To indicate that this statement is parenthetical, Good News Translation and several other translations (Moffatt, New American Bible, Phillips) include these words in parentheses. A similar explanatory comment is included in 18.32.

The kind of death he was going to suffer is more literally “by what kind of death he was going to die.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch is close to Good News Translation, but most translations have the verb “to die” instead of “to suffer.”

The parenthetical explanations may be rendered in some languages “when Jesus said this, he was talking about how he was going to die” or “… how he was going to be killed.”

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 .