Since Judas was in charge of the money bag, some of the disciples thought is literally “But some thought, that since Judas was in charge of the money bag.” Good News Translation simply inverts the order of the two clauses and makes explicit the disciples, represented in the Greek text by “some.”

Money bag is the same word used in 12.6. It is not necessary to introduce in translation such a phrase as money bag, since “to be in charge of the money bag” was simply a way of indicating that Judas handled the joint funds of the group. A literal translation of “in charge of the money bag” may suggest that the disciples were rich.

In the Greek sentence structure to go and … for the festival is in direct discourse, while to give … to the poor is in indirect discourse. It is more natural in English to use the same type of discourse for both. Accordingly, Good News Translation and several other translations change the Greek direct discourse to indirect.

The last part of verse 29 is difficult to translate, since there are several layers of embedding; that is, one clause is included within another. The principle subject-predicate construction is some of the disciples thought, and all that follows is the object of that verb of thinking, that is, what the disciples thought. On the next level there is the subject-predicate expression Jesus had told him, and what follows is the content of what Jesus said. In some languages it may be necessary to place both expressions in the form of direct discourse, for example, “Some of the disciples thought, Jesus has told him, You must go and buy what we need for the Festival….” It may, however, be possible to combine indirect and direct discourse, for example, “Some of the disciples thought that Jesus had told him, Go and buy what we need for the Festival….”

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 .