one may translate “do not make me suffer as I know I will have to.”

But that is why I came—so that I might go through this hour of suffering is literally “But because of this I came to this hour.” Good News Translation makes explicit the meaning of “this hour” by rendering this hour of suffering. Though the Greek text does not indicate the point to which Jesus had come, it may, however, be necessary in some languages to say “this is why I came to earth”; otherwise, the context might suggest that Jesus was only speaking of his immediate entry into Jerusalem. Similarly, it may be necessary to translate so that I might go through this hour of suffering in such a manner that this clause will refer not to what has passed but to what is going to take place, for example, “in order to suffer as I will.”

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 .